The Northern Rivers lifestylepreneur movement Connectivity facilitating the rise of entrepreneurialism in Australia’s Northern Rivers region The Richmond-Tweed region Tweed Heads Hastings Point Woodenbong Murwillumbah Brunswick Heads The Northern Kyogle Byron Bay Rivers rise Richmond-Tweed Lismore Lennox Head There is something about the Northern Rivers Casino region that resonates with most Australians. Sure it Ballina contains a number of hippie havens such as Nimbin Wardell and even Byron Bay to some extent from the time of the Aquarius Festival of 1972. There is something about this area that evolved as a conservative agricultural region that attracted progressive Evans Head KPMG Special Advisor and recently retired thinkers and perhaps even big-city escapees Partner Bernard Salt founded KPMG from the 1980s onwards. Today federal and state electorates and even local government authorities Demographics, a specialist advisory centred on the Northern Rivers are regarded group that looks at social, cultural and by many as being among the most progressive demographic trends over time. parts of Australia outside the centre of Melbourne and Sydney. Bernard has worked as an advisor to In many respects this is indeed an extension of Something stirred in this region and to be fair in business and government for more than Perhaps it’s the climate. Perhaps it’s the scale of the Australian dream. By the middle of the 20th other parts of Australia as well in the early decades 25 years drawing on census and other the communities which range in size from Lismore (pop 16,000), to Ballina (17,000) and down to Byron century suburbia emerged as the place where of the 21st century when a new lifestyle movement datasets. Bay (10,000). But it is more than this. Byron Bay for Australians could own a house on a separate block started to emerge. Based on the concept of lifestyle He is a twice weekly columnist with The example shot to fame in the 1970s as a refuge for of land. By the end of the 20th century the concept a progressive-thinking cohort of Australians took of seachange had arrived and which transformed the concept of suburbia and seachange to a new Australian newspaper and he is one of the forward-thinking city-creative types. much of the eastern seaboard including the level. How about moving to a lifestyle location and most in-demand speakers on the Australian Paul Hogan and John Cornell and others have Northern Rivers coast between Cabarita Beach and telecommuting to a city job? Or better still, how corporate speaking circuit. called Byron Bay and the surrounding region home Ballina. But activity on the coast combined with about moving to a lifestyle location and starting at times. Direct flights to Sydney and now with an well-established administrative and service centres a small business? Be your own boss in a pretty Bernard holds a Master of Arts degree from upgraded Pacific Motorway connection to the Gold in inland cities like Lismore, Casino and Kyogle have and progressive lifestyle location like, say, Byron Monash University and since 2011 has been Coast and Brisbane give the strip between Kingscliff underpinned further growth across the region. Bay and especially as the region is well served by an adjunct professor at Curtin University and Brunswick Heads a level of accessibility that is established cities like Lismore. The very idea is likely Unlike the Gold Coast and even the Sunshine Coast Business School. ideal for weekend breaks. Plus, the fact that Byron to strike a chord with lifestyle-lovin’ independently- where extraordinary development is supported by Bay is the most easterly point on the Australian minded Aussies spilling out of Brisbane and Sydney, modestly scaled settlements inland, the Northern Bernard also holds a number of board continent also adds, I think, to the generally and elsewhere in search of opportunity. And with Rivers coast is different. There’s entrepreneurial positions in education and the arts. progressive air associated with this community. regions across Australia now more connected than energy and enterprise in forging and expanding It may sound odd but in some ways the Northern ever before, job growth and entrepreneurialism is inland settlements. But it all takes place within Rivers region leads Australia; after all, this region is no longer restricted to the major cities. Access to The Lifestylepreneur report was commissioned by first to see the Australian dawn. striking distance of established experienced new infrastructure such as the nbntm broadband nbn and developed by demographer Bernard Salt on administrative centres like Lismore which operates access network will enable Australians to take behalf of KPMG. The study examined business growth But then it isn’t just the coastal strip it’s the a bit like a de facto capital city. Southern Cross in regional Australia. Source of all statistics and trends greater control over where and when they work. hinterland as well. Towns like Mullumbimby, University is based in Lismore as is the region’s is Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Indeed some people have dubbed this new model Murwillumbah and Alstonville add to the allure of leading media facilities. the region as a place to visit, to own a weekender, to of living and working in lifestyle locations “the live. Indeed many see communities like Byron Bay The Northern Rivers region is more of a Australian lifestylepreneneur movement.” collaboration of communities where every town for example as the perfect place to start a business. Great idea, but does it work? Are Australians and every settlement has something unique to And to be fair is this not the ultimate Australian doing precisely this? Let’s see. And let’s see if the offer. Ballina is different to Byron which is different dream? To toss in the city job, to move to the coast Northern Rivers coast, supported by a framework of to Lismore which is different to Mullumbimby. And and to start a business. established inland cities, fits the bill as an Australian yet they all happily coexist in the same lifestyle lifestylepreneneur community. pot. Perhaps this is why entrepreneurs in search of lifestyle tend to find themselves somewhere, anywhere, within the Northern Rivers region. 2 © 2017 nbn co limited | ABN 86 136 533 741 © 2017 nbn co limited | ABN 86 136 533 741 3 Population components of areas in Richmond-Tweed Growth # 2006- Growth % Localities in Richmond - Tweed 2006 Population 2016 Population 2016 2006-2016 Tweed Heads - South 25,695 28,193 2,498 10% Tweed Heads 18,089 19,607 1,518 8% Ballina 16,594 17,441 847 5% Ballina Region 15,787 16,880 1,093 7% Lismore 16,287 16,248 -39 0% Lismore Region 14,811 15,824 1,013 7% The demographics Pottsville 10,348 13,904 3,556 34% Kingscliff - Fingal Head 9,754 13,282 3,528 36% Goonellabah 12,503 13,208 705 6% of Byron Casino 11,452 12,665 1,213 11% Murwillumbah Region 9,675 10,403 728 8% Byron Bay is both a town and a municipality One of the best ways to determine the extent positioned south of Tweed Heads and north of to which a community is open to the idea of Byron Bay 8,958 10,272 1,314 15% Ballina on Australia’s eastern edge. The township lifestylepreneurs is to measure the mix of public Murwillumbah 7,970 8,622 652 8% contains 10,000 permanent residents while the versus private sector employment. It is fair Brunswick Heads - Ocean Shores 7,820 8,619 799 10% local government area contains closer to 27,000. to say that entrepreneurs cluster. Towns and Lennox Head - Skennars Head 7,087 8,152 1,065 15% The council has resisted the kind of development regions underpinned by public sector workers Mullumbimby 7,823 8,100 277 4% that would support large scale population growth are hardly likely to support free-market inspired Kyogle 7,637 7,800 163 2% and so the township has added less than 2,000 lifestylepreneurs. This information is available from Casino Region 6,984 7,200 216 3% residents over the last decade. the census with 2016 Census data on this insight not Bangalow 5,345 6,110 765 14% due for release until October 2017. Evans Head 5,131 5,276 145 3% The broader region includes towns like Tweed Richmond – Tweed total 225,750 247,806 22,056 10% Heads (pop 48,000), Lismore (pop 16,000) and However the figures from 2011 are instructive. At Regional NSW total 2,486,529 2,721,566 235,037 9% Ballina (pop 17,000) as well as smaller communities a national level 15 per cent of the workforce is Australia total 20,450,966 24,128,876 3,677,910 18% like Murwillumbah (pop 9,000), Mullumbimby (pop employed in the public sector but in places like Source: ABS 3218 8,000) and Bangalow (pop 6,000). The total region the Singleton (farming/vineyards) region this contains 248,000 residents up 10 per cent over the proportion was seven per cent. Indeed of the 252 last decade. Byron itself isn’t growing significantly communities across regional NSW with more than Employment profile of the Richmond – Tweed region but the broader region provides opportunities to 1,000 residents Byron Bay ranks as the fourth most 20000 deliver services to an expanding community. entrepreneurial as measured by private sector employment (91 per cent of all jobs). Only Singleton, Other parts of regional New South Wales are 15000 Eden and Pokolbin ranked higher than Byron. growing faster such as the Hunter Valley which added 17 per cent to its population base over the By these measures Byron is well placed to be a 10000 decade to 2016, as well as the NSW South Coast lifestylepreneur town within a lifestyle region.