Country roads are increasingly taking city slickers to their new homes, but the great migration to Australia’s regions is not all it is cracked up to be for rural councils who are scrambling to meet the high expectations of tree changers.
Country councils have told a federal inquiry into local government funding they are struggling to provide services like early education, health care and aged care even as extra ratepayers move from the cities.
Take the New England region. We were home to around 186,000 people in 2021, and that is projected to grow to more than 197,500 people by 2041.
Tamworth and Armidale are the region’s busiest centres. Other centres like Glen Innes, Gunnedah, Inverell, Moree and Narrabri are also major hubs for social and economic activity.
The region offers a diversity of agricultural industries. For example, areas like Moree, Narrabri and the Liverpool Plains feature cotton and grain farms. Further east, we see extensive cattle and sheep farms on the more temperate tablelands around Walcha, Armidale and Glen Innes.
New economic opportunities are emerging, with a special activation precinct at Moree and the Northern NSW Inland Port at Narrabri. The New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) will be a key initiative, as will the Namoi Regional Jobs Precinct.
The New England looks like the place to be, but can we take it?
“Urban drift, where people from highly populated city areas move to more rural settings … means those new residents have higher expectations of service delivery than has traditionally been the case,” the council’s submission to the inquiry said.
The parliamentary inquiry was established in March to examine the financial sustainability of local councils, along with their evolving obligations.
Several submissions laid bare the difficulties faced by rural councils due to apparent cost shifting from state and federal governments, unfair rate pegging limits and short-term grants.
The Australian Local Government Association said regional councils had to step in to provide essential services where markets failed, often at short notice with limited staff.
The national body is calling on the federal government to increase untied funding to at least one per cent of tax revenue.
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