Regional areas have an image problem. For metro dwellers, there is a fanciful notion that any location outside ‘the City’ is ‘the Bush’ and our sometimes ill-informed City cousins assume that all of the downtrodden residents of regional Australia are living in weatherboard lean-tos surrounded by brown, dusty paddocks and chewing on straw underneath tattered Akubras – perhaps playing Banjos at dusk.
In the marketing world, a common catchphrase is to “under-deliver and over-promise”. With this backdrop, it is no wonder we constantly hear wonderful comments from urban visitors when they visit our City. I could not have made up comments as ridiculous as some of the ones I have heard in my time on Council. “I am impressed with your roads – I thought they would be all dirt,” one visitor told me. “I brought a suitcase full of noodles because I wasn’t sure when I would next be able to visit a supermarket,” was what one visiting medical student informed me when he was telling me how he prepared for his trip to ‘the Bush’. “I told Mum and Dad I wouldn’t be able to speak to them for a few weeks as I had to go out to Dubbo,” was how a visiting professional described her excitement when she discovered we had both landline and mobile services in our City. I must admit that I can’t say I have heard any comments on the fact that we have electricity so, in the 89 years and 72 days since electricity was officially switched on in Dubbo, we seem to have managed to get that message out there.
The real challenge for any regional town or City is to change the perception of regional areas. People are less likely to visit a regional area or move to a regional area if they think they are going back in time. The old joke from Sydneysiders that time travel is possible if you “just go over the mountains and you go back twenty years,” is about as funny to us here in the country as the country joke that “the average commute for people in Sydney is 48 minutes and that is just for the people who work from home,” is to people in the City.
The real question is how to change that perception? The Evocity campaign, which has been running for a number of years now, is making some inroads. This is effectively a marketing campaign focused on metro areas that extols the virtues of living in a regional City. There are seven major inland cities in this campaign and, while it has been effective to date, it comes down to a financial equation. It is expensive to advertise in metro areas and with limited funds available from the budgets of seven Councils, it is difficult to make wholesale changes.
I have also spoken before about our 40,975 residents being our best advocates. If all of our residents talk positively about our City to their friends and relatives, we can start to change attitudes. With the 2013 Community Needs Survey showing some 97 per cent of residents say they are proud to live in Dubbo, it should be an easy process to convince people to speak positively about our City.
I find the greatest way to make attitudinal changes to a regional area involves the most difficult commodity to secure. Time. If a person takes the time to visit our City and actually look at what we have to offer, they are typically instant converts. All of the pretty brochures and videos will never be as good as visiting our Zoo or walking into our Cultural Centre and being greeted with a smile.
The recent Country v City match was a great example of an organisation committing people and time to an event. We had a number of NRL staff and past and present players visit our City over the last few months – in particular on Sunday – and the comments from all and sundry were effusive. Look at a few of these comments. Brad Fittler: “The town has been fantastic – Dubbo’s been awesome. If you have a look at the pitch they’re providing, it is A-class.” Phil Gould: “It’s an absolutely beautiful playing field. Perfect for the players and they’ll appreciate that. Been wonderful to be here in Dubbo today. What a wonderful town.” Ryan Hoffman: “People have been great, you know, everything we’ve done, where we ate, the food was awesome and you know, when we’d come over they’re just so welcoming.” Tim Sheens: “This playing surface is far superior to Allianz Stadium where we played the Test match on Friday night.”
To develop opportunities for future events in Dubbo off the back of this match, I invited the Presidents of many national sporting organisations to Dubbo to watch this match. My logic was that if they committed their time to attend and they were impressed with what they saw, we would have a chance of future major events. We only managed to have three organisations take up the offer but they walked away unbelievably impressed with what we have to offer and, not only are they now firm advocates of our City but they are also working out how to bring a major event to Dubbo.
It may seem like a long slow road (probably because it is) but changing opinions one person at a time will have positive effects on Dubbo for many years to come.
Tell me what major event you would like to see in Dubbo at mayor@dubbo.nsw.gov.au