Country towns: death or deliverance

Economic modelling says inland Australian towns are finished, destined to empty out into the cities.After losing a third of its jobs in the last decade, the Tasmanian town of Scottsdale is certainly in trouble, but its still fighting hard to survive. Di Martin reports. Scottsdale is the service hub of Tasmanias north east, an hours drive east of Launceston. Its been hard hit hard by the decline of the forestry industry and the closure of a vegetable processing factory. Mayor of Dorset Council, Barry Jarvis says a third of the towns jobs have disappeared in the last 10 years. 'We have been very very hard hit, the Scottsdale area on the downturn of the forest industry, we lost two sawmills ... [the] employment factor there was directly about 300 and the vegetable factory was around about 120 I think.' Mr Jarvis knows all about rescue packages, with funds being allocated to his region by both the state and federal governments.But projects were picked without consulting Council and Mayor Jarvis says tens of thousands of dollars have been wasted. We had a company get money to build trailers for log trucks, the industry foldedthere was never one trailer produced, says Mr Jarvis. A boat builder was given money to make moulds for luxury motor boatsnever produced one, finished up taking the mould to Queensland to do it out of Queensland. The locals know that the market is not there. But in those processes we had no input. Mr Jarvis says government due diligence on bailout projects has either been inadequate, or absurdly expensive. He cites the example of a $30,000 ethanol feasibility study co-funded by the government. So $15,000 from the local community and $15,000 from the state contribution, he says. The local Department of Economic Development spent $10,000 to figure out whether they should give 15. Now why would you spend $10,000 to see whether you are going to commit 15? Its a mentality that shouldnt exist. This article represents part of a largerBackground Briefinginvestigation. Listen toDi Martin's full report on Sunday at 8.05 am or use the podcast links above after broadcast. Mr Jarvis says that every time the media has reported on the economic state of the Dorset municipality, a succession of entrepreneurs has come through his office. I had calls from as far away as South Africa, certainly around the mainland and every person wanted to utilise the demise of Dorset and thought that the downturn would allow those people to access federal or state money. Their credentials on the face looked reasonable. They gave the right names, but when you went into it, they were businesses that would have fallen over anyway. Another controversial state government funded initiative has been the work of Ernesto Sirolli. A charismatic former aid worker, Ernesto Sirollis California-based institute aims to help kick start small businesses. The Sirolli programme hires a single enterprise facilitator who connects people who already have business ideas with local volunteers who have the knowledge and skills to help get the venture started. The previous Labor government spent nearly a million dollars to establish the Sirolli method in three economically depressed regions including the states north east. Mr Sirolli himself is paid to train and mentor them all in the method he developed, in this case $360,000: more than a third of the Tasmanian projects budget and almost double the funding each region received. I justify that cost: $16,600 per project per month, taking into account I have to travel from California to come and service those projects, is not an unreasonable figure, Mr Sirolli said. Many Scottsdale residents express scepticism about the results of the Sirolli program, saying they know of only two businesses start ups since it began 16 months ago. But the local north east Sirolli group says its efforts are just starting to pay off after a slow start. It says seven new businesses are coming online, creating more than 20 full time equivalent jobs. Sirolli defends his program against criticism the money could be better spent. Local leaders should give [enterprise facilitation] in their community a chance instead of shooting down something that is helping Tasmania entrepreneurs do what they absolutely love to do, which is transforming ideas and passion into a way of feeding themselves and their families, says Mr Sirolli. Former Premier Lara Giddings approved the Sirolli project and the size of the fee. Background Briefing has been told her decision was taken without having the program costed or investigated by her Economic Development Department. Ms Giddings declined to be interviewed. While Scottsdales economy is in trouble, and old jobs are going, new opportunities are opening up in unexpected quarters. People are moving to town to take advantage of depressed property market and cheaper lifestyle of a country town. Theres been an influx of retirees from the mainland, including Lyn, a pensioner from Queensland. 'I would say that about one in 10 people that I speak to in the street are from Queensland. And we have a lot to come over from Melbourne. It's just gotten too pricey and they can buy exactly what they want here with the money that they get from the sale of their property on the mainland.' Scottsdales newest building development is for independent living units. Mr Jarvis says the elderly create their own industry, demanding health and lifestyle services that will attract younger workers to town. 'We need to be able to cater for them, and to entice them here. As an economic stimulus,' he says. Scottsdale was also one of the first Australian towns to be connected to the National Broadband Network.While the rollout was plagued with problems, and the initial take-up very low, a local IT business is seeing growing interest.Michael Brian Courtney moved to Scottsdale to access the NBN. 'There is actually two other web based businesses here. One does web design and one does app design for mobile phones. They both moved here because of the NBN.' Mr Jarvis says Scottsdales future is uncertain, but he says it must diversify its economy and take chances on ventures that will value add to local timber and farm produce. He advises other rural communities to keep control of local industry, and not sell out to corporations.And he cautions them against accepting conventional economic wisdom about what works best for country towns. The economic modelling for regional areas is wrong, says the mayor. Bigger is not best. I would never envisage going to a multinational; I don't like what they have done, don't like what they leave behind when they leave an area. I will always push for an employer that has got roots in the area; they have got a reason to invest in the area that is not purely about dollars. Weve got to take chances on value adding things that only need five employees, 10 employees, 20 employees. We don't need to employ in hundreds.