Shortages stymie South East growth
Economic and population growth in the Limestone Coast is being held back by a lack of workers and a shortage of accommodation to house them, sparking calls for incentives to build more housing in the region.
In the second instalment of InDaily's Regions in Focus series, we shift our focus from Whyalla to the Limestone Coast region, which stretches from Keith down to the Victorian border in the South East corner of the state. The region takes in a number of towns including Naracoorte, Millicent, Mount Gambier, Bordertown, Kingston and Robe.
While a booming agricultural sector and strong demand for forestry products during the coronavirus pandemic has helped keep the economy ticking over in recent years, migration restrictions, a shortage of workers and its proximity to the Victorian border has caused headaches.
With a regional population of about 67,000, dominated by Mount Gambier with almost 30,000 residents, the South East is growing by about 200-300 people a year.
The majority of this population growth is happening in Mount Gambier, the state’s second largest city.
Although Mount Gambier’s growth is less than one per cent, it is one of the only regional centres more than 100km from Adelaide that is consistently adding more than 100 residents each year.
Mount Gambier regional map
Mount Gambier regional map
Regional Development Australia Limestone Coast chief executive David Wheaton said young people leaving the region, an ageing population and economic growth not being matched by growth in the working age population had all contributed to a skills shortage.
“You’ve got young people leaving for education, training and job opportunities and heading to the city for university courses and those sorts of things that we don’t have the same breadth of offerings here in the region,” he told InDaily.
“Then you’ve got your Baby Boomers heading off into retirement so there’s a real squeeze on the working age population and it just makes it really hard for the employers to find the skilled workers we need.
“Employers have been experiencing skills shortages across a really broad range of occupations for quite some time and when you add COVID into that mix it’s just been a real challenge.”
According to the ABS, the South East labour region, which includes the Limestone Coast, had an unemployment rate in October of just 1.8 per cent – well below the 4 per cent figure considered to be “full employment”.
However, the region’s participation rate – the percentage of people either in work or looking for it – was just 55.5 per cent compared with a state participation rate of 62.8 per cent.
A report commissioned by Adelaide-based agency Migration Solutions and released last month found that Internet Vacancy Index data suggested there were about 12,000 job vacancies in South Australia, with the horticulture industry among sectors suffering the most from labour shortages.
A case study in the BDO EconSearch report found that filling 100 horticulture vacancies in the South East with demand-driven migrants would generate approximately 162 fte jobs and $20.2 million of gross state product in the South Australian economy through flow-on effects.
Regional Development South Australia released a blueprint in October to present strategies to grow the state’s seven regional districts.
It found that the Limestone Coast had suffered a 4.7 per cent hit to its gross regional product (GRP) during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had led to a 2.4 per cent decrease in employment.
Wheaton said the region’s proximity to Victoria and the pandemic’s impact on cross-border communities had added an additional layer of complexity.
“It’s been a real struggle for business and business confidence because there’s just that unpredictability and that regular change of border requirements.
“We’ve had the border bubble for several months, which has been really helpful but then something changes and that gets reassessed and everyone has to go through that change again.
“There are certainly mixed feelings about the opening of the border and what it’s going to be like to live with COVID but the Limestone Coast is very enmeshed into the Green Triangle regions and into Victoria.
“That’s all integrated into our economy and while there’s a line on the map that separates them into different states, the economy down here doesn’t recognise that.”
The RDSA blueprint outlines the Limestone Coast Growth Strategy, which aims to deliver $700 million in growth annually and more than 5700 new jobs by 2026.
The strategy acknowledges the diversity and strength of the region’s agribusiness sectors but also identifies service-based sectors including tourism, education, healthcare, and social assistance as potential growth areas.
However, Wheaton said a lack of appropriate accommodation was proving a major obstacle to attracting people to fill job vacancies.
“We have more jobs than we have people but we’ve got to start finding solutions to the housing stock.
“You’ve got that growth being held back because the housing stock is quite old, often not fit for purpose and we’ve got lots of dwellings that have got a single occupant.
“You can picture the widow at home after the kids have moved on and the partner’s died and they’re still living in the four-bedroom family home because there aren’t a lot of retirement options for them in their community.
“We keep working with developers and we keep advocating to all levels of government for things we need to happen in that space.”
That lobbying to state and federal governments has included suggestions for incentives for people to build homes in regional areas similar to those provided to first home buyers.
Wheaton said there also needed to be incentives for developers to build in country areas.
“The maths of it is just really difficult – if you’re a property developer and you’re looking to build something in a smaller community it’s probably going to need to come with all of the utilities, which increases the cost and the lending ratios from the banks are also much lower if you are building in a regional area.
“If you’re doing something in the metropolitan area the bank might put up 80 per cent but in a smaller regional area they might only put up 50 per cent so the developer has to find more money up front to make it happen.”
The ABC reported last week that major meat processor JBS had converted a motel in Bordertown to house up to 70 workers as part of a long-term plan to retain workers.
Mount Gambier's Blue Lake
Mount Gambier's Blue Lake
Mount Gambier's Old Town Hall. Picture: Michael Gorey.
Mount Gambier's Old Town Hall. Picture: Michael Gorey.
Mount Gambier's Umpherston Sinkhole
Mount Gambier's Umpherston Sinkhole
The next regional population data due for release in March is expected to show Mount Gambier ticking over 30,000 residents for the first time while smaller towns in the South East struggle to maintain their populations.
“It’s quite patchy across the region and Mount Gambier has enough critical mass to absorb a few hundred more people each year but for some of those smaller towns like Bordertown, if the meatworks wants to put on a new shift and 100 workers then it’s going to be a real challenge for them to find them and then a real challenge to find the accommodation for them,” Wheaton said.
While the region’s wine and seafood industries have taken a hit as a result of trade restrictions with China, the larger agriculture and forestry industries are performing well.
The housing and construction boom happening around Australia has led to huge demand for structural timber from the South East’s mills and the farming sector is performing well on the back of strong prices and bumper crops.
Wheaton said there was also strong growth projected in the health and social services sector.
“We’ve been projecting for a few years that will be our strongest area of growth and on top of that as tourism starts to pick up again then we’ll certainly be seeing that demand for hospitality workers around the region as well,” he said.
“The more we grow, the more services we have and the more gravitas the region has in terms of being able to attract quality education providers, housing and all of those things so we certainly want to be on a growth trajectory but in a sustainable way.
“We don’t want to see unrestrained growth, we want to maintain our clean green environment but there is certainly room for us to bring more people in to be able to do the jobs that need doing already.”
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