Rocky Needs a Convention Centre
Posted on November 2nd, 2015
A 1000 seat Convention Centre and 20,000 seat Stadium complex for Rockhampton has been one of our Priority Projects for the region for the past five years.
Over those years, our Priority Projects have had the support from our elected Local, State and Federal Government politicians, with consecutive State governments committing to fund a Stadium once an NRL team is secured.
All six Council Mayors in the CQROC (Central Qld Regional Organisation of Councils – Rockhampton, Livingstone, Woorabinda, Central Highlands, Banana, Gladstone) also signed a joint letter prepared by Capricorn Enterprise to the State government last year supporting the Convention Centre/Stadium as a critical priority project for the Rockhampton region.
That letter was in response to a conscious decision that our city is missing out on millions of dollars and jobs by waiting for an NRL team to be announced.
We need to focus now on obtaining the $50.5 Million needed to construct a Convention Centre as stage one of a larger multi purpose complex.
As Rockhampton is the only major regional city in Queensland without a Convention Centre, the economic uplift to our city and greater CQ region can commence now and continue for a number of years as the stages of the complex can be funded.
Capricorn Enterprise engaged the AEC Group last year to prepare a rigorous business case for the construction of the Convention Centre. That business case revealed that a Convention Centre would create 128 jobs in construction phase and 55 on-going jobs.
The report revealed that annual visitation due to having a Convention Centre is estimated at $4.2 Million to Mackay, $6.8 Million to Townsville, $28.9 Million to Gold Coast and $17.1 Million to Cairns.
A Convention Centre is within our reach for the city of Rockhampton. All it would take is a pro-active Local, State and Federal government partnership of less than $17 Million each to create hundreds of jobs and nearly $5 Million to our local economy each year.
