A COUPLE of weeks ago in Sunraysia Daily, I wrote a column suggesting that it would be helpful in assisting our politicians in their quest to obtain what we need as a community, if we were to develop a more accurate perception of this district in the places where decisions are made — Spring Street and Canberra.
We are not making much capital of the importance of this district as a food producer, a creative space and a place where very serious issues around water management are at a crossroad with obvious state and national implications.
We are disregarded as important contributors to taxes, food security and creativity.
There are many areas of Victoria that are held in high regard by both the general public and politicians but offer much less than us as contributors to the economic success of this state.
Take Bendigo and Ballarat — both are a pork-barrelling paradises and I gladly would put a fatwa on them.
They are still trading on gold and — guess what — their very enterprising arts galleries, which have delivered reputational and tourism points. For the rest, they are arguably stuck in the past.
We are essential food producers, smart water managers and, when it comes to creativity, we beat them hands-down.
It was a Mildura councillor who started the process of developing regional arts centres throughout Victoria back in the late 1950s and our arts centre has been as progressive as any, if not better.
And not to mention the First Peoples cultural heritage.
The problem is that only a few people know anything about this.
We have to beg Spring Street to get what’s needed, basic stuff, not whimsical projects.
I wrote that screaming does not help. I am also saying that we are not in a position to be pork-barrelled. That will come when we go over 100,000 voters and we get to play with two state seats.
The only alternative is to excel and to sell ourselves — increase our reputation and rely on the resilient spirit that has guided this city since the beginning.
As a collective, we are not selling ourselves very well. We have to learn to tell all our stories, big and small, and get mileage out of them.
The series of articles by Heath Kendall on our producers is an overview of some aspects of food production that highlight some successful businesses whose stories need to be told.
This week’s article on garlic invites the question: if we did not have this business, how would we have had the opportunity to put Australian-grown garlic into the shops and supermarkets of the nation, given that no one desires Chinese garlic?
Or use the same garlic to make garlic oil pills, which are an excellent health product?
And, furthermore, blend the garlic oil with extra virgin olive oil from Boundary Bend? And recognise that Boundary Bend produces 15 million litres of extra virgin olive oil, nearly all for the domestic market?
Aren’t these spectacular stories to be told and to be proud of?
Take, as another example, international opera star Siobhan Stagg, originally from Merbein. Do we know and appreciate that she is spoken of as a future, if not current, Dame Joan Sutherland?
I’d like to see a mural of Siobhan Stagg’s face in the city, so people can say: “Who’s that — why is that face on that wall?”
Such questions expand our minds and perhaps make us even more proud of this community.
There is a chance during this COVID-19 disaster to think about our repositioning.
I would welcome a conversation on this point. Email me at stefano@stefano.com.au
