Economy

It was a challenge South Coast business's rose to meet: greeting an onslaught of eager tourists over the June long weekend while adhering to strict COVID-19 social distancing protocols. According to the region's Crime Prevention Officer, Senior Constable David Bates from Batemans Bay, the business community has been largely successful in their efforts, despite record crowds over the weekend. "As...

TAFE NSW Bega has launched a fee-free Certificate 1 in Retail Services course for the local community as the first in a suite of fee-free bushfire recovery courses. TAFE NSW head teacher of supply chain Rae Spackman said staff who are properly trained in the "personal touch" will be a critical part of Bega's bushfire and COVID-19 retail revival, and...

Fluff your beanies, wax your skis and maybe get familiar with the term aprés-ski because Aspen might just be on our doorstep in a few short years. OK, not Aspen itself, but the Australian version of the high-flying ski resort in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains (hopefully) replete with trees adorned with fairy lights, cobbled streets lined with cool boutique stores, and...

Businesses on the NSW South Coast will welcome back tourists from 1 June 2020 after the NSW Government lifted restrictions on travel. Member for Gilmore Fiona Phillips said both tourists and locals need to continue exercising caution to avoid a rise in local COVID-19 infections. “Our community is still so vulnerable after the bushfires and what we don’t want to see...

In early March, on the long drive back to the Bega Valley from her seasonal job running an ecolodge on Christmas Island, which closed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Jess Bray wondered how she could find opportunities in what appeared to be a bleak future. "One thing I love when I'm in the Bega Valley area is going to the...

A suite of safety upgrades along Goulburn Road, as part of the NSW Government's Safer Roads Program, is helping to kickstart a COVID-19-crippled local economy through regional infrastructure projects. The 800m stretch of improvements will widen road shoulders and mark new lines to make it safer for motorists to travel between Goulburn and Crookwell, a town 40km northwest of the...

The recent summer bushfires combined with COVID-19 have wreaked havoc on businesses across Australia. In the Bega Valley and Eurobodalla regions, entrepreneurs and new businesses are being offered help to meet current challenges through free innovative accelerator programs offered by the Bega Valley Innovation Hub (BVIH). Business accelerators, such as the iAccelerate program run by BVIH, offer access to mentorship,...

Guy Hedley, the executive chairman of wealth management firm Atlas Advisors Australia, has called on the federal government to create two new subclasses of visas under the Business Innovation and Investment stream to encourage international investors to invest in regional Australian startups and provide a boost to local innovation and economies. The 188B Investment Visa currently exists to allow foreign investors to...

Easter is a popular time for family getaways and now the kids are (physically) out of school early, a trip to the beach may sound appealing, however, you are being asked not to come. The key message from the Prime Minister is to stop all non-essential travel, to halt the spread of COVID-19. In addition to that potential problem, regional areas...

If there was a rainbow for Snowy Valleys shire it would be paved with bitumen, adorned with yellow lines and lead all the way to Canberra. At either end lie pots of gold – one offers speedy access to the Snowy Mountains and south. The other offers a vital link to the massive economic trade and tourism opportunities of Canberra....

Even before fire consumed 10 out of 25 main street shops in the village of Mogo and numerous other businesses, the business community were developing the kind of camaraderie that would see them through the disaster - they just didn't know it. "We do have regular meetings but they aren't formal," chuckles chamber of commerce president Richard Adams "we usually...

Autumn events along the South Coast have taken on new importance this year after businesses lost essential holiday revenue during a long and destructive fire season. The South Coast needs you to show up and help get our local communities back on their feet - and they'll make it worth your while! From 6 to 8 March, EAT Merimbula, an...

'Bushfire affected' has become an all-inclusive term since fires broke out along the South Coast in December. Haven't we all been affected? Some of us have lost houses, pets or stock, our summer holiday, our innocence or large chunks of annual income. The local economy has certainly been slammed, with the retail sector taking the biggest hit. When the Merimbula...

Eurobodalla Shire Council is forging ahead with plans to develop a network of mountain bike trails in the Mogo area, with the burnt bushland caused by recent fires providing an unexpected perk for the project. Adventure trail company Dirt Art has been appointed to create the Adventure Trail Hub, which will benefit from improved visibility of the lay of the land, council’s director of...

A group of ACT businesses is calling on other local business owners to join them in supporting the recovery of the South Coast economy by giving staff a day off to head to the coast. Devastated by the recent bushfires, coastal towns are enduring the after effects of a disastrous tourism season, with many business owners struggling to make ends...

Braidwood business has borne the brunt of the summer bushfires. The town has always been just that little bit remote, but the closure of the Kings Highway was akin to cutting an artery for the rural economy. Prolonged drought had already put a dent in the local economy, along with a Telstra outage over the Braidwood Festival weekend. Then Braidwood...