The Forgotten Child Flexes Its Muscles

A few weeks ago, when I wrote my last blog on Central Queensland, the respected demographer Bernard Salt was presenting a paper to the Property Council of Australia where he pointed to ‘muscle towns’ as offering some of the best future growth potential.Muscle towns are essentially cities in regional areas inextricably linked to the resources boom – ie cities in Western Australia and Central Queensland.In Queensland, his references were confined to Gladstone, Townsville and Mackay, but there is more to this story than just those three centres.Let me give you a heads up.On Wednesday, Queensland Deputy Premier Paul Lucas will announce a major initiative to promote regional growth in the Rockhampton region.The Rockhampton Region Investment Brief sets forth a ‘blue print’ of priority infrastructure needs for the Central Queensland area already rich and diverse in its local economy but about to get a whole lot richer on the back of the resources boom.These needs include road and rail infrastructure, water infrastructure, the creation of serviced industrial land, achieving a successful Central Queensland NRL bid, the development of the Central Queensland University Dual Sector, and the Rockhampton riverfront and Yeppoon foreshore development.The announcement is part of the Queensland Government’s ongoing focus on meeting the needs of key regional areas it has identified as growth regions of the future.This week’s announcement comes only a fortnight after the release of Capricorn Tourism and Economic Development Ltd’s (CTEDL’s) Major Project Status report highlighting $146 billion of investment planned for completion by 2020 in Rockhampton and surrounding regions.My observation having undertaken consultancy work in many of these regional towns and cities is that regional Rockhampton has been the forgotten child in the growth of Central Queensland on the back of the resources boom.But that’s just how the Rocky people like it. They know only too well the growth opportunities that exist on their own turf, and they are quite happy for other areas to take the spotlight while they get their own house in order.CTEDL and the Rockhampton Regional Council are highly-organised and proactive entities working intensively behind the scenes to ensure they capture the opportunities presented by the resources boom, while at the same time looking to enhance the lifestyle opportunities with careful preparation and planning.Anyone looking for opportunity needs to look at areas that offer economic diversity. You only need to look at Cairns, Airlie Beach and the Gold Coast to see that the formula of relying on one or two strands of the economy (property and tourism) is fraught with danger.Rockhampton is in a win-win because it is an economic power base with or without the resources sector. The secret now is how to capitalise on new opportunities presented by the resources growth.The latest report from the Office of Economic and Statistical Research states that the decentralisation of industry and the burgeoning mining boom will ensure resource-rich, regional Queensland benefits from an onslaught of an extra 800,000 people over the next 20 years.According to a report in the Queensland Sunday Mail and quoting Treasurer Andrew Fraser, ‘the rise of the regions is one trend that is unlikely to be reversed’.The Queensland Government, through its tenacious local member Robert Scwharten, has finally cottoned on to the Forgotten Child.Watch this space: many others will be talking about Regional Rockhampton as it emerges from obscurity to stamp its mark as THE regional hub of the biggest boom in Australian history.And becomes –  to steal from Bernard Salt – the central city in the next ‘Big Shift’.