Balingup, WA

The final post before we actually get on the road is all about my home town – Balingup. I was recently invited back to run a workshop for the local business people which brought a couple of things home to me.
· What an interesting and unusual place Balingup is, and
· No matter what the problem, communication Is generally a significant part of any solution.
Balingup is a small country town about three hours South of Perth, approximately an hour inland of the coast. It was originally built as a timber milling town and also provided services the the surrounding farming community.
Over time many of the traditional industries have been eroded, however it started to flourish again about 20-30 years ago. At that time a large number of ‘lifestyle’ people moved in, with several of the farming properties between split up into 5 – 15 acre lots. A decision was made to embrace this change and look at opportunities to leverage of it rather than fight against the change (this was not as easy a process as I think I have just made it seem).
Many of the local leaders banded together a created the Balingup Progress Association. One of the largest projects initiated within this organisation is the Balingup Small Farm Field Day. His field day was designed to meet the needs of the people living on these small holdings and now attracts over 7,000 people to Balingup annually. From this an understanding of the value of events was gained, with several diverse events now running in Balingup as a way of attracting visitors. A great place to find out more information is http://www.balinguptourism.com.au/.
Like many places, the feeling around Balingup at the time (and probably still given it wasn’t long ago) was that business was tougher than normal. This had led to a few discussions among some of the business owners and a bit of a disagreement between a couple of them. The workshop was intended to give all business people the opportunity to speak freely about the perceived issues facing them individually and collectively and by default the town as a whole.
Interestingly, when everything was boiled down, while some of the businesses were facing more difficult circumstances, this was by no means universal, with others having had just had their best year. This shows clearly the difference between perceptions and reality. It also highlights the fact that one person’s difficulty is quite often another person’s opportunity.
Many of the perceived issues around town revolved around ensuring that visitors to town had a satisfying experience across all facets of their stay, and the belief that this didn’t always happen. There was real concern from accommodation suppliers regarding the lack of availability of meals at some times, along with a wide spread belief that service standards were not always at the level they should be in a range of businesses.
The key outcome of these discussions was the availability of solutions that were for the most part already available, that were identified during the evening. In most cases the solutions, while not widely known, were readily available and the missing link was not necessarily the provision of services, but more the knowledge of the offer across the town.
When this lack of communication was explored further it was quickly identified that there was no business networking in town, meaning that as new businesses started up and new people bought existing businesses the communal knowledge throughout the business community was slowly eroded. An ongoing process of ensuring that all businesses were aware of the products and services offered by each other is a vital part of ensuring that a place the size of Balingup stays strong.
As part of the discussions I also agreed to look into pricing a ‘mystery shop’ process for the town as a whole instead of individual businesses as currently focussed on by most mystery shopper programs. It was agreed that Balingup, and other places of a similar size, rely on the experience of the whole place rather than the experience form any individual business. Therefore the ease of finding toilets, cleanliness of the town itself and ease of navigating the town can be as important, if not mor so, than the service levels at any individual business.
Although this process hasn’t yet been undertaken, it was surprising the relative inexpensiveness of undertaking this type of program; however an ongoing program needs to be put in place for it to have any real value.

The Christmas Island Experience

In last November I was lucky enough to be invited to Christmas Island to help deliver an economic development workshop with Cassandra Stepanicev from Cranbrook. Simon Millcock, the Economic Development Officer for the Indian Ocean Territories split his role between organising the workshops as well as being part of the delivery team. As a triumvirate this worked very well as we had had the experience of undertaking the Mukinbudin workshops together previously.

 

The ubiquitous red crab

 

The harbour and surrounding townsite



While Christmas Island has some challenges ahead it proved to be a fantastic place to visit. Every person who heard I was either going or had been immediately asked about the red crabs, which was my major thought as well, but interestingly, there about 30 different types of land crabs on the island an significantly more than that in the oceans around the island.

The trip to the island was interesting in itself, with an international flight effectively needed without actually leaving Australia. The flight goes via the Cocos-Keeling Islands, which also ahve a fascinating history, and are the only place I know that has a golf course that goes directly across an airport.

We were lucky to even land at Christmas Island as it was covered by thick cloud when we arrived. Fortuitously this lifted for just enough time for the pilot to get the plane down before rolling in again.

We went straight to the Christmas Island resort from the airport, with an introductory set of discussions commencing almost immediately on arrival. The resort is in the process of being renovated after having been closed for most of the years since the casino license was removed. This renovation is one of the tangible benefits of the immigration centre, with much of the money being used having been earned through providing services to the department of immigration and the contractors operating the immigration facilities. 

Just outside my room - at the resort



Next morning the full workshop was undertaken, with representatives also joining us from the Cocos-Keeling Islands due to the two communities being part of the same territory - the Indian Ocean Territories. Meetings between the Department of Regional Australia and a range of entities from the islsnds had follow up meetings all afternoon and the next day, which provided an opportunty to explore the island .


The original Governor's residence


Luckily for us Simon's wife also does some work as a tour guide on the island and offered to show us around. This included a trek through some amazing countryside - the waterfall we ended up at was just amazing while the wildlife was spectacular.

  

As part of the week we also toured the main detention centre and the phospate mine operations (which are currently the only two real industries on the island). For all the bad press the detention facilities get I was exceptionally impressed with the way all people working within the facilities conducted themselves, with real empathy for the situation of the detainees obvious.

The phosphate operations were interesting, especially having grown up in a mining town myself. The issue facing the island is that these operations have a finite life, which is rapidly drawing to an end and the island urgently needs to find alternate economic drivers that are able to maintain a standard of living on the island. With the ongoing uncertaintly regarding the future of the detention facilities the urgency for alternate industries is exacerbated.

After spending the time in a proveledged capacity I found that both Christmas Islands and Cocos-Keeling Islands have something that many other places really struggle with - a definite point of difference. The remoteness however makes this difficult to easily leverage. There is also a long transition for the local populations to understand where they fit from a tourism perpsective.

Cocos-Keeling Islands appear (admittedly this is predominantly taken from flying over them) suited to a relaxed resort style approach. The beaches and climate, along with the multiple islands open up a range of opportunitie sin this area. In addition it is also starting to carve out a reputation as a kite-surfing destination.

Christmas Island on the other hand has a topography that appears set for adventure tourism, with fantastic, wild walk trails and a rugged coastline just crying out to be explored.

The difficulty for both is the cost of getting to the islands. This counts out  much of a backpacker or budget clientelle and means that a more premium product is required, which again is difficult to deliver straight up as well as requiring significant resources to put in place and maintain.

All in all there are a range of opportunties open to both communities which seem to be matched by the challenges facing them.

Mukinbudin - The Trial

This entry discusses then trial of the EDA Rural and Remote Worksho p Program, undertaken in July 2011. This program has recently been adopted as a National program, with all other states hopefully finding the positive environment so far experiences by Western Australian practitioners.

Mukinbudin is a fairly typical Western Australian wheatbelt town, with a small community, predominantly revolving around the regions farming operations. A community bank had previously been set up by the community, with real benefits starting to flow throughout the town from the profits this generates.

Interestingly the community bank was yet to be identified as a economic development element of the town, although to me this is the single most important ED initiative undertaken within the town in many years. The community bank model is local economic development at its purest (there may be a later post exploring this further given my community bank background), and yet is not understood in this context within most of the communities that have effected them.

Where Mukinbudin was different to may similar communities was their overt understanding that they needed to do something to ensure that their community survived (and hopefully thrived) into the future, and that these actions needed to be initiated at the local level. The advantage this understanding provides to the community cannot be understated.

As this was a trial I have included extracts from the final report that was written following this exercise in case people are interested in the program itself.

The trial was conducted with the community of Mukinbudin in Western Australia. Mukinbudin is located 300km North-East of Perth, in the North-Eastern Wheatbelt and has a shire population of around 800. This community was identified by Keith McQueen, WA Community Enterprise Manager with the Bendigo Bank (and EDA member) as being ideal for the trial.

The Mukinbudin Shire Chief Executive Officer, Trevor Smith, was the contact point for setting up the trial and providing direction regarding the current needs and aspirations of the community with regards to the proposed economic development sessions.

Calls for interest in delivering the Mukinbudin program were sent out through the EDA membership, with the final team being Simon Millcock, Trevor Ayers, Cassandra Stipanicev and William Barry. It was decided to undertake the program over a weekend so as to minimise the time away from work for the people involved, with the 23-25 of July chosen. The presenters organised their travel to Mukinbudin with the Shire picking up the accommodation costs and the majority of meals.

The program was built around Jay Hardison’s Economic Development Toolbox presentation, originally developed for SEGRA 2009. The full program consisted of:

·                Friday evening - introduction and overview of background of EDA presenters.

·                Saturday morning – Economic Development Toolbox presentation.

·                Saturday afternoon – informal community interaction. This was built around all Mukinbudin sporting teams (football, netball and hockey) having ‘home’ games and the majority of the community being committed to these sports either through playing or assisting.

·                Sunday morning – facilitated community discussion regarding opportunities for progression.

                                                                                                       

Outcomes

Overall the trial was seen as a success by the practitioners involved in the delivery and appears to have also provided value to the community of Mukinbudin from the comments received from participants.

The toolbox presentation was a very valuable resource, although some rewrites are required to better reflect its delivery to a local community rather than ED specialists. The team believed its current focus was a little too local government focused.

The initial introductory panel session gave a good starting point, however requires a level of structure that the team should work on prior to arriving. Rather than everyone talking off-the-cuff, a minimalistic PowerPoint presentation by each of the ED practitioners would improve the focus.

The facilitated workshop on the final morning was an integral part of the weekend and provided the opportunity for community members to open dialogue amongst themselves, in a structured manner. Providing a report of these discussions resulted in a concrete outcome that the community can then work from, as well as allowing all members of the community to have input rather than one or more designated to capture the information themselves.

The mix of the EDA members involved in this program was excellent. No two members had similar backgrounds and experiences, so everybody added significant value.

Community Concerns Arising from the Discussions

·         Local economy highly dependent on agriculture. Too much reliance on agriculture limits the options for the future.

·         Ageing Infrastructure

·         Access to power & water

·         Land ownership

·         Ageing population & retaining the younger population

Starting Point

This blog is a response to an impending trip around Australia.

After over 10 years involved in economic development, including involvement with the peak professional body, Economic Development Australia, - http://www.edaustralia.com.au/ - the opportunity to publish thoughts stimulated by constantly exploring new parts of our wonderful country and interact with others through doing so, was too good an opportunity to not take up.

Posts will likely be irregular as they will depend on opportunity and web connectivity. Additionally, my blogging skills will be limited initially, but hopefully these will improve over time. So please join me, make comment, disagree when necessary (and probably often) and feel free to suggest particular things to focus on as I reach different parts of Australia.

Before I leave I will hopefully start by making a series of comments based around the initial Rural and Remote Economic Development Training Program developed through Economic Development Australia with other ED professionals from Western Australia - particularly Simon Millcock from Christmas Island, but also valuable input from Cassandra Stipanicev from Cranbrook and William Barry from Bassendean. This program is now being made nationally and will hopefully give many smaller communities the opportunity to improve their ED capacity.

Trevor