Regional cities case studies come to Goulburn and Orange

Every region in Australia has the potential for future success. However, the connection between the competitive advantage of a region and actual growth experience remains complex, and is often poorly understood.

In early November, the Regional Australia Institute launched a project to understand how competitive advantage and growth can become more closely aligned. ‘Prosperous futures: understanding the potential of Australia’s regional cities’ is designed to better inform future local action and government policies for sustainable, long-term growth in the regions.

To understand this relationship better, the Regional Australia Institute is developing a series of case studies of successful regional cities, starting with Goulburn and Orange in New South Wales.

These two centres rank highly in [In]Sight: Australia’s regional competitiveness index and share several competitive advantages, including growing populations of more than 20,000 and close proximity to metropolitan hubs. However, while the two centres have strong competitive advantages, their economic profiles – and future pathways for growth – are very different.

This study seeks to understand the role that leadership, entrepreneurialism, external markets and the flows of people and capital in and out of areas have on regional success. To put it simply, we are looking to understand the story behind the numbers: the things that are pivotal to the city’s growth trajectory but often not captured by data.

In each case study location, a series of 10-12 semi-structured interviews will take place with representatives across the business, health, education and community sectors. This will allow local perspectives to be gathered to complement numbers analysis. The findings of this research will be available in early 2014.

The project will enable a clear articulation of the economic and non-economic factors which influence the potential of a regional city to succeed and prosper. The use of case studies presents a ‘real world’ picture of how regional cities can harness a variety of social, economic and environmental attributes to their long-term advantage.

‘Prosperous futures: understanding the potential of Australia’s regional cities’ is being led by visiting researcher from the Victorian state government, Fiona McKenzie. The project is a joint initiative of the Victorian state government and the Regional Australia Institute.

Click here to download a copy of the ‘Prosperous futures: understanding the potential of Australia’s regional cities’ fact sheet.