RIDING THE COVID CATCH PHRASES THROUGH TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Josie Howard
The Dubbo Region is home to a vibrant and diverse economy that does not rely on one industry sector alone for profitability and survival . Dubbo is home to major manufacturing , construction , significant tourism and is the major service centre to a population spanning over one third of NSW geographically . Despite this strong economic platform , the Dubbo Region and the wider area that it services prior to the onslaught of COVID-19 had already been brutalised by drought for years leading into the global pandemic .
This significant drought event impacted business spending , consumer spending , tourism and regional reputation . As the three years of epic drought finally made the metro media in the form of huge waves of dust engulfing Dubbo , the negative economic impacts of this environment disaster were rippling across the multiple industries of the Dubbo Region . Drought had , at one point , been a point of interest for travelling tourists , wanting to see the landscapes and help hard hit communities by spending their tourism dollars in local coffee shops , on local produce and enjoying local tourism experiences . That level of intrigue for tourists ceased pretty quickly when the huge all-encompassing , black out dust storms started across western NSW and begun flooding the national media . Tourists and locals alike could taste the dust in the air every day and there was a countdown to ‘ day zero ’, the day Dubbo ’ s main water source runs dry . That is an uncomfortable sell for tourism and showed just how significant the impact was on incomes for farming businesses surrounding the Dubbo Region . Those watching the business and economic trends and data started to see the significant economic decline as the Dubbo Region braced itself for 2020 .
In January 2020 , according to ABC Western Plains the NSW Department of Primary Industries declared 100 % of NSW was in drought ( Thackray , L 2020 ). Dubbo businesses and the community were standing on the cusp of that wave of dust , watching the east coast of Australia burn with bushfires , but then hope started to fall from the sky , literally . Significant rain fell in February and a collective sigh of relief and joy spread through the whole region . 2020 started to look like the year that we as a community and service centre would rebuild , get some nutrients back into the earth and some dollars back in the much depleted reserves . Then a plane from Wuhan landed in Melbourne on January 19
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL VOL 14 NO 2 2021 27