Campaign targeting new residents

Aco-ordinated regional project encouraging people to move to and fill jobs in a broad Grampians region including the Wimmera is underway through an online campaign.

Grampians Regional Tourism Board has joined forces with municipal councils bordering Grampians National Park as part of a ‘Live the Grampians Way’ promotion.

The project encourages Australians to ‘embrace a simplified lifestyle in regional Victoria’ while at the same time help address a pressing labour shortage.

Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman said the promotion was designed around an online Live the Grampians Way website called grampianslife.com.au.

He said the website, which provided an extensive directory of all that was on offer in partner municipalities Ararat Rural City, Horsham Rural City, Northern Grampians Shire and Southern Grampians Shire, invited people across Australia to register their interest to find out more.

“Live the Grampians Way provides a co-ordinated approach between both state and local governments and local industry to take advantage of the ‘likeability’ of the region to attract new residents, expand the local workforce, and investment in the community,” he said.

“The Grampians region has been experiencing record visitation numbers – reaching 1.1-million domestic overnight visitors in 2018 alone – and the area is also experiencing unprecedented development investment which is causing a major labour shortage across the region.

“With the expected development of Bulgana Green Power Hub, Ararat prison expansion, Western Highway duplication works, mineral-sands extraction and other key projects in the region, we are expecting more than 1000 new roles to be created over the next five years.

“As a result of the stunted population growth, employers in the area find it difficult to fill roles from the local population.”

Mr Sleeman said the project’s target Grampians Tourism region reached a population of 59,236 in 2018, growing by 1.56 percent between 2006 and 2016.

“Comparatively, the population of Victoria grew by 20.16 percent in the same decade,” he said.

“As a result, the Grampians region job market is experiencing a labour shortage and is well positioned to welcome Australians who are seeking new career paths.

“On average, job vacancies reach up to 150 existing roles across a variety of industries in the region each year, equating to more than 750 open roles.

“In particular, the top five most difficult jobs to fill include healthcare professionals, trade professionals, executives and senior managers, engineers and chefs.”

Family time

Mr Sleeman said 2020 had proved that employees no longer needed to live close to the office.

“Living regionally offers Australians the opportunity to regain time with family as a result of no longer making the excessive commute into the city,” he said.

“The Grampians area provides residents with space to breathe along with affordable and green living opportunities not found in metropolitan areas.

“Boasting affordable housing, spacious living, family-friendly communities, career opportunities, and a slower pace of life, the Grampians region is an idyllic location to put down roots.”

Mr Sleeman said a Regional Development Victoria survey revealed 15.5 percent of people who had ‘recently’ relocated to the Grampians identified a desire for a lifestyle change.

He said 15.5 percent were attracted by the region’s affordable housing and 37 percent mentioned that lifestyle benefits were what they enjoyed most about their new homes.

“Other notable advantages of living in the Grampians region mentioned by survey participants included location, such as proximity to natural attractions, less traffic, reduced commute times, community involvement, local people, weather, housing affordability and low crime rates,” he said.

The State Government’s Stronger Regional Communities Plan funding stream financed the Live the Grampians Way project.

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