I WAS interviewed this week about recent changes to the local media landscape.
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It was a little unusual for me to be answering questions after spending much of my working life asking them, but it was a good opportunity to consider things from a different perspective.
One of the last questions I was asked was how did I think Bathurst had changed in the 14 years since I moved here with my family.
It was a good question and I was momentarily stumped about how best to answer it.
In the end, I said I thought Bathurst was now a more confident city than it was in 2005.
When I arrived here, Bathurst was still a city trying to find its identity beyond Mount Panorama and the Bathurst 1000.
As a city, Bathurst was almost apologetic for being the spiritual home of Australian motor racing and almost embarrassed that it was the race that people most readily associated with the city.
People living in Bathurst knew there was so much more to their home town but weren't sure how to spread that message to others.
Now, it doesn't seem so important.
Bathurst has been one of the fastest growing cities in regional NSW for a decade now and has a diversified economy that is envy of the rest of the state.
Bathurst is a smart city that is embracing the future while honouring the past. It is a city that dreams big and raps the rewards.
Most importantly, it is a city that no longer needs to measure itself against our neighbhours. Instead, our neighbours now measure themselves against Bathurst.
That's the Bathurst of 2019 - and it's a wonderful place to live.