You can tell how a town is travelling reasonably quickly – quality of hard and soft infrastructure, pubs and cafes. And the little things like the cleanliness of toilets.
Last month I drove inland from Canberra to Brisbane, and I came across four towns that stood out. And they got me thinking as I drove onwards past remarkably grassy paddocks.
The first stand-out was Young, a solid old town of 10,000 souls. It’s the hometown of my first-ever boss, a pious old Methodist. But it’s bustling place these days.
It’s late summer and the harvesting of wine grapes and vegetables is in full swing. SUVs everywhere. Great scrambled eggs and coffee at city prices in a trendy cafe.
The second was Grenfell, with a population of around 2500. I’d forgotten about its main street with its lovely vintage buildings and three impressive old-style pubs – the Albion Hotel dates back to the 1860s.
These pubs are a testament to the memory of Henry Lawson, the town’s famous son who was keen on a drop. And the sports amenities and parklands are in great shape.
A nice art gallery with some classy work by locals at very reasonable prices. Could more artisans and artists congregate there?
The next day I came across Coonabarabran. About the size of Grenfell, and it too has a nice feel – better streetscapes and less traffic than I remember. The local council obviously looks after its ovals and parklands.
Coonabarabran surely lives in the memory of many southerners who, in the days of expensive air fares, would load up the Ford or Holden and trek to Queensland along the Newell Highway.
Then onward to Stanthorpe across the Queensland border. A population of 5000, with a sub-tropical climate suited to fruit and vegetables.
It has an interesting network of art galleries and a College of Wine Tourism. The latter seems a little incongruous although it’s probably the best place in Queensland to grow wine grapes.
Macleay Island
This is a 15 minute ferry ride ($10) from the Redland Bay terminal. No one seems to know the population but it’s probably around 5000. A cute nine hole golf course, a bowls club, and a very good pub. Plenty of mud flats, mud crabs and bronze whaler sharks. Lots of home brew. No motel, a handful of Bed and Breakfasts. Roads are pretty average.
The island’s strength is its sense of community. People keep a lookout for each other, and bartering is rampant e.g. trading a kilo of prawns for a litre of moonshine, mowing a lawn in return for a haircut. Wonderful stuff.
Its other strength is the numerous artisans and artists drawn to the island’s peace and quiet. I got talking to the local Arts Group which has plans for an upgraded Arts Centre.
I’m encouraging them to think a little bigger and to try to engineer federal/state collaborative funding and push some best practice aspects to make the project sing. Such a project could really put Macleay Island on the map.
It’s a tricky issue, because if Macleay Island’s permanent population grew to 10,000 would it lose its tranquility?
Three issues for your contemplation
1. Attracting new residents
Much of regional Australia is awaking to renewed investor interest from city-dwellers. The temptation is certainly there for them to sell-up their million dollar homes, find somewhere cheaper and just as nice in a regional town, and live off the profit. This trend is strong in seaside towns, but patchy in inland areas.
I recall some US colleagues regaling me with stories of local councils and development bodies taking prospective residents on guided tours i.e. going beyond the role of a real estate agents by spending an hour showing them the sports facilities, the river, the library etc. and shouting them a lemonade at the local golf club. The Yanks argue that this leaves an indelible memory.
In this regard, I figure that communities under 1000 population face an uphill battle to retain services. The interesting opportunity is whether small towns can attract ‘young creatives’ – as well as ‘older creatives’ for that matter – to come and liven up the place.
2. What is your population?
Many community leaders haven’t got a clue of their population. This information can be important in funding applications – indeed decent data about your town’s population shows professionalism.
However the ABS population survey is not that useful because it’s often too aggregated and runs only every five years. I’m wondering if small towns could run their own surveys with the help of the local postie? Or engage Localis, a Brisbane-based company that has expertise in generating population data from phone and telecoms traffic.
3. Carrying capacity of towns
Farmers face government regulations about how many stock they can carry.
Well how many people should a town or city carry? We’ve been conditioned to think that population growth is good because it delivers economies of scale, and drives investment and jobs. But the economic, social and environmental externalities are rarely understood.
Take Sydney for example – it is sinking under its own weight but government policy settings hardly adjust to address the crippling costs facing young families, commuters and businesses.
This is a rich field for an aspiring academic – namely to undertake meaningful research to inform policymakers.
If you know of someone, please ask them to contact me!
