Parkes has turned itself into a tourism powerhouse using only the most basic materials - a tenuous connection to Elvis and an idea for a festival at the hottest time of the year - and must surely have tips it can provide to every community that would like to do the same.

Mudgee seems to be managing (so far) the tricky balancing act of being both a Sydneysiders' weekend playground and a functioning country town.

Millthorpe has reinvented itself as a destination. Dubbo has done well to maintain a sense of life in its CBD despite the effects of the monolithic Orana Mall.

And Orange? Bathurst's great sporting rival has developed a knack for building infrastructure before it's needed rather than after - which is a handy trick if you can manage it.

It's not just the Orange stormwater harvesting scheme - which our neighbour had in place well before the most recent severe drought that took many communities to the limit.

In the past 10 years or so, Orange has also built a northern bypass and has begun the long, laborious process of constructing the Southern Feeder Road (which will help take traffic to the hospital precinct).

The Northern Distributor seemed, from a Bathurst distance, a bit ambitious when it opened in 2012, yet it now services a number of housing developments and has a major supermarket and fast food restaurant beside it.

Orange's latest move to get a piece of the puzzle in place early is the council's decision to commit $4.5 million for a multi-storey car park in the CBD and to start the process of choosing a location.

This is likely to be of some interest in Bathurst, where a multi-level car park has been discussed for many years but has never really progressed - though it looks as close as ever due to talk of a development behind the Bathurst RSL Club.

Infrastructure building, like comedy, is all about timing - about building for the city to grow into rather than to alleviate a pressure that is already there. Too early and you'll risk your big project growing cobwebs; too late, though, and you'll only be playing catch up.

Are we getting that timing right in Bathurst? Only time will tell.