Abstract
What do a car race, apple blossom festival and an Elvis weekend have in common? The answer is that each of these events hook into three strategies to create tourism, profile and economic development in third-tier cities in the Central West of New South Wales in Australia. Such strategies combine entrepreneurialism, natural advantages in the landscape and luck. Urban environments, at their best, create a matrix between landscape, economic development and social behaviour. At their best, organic and productive relationships emerge between these variables, creating imaginative, dynamic and innovative patterns in daily life. The generic policies for the creative industries and city imaging provide the basic framework to consider the changing nature of urbanity. The problem is how to decode, translate and filter these agendas for very distinctive environments and outcomes.
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Notes
- 1.
Bathurst 1000, http://www.bathurst1000.com.au/.
- 2.
It is rare for workers to live in Sydney and commute to Bathurst. The distance is too great, the trains too slow and the flights too unreliable. Some academics at Charles Sturt University do manage this arrangement through working at home for some part of each week. But enacting a commute as exists between Luton and London or Eastbourne and London would not be possible.
- 3.
M. Winter, Facebook Post, January 17, 2013.
- 4.
C. Egan, Facebook Posts, January 17, 2014.
- 5.
For example, Mandurah memes, http://www.facebook.com/MandurahMemes?fref=ts and Rockingham memes, http://www.facebook.com/RockinghamMemes.
- 6.
“Rockingham makes the punch bogan top 10,” Perth Now, August 4, 2009, http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/rockingham-makes-the-punch-bogan-top-10/story-e6frg12c-1225757775604.
- 7.
N. Komninos, Intelligent Cities: Building 3rd Generation systems of innovation, http://uwforum.org/upload/board/intel-cities-overview-city-college-2008.pdf.
- 8.
ibid., p. 17.
- 9.
ibid., p. 23.
- 10.
ibid., p. 26.
- 11.
Filion et al. (2004).
- 12.
The importance of a university to second-tier cities was outlined by Walton-Roberts (2011).
- 13.
Mulholland (2006).
- 14.
Fullwood et al. (2013).
- 15.
Collinson and Cook (2003).
- 16.
Anderson (2006).
- 17.
Henry Lawson Festival, http://www.henrylawsonfestival.com.au.
- 18.
Banjo Patterson Festival, Slow Summer Orange, http://www.tasteorange.com.au/slowsummer.htm.
- 19.
For a discussion of tourism, authenticity, inauthenticity and postmodernism, refer to John Frow’s “Tourism and the semiotics of Nostalgia,” October, Vol. 51, 1991.
- 20.
The phrase ‘authentic inauthenticity,’ comes from Grossberg et al. (1988).
- 21.
Allon (2000).
- 22.
Richards and Palmer (2010).
- 23.
ibid.
- 24.
ibid., p. 2.
- 25.
ibid., p. 10.
- 26.
ibid., p. 270.
- 27.
- 28.
Baker (2007).
- 29.
B. Gelin, Facebook post, January 17, 2014.
- 30.
Evocities, New South Wales Government, http://www.evocities.com.au.
- 31.
“About evocities,” Evocities, New South Wales Government, http://www.evocities.com.au/about-evocities/.
- 32.
Isaksen and Karlsen (2012).
- 33.
Buch et al. (2013).
- 34.
ibid., p. 244.
- 35.
Fagerberg et al. (2005).
- 36.
Asheim et al. (2005).
- 37.
Evocities, http://www.evocities.com.au/.
- 38.
A profound and reflexive example of the role of (repetitive) crises in neoliberalism is in Mirowski (2013).
- 39.
A. McLeod, Facebook post, January 17, 2014.
- 40.
Reid et al. (2010).
- 41.
A fascinating book exploring the movement from these small towns to large urban environments is Corbett (2007).
- 42.
Evoinvest, http://evoinvest.com.au.
- 43.
Evoinvest, “Snapshots,” http://evoinvest.com.au/snapshots/.
- 44.
“Evocities data reveals jobs aplenty,” Northern Daily Leader, April 1, 2014 http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/2188990/evocities-data-reveals-regional-jobs-aplenty/.
- 45.
Smith and McKinlay (2009).
- 46.
I am not underestimating the value—culturally or socially—of GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) in regional areas. Indeed, a 2014 report demonstrated that $61 million is brought to the Evocities through 26 cultural institutions. Refer to J. Mazzochi, “Evocities bring $61 million to regions,” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-06/evocities-value/5651478.
- 47.
M. Huxley, Adding Value, Museums and Galleries of New South Wales, June 2014, http://mgnsw.org.au/media/uploads/files/Adding_Value_-_for_publication_1.pdf.
- 48.
ibid., p. 83.
- 49.
ibid., p. 76.
- 50.
Hawkins (1993).
- 51.
Saxenian (1996).
- 52.
ibid.
- 53.
Mommaas (2009).
- 54.
Glaeser and Kerr (2009).
- 55.
Ghani et al. (2011).
- 56.
Forrest and Dunn (2013).
- 57.
This situation is changing around the world, with refugees and migrants settling in rural and regional areas. Yet a fine article has emerged that shows the costs—and some advantages—of this strategy in Australia. The lack of community, infrastructure and socio-economic opportunities in regional Australia are systemic challenges that need to be addressed. Refer to Schech (2013).
- 58.
Baker, op. cit., p. 39.
- 59.
There is also a hidden cost when expanding the scale of roads. This is termed ‘induced travel.’ Robert Noland and Christopher Hanson described this phrase as “the observation that congested roads quickly gain new traffic after they have been expanded.” Refer to R. Noland and C. Hanson, “How does induced travel affect sustainable transportation policy?” from Renne and Fields (eds.), op. cit., p. 71.
- 60.
Jacobs (1995).
- 61.
Brabazon (2013).
- 62.
A fine example of the resources available to transform buildings and environments in second tier cities is the Hacienda in Manchester. A sail warehouse, it was transformed into one of the most famous nightclubs in the world and is currently the location for elite apartments. Refer to “Hacienda: the legendary nightclub,” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJqqmScn-Qg.
- 63.
Durham Regional Council, http://www.durham.ca.
- 64.
Evans (2005).
- 65.
ibid.
- 66.
Salman (2008).
- 67.
Supercheap Auto is a sponsor of the car race and created a national campaign wishing viewers a “Happy Bathurst Day,” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVg-Amb0ZpU.
- 68.
V8 Supercars, http://www.v8supercars.com.au.
- 69.
The Bathurst Facebook page is actually the Bathurst 1000 page, https://www.facebook.com/bathurst.
- 70.
Parkes Elvis Festival, http://parkeselvisfestival.com.au.
- 71.
“About the Dish,” CSIRO, http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Education/Programs/Parkes-Radio-Telescope/About-the-Dish.aspx.
- 72.
The Dish, 2000, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205873/.
- 73.
“Visit Parkes Telescope,” CSIRO, http://www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Education/Programs/Parkes-Radio-Telescope/VisitParkesTelescope.aspx.
- 74.
Blake (2009).
- 75.
Parkes Shire Council, http://www.parkes.nsw.gov.au.
- 76.
Middleton (2012).
- 77.
Florida (2008).
- 78.
ibid., p. 25.
- 79.
Florida (2010).
- 80.
Florida, Who’s your city?, op. cit., p. 305.
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Brabazon, T. (2015). When a Place Finds a Purpose. In: Unique Urbanity?. SpringerBriefs in Geography. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-269-2_5
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