GRADUATES don’t have it easy in this town. After five years of Sydney-based study I’d love to work in Newcastle, but the fact is Newcastle doesn’t want my qualifications.
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I count more of my high school peers in the “brain drain” than otherwise, their home-grown skills and ambition lost to another city.
With limited opportunities for entry-level graduates, the link road is a one-way street for many young professionals.
Despite having a university that The Times puts among the world’s top 3per cent, we continue to educate another city’s labour force and, by extension, strengthen another city’s competitive advantage.
Talking to graduates and entrepreneurs, you get the sense that too many young Novocastrians see crossing the Hawkesbury as an inevitable rite of passage. There is a tradition of leaving Newcastle, and generally speaking this can be healthy and beneficial.
Smart, vibrant cities, big and small alike, are built on the opportunities they create for sharing cultures and ideas. People aren’t born in New York the New Yorkers tell you.
No matter where you grow up, I believe there is something to be gained from leaving your home town for a few years.
The problem is, for regional cities like Newcastle at least, how many of us come back?
Our city needs to start reaping more of what it sows. We need to stop wasting so much energy on debating aesthetics and start nurturing the next big thing for our bottom line.
Heavy rail to Watt Street or not, young talent is going to keep hitting the Pacific Motorway if they don’t have access to the good-paying, interesting jobs that they’re qualified to do.
Revitalising Newcastle needs to move beyond tidying up empty buildings. It’s time to start a conversation about repurposing the whole interior of the local economy so that our city and our building stock will be attractive to businesses that don’t even exist yet.
After speaking with the owners of Sydney- and Melbourne-based start-up companies last week, I am convinced that Newcastle could thrive as the Start-Up capital.
The conversations go like this: “What sort of support do you get from your local council down there?” Silence, then they laugh.
In more cases than not, start-up companies have picked Melbourne or Sydney for absolutely no reason at all.
Critical mass might be important to the delivery guy, but if you’re inventing the next Seek.com.au or PocketBook app there’s no reason you couldn’t be on Hunter Street paying less rent and talking to Silicon Valley on Skype.
In his book Walkable City, Jeff Speck argues that the days of luring new businesses to town with tax breaks and land deals are over. Instead, cities like Newcastle need to start reorientating economic development around a vibrant downtown core where people want to be.
Twenty-somethings with limited financial commitments and a clear diary don’t want to be in Macquarie Park on a Friday afternoon. Trust me.
Our East End, an entirely walkable, medium-density neighbourhood made up of cafes and restaurants, is ripe for this sort of branding and investment. The social infrastructure that came with Marcus Westbury’s Renew initiative has made the precinct a safe place for creative minds to dip their toes into emerging markets and, if all goes well, set up shop for good.
If we can embrace this culture in our broader framework for economic development, focusing on a “hand-holding” approach to cash-strapped risk-takers for their first five years, Newcastle could become the first Australian city to actively foster start-up companies.
We’re a cool city with a ridiculously fantastic lifestyle.
I want to see a bus stuck in the George Street crawl wrapped up in a picture of Bar Beach that says: “I’m opening my business here. How’s Zetland?”
The first step is to get this idea under one roof, a one-stop-shop for start-ups and also venture capital investment.
Strategic partnerships with the local business community could capture valuable expertise for the benefit of entrepreneurs, reducing barriers to entry by providing discounted access to accountants and consultants.
Our financial institutions, insurance companies and consultancy firms can only benefit from new talent coming into town, and ideally they will be picking up long-term clients.
Once this infrastructure is in place, we need to create serious noise. The whole conversation about Newcastle needs to change. We need to stop playing catch-up and position ourselves as an industry leader again, even if in the beginning we’re not.
Confident people aren’t attracted to insecure cities. It’s time for Newcastle to take stock of its achievements and competitive advantages, settle on what the place looks like, and move forward with a big idea that nobody is going to expect to come out of Steel City.
Call to aid wine bar culture
A SEVENTH-generation Novocastrian, Matthew Endacott was raised in the Maitland area and left the Hunter in 2009 to complete a bachelor of economics at Sydney University.
Recently finishing his honours in English literature, the 22-year-old has been searching for a job in Newcastle for the past few years without success.
Currently employed in tourism and marketing at the Sydney Opera House, he is a supporter of Renew Newcastle’s cause and began a petition to support the opening of small wine bars in the city.
While supportive of the curfew placed on city pubs that led to a decrease in CBD violence, he said the initiative made it impossible for more sophisticated drinking venues to open, which he argues would regenerate the city in a positive way.
He remains hopeful of finding a job in Newcastle in economic development, relating to strengthening communities.
