General News
11 July, 2022
Growth “critical” element to boost Central Goldfields as council targets top projects
The 2031 Community Vision, formed through extensive feedback from the community, found that in 2031 residents want the shire to be an inspiring, thriving and prosperous community full of optimism and opportunities. Rebecca Ettridge was one resident...
Growth is “critical” to the Central Goldfields Shire’s development and future but also in changing its story, according to the Central Goldfields Shire Council, which is hopeful of doing just that in the coming years.
Despite sitting between two of the largest and fastest growing regional cities in Victoria in Ballarat and Bendigo, the Central Goldfields Shire has consistently ranked at the bottom of disadvantage indexes for years across economic, social and health outcomes.
It’s why the local council has written to Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas to advocate for government support in delivering projects to tackle the shire’s entrenched disadvantage head-on, while also bringing growth.
At last month’s ordinary council meeting, councillors noted the letter had been sent as part of a council bid to partner with the government to create future prosperity, opportunity and wellbeing.
Central Goldfields Shire mayor Chris Meddows-Taylor said the recently released 2021 Census data shows overall, the shire has not changed in the past 10 years.
“There’s really nothing new in the census data for us and if you look at things like the average income, our ageing population and health outcomes — they’re all things we’ve known are issues,” he said.
“If you compare that census data and where we are now to the 10-year Community Vision there is a gap.”
The 2031 Community Vision, formed through extensive feedback from the community, found that in 2031 residents want the shire to be an inspiring, thriving and prosperous community full of optimism and opportunities.
Rebecca Ettridge was one resident to help shape the Community Vision, having moved to the shire from the Mornington Peninsula just over four years ago.
The owner of the successful Wombat Cafe & Store in Dromana, Ms Ettridge said she fell in love with the open space and affordability of properties in the shire.
Now half way through fitting out a new business venture in Maryborough’s High Street, she believes the community is sitting on a growth powder keg that’s ready to explode.
“I was living on the Mornington Peninsula so coming to Maryborough was a pretty big tree change but my husband and I both love it here,” she said.
“We’re investing in Maryborough and we’re taking that route because I believe that if you build it, they will come and it’s something you can already feel happening in town.
“There are so many shops opening up that will then start to bring more people to the area as well.
“We’re being proactive, we’re helping to build the town which will help attract people to town.
“I have a lot of faith in the shire, I think it’s got all the right ingredients to be incredible.”
While speaking glowingly of the shire, Ms Ettridge said she did notice barriers to growth when she made the move.
“I still own my cafe in Mornington and looking after that was hard when we first moved here because of the lack of internet connection and service,” she said.
“I also noticed public transport was lacking here but in saying that, looking at it from where we came from — the Mornington Peninsula has no public transport.
“The service we have here is better than that, but it’s still not great. If we had more frequent rail services here I think we’d definitely attract more people who would visit and choose to live and work here.”
The projects council have written to the treasurer about funding include sewering Talbot, developing central Maryborough, digital connectivity in the shire, affordable and social housing, passenger rail enhancements, an industrial precinct to boost employment and investments in built heritage among others.
Cr Meddows-Taylor said while all projects were important, these select eight were “absolutely critical” to ensuring the shire’s growth.
“We’re in a unique position, we’re inbetween two of the fastest growing regional cities, we’ve got a growth corridor that’s bursting at the seams coming from Ballarat and supported by passenger rail,” he said.
“Our community wants better rail services, better telecommunications and we also need to retain young community members and the answer to all of that is growth — we must grow to where our community wants to be.
“We can accommodate growth and we need it to provide the added rate base so we can provide the services like maintaining local roads, our community want.
“On all sides this points to growth being the absolutely critical issue for us and I want the government to understand that the overriding issue for us is growth.”
Cr Meddows-Taylor said growth would bring additional services and businesses to the region.
“Our letter is really positioning us as a center of growth, tourism, the World Heritage listing and rail connectivity,” he said.
“We’re saying those are the key things for this shire — without those, in the next 10 years the census will say the same things about our community as it does now.
“Council wants to take us from where we are now to where we need to be and to do that, we need growth but we can’t do that by ourselves, we need the investment by the Victorian Government to help our community grow.”
