Over the long weekend we had strong reason to reflect on what it is to be Australian, after all as the advertising for Australia Day said, we are all part of the story. What does it mean to be a Central Queenslander though? Is it any different, is it important to reflect on our part of the Central Queensland story? I think, as little has been done to foster CQ identity and pride this has contributed to this region missing out on important liveability infrastructure and its slow population growth rate. Liveability infrastructure that would improve the tap water in the very communities that produce a very healthy proportion of this state’s wealth. Or stadiums that would attract major performers and events to the region. No matter how many divisions you divide the state into Central Queensland is down the priority list as it doesn’t have the numbers the south and north do. Thus, creating a catch 22 situation, without infrastructure it is difficult to attract people, without people it is difficult to attract infrastructure. Some may argue and give examples of liveability infrastructure spending in CQ, but when you compare it to Brisbane’s Cross River Rail and Townsville’s second stadium (international airport, conference centre, casino, etc.), I believe the priority listing stands.
United as one region, arguably the better our case to attract significant liveability infrastructure and number of people.
Even taking building a bigger (CQ) clout case to Brisbane or Canberra out of the picture I believe Central Queensland would grow stronger lobbying as one, by amplifying the historic interrelatedness of each part. Tourism being just one area.
What about just being proud to be a Central Queenslander, is there enough of us that feel this? To identify with and have pride in the land that straddles the Tropic of Capricorn, is part outback and part Great Barrier Reef, dinosaurs once roamed, where world and Olympic champions were born, a national icon began, an unofficial national anthem was written and the richest gold mine was found; that despite droughts, cyclones, floods and fires keeps pulling more than its weight, producing food, fibre’s and minerals for the world and billions for the state and nation. It’s a hell of a story.
Many of us identify as proud Queenslanders come State of Origin, what would it take to strongly identify as Central Queenslanders to sell our story better to become even more vibrant and stronger? Our vast distance is a challenge, the ambiguous borders another, but that doesn’t stop one identifying as a Central Queenslander. The railway tracks may not connect as many of the CQ communities as they once did and inland roads now also lead south and north, but from the Keppel and Curtis Coast’s to the Northern Territory border we are all still interrelated, each CQ council region affected in some way by the other. We’ll see an example of this when the beef industry comes to Rockhampton next year. Out of all the beef producers attending Beef Australia, only a few will come from the Beef Capital, Rockhampton, but most will come from Central Queensland.
Central Queensland doesn’t need borders, nor one romantic image of what a Central Queenslander should look like, (though it probably could do with an NRL team for a symbol to rally around), it does need us to recognise we are stronger as one, that our region’s future continues to be interrelated, that for this part of the state to get more back of what we give people outside CQ need to hear our story, they need to know what the Central Queensland brand encompasses and the part we proudly play in it.