I am currently attending the July breakfast in the Dubbo Chamber of Commerce CEO Series where Jonathan Ling from GUD Holdings will be the guest CEO. GUD is not necessarily a household name but the company is listed at Number 169 on the ASX200 with a market capitalisation of almost $800 million and the brands they own are household names – such as Sunbeam; Davey; Ryco; Dexion and many more. The CEO Series has been incredibly successful so far and I encourage our business community to continue to support the series.
Today will also see an important summit being hosted in Dubbo – the Building Regional Australia Summit. There will be a focus on how regional areas can grow and succeed.
Last Saturday saw the major announcement that Dubbo will be host to the Australian Junior Indoor Cricket Championships – an event that will see 650 people converge on Dubbo for nine days and injecting over $800,000 into the economy. Next year will be the twenty second year of the Championships but the first time they will be held in a regional area. The bid process was lengthy and involved and initially Cricket Australia were nervous about taking the event outside a metropolitan area. It is a huge vote of confidence in Dubbo that the board of Cricket Australia ultimately voted unanimously to bring their event to Dubbo. Although many people have commented about how exciting it is for the city to be the host for 2016, most people wouldn’t be aware of the extensive work that has gone on behind the scenes – under a cloak of confidentiality – before the final decision was made. From invites sent to Cricket Australia last year to attend the Country V City game through to Greg King, the owner of Dubbo Sportsworld submitting an Expression of Interest through to earnest negotiations that started in February this year and the commitment of major sponsors such as Qantas and IGA and the injection of money from Destination NSW, there were a number of moving parts in the process and we managed to come out on top. It is now up to the community to take full advantage of this opportunity.
One area where our community has definitely capitalised on the opportunity is in relation to flights between Dubbo and Brisbane. The Deputy Mayor and I flew from Brisbane with Jetgo last Wednesday on their first proving flight and when we landed I was given the opportunity to make the announcement that, due to overwhelming demand, the three flights a week has already increased to four flights a week – this is before the first passenger flight has even launched. Well done in your support and keep up the great work.
Councillor Mathew Dickerson
Mayor of the City of Dubbo