LAST week’s column on the consideration or otherwise of the need to establish a Committee for Bendigo drew a strong response from readers, and while not all our feedback was positive, it was all welcome.
Confirmation the board of Coliban Water has discussed the need for an advocacy group here in Bendigo was perhaps the most welcome response of the many the Bendigo Weekly received.
There can be no doubting that if Bendigo does nothing to help itself, it will be left behind as Ballarat and Geelong take significant steps towards a better future for their respective communities.
Bendigo and the region we are part of, has a long and proud history of producing some of the great ideas, inventions and initiatives over the past 160 years.
Failing to now harness the positive energy and passion that exists within our city for our city would be a colossal failure. It would also signal a collective ignorance of our responsibilities to planning and providing for the future.
There’s a lot to like about many aspects of organisations such as the committees for Ballarat and Geelong and what they strive to achieve for their respective communities, but Bendigo has the chance to take all that is good about these existing bodies and then add a Bendigo flavour to improve in areas where these other groups may struggle.
Bendigo is in a pretty good place at the moment. After a decade of drought our water storages are full, our education facilities have never been better, we have fantastic rail and road connections to Melbourne, we are about to get a brand new $630 million hospital, and investment in the region is indicative of a strong and resilient economy.
Our population is booming at a rate most regional communities can only envy, but with that comes any number of challenges and indeed opportunities.
Bendigo is also well served by a large number of existing trader groups, industry bodies, community organisations and individuals but still lacks that one over-arching group or body capable of ably representing us all outside of Bendigo and to the rest of the world.
Bendigo has nothing to lose through creating such a group, but it has a lot to gain. That’s why Coliban Water should be congratulated for its vision and support for Bendigo.
And that’s why this week, we throw down the gauntlet to other leading businesses, organisations and individuals in our great city to consider their support, both for the initiative, and for Bendigo.
pk@bendigoweekly.com.au
