BATHURST’S galloping growth has been noticed at the highest level.
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While residents have been aware for some time of Bathurst’s rapid expansion, federal Treasury Department secretary John Fraser showed recently that he had also taken note.
And he says infrastructure needs to be built to support such growing regional cities.
Mr Fraser’s reference to Bathurst came in a speech to the Citi company’s investment conference in Sydney last week in which he talked about house prices in Melbourne and Sydney and how they were leading to a shift to large country centres.
“I must say that on my travels, both personally and officially, I am getting the feel that a lot of people, and the data’s very skinny on this, are now starting to react to higher house prices on the east coast by relocating either to other capital cities or to regional centres,” he said.
“You’ve just got to look at the growth in population in areas like Bathurst, Geelong, Dubbo and Ballarat.
“That’s a natural market movement and if people are going to move to those areas we need to ensure the infrastructure is there to support them.”
The NSW Department of Planning and Environment predicts Bathurst will be the fourth-fastest growing regional local government area over the next 20 years as another 12,000 people move to the area.
The only regional local government areas that are predicted to grow more quickly than Bathurst are Queanbeyan-Palerang, Maitland and Yass, which are all within commuting distance to major cities.
Bathurst is predicted to grow to 55,250 people in 2036.
The city added 787 residents last year to take the population to 43,080 people.