Lessons from Jugiong
Jugiong is a town with a population of about 200, south of Yass.
A lot of people don’t know it’s there. It once had motels, service stations, windscreen repair businesses etc by virtue of the massive volumes of traffic on the Hume Highway. Days when most people drove between Melbourne and Sydney because of the steep airfares.
The ebb began in the 1990s with the construction of the highway by-pass. About the same time, increasing farm mechanisation was reducing local labour requirements as well as the town’s population. And the incorporation of Jugiong’s water treatment plant into a bigger regional set-
up meant another 20 job losses.
Then a renaissance of sorts occurred when Huw and Juliet Robb upgraded the Long Track Pantry. It became well-known for its good food and pleasant surrounds. I was there last month to visit the State School (see below) and to grab breakfast on my way to Wagga. I was dining in the courtyard because the original dining room is now given over to jams, chutneys, sauces, vinegars, olives, local wines. This is quite remarkable, but it makes sense given the Robbs
established a food kitchen around the corner! And food and beverage prices were very reasonable – $7 for a Coopers Pale Ale or a Corona.
Sir George Hotel
The second leg of the renaissance quinella is the Sir George Hotel, built in 1845. It had fallen on lean times until a Perth family bought it in 2015 and began extensive renovations – beautiful timber flooring, old world drapes, artworks, a magnificent beer garden, ten rooms at $340-$420/night. That’s city prices, but hey it’s an experience. I’m reliably informed that a key reason for their investment decision had been the likely synergy with the Pantry next door. Anyway, the
Sir George is so good that the cognoscenti turn up in droves on the weekend.
The story got more interesting when I was returning to Canberra later that day. Time for a quick beer I decided. The barman in the Sir George was a young Argentinian bloke on a 12 month visa. He proudly stated that there are 12-13 Argentinians working at the pub and pantry combined, which he said represents 15 per cent of the town’s population. Indeed, I did recall some pretty, young Argentinian waitresses at the Pantry that morning.
So, I was standing at the bar with four to five other patrons, and I said to the nearest in a stage whisper ‘What’s Jugiong famous for, mate?’
Well, he looked at his feet, and said ‘You’re standing in it!’
I replied ‘With respect, Jugiong is more famous for something else. It’s where Richie Benaud spent his formative years!’
‘Well I’ll be buggered’ one of them replied. So, suitably encouraged, I told them of my visit to his old school that morning, where a teacher showed me the former principal’s home adjoining the school.
Stone walls and huge bedrooms. The principal in 1935 was Lou Benaud, and his five-year-old son Richie was in the school photo with 34 other pupils. These days the school has 21 pupils.
I’d read Richie’s autobiography some years ago, and I haven’t forgotten his happy memories of the place. He waxed lyrical about the Murrumbidgee River 200 yards away, climbing trees, dodging snakes.
Regional development angles
Well Richie Benaud was an exemplary Australian – humble, insightful, Australian cricketer captain and an ABC and BBC commentator revered by cricket fans across the world. The fact that he spent his formative years in Jugiong, and later Coraki on the Richmond River, surely played a role in his personal development.
And Richie played an important role in many Australians’ lives. Those of you under the age of 40 wouldn’t appreciate how Richie, and his teammate and co-commentor Bill Lawry, were a quintessential part of Australians’ summers – their flat, laconic Aussie accents resonating throughout the land.
Two things strike me about Jugiong. The first is the lack of any signage about Richie on the Highway. Surely, thousands British and Indian tourists would stop in Jugiong if they knew about the Richie connection. At present, they’re probably stopping at the fast-food outlets surrounding
Gundagai’s Dog on the Tuckerbox. Leave that food offering to the bogans, I say.
The second thing is the attractiveness of Jugiong as a place to live for example, for young folk being shut out of the capital city housing markets. Internet-based businesses are footloose.
Think about young creatives living and catching fish for breakfast, their kids boosting the school’s enrolment, and working in a classy modular home (say $300k). The relevance of the latter is that Commonwealth/State Housing Ministers agreed earlier this year to make efforts to
grow the modular housing market. Well, places like Jugiong should be a focus.
In conclusion, there are lessons for other small towns across Australia:
• The ability of newcomers to make investments that trigger economic development.
• The clustering effect that can evolve as towns re-establish their population and services.
• The potential for towns, especially those along highways, to generate more tourism traffic with iconic pubs and decent signage.
Chalmers leans on banks
Banks have shut more than 2,000 branches across Australia in the past seven-eight years, about 800 of them in the Bush.
So it was heartening to see Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s plan for a $350 million levy to keep banks open. The likely option is for the levy to favour those banks with relatively more branches and ATMs in the regions such as the Commonwealth, Bendigo and Adelaide Banks.
Already certain banks are bleating about the unfairness of it all. Sweet Jesus, this is so ridiculous. The big banks have been profiting from the four pillars policy since 1990 at least – it prevents any merger or acquisition between the four major banks. It also makes them immune from takeover from outsiders and provides the policy umbrella for billions of super profit dollars.
Bottom line – the big banks’ current posturing will be short-lived. And bouquets to Chalmers and Treasury officials.
