Regional centres and small town

Question 1

Hierarchy

Answer 1

World cities
National cities
Regional centres
Small town

Question 2

Changing role of the regional centre

Answer 2

• globalisation has facilitated the increasing dominance of ‘regions’ of the rural interior
• RCs have greater linkages with WC through trade
• diversified economic activity resulting in increased employment opportunity, increased range of goods and services offered to people in surrounding hinterlands
• prominent role in the local economy but also national processes and markets
• RC play a greater role in disseminating information, ideas, money and finance to people in rural areas

Question 3

contributing factors to growth of RCs

Answer 3

• decentralisation
• economic restructuring
• globalisation and space shrinking technologies
• small town demise
• more affordable land
• lifestyle preference
• natural hazards and dropping commodity prices

Question 4

contributing factors to growth of RCS ALL INFO

Answer 4

• Decentralisation: strategic development in existing urban or regional growth centres to stem the growth in congested business districts into areas with larger capacities for growth (facilitated by technology and transport)
• Economic restructuring: urban areas shifting from a manufacturing to a service sector economic base. Manufacturing is then shifted to periphery urban or regional centres
• Globalisation and space shrinking technologies: allows for faster travel times (to and from regional centres) and better long-distance communication
• Small town demise: allows regional centres to act as sponges soaking up population
• More affordable land: more affordable for individuals, families and businesses
• Government incentives: The Dept of Education, Skills & Employment offers grants to a participant of up to $6000 if relocating to a regional area with an extra $3000 if relocating with a dependent (i.e. relocation cost assistance, offering government jobs)
• Lifestyle preferences: focus on livability
• Natural hazards and dropping commodity prices: puts pressure on agricultural sectors in remote areas

Question 5

government initiatives

Answer 5

• Evocities: campaign designed around making regional cities more attractive (tourism, employment opportunities, education, lifestyle)
• Decentralisation of Government Services: department of Soil and Agriculture (Bathurst), NSW department of industry (Orange)
• Decentralisation of Tertiary educational services: This could include whole universities or arms of a big city campus, for example UNI in Armidale
• Regional Skills relocation grant: Could be $5000-7000

Question 6

link between growth of regional centres and decline of small towns

Answer 6

• Declining number of people in rural areas due to increased farm mechanisation, increasing farm sizes, droughts / fire
• As a result, loss of medical, financial and educational services which are instead being concentrated in regional centres
• Customers are drawn in to RC from surrounding districts, starting up a multiplier effect leading to the growth of the centre – they have become ‘sponge cities’
• ‘Small and remote towns especially started to lose services and people, whereas other appeared to actually soak up a population of the surrounding bush’
• Dubbo: has had a population increase of 56% in the last 20 years

Question 7

traditional role of the small town

Answer 7

• Country towns supported the rural hinterland comprised of small family farms
• Acted as services towns, supplying goods and professional services (legal, accounting)
• Provided primary production needs and transport services – they were a transport mode for primary produce (railway stations / silos)
• Shops, police station / courts, post offices were centred around the main street, with a pub

Question 8

what had led to the decline of the small town

Answer 8

• Improved transport technology: better roads allow for people to travel further in a shorter time and bypass the small town for the larger centre (bulk transport improvements - more good are able to travel greater distances in a shorter period of time)(refrigerated trucks allow perishable items to be moved long distances so every town no longer needs an abattoir)
• demise of the small family farm: increased investment required cannot be funded by families, termination in inheritance of the farm due to other career options on urban centres, larger farms allow for increased economies of scale, introduction of agribusiness
• shopping preferences: one stop shopping (more efficient, more variety, increased savings), improvements in transport
• declining rural populations as a result of: increased use of mechanisation replacing human labour, rural urban migration, young people see rural labour as unattractive, variety of jobs available in larger towns and centres

Question 9

summary

Answer 9

Populations in small towns decline – banks close – requirement of travelling to regional centres, and then end up shopping there – shops in small towns close – more people move to regional centres – small town becomes ghost town

Question 10

Example: growth of regional centres: DUBBO

Answer 10

• city in the Orana region of NSW, nearest city is Orange, located 300 km NW of sydney
• is a major road and rail freight hub to other parts of NSW
• considered a major shopping centre, featuring national stores
• features Taronga Western Plains zoo
• small town example = geurie

Question 11

Geurie = small town

Answer 11

Local government area of Dubbo regional council, 30km SE of Dubbo

Population of 755

• Businesses that once supported the hinterland have been closed due to the services centralising in the regional centre + improved transport infrastructure
• Shopfronts are either bordered up or vacant
• School closures
• Closures of other services such as the post office and the railway station (no longer regular services)