Mayoral Memo - 10 August 2022
A very excited friend called me this week. He had just saved thirty dollars on a carton of Crownies that he bought at half price. I poured cold water on his excitement and told him he had not saved thirty dollars; he had just spent thirty dollars. My friend explained further, talking very slowly. “Normally a carton is sixty dollars, and I got one for thirty dollars, so I saved thirty dollars!” “But,” I countered, “did you need a carton of beer?” You see, buying a carton of beer just because it was on special is not really a good enough reason to make a purchase.
It may sound somewhat boring, but it comes down to the pre-determined strategy before my friend visited the local bottle shop. If he went down with the intended purpose of buying a carton of Crownies, and happened to find some discounted, then well done! If, on the other hand, he went shopping for a bottle of wine and came back with a carton of beers, then impulse took over strategy.
Which brings me to Council. Typically I find that well-functioning Councils are very good at community planning for future decades. Whilst Councillors might receive more enquiries about potholes and grass mowing, it is important that the group focuses on strategic plans for decades to come.
It is almost two decades since I was first elected to Council and I have seen strategies play out with many items we have in our community today. Elizabeth Park is one great example. In 1998 the first Master Plan was adopted for this area with the Japanese Gardens opened in 2002. Some parts of the plan came to fruition but a new Master Plan was adopted in 2011 which updated some of the community desires. What we have today is a reflection of parts of both Master Plans combined with some new components, including the soon to be built Wiradjuri Cultural Tourism Centre. This is an exciting area for Dubbo tourism which started off as a paddock 24 years ago.
When you reach the Eastern edge of Dubbo, you see a thriving industrial area. This is known as Industrial Candidate Area 1 (ICA1). The planning for this area started in 1997 when there was the dilapidated Windmill Caravan Park standing on the corner of Sheraton Road and the highway. A group of investors understood the Council vision and purchased land and worked with the Council strategic plans to end up with the thriving business park you see today. And there is much more to go.
Strategy documents and Master Plans may sound like unwieldy or boring documents but working with the community to create a strategy and then working on delivering on that strategy gives a community confidence going forward. It also informs local decisions with big-picture thinking.
Councillor Mathew Dickerson
Mayor of Dubbo Regional Council
Last Edited: 09 Aug 2022