[Music plays and text appears: National Awards for Local Government. Revitalisation and Activation of Mackay City Centre, Mackay Regional Council, QLD, Innovation to Create More Liveable Australian Cities. Category Winner]
[Image changes to show Debra Howe, Revitalisation and Activation of Mackay City Centre, Mackay Regional Council, QLD]
Mackay's just a beautiful place. It's a thousand kilometres north of Brisbane, and a thousand south of Cairns, so right in the tropics.
[Image changes to show a picture of the main street, lots of eating places with outdoor tables and chairs can be seen and then moves back to Debra talking to the camera]
In 2011 the Council started engaging with the community on a whole range of projects across the city, in particular, you know, future development of the City Centre. Given that we"re a commodities driven economy—selling at all-time lows, there was definitely a switch up in the economy. The Council realised really quickly that they needed to act and to do something to revitalise and activate that City Centre.
[Different images of people in the City Centre flash by on screen and then moves back to show Debra talking to the camera]
This really was a great opportunity to show people what can be done if you stick to your guns and you have enough metal to actually be convicted and say “yes, we"re going to revitalise and activate the City Centre,” and our councillors should be very proud that they have achieved that.
[Different images of buildings and sites within the City Centre flash by on screen and then moves back to show Debra talking to the camera]
We awarded 26 grants of $41,000 that resulted in $401,000 worth of facade improvements across the City Centre. It's quite inspiring to see people that are drawn back into that space, and how they are utilising it.
[Different images of people in the City Centre flash by on screen and then moves back to show Debra talking to the camera]
We established a new branding and look and feel for the City Centre. We implemented the Facade Improvement Scheme. And we introduced a new event called Twilight City,
[Image changes to show a crowd of people seated on a grassed area in the City Centre and then moves to show the people moving through the events of Twilight City]
and we used that event to turn the soil for the first year of the capital works, and we promised the businesses 5,000 people would come into that event, and 10,000 did.
[Image has changed back to show Debra talking to the camera]
And then the second year we ran Twilight City and called it Beyond Your Imagination, and 25,000 people came through that event. So we have served the purpose of reattaching the broader community to this space.
[Different pictures of the Beyond Your Imagination event flash by on screen]
Mackay City Centre is well and truly reactivated and revitalised, and I think it's something for our Council to be proud of, and that's why we wrote the nomination.
[Image has changed back to show Debra talking to the camera]
Because I don"t think in many senses people have the words innovation in local government, and I think local government is sold short of what it delivers,
[Music plays and text appears: National Awards for Local Government. Revitalisation and Activation of Mackay City Centre, Mackay Regional Council, QLD, Innovation to Create More Liveable Australian Cities. Category Winner]