ONE of the side effects of having kids is that you tend to spend a lot of time in the car, shuttling between school and extracurricular activities. But the advantage of this shuttling is that you also get to see what’s happening around the city.
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So somewhere between piano lesson, band practice and birthday party the other day, it struck me just how much building work has been recently completed or is still ongoing.
My route this particular afternoon – with a few pick-ups and drop-offs – took me along Docker Street past the new multi-storey office complex going up there and, of course, past the wonderful new hospital.
Same journey and a drop-off or two later, found us at Wagga Beach, having swung past the city’s courthouse, which is undergoing a multi-million dollar upgrade, and the still relatively new Wagga police station.
Even a quick stop at Wagga Beach showed how nice the recreational area is looking.
The trip back home took us along Morgan Street, where another multi-storey building project is nearing completion.
Same day and another couple of journeys saw us visit the currently under-renovation Wagga Marketplace and driving past both the former Wagga Leagues Club site in Kincaid Street and the former empty land in Urana Street, which are both being developed for housing.
A separate trip a day or two later took me up along Fernleigh Road and the other side of that empty land, where a new ambulance station is being developed.
I am sure I haven’t come close to detailing every development currently under way in our city, but my example does serve as a bit of a snapshot on the current state of play.
According to Wagga City Council’s Council News publication, which quotes the manager of development services, Colby Farmer, “in December, council approved more than $21m worth of development applications (DAs), including 15 dwellings and five commercial DAs”.
That’s just one month of approvals activity and a suggestion of what’s still to come.
If you are a follower of current affairs, you’ll know the news right now is not all sunshine.
The government is playing some sort of odd version of hide-and-seek over tax reforms and possible GST increases and there is ongoing concern about the state of the Chinese economy, which could have broad effects on our own financial wellbeing here in Australia.
Already, we’re told falling commodity prices are having a negative impact on our national bottom line and morose speculation about rising unemployment figures is becoming a regularity.
The latest news from our state capital is that Sydney housing prices have peaked and begun to fall and the stock market seems prone to regular bouts of the collywobbles.
With all of that swirling around us, it is perhaps easy to become pessimistic about our nation’s wellbeing.
It is, then, great to be out and about in our city and realise that while none of the projects are going to make the national news, there is actually a lot going on right here and that far from being pessimistic, we have plenty of good reasons to be quietly confident.
Okay, we don’t need to get cocky, but perhaps we can interpret all the development going on right now as an indication that there are still plenty of people who believe that not only does Australia have a strong future, but so does its regional heartland.