YASS and it’s valley is one of the most competitive places in Australia, according to Australia Research Institute (ARI) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jack Archer.
“The area rates incredibly well and is in the top 20 per cent of Local Government Areas for innovation in labour market efficiencies, unemployment, and in jobs, among the top 10pc,” he said.
Mr Archer was addressing The Next Crop forum in Yass, the sixth in a series conducted by The Land.
The ARI conducts the Insight survey of every council in Australia, a competitive index of 65 indicators including infrastructure, economy, unemployment.
“We look at economies in regions – who’s growing, who’s not,” he said.
“I want to emphasise just how much opportunity there is here. When we look at this region we see change,but you should be confident that growth is locked-in, it’s going to happen.”
Mr Archers said the Barton Highway will be duplicated at some point, because growth was happening here.
“Importantly, if you manage things here really well you will retain who you are and you will welcome a whole lot of new people.”
But the challenge, according to Mr Archer, is not where the growth will come from, or will you be here in 50 years time.
“The challenge is how you manage that growth,” he said.
“You can create here because in the surrounding areas you have an incredible pool of talent, people who want to work.
“You have an amazing capacity of talented people, but how do you help them to be able to create something that builds on top of agriculture?”
Mr Archer said the Yass has created something really unique and exciting.
“What we now need is a productive conversation about what we want to create here and what we want to be like in the future, and the future prosperity is assured, so how do we make it the best place it can possibly be?
“It’s a real mix here. Youth population is high and old age population is just average, so you have a supply of people coming through and looking at this region.
“Target them and trap them.”
Jack’s roots go way back in Yass
Descendants of Regional Australia Institute Chief Executive Officer, Jack Archer, came to the Yass district in 1840 and family still live in the town and surrounding areas.
“I live just over the border of the Yass Valley shire in Uriarra at the moment,” he told the audience at The Next Crop forum in Yass.
“I’ve been coming to Yass during my whole life. My old man passed his drivers test on the hill outside the Soldier’s Club here.
Driving licence tests were quite different a couple of generations ago.
“The extent of the driving test then was the policeman took him around the corner, made him do a clutch-start, took him back to the police station and sent him off with his licence in hand.
“He hadn’t smashed things up, so it was a good decision.
“An ancestor with my same name turned up in the Yass district in 1840, so I’ve been coming here my whole life and still have family in town here and the surrounding areas,” he said.
