Lithgow Council complicit in ignoring the late onset of its retail ghost towns
Our drive through of Lithgow’s Main Street today reveals that Lithgow’s local small business retail has become a ghost town.
Lithgow tourism is all but dead and buried in most part due to Lithgow’s Council’s Lithgow Tourism’s incompetence and lack of interest.
Lithgow retail along its Main Street is following a close second.
Main Street Lithgow mid-week (Wednesday 18 January 2023 around 3pm)
A few years ago, we did alert the local Lithgow community via the Lithgow Mercury of our insights and encouragement as a prospective tour operator reaching out to Lithgow Council and Lithgow TAFE to inspire facilitating co-operative tourist visitation to Greater Lithgow, yet no support nor interest was received.
Back in February 2020 (post bushfire disaster) we invited Lithgow {city} Council’s Senior Economic Development & Destination Manager (aka tourism manager) Andrew Powrie to meet with us at The Old Exchange Restaurant in Main Street Lithgow.
The meeting was a complete waste of time and effort. Powrie was all talk and arrogantly so. To our proposed trial Lithgow Valley Explorer Tour in collaboratiion with Lithgow Council Powerie was negative and accused us as “still being in daipers”.
We joined the Lithgow Tourism in good faith, but after more than a year, nothing resulted.
The Old Exchange where we met since closed down and since early 2022 the building owner, unable to find any tenants, has tried to sell the entire building through L.J. Hooker Lithgow wanting $1.9 million. Good luck with no passing trade.
The Old Exchange today – up for lease and up for sale
A week ago, we took a walk up and down Lithgow’s high street ‘Main Street’. We counted more than two dozen retail premises closed down and either up for lease (optimistically) else the premises up for sale. Lithgow’s Main Street has become a ghost town.
Here are some of the photos of retail premises along Main Street we took.
Lithgow Main Street butcher closed down
Lithgow Main Street Green Grocer Closed Down
Lithgow’s Grand Central Hotel on Main Street closed down in 2021
The dearth of pedestrians along Main Street is threefold caused by Lithgow {city} Council in is infinite wisdom…
- Back in 1981, Lithgow Council approved a large retail shopping centre by the retail conglomerate Coles Group be developed about 1km from Lithgow’s high street ‘Main Street’ to be situated on Lithgow Street, called ‘Lithgow Valley Plaza’.
- In 2012, Lithgow Council approved an massive development upgrade to this Valley Plaza.
- In 2018, Lithgow Council dug up Main Street and Eskbank Street, so denying retail trade for about a year.
Lithgow Main Street dug up by Council in 2018
Grand Central Hotel Lithgow back in 2010
Coles Group Lithgow Valley Plaza has robbed Lithgow Main Street of its retail precinct and shopping pedestrian traffic
Coles strategy includes:
“making a positive difference in our local communities“.
[Source: ^https://www.colesgroup.com.au/about-us/?page=our-strategy]
This was the Tattersalls Hotel in Main Street in 2010…
But in 2021…
The ANZ abruptly closed its Lithgow branch on Friday, January 14, 2022 for a three-month period, without giving the community any notice. Then from 12th April 2022, ANZ restricted its Lithgow branch hours of opening to only Tuesdays and Fridays between 9:30am and 1:30pm. ANZ Bank’s motto is to “shape a world where people and communities thrive“. Clearly this excludes Lithgow.
This was Central Community College Lithgow in Main Street back in 2008…
And in 2021…
And it’s not just about Lithgow town itself, but about so-called ‘greater’ Lithgow’s outlying communities of mostly historical Wallerawang, Lidsdale, Portland, Hampton, Rydal, Little Hartley, Hartley Vale, Capertee, Cullen Bullen, and poor old forgotten Glen Davis, condemned for years by Lithgow Council’s neglected corrugated gravel road access – we reckon from experiencing possibly Australia’s worst corrugated road.
Retail tenants have been squeezed by a haughty Lithgow Council and its rates, totally oblivious to socio-economic lockdowns.
Maccas, Bunnings as well as taxpayer resilient Lithgow Council are carrying on oblivious in some guaranteed revenue bubble, aloof as if business as usual.
‘Let Them Eat Cake’
Sadly, most in Lithgow are statistically employed in government healthcare, government social assistance (welfare), else employed by government Lithgow Council. Private enterprise does not feature much.
So where does the funding for such employment come from? Lithgow has become a net cost centre of ratepayers and broader taxpayers across NSW and Australia.
The {city} of Greater Lithgow is only about geographic spread not any greatness in the bureaucrats’ performance over the years.
Do these Council dudes commute from Sydney to and from Lithgow each day with darkened car windows?
Council and the dis-representative Lithgow District Chamber of Commerce (from experience in seeking to join) are both complicit in failing to practically support small business retail of Lithgow’s Main Street.
Lithgow small businesses have long been struggling for decades to prosper, if not centuries. This struggle has been it seems compounded by endless so-called bureaucratic ‘representatives’ who are never paid on their socio-economic performance to the ratepaying clients.
Yet this is Lithgow Council’s external consultant’s spiel enticing investment in Lithgow…
“Sydney’s Central West sits at the heart of regional NSW, with access to all corners of the State. Its industry landscape support a diverse and productive economy that leverages connections to Sydney, Canberra and, increasingly, the Hunter region. These connections – along with domestic and international supply chains to the north, south and west – have created a diverse (not reliant on one or two industries) and productive economy.
Along with its Gateway positioning, Lithgow’s numerous endowments include; topography; cool climate; natural resources, energy and road and rail infrastructure. These endowments are the basis of the Lithgow region’s current specialisations in mining, niche manufacturing, electricity supply, health insurance, public administration and safety, agriculture, tourism and rail transport. They also support the potential for the emerging specialisation in areas of engineering, logistics, aged care and construction.
Lithgow is already a preferred location for a number of significant State multi-national organisations, including; Centennial Coal (Coal mines), Energy Australia (Mount Piper power station), Thales (Lithgow Arms Factory – current incumbent supplier of Australian Defence’s small arms contract), Ferrero (Tic Tacs and Nutella), Emirates (One & Only Wolgan Valley Luxury Resort), and the Veiloa Water Treatment Plant. It is also the home to the Westfund Health Insurance head office.”
Source: ^http://www.invest.lithgow.com/
Sounds great, but seriously?
- In September 2021, Energy Australia announced it would close its Mt Piper Power Station in 2040, two years earlier than originally planned
- The Veiloa Water Treatment Plant is dependent on the future of Mt Piper Power Station
- Centennial Coal is is dependent on the future of Mt Piper Power Station
- Lithgow Council’s road to Emirates One & Only Wolgan Valley Luxury Resort has been closed to all traffic due to numerous road collapses since 9th November 2022 until further notice.
- Westfund may be in Lithgow, but it is also spread regionally to Bathurst, Orange, Mudgee, Dubbo, Wollongong, Maroochydore, Mackay, Emerald, Moranbah, Rockhampton, and Townsville.
Recent multiple mismanaged disasters of bushfire, imported virus and landslips causing socio- economic lockdowns and multiple road access closures – have reinforced Lithgow Council’s culture of ineptitude; that is apart from from PR spin mealy mouthing.
- Lithgow Main Street retail has become a retail ghost town – most premises are up for lease
- Browns Gap Road continues to remain closed for more than a month due to another rock slide (not half expected) that has been ignored by Lithgow Council
- Lithgow’s immensely popular tourism Ironfest event has been ‘let go’ by Council
All the while, fat-cat old party political codger councillors and public servants get paid by ratepayers, irrespective of their performance to their client ratepayers. But then their performance is not contingent upon their job survivability. Community leeches one and all driving Lithgow further into socio-economic recession.
Lithgow Region’s retail economy is on the brick of a looming Economic Depression.
Lithgow councillors have perpetually and unfairly kept Lithgow downtrodden, whereas in many decades past, the Lithgow Valley was once regarded as an abundant energy source and powerhouse to drive Australia’s burgeoning industrial and economic progress.
Lithgow councillors and management need to hang their heads in shame for theier bad decisions, mis-management and neglect that have directly caused the demise of Lithgow’s local business retail and tourism economy over decades.
The council should be put into administration and new younger blood brought in committed to reviving the township out of its depressed doldrums.
