The population growth of Gippsland, and opportunities that result from it, was the topic of conversation at breakfast at Farm World, held in late March.
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Farm World is a major agribusiness event, held over three days at Lardner Park, in West Gippsland.
The annual Farm World breakfast is sponsored by CommBank and attracts a large crowd of early arrivals, many of them dairy farmers and other business owners, and a key guest speaker.
This year’s guest speaker was Bernard Salt, AM, demographer and leading social commentator.
He said Gippsland was a region in transition, with rapid population growth and growing investment opportunities in energy, logistics handling, agribusiness, health, and trades skills training.
His message for councillors and other community leaders arguing for that investment across Gippsland is they needed a focus on metrics and numbers.
“Really serious business people who are looking for investment opportunities are seriously sceptical about a narrative, they are interested in the metrics, the numbers,” he said.
“Gippsland is a wonderful region, so develop a narrative that everyone understands with a couple of key metrics.”
Bernard said Gippsland’s population of 315,000 people was expected to grow to 360,000 within the next 10 years.
He has based his analysis on the Victorian Government’s population projections by local government area.
“Gippsland will change between 2025 and 2035, with about 45,000 extra people moving into the region,” he said.
“Any one of those years could see a population increase of 4000 to 10,000 people.”
The key demographics for this population push were people average age 46 years, but was in the range of 31-61 year old adults, with families, looking for lifestyle balance and the affordability of owning their own home.
Many in the older age group were also looking for their ‘second career’, rather than retirement.
“Warragul-Drouin is the fastest growing town in Australia, measured over the past 10 years,” Bernard said.
“That will continue.
“Across Gippsland, the population has consistently grown by 1.5 per cent per annum – that’s 4500-5000 people each year.
“Much of this population growth is in the ‘tradies’ sector, which is growing by 10 per cent each year.”
Bernard compared this growth to the Gold Coast, which grows by four per cent per annum.
“Warragul-Drouin offers lifestyle and affordable housing compared with Melbourne,” he said.
“Australians have a relentless pursuit of lifestyle.
“Today, they want a big four-bedroom house with a large living area they can show off to visitors.
“Affordable housing – house and land packages, with a front and backyard – in the $600,000-$700,000 range are not impossible in Gippsland.”
Whatever was driving it – tree change, sea change, retirement, better work-life balance – the growth in population in Gippsland would need to be met with infrastructure and jobs.
Bernard was in favour of developing an airport, a skills centre and a logistics hub in the region, which was already supported by a productive agricultural sector and a RAAF base.
“I think there should be a third commercial airport in Victoria located in somewhere like this region [Gippsland],” he said.
“And if it’s not in Gippsland, but on the outskirts of eastern Melbourne, it should serve as the interest of Gippsland.
“Gippsland already has a university campus and, by my research, there seems to be a TAFE and skills training facilities in almost every one of the major towns across Gippsland.
“Can we expand and increase the depth of skills training through these facilities in Gippsland, so we produce the kind of skills we need in this region?
“Can a Centre of Excellence be developed in Gippsland, to deliver the skills training necessary for developing agricultural equipment and learning to use it to optimise food and livestock production?
“People love the idea of agribusiness being successful and a foundational source of prosperity for the Australian people for decades into the future.
“The machinery and equipment used on farms now, and the scale of agribusinesses, make the farming enterprises of today unrecognisable from that known by the depression generation.
“We’re actually far more productive now in agribusiness than ever before.”
Bernard said unfortunately a lot of policy and planning until now had been done by people from that depression generation and baby boomers and this has centralised planning to focus on urban areas.
The population of Australia has grown by eight million since the year 2000, a mix of about five million immigrants and three million people born in Australia.
The majority of that eight million population have settled in lifestyle regions along Australia’s eastern seaboard and Gippsland.
“Can a transport and logistics hub be developed in the region of Lakes Entrance?” Bernard said.
A logistics hub would support warehousing and an industrial base for all associated industries with truck driving, truck sales, truck servicing, driver training, that benefits all of Gippsland.
“Can an additional port be developed in Gippsland?
“What is needed to meet this population growth is a galvanised community.
“Do you have business-thinking in this community that are prepared to invest in this community?
“Do you have a community that is 100 per cent behind the growth and development of Gippsland?
“A Gippsland that has 45,000 people added over 10 years, in an estimated 20,000 dwellings – that requires the skills of electricians, builders, plumbers and carpenters.
“That community is not always acknowledged as the asset that I think we should recognise it as.”
CommBank Agribusiness Banking in Victoria and Tasmania Dominic general manager Westendorf said East Gippsland was an emerging region for investment.
“We’ve had a 15 per cent growth in lending to agribusiness in East Gippsland,” Dominic said.
“We’ve also seen a growing interest in East Gippsland because of lifestyle opportunities and affordability of property.”
See more pictures from Farm World online at: www.dairynewsaustralia.com.au
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