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9 February 2004 Interview
Transcript Topic: Launching 'Back to the Bush' promotion Bedford: Today we're looking at a new initiative, it's brand new, it's a first, it's the inaugural, hopefully it will become an annual event. And what is it you ask? Well it's all about getting people back to the bush. We want to hear from you about what are the benefits of where you live. Maybe if you've never lived in Melbourne, you don't really appreciate what you've got. I tell you what... for me one of the big things is being able to park out the front of my house. I lived in inner Melbourne for a time - it drives you crazy just getting a car park. We'll take your calls and we'll explain how you can be a part of this initiative to get people back to the bush - that is coming up next. Music break Something very special for you today - the launch of a new project where you get to share in the fun. Well actually what we want you to do is to make it happen for us. You have to do the work... but it is going to be fun OK. So right now, we're launching a new project called Back to the Bush. We've all heard about school reunions and back tos in small country towns, well this is going to be much bigger than that. What we want to do is get all of country Victoria involved in one huge back to celebration on the long weekend in March which is pretty much exactly four weeks away. So you've got four weeks to get organised. To tell us how we can be a part of this and how it all came about we welcome Darren Chester, who is the Executive Officer of Champions of the Bush. Hello Darren. Chester: Good morning Kathy. Bedford: Darren, it's a great idea, how did you think of it. Chester: I think there's a few things that led to the project. It really started last year with one of the main inspirations - the marketing campaign that the State Government initiated. While it's great to have these government-run campaigns we believe there's a need to take the next step and get country people directly involved. People who live in the country already know that life's much better in the country and we need to tell all of our mates in the city to come down, see what we are all about. Help us spread the word that there's some wonderful lifestyle opportunities to be enjoyed in country Victoria and word of mouth advertising is so very strong. We need to get as many people as possible participating in the project - just invite your mates down, invite your family members down... and I think we'll have a great time. Bedford: We'll talk more about how we can do that but Darren, have you ever lived in the Big Nana as I like to call it... have you ever lived in Melbourne? Chester: I had the pleasure of living in Melbourne for a couple of years - I lived in Brisbane for a couple of years as well and then I like to say that I saw the light! I think we've got to be proud of our country communities and I know sometimes when I'm leaving the city I feel a little bit arrogant because I'm heading down the highway and I'm actually getting out of there. I'm heading down to the country and I'm going to have my great lifestyle back again. We've got a lot of reason to be proud of our country communities and that's what we're all about at Champions of the Bush. Pushing all the positives about country life. Bedford: We want to take some calls this morning about what you think are the keys... what the best things about living in country Victoria... living outside of Melbourne. Anywhere outside of Melbourne we consider country. Give us a call if you can explain to us what it is that you would show someone if you brought them back to the bush. 1300 303 468. So Darren, what do we actually want people to do? Chester: We want them to get on the phone or to send an invitation out to there family members or friends they haven't seen for a while. Just give them a call and say 'look, thereÕs some great things happening out in country Victoria this weekend, why don't you come down and enjoy it with us - we'll show you a good time'. If you look right throughout the Labour Day weekend, right around country Victoria, there's some fantastic things already happening. You've got things like your own Ballarat Begonia Festival, I believe thatÕs on that weekend; Port Fairy Folk Festival, that's just grown into a huge time; there's some great rowing events happening at Nagambie, starting with the Australian Championships; the Marlay Point Overnight Yacht Race down where I live on the Gippsland Lakes. There's things going on everywhere - and that's on top of all the other great attractions that we normally have: our wineries, our restaurants and the national parks. If we can get more city people out into the regions on this weekend in particular, we'll help to make all those events much more successful. In some ways I suppose weÕre laying down a bit of a challenge to country people - to do something to help themselves, we can all make a difference, we all need to be more positive, we all need to be better salespeople. Let's be really strong salespeople and help to promote all the great things that are happening out in country Victoria. Bedford: Darren - we all know the benefits of living in country Victoria, why do we need to share it and invite other people - maybe we just want to keep it for ourselves. Chester: Yes, we can look at it like that but we all know that there's some issues with city people - they're often involved in making decisions which affect country people so it helps if we've got a good level of understanding to begin with. If they've got some level of understanding about what actually goes on out in the country. There's a bit of a hidden agenda there for us - we bring more city people out and let them know what we're on about and what's happening out in our areas. The other thing is we want their money. Let's be honest. Bedford: I love it! That's what it's all about. Chester: This is not all altruism on our behalf. Kathy. That's another hidden agenda we've got going. We want them to come out here - they'll have to eat, they'll have to visit some of our attractions, they'll do a bit of shopping, they'll go to the markets, the pubs, the clubs - if you put them up in your lounge room and they get a cheap night's accommodation they've still got to spend some money in the rest of the town. Make sure you take them out to places where they can have a good time and invest in our country communities. At the very least they'll need a tank of petrol to get home. Bedford: Absolutely - we want to take some calls - what do you think are the best things about living outside of Melbourne. If you do invite someone back, what do you want them to experience. Ted has given us a call in the north-east. Talkback caller: Chance to slow down - offer peace, quiet, solitude - all the things you can't find in overcrowded cities. City people should come quietly - don't bring the rush of the city with them, experience the difference. Bedford: I like that - come quietly. Darren, we don't want them bringing the city to the country. Chester: Ted's got a great deal of wisdom there hasn't he? It's fantastic when you think about the opportunity we do offer is to get that break. There's all this talk at the moment about trying to find a balance between your family life and your work life - what we can offer in country communities is certainly a better balance. I know from my perspective, the opportunity to work closer to home, not have that big commute in city traffic - one of the great attractions is you can see the stars at night. These sound like silly things I suppose and we take them for granted but in the city you can't get to see some of these things. Bedford: So we could use that as a selling point - come back to the bush and see the stars. Chester: Exactly, come and see the bright lights and they are all in the sky, not on city streets! Bedford: Aahh, you're good! Chester: The opportunity to live closer to nature, to be part of friendlier, safer communities... you're quite right about when the city moves out to the country though, sometimes they bring all the city with them. I had a funny story recently in Lakes Entrance - I was doing a bit of prawning which we all do down our way. There was 75 people walking around in about a 100 metre stretch of water. Normally there's about one person every two kilometres... it was like Burke Street had moved to Lakes Entrance... but they've all gone back to the city now. Bedford: Yes, that's true, now I wonder if there are many Melburnians, many city folk who have never been outside of the city. I wonder if any research has been done on that Darren? Chester: I think there would have to be. Although there has been some research done by Tourism Victoria which says that one of the main reasons - one of the motivating reasons - why people come to country areas is to visit family and friends. It depends which region you live in but it varies between 20 and 30 per cent of people who are out there touring around have actually come out to see their families and friends. It's already happening to some extent but we want this to be a really big weekend where we make the Labour Day long weekend the Back to the Bush weekend and a chance to really celebrate life in regional Victoria. Celebrate all the things that make it special living out in our regional communities. Bedford: Is it likely to become an annual event? Chester: That's our dream - that's our dream that we're starting something this year that's going to become huge for country communities. We're hoping that this will continue every year - that it will grow into a weekend that really showcases life throughout regional Victoria. Hopefully in the end, we'd like to see a Back to the Bush run in every state - it may be something that other state organisations can pick up and find a weekend in their calendar that suits to extend the value of the project right throughout regional Australia. Tourism in particular is such a big event for regional communities and this is something we can all do to help promote our communities. It really is a matter of every individual taking action - taking a step - taking the initiative themselves - rather than relying on someone else doing it or a government doing it. This is something we can do ourselves without involving necessarily a huge amount of government effort. Bedford: Does it need major coordination Darren - is it just something you will leave up to individual communities. Are you going to have some sort of a link up to see whatÕs going on in every community? Chester: We are in the process of getting a website set up - we would have had it up actually today - but technical difficulties, you know what they are like Kathy. We're actually going to have a website up by the end of the week which will be www.backtothebush.com.au. That will have a list of all the great events that are happening throughout regional Victoria. But generally speaking, the events are already happening and our role in all of this is just to talk up the opportunities for country people; to travel right throughout regional Victoria. We're going to be writing to all of the local Mayors and the local Members of Parliament, urging them to get behind this project. Also let us know whatÕs happening in their communities and we'll talk about them and just encourage more and more people to get involved. Something like this could create a real groundswell. I know the ABC is keen to get involved - to get people to ring in and tell us their story. It should be great fun. Bedford: We will, we're going to be actively involved with this Darren. People can email us if they are planning a back to celebration for the Labor Day long weekend. Email us at morningsvictoria@your.abc.net.au. We'd love to tell some stories - who you are inviting back and why. We'd love to take some calls this morning, who would you like to invite back and why - and what are the things that you want to show people that are good about living in the country. 1300 303 468. Darren, you stay with me, you mentioned that there are some major events on that weekend. One of those is occurring in the Strathbogie Shire Council in the north-east of the State. Julie Blight is with us, she's the event coordinator. Julie Blight: Details on Nagambie Rowing Club events and other activities in Strathbogie Shire. Open invitation to people to visit the region. Bedford: Darren, as you said, I think the Port Fairy Folk Festival is on that weekend too? Chester: That's on right across the weekend - it's very hard to get tickets to apparently. The demand for that event has grown and grown over the years. Bedford: Do we have to tie this to events though - or it can be any community, even if they haven't got a major festival on, they can use this weekend to invite people back? Chester: As Julie mentioned, the local Councils are already doing a fair bit of work with their tourism and what we're saying is this is something we can do as individuals, to do some of the legwork. You don't need to have a major event on to show your friends a good time. If you get out to some of these regional communities and take your friends around to see the wineries, enjoy the great restaurants, the great cafes - it used to be in years gone by people would say you can't get a great coffee in regional Victoria - those days are long gone. We've got a lot to be proud of in country communities. Just get your friends out and show them a good time. I think you will be surprised how much they enjoy getting out to a country area - just feeling that lifestyle change, feeling that pace that Ted referred to earlier - I think you will be surprised how much your friends will enjoy it. The trouble you might have - you might not be able to get rid of them! Bedford: True. And I tell you what Darren, if there's people whose whole life revolves around just getting a good coffee - they're obviously missing a lot of the great things we have in the country. Come out and see how much more there is to life than just good coffee. Chester: Exactly - and one thing we haven't quite touched on is the other point we often talk about is - attracting skilled workers back to country areas. It's something that we need to do because we've got shortages in areas like health and education. If you've got a friend who's a doctor or a teacher, or an engineer or a town planner, I know there's a shortage of workers in some of those industries throughout country Victoria. So if you've got a friend in something like those industries, don't be afraid to send off an invitation to them to come down. We might be surprised, we might actually recruit a few people out of this. Bedford: We're talking to Darren Chester from Champions of the Bush. It's his idea but we're jumping right behind it because we think it's fantastic - it's the Back to the Bush weekend. Darren, you say the idea came originally from the State Government's Make it Happen in Provincial Victoria campaign, your taking it further, have you had much support from government. Chester: We've had a great deal of support from the State Government, they've come on board to help us out with our advertising - which is fantastic. The members of Champions of the Bush - some of our companies like PFD, Bendigo Bank, Brown Brothers, Patties Bakery, Tesltra CountryWide, Rivergum Marketing in Bendigo. So we've had the corporate support, we've had the government support and that's just going to help us with an advertising campaign to let people know. We want to ask people the question: who are you going to invite back to the bush? That's what a lot of our marketing is going to based on. Asking people, who are you going to invite back to the bush. Just to encourage them to think about it, how they can actually act locally to do something about this particular promotion. So we've had some great support already, now it's over to the community to get behind it and really make it a great success for regional Victoria. Bedford: John Brumby is with us now - he is the Minister for Regional Development - good morning Mr Brumby. Brumby: Good morning Kathy. Bedford: What do you think about this idea of a Back to the Bush weekend? Brumby: We think it's a terrific idea. As you've just heard Darren say it builds really beautifully on the Make it Happen in Provincial Victoria campaign. That started of course last year, still continuing, and that's been a fantastic success. This builds on it and we've provided Champions of the Bush with a small grant - $40,000 - to assist with the promotion, the organisation and support for this program.It is a good idea and Darren's been kind enough to compliment our Make it Happen in Provincial Victoria campaign and I'm happy enough to return to the compliment. This is an initiative which I think fits neatly and builds neatly on the Make it Happen campaign. Bedford: What's the response been like to the Make it Happen campaign? Brumby: It's been sensational. It's been much stronger than we anticipated. We've had something now close to 300,000 hits on the Make it Happen website. So these are people Kathy, who may have seen the advertisement in newspapers; heard it on radio; or may have seen it on TV - and they've actually bothered to go to the computer, to the internet, and to look up and to seek more information. In addition of course, we've had literally hundreds of what I would describe as fair dinkum calls to local Councils in centres right across the state from people going the next step. Ringing up and saying I'm a serious possibility - I might be a small business, I'm thinking about relocating in Bendigo or Mildura or Swan Hill - what can we talk about. What sort of options can we look at. So we think it's been very successful and we'd like to see it continue in the future. Bedford: Well as we said, this might be a way of getting people to come and have a small taste. Now correct me if I'm wrong John Brumby - I think you're a city boy - am I right? Brumby: I can claim a fair bit of country in me. I was born in Melbourne but of course I've got parents in Coleraine in western Victoria, who've been down there for the best part of 40 years and I spent 20 years in Bendigo. I think I've probably spent probably 50-50, country and city. Bedford: So do you think you understand the benefits of a regional lifestyle? Brumby: Oh yes - I think if you look back at my form in politics, federal or state, over the last 20 years, I've been very consistent in promoting regional lifestyles and the benefit of it. Rosemary and I had our three kids in Bendigo - each of them born at Castlemaine Hospital and we understand that very well indeed. I guess the upside of this is - getting people back just for this long weekend - and I heard you talk about some of the events that are on - you've got great events right across country Victoria. Port Fairy Folk Festival, the Mansfield High Country Harvest Festival, you've got the Edenhope Festival, the Portland Dahlia Festival, the Moe Jazz Festival, Alpine Valleys Wine and Food Festival, Wandong Country Music Festival and I've probably insulted some communities out there because I've left some out. Bedford: You'd better throw in the Begonia festival. Brumby: So we've got all of those over that Labour Day weekend and there's plenty to do. I've got to say last Labour Day I did the Grand Prix on Friday and Saturday and then flew to Mildura for the Slow Food Festival which was on there on the Sunday and Monday. So right across the state there are fantastic events happening in country Victoria and it's a great time for people to get back there and that's why this is a great campaign. Bedford: John Brumby when we have these discussions we always get the comment that it's all very well to promote what we know is terrific but we don't have the infrastructure, we don't have the support. We don't want all these people coming to the country where we are under enough pressure for things like water. Brumby: You're always going to be looking at better ways to conserve things like water but to be fair to the Bracks Government, we've made this very much the centrepiece of what we've been about as a government. We've invested very heavily in infrastructure and whether its water - there are probably half a dozen major water projects going on around the state at the moment, with money allocated for things like improving the use of irrigation water and pipeline schemes. We've got the fast rail links to the regions; we've got major road investment for example in the Calder Highway; we've got probably the biggest rebuilding of our schools, hospitals and nursing homes that the state's seen in 30-35 years. We are putting back into infrastructure and I think the reality is that there's considerable scope for population growth in many parts of country Victoria providing of course we continue to increase infrastructure investment and that's exactly what we are doing. Bedford: Well I think it's terrific that the State Government is getting behind this project - where are you going to go back to the bush John Brumby - are you going to head up to Coleraine? Brumby: I haven't worked my weekend out yet but I do need to always do at least a day or two at the Grand Prix in Melbourne. We have literally thousands of senior international visitors who come from right around the world for that event and so I have to work those days. No, I haven't decided what I will do on the Sunday or the Monday yet but there's certainly a lot of opportunities out there. Bedford: Thankyou very much for joining us this morning. Brumby: Thanks Kathy. Bedford: John Brumby the Minister for Regional Development. Gee Darren Chester, you've done well to get some money out of the State Government, this must be a good idea. Chester: Look it's great to have the Minister's support. I really hope the Minister doesn't get too lonely at the Grand Prix because all of the crowds are going to be out in regional Victoria. Bedford: (Laughing) We'll take some calls - 1300 303 468 - we want to know what do you think is the best thing about living in the country. What would it be that you would show a city person if you brought them back. Talkback caller: Jenny in Welshpool - moved to South Gippsland from Melbourne; great activities for children; good services for families; and youth support. Bedford: Darren Chester, Executive Officer of Champions of the Bush, as we launch the Back to the Bush weekend - Darren what we'll do across the next four weeks - hopefully we'll get a lot of the stories and we'll run them across the radio. What do we basically want people to do? Chester: We want people to think about someone they haven't seen for a while. Maybe an old school mate or a bridesmaid from their wedding party or someone like that. Just have a think about someone they'd like to catch up with and then make it happen on this weekend. I'm confident that country people will like the idea; we'll be able to motivate people to get involved. It's all good fun, we don't need much of an excuse to have a party in the bush - so just get on the phone or send a letter of to one of your mates - get them down for that weekend and just show them a really good time. Bedford: And you'll be contacting local councils as well? Chester: We're writing to all the local Mayors, we're sending out posters to them, we're encouraging them to put them up right throughout regional Victoria to encourage people to log onto the website and find out more information - once of course the website's up Kathy. It's a really great chance just to show off these opportunities that we've got in country areas. I know we've touched on some of the issues - there's going to service issues and infrastructure issues that we can talk about on the other 51 weekends of the year. This weekend is going to be one for having a great time and just celebrating all the great things about regional life. Bedford: Four weeks to go... we're counting down... and we'll follow this journey with you Darren and you can give us updates and hopefully we'll tell a lot of the stories. Thankyou for launching it on our program this morning. Chester: All the best Kathy and thanks for your support. Bedford:
Darren Chester with Champions of the Bush - the Back to the Bush
weekend. You can email us if you've got a story or someone you'd like
to invite: morningsvictoria@your.abc.net.au. And we'll bring you more
details on that Back to the Bush website once it's up. The Labour Day
weekend, it's four weeks away.
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