2017-2018 Annual Report

2017 Annual 2018 Report Welcome Bega Valley Shire Council is proud to present our Annual Report for 2017-18. The Annual Report is a key point of accountability between Council and its community. It reports on progress made against the Council’s 2017-2018 commitments in the Delivery Program and Operational Plan, and describes how Council is supporting achievement of the Community Strategic Plan. Contents The report presents performance measure results for Council services, and summarises annual achievements across the key outcome areas. Our Community ............................ 4 In accordance with the Local Government Act, 1993 the Annual Report also includes required statutory information, and provides an overview of the Council’s financial position. Our Place ...................................... 8 More detailed information on the financial performance of the Council during 2017-2018 can be found in the Annual Financial Statements, a companion document to this report, which will be released early in 2019. Mayor's Message ....................... 10 Our Council .................................11 General Manager's Message ......13 Our Organisation ........................14 Our Community Our Year in Review .....................16 Achieving Our Plan......................23 Our Aboriginal Custodians Vision • Active and healthy communities 27 By working • Employment and learning The Bega Valley Shire Council acknowledges that Aboriginal people are the original inhabitants, 32 custodians and native titleholders of all land and water in the Shire. together, opportunities ............................. We recognise Aboriginal spiritual, social and cultural connections to these lands and waters and the Bega Valley Shire • Sustainable living .......................35 state our commitment to ensuring that Aboriginal rights, as enshrined in legislation, are upheld and not eroded. community • Liveable places ..........................40 integrates quality of life, • Connected communities ...........45 enterprising business, • Strong, consultative leadership . 49 sustainable development Statutory and other information 53 PO Box 492, Bega NSW 2550 P (02) 6499 2222 and conservation of the F (02) 6499 2200 E [email protected] environment. W begavalley.nsw.gov.au ABN 26 987 935 332 DX 4904 Bega Volunteers in our Community Council recognises and values the substantial and ongoing OUR contribution of volunteers in the life of our community. The people of the Bega Valley have a proud history of volunteering Become a and willingness to pitch in and help make the Shire a great place to live. Volunteering helps maintain a strong community, makes us volunteer, it is a COMMUNITY more cohesive and improves our social well-being. Here at Council there are over 350 volunteers engaged across great way to make a broad range of program areas. These volunteers generously provide their time, share their experience and their knowledge, a difference and and without them Council simply could not maintain the same level of services and facilities. support your local Council has a range of volunteering opportunities that suit most people. As a volunteer with Council you will be a part of a team community. that plans and delivers services and programs across the Shire. Our Community by numbers Bega Valley NSW Income and Expenditure $ We are ... the Median weekly household income 987 1,481 Median weekly mortgage repayments 312 456 Bega Valley Median weekly rent 256 384 Education % There are over 33,000 people that call the Bega Completed university qualification 15 23 Valley home. We have grown at a rate faster than Completed advanced diploma or diploma 8 9 predicted, and will grow by a further 5,500 (14%) Completed a trade qualification (certificate) 24 18 over the next 20 years. Completed year 12 24 52 Attending university 1.4 5 We are older in age than average, but we have Attending TAFE 1.4 2 high levels of independence, with more of us fully owning our own homes, and one in four of us actively volunteering. Employment % Less than a third of us are families with children. Workforce participation rate 50 60 Total employment 95 94 Currently fewer of us have Bachelor level education Full time work 53 59 than average, but more of us are completing year Part time work 45 33 12 and attending university than ever before. Unemployment 5 6 Around half of us work, predominantly in farming, manufacturing, health and social services, retail Forecast Population Change % 2016 % 2036 and tourism, and a significant proportion of us are Age 0 to 17 19 17 retired. Age 18 to 34 13 12 While we enjoy lower rent and mortgage costs Age 35 to 59 33 27 than average, our lower than average weekly Age 60 plus 35 43 income means affordability is just as important to us as our city counterparts. All figures based on 2016 Census data compiled by .id the population experts: profile.id.com.au/bega-valley 4 Bega Valley Shire Council - Annual Report 2017-18 Bega Valley Shire Council - Annual Report 2017-18 5 Our Traditional Custodians The Traditional Custodians of the Shire are the the sharp scarp of the Dividing Range east of communities of the Yuin-Monaro Nations. From Nimmitabel), Thaua (north of Merimbula south Bega Valley NSW ancient times they have been the inhabitants to Green Cape and west to the scarp of the Population and custodians of the land, sea and waterways. Dividing Range), Bidawahal (just south of Green Population 2017 34,095 The cultural geography of the south coast is in Cape) and Nulliker (Twofold Bay), Monaroo (on Estimated population 2036 38,138 the following terms, reverting to the coastal clans the escarpment country) groups comprised the Forecast population increase by 2036 11% are the Murring, or especially the Yuin clans. Yuin-Monaro Nations in the area now known as Median age 51 38 These claimed responsibility of country from the Bega Valley Shire. This was the case for many Persons per hectare 0.05 Cape Howe to the Shoalhaven River in NSW. They thousands of years. formed two large sub-groups or sub divisions, called respectively Guyangal and Kurial, from The groups of the Yuin communities living in How we live % the words guya, south and kuru, north, gal being coastal areas are known as Katungal (from the Couples with children 20 32 the possessive postfix. The inland extent of their work Katung) sea coast people and the Baianbal or Paienbara (the tomahawk people) those who One parent families 9 11 country included the fall from the coast range to Couples without children 32 24 the sea. lived in the forests. A third group, the Bemerigal Live alone 28 22 or mountain people at Cooma belonged to the Group household 2 4 Evidence is limited but the tabulation of marriages Ngarigo people. Other households 9 7 makes it quite clear that the far south coast formed a distinct region marked by the intensity of Sites throughout the Shire demonstrate occupation intermarriage while demonstrated that there were, by these rich cultures to be in excess of 7,000+ Diversity % nevertheless, links with Gippsland and the Monaro years. These people nurtured and organised an active culture many thousands of years older than Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 3.1 2.9 prior to colonisation as would be expected, since the creators of the great pyramids of Giza or the Overseas born 12 28 few if any groups lived completely isolated from medieval monuments of Stonehenge. Some of the Language at home other than English 3 25 their neighbours. oldest physical records of human occupation and The Tadjera-Munji-Djiringanj (from Cape activity to be found anywhere in the world are Health and Helping % Dromedary south to beyond Bega, inland to located here in the Bega Valley Shire. Volunteering 26 18 Need assistance with core activities 6 6 Transport & Technology % Public transport to work 0.7 16 Households with internet connection 74 78 Housing Number of dwellings 17,570 Average household size 2.2 2.6 Live in separate house (%) 80 65 Unoccupied dwellings (%) 17 9 Own home outright (%) 43 31 Households with a mortgage (%) 26 30 Households renting (%) 22 30 6 Bega Valley Shire Council - Annual Report 2017-18 Bega Valley Shire Council - Annual Report 2017-18 7 YOUR PLACE OUR PLACE OUR Our place by GREAT PLACE PLACE numbers The Bega Valley Shire has 1 Regional Art Gallery a growing economy, with over $1.5 billion annual 1 Regional Learning Centre Gross Regional Product, over $645 million in exports each 2 Ocean Pools year and nearly 3,000 local businesses. 3 Museums Our main industries are farming, commercial fishing, 4 Libraries and tourism along much of the coast. The key industrial precincts are in North Bega, 9 Skate parks Eden and South Pambula and main retail areas in the town 11 Boat ramps and jetties centres of Bega, Eden and Merimbula. 13 Swimming Pools We are a regional centre for schools and higher education 21 Community halls This is the institutions. There are currently 18 primary and four 25 ... Bega Valley high schools which include a Sports fields mixture of private and public facilities. The University 28 km cycleways The Bega Valley Shire is located at the south- of Wollongong operates a eastern corner of New South Wales, half way campus in Bega. In addition, 29 Estuaries between Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and vocational courses and trade skills are offered by the Bega Melbourne and three hours drive from the nation’s 30 Natural reserves capital, Canberra. TAFE Illawarra campus. Our coastal fringe extends from Wallaga Lake in the Our long stretches of coastline 43 Playgrounds north to Cape Howe and the Victorian border in are a tourism draw card. On average 880,000 people visit the south. Collectively this 225-kilometre section Tennis, netball, basketball courts forms the beautiful Sapphire Coast, the heart of the Bega Valley Shire spending 54 Australia’s Coastal Wilderness.

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