When Banjo Patterson wrote of Clancy (Clancy of the Overflow) droving ‘down the Cooper’ there was no mention of dust, flies and the heat of the outback, only the foetid air of the dirty city and the uninviting language of children in its streets, but not of the stockmen. Why the ongoing romantic notion of the Outback? Vastness and emptiness hardly sound like selling points, but the Outback remains a must see for every Australian and international tourist, along with the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Making Central Queensland, you think, not only a must do destination, having both reef and outback within it, but a brand, that has national and international awareness and appeal. However, that would not appear to be the case. Arguably the Outback, with its selling points of vastness and emptiness has a stronger brand than Central Queensland, despite its selling points including the GBR, why?
Last week I speculated that despite the 7 councils on the western side of the Drummond Range to the Northern Territory border having a stronger brand identity, as Outback Queensland, they would gain more sustainable, broader economic benefit from pro-actively collaborating and identifying with their CQ eastern cousins. What though do the 5 eastern cousins (councils) have to gain through pro-actively collaborating with vastness and emptiness?
‘Reef to the Outback’ is arguably more powerful than ‘Reef to Drummond Range’ in attracting potential tourists’ attention and visitation. One only has to look what Birdsville, with a population of about 120, can achieve with a horse race and a sand dune (Big Red Bash Music Festival), by playing on Banjo’s romantic notions of outback branding. Do the eastern councils have anything as big? Rockhampton has the tri-annual Beef Expo, attracting 100000 visitors over the week. Most of which come from greater CQ! Highlighting the natural and historical interconnectedness of east and west CQ. Admittedly the 5 eastern councils already do align themselves in some way with the outback, without the need to pro-actively collaborate with those councils. Rockhampton Council arguably the more obvious one, not being a member of CQROC (Central Queensland Region of Councils) or attending a region development workshop last July with the other 11 CQ Council Mayors and CEO’s.
It is not about protecting what the parts within have, it is about getting what CQ (we) is missing out on.
Queensland is presently portraying itself as the sporting capital of Australia, as NRL, AFL and now Super Netball teams move here and to play games. How many teams, games out of these 3 sports has CQ scored? Lack of adequate facilities will be part of the reason CQ presently has none, but who’s fault is that? Now this is where it gets interesting, where are the fingers pointed? We need to start pointing the finger also at ourselves. Where is the unified voice highlighting that CQ has no teams or games being played here? No unity, no clout; easy to be ignored or worse, just overlooked. Yet we seem to just accept that we have to play third (or is now 5th) fiddle after the south-east, north, far-north, south-west of the state. This the area that the state and federal government derives billions of dollars from each year in royalties and taxes, yet not considered for one NRL, AFL or Super Netball game.
It’s QANTAS 100th anniversary year, CQ should be demanding the first international flight that QANTAS makes between Australia and New Zealand, that doesn’t require 14 days of quarantine for its passengers, involves Longreach, to acknowledge the airline started in CQ (Winton and then Longreach) and boost tourism. That would be some coup, but who, where is CQ’s voice? CQROC, that by their name and representation appears to indicate that CQ does not include Winton or Longreach (maybe not even Rockhampton). Then there is RAPAD, an acronym that does not include CWQ, despite its full name being Central West Queensland Remote Area Planning and Development Board. Does it even want to be a spokesperson for CQ? What about RDACWQ, yes there is another one, Regional Development Australia Central and Western Queensland, a federal government initiated and funded body, its voice arguably limited due to its funding source.
There are more development and promotional bodies within CQ, but none appears to be the voice of CQ. One unified voice, that carries real clout, has wide-spread respect, receives responses and initiates action. The lack of this voice highlighted when it was announced there is nearly $3Billion to be rolled over by NAIF, yet $10.4Billion of CQ projects submitted to the federal government, that if implemented offer a 2.5-year payback period, sit in limbo! Where is the voice highlighting this? Unfortunately, not even the local media appear interested in voicing this.
Imagine if CQ carries on with this seemingly hodgepodge approach with CQ’s economic development and the Councils on the western side of the Drummond Range, where the later mines of the southern Galilee Basin will be developed, are courted by the coal mine owners to have the FIFO hubs located in the south east corner. Who effectively champions CQ as a whole? I don’t think you’ll find it in George Street, Brisbane, let alone Canberra. It has to come from within. For this to happen we need residents to strongly identify, not just with their own town/locality but also, as proud Central Queenslanders. Build pride, you build self-respect, with self-respect you gain the respect of others. Perhaps CQROC, RAPAD and RDACWQ could collaborate on a project that builds CQ pride, a project that tells stories of CQ, like Banjo did with his poems of Central Queensland’s outback, this helps starts building a desired brand that gives CQ the strong united presence and with it respect, so we can more effectively champion CQ.