‘Smart’ Bendigo could save 'struggling' region

An author of a nation-wide economic snapshot says the Loddon Mallee region is “struggling” and its agricultural-based economy faces serious challenges from climate change.

But the National Economics executive director Peter Brain said Bendigo could help power the region into the knowledge-economy with increased investment in communications infrastructure. 

“The region as a whole is struggling,” Dr Brain said. 

“But Bendigo can be seen as something of an oasis of light.” 

Dr Brain said the ‘State of the Regions’ report released today revealed the extent of job losses in the Loddon Mallee. 

“Over the last four years you've lost about 4000 jobs,” he said. 

Nearly half those jobs were in agriculture, which Dr Brain attributed to the recent El Nino system. 

The report identifies climate change as posing a threat to the regional economy with the area set to become drier and prone to more frequent and intense floods, frosts and fires. 

“Farmers need access to advanced internet if they are going to combat climate change,” Dr Brain said. 

“The technologies are available to do that but a lot of them require access to advanced communications infrastructure – if they can’t get it, then you’re really crippling the advance of the region.” 

The report also highlighted Bendigo’s success in attracting “knowledge-based activities” and Dr Brain said the city was positioned to become an even more important regional centre. 

However he argued fibre-to-the-premise NBN to the CBD would be crucial. 

“For a knowledge economy you need [FTTP], or at the very least you need it in the central business area of industrial centres,” Dr Brain said. 

“The government says the download speeds [of fibre-to-the-node] are adequate for what consumers want – that’s debatable – but the critical thing is that you meet the upload speeds required by business.”

Otherwise Dr Brain said Bendigo was well positioned to develop a 21st century economy. He spends half the week in his Castlemaine home and said “from afar” the city was heading in the right direction, with good transport links to Melbourne and “diverse lifestyle” options. 

“You’ve got very good transport links with Melbourne, both freeway and railway, though you’ve got to get the frequency of rail links up, you’ve got to make sure the good work of the gallery continues, that you keep up the diversity of lifestyle, boost tourism to get that extra cash into restaurants,” he said.

“But really, there’s no excuse for Bendigo not to capture more of the knowledge economy, there’s no excuse not to keep growing.”

The report argued the country’s economic transition would be eased if knowledge-economy jobs could be decentralised to “outposts” in the region. 

But the head of Bendigo’s university bristled at the suggestion. 

“Forget being an outpost – why don’t we play the main game?” La Trobe Bendigo head of campus Rob Stephenson said. 

“Regional capital cities can actually be generators of a knowledge-economy, we don’t have to be a branch office of Melbourne.

“We’ve got a fantastic opportunity around health with the new Bendigo hospital and with the tech school to develop a home-grown knowledge economy.

“Already we have people who run video operations or creative design work out of Bendigo for international clients, so there’s no reason that we shouldn’t be a generator.”

Mr Stephenson said education was the key for Bendigo to achieve that goal. 

“As ever more complex jobs become the victims of automation, the skills that can't be automated, the creativity, the ability to communicate, to bring different areas of information together, to synthesise and a whole range of creative and entrepreneurial skills are what are coming together to build our new industries,” he said.

But as the city waits to reap the fruits of hospital and airport upgrades and a new tech school, it is already attracting more highly-skilled workers. 

Electrical engineer Isharaka Gunasinghe recently moved to Bendigo for a job with military manufacturer Thales after a decade of working in the car industry in Melbourne. 

“I was apprehensive about the move,” Mr Gunasinghe said.

“I’d never lived outside a major city and to be honest I thought I was coming to a country town ... but I’ve been surprised, Bendigo is actually quite cosmopolitan – more so than the Melbourne suburb I lived in.”