http://aspirecq.com/?p=1

A paper lasts a day maybe two if your lucky, the internet is forever…

I thought it best to publish my musings, that have previously been
published in the local newspaper the Morning Bulletin, for a greater
readership and longevity.

Hope you enjoy the first, I will continue to add new content each week.

26th March, 2011

A Tri-City Vision

The slick high speed train quietly departs Rockhampton, within 15minutes
it stops on route to Gladstone at the recently completed International
Airport. The train quickly regains momentum in reaching its 255km top
speed. The remaining passengers are predominantly workers. They use the 3
times a day half hour Rockhampton Gladstone service to commute to and
from their place of employment. Its 2020, the politics and egos of
intercity rivalry have been replaced by vision and logic. A tri-city
co-operative approach between Rockhampton, Gladstone and the new city of
Capricorn Coast is reaping the benefits of the massive developments of
the last 9 years.

Logic determined that Gladstone’s infrastructure wasn’t able to cope
with the influx of workers that were needed for its major industrial
projects. The alternative of a fly in fly out workforce wasn’t going to
leave the city better for the developments. This led to a co-operative
submission with Rockhampton Regional Council to the State and Federal
Governments to provide infrastructure funding that encouraged families
of the migrating workers to live in Rockhampton while working in
Gladstone. Finally the pressing demands on the South East corner’s
infrastructure led to the State Government convincing the Federal
Government of the logic of the submission. Significant funding was made
available over the next 9 years for major infrastructure projects to
adequately cater for a combined Rockhampton Gladstone region population
of 350000.

During this time Rockhampton Regional Council finally realized
Rockhampton City wasn’t going to be a tourist destination especially
since the highway by-pass had been completed. Fortuitously the by-pass
re-entered the original highway before the Yeppoon turn-off which led to
more road travelers stopping over at Yeppoon. The consequence of this
together with tourism marketing focused on the Capricorn Coast was that
car and coach travelers were finding out the Rockhampton region did have
a lot to offer. The resulting longer, repeated visits and Facebook
recommendations were not only improving tourist related businesses, but
the extra development it was creating broadened the coasts economic
base.

This vision for 2020 is just some of my thoughts on what I believe is
needed. Needed to leave the community’s of Rockhampton, Gladstone and
Capricorn Coast better for the development explosion that is about to
occur throughout Central Queensland. Not just the multi-national’s
involved in the developments.

No doubt there is a lot of planning going on behind the scenes, but is
there a vision for these communities. A vision we can all embrace!

Forums ask what people would like, but what vision do the people of
Rockhampton and Gladstone regions have for the year 2020 and beyond? An
international airport to service both Rockhampton and Gladstone. A high
speed train service running between both centres. Freeing up the flood
prone Rockhampton airport to be a world class motorama park. Where
speedway could have a proper home beside a drag strip and the current
passenger terminal housing the Peter Brock car collection/museum.

Instead of just having these thoughts expressed in the paper could a
local media organization seek out visionary ideas from the community?
Too often ideas like a water park at the former Yeppoon Hospital site
are mentioned then shelved away. Our community leaders appear to be
bogged down with day to day issues. So let’s make determining a vision
that we all embrace a day to day issue. An on-going, non-political,
community driven forum.
The CQ NRL Bid demonstrates that what once seemed impossible maybe is
achievable.

I believe that if a media organization was to dedicate on-going
resources to seeking then help define a vision, that it too could be
achievable. After all a vision that the whole community supports, based
on logic, based on need – that’s a vision that governments cannot
ignore. Be good to see one of the media run with it.

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