Gippsland is renowned for its natural attributes, including Gippsland Lakes and coastlines, Wilsons Promontory National Park and one of Victoria’s largest visitor attractions, the Phillip Island Penguin Parade.

Roughly the same size as Switzerland, Gippsland covers over 41,500 square kilometres and is the largest region in Victoria. The community works and lives in a resource-rich landscape (one of the most diverse in regional Australia) from the Latrobe Valley’s industrial heartland to rich agricultural lands, coastal and lakes regions, highlands, and the forested north and east.

Each year, nearly eight million tourists visit Gippsland, attracted to the unspoilt lakes, beaches, snowfields, bushlands, and rainforests, as well as the beautiful towns and villages. Its major towns are Traralgon, Warragul, Drouin, Morwell, Bairnsdale, Moe, Leongatha, Sale and Wonthaggi.

Gippsland has a reputation for producing quality products and services across various industries such as food and fibre, energy, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, and tourism.

Gippsland is renowned for its natural attributes, including Gippsland Lakes and coastlines, Wilsons Promontory National Park and one of Victoria’s largest visitor attractions, the Phillip Island Penguin Parade.

Roughly the same size as Switzerland, Gippsland covers over 41,500 square kilometres and is the largest region in Victoria. The community works and lives in a resource-rich landscape (one of the most diverse in regional Australia) from the Latrobe Valley’s industrial heartland to rich agricultural lands, coastal and lakes regions, highlands, and the forested north and east.

Each year, nearly eight million tourists visit Gippsland, attracted to the unspoilt lakes, beaches, snowfields, bushlands, and rainforests, as well as the beautiful towns and villages. Its major towns are Traralgon, Warragul, Drouin, Morwell, Bairnsdale, Moe, Leongatha, Sale and Wonthaggi.

Gippsland has a reputation for producing quality products and services across various industries such as food and fibre, energy, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, and tourism.

Gippsland is renowned for its natural attributes, including Gippsland Lakes and coastlines, Wilsons Promontory National Park and one of Victoria’s largest visitor attractions, the Phillip Island Penguin Parade.

Roughly the same size as Switzerland, Gippsland covers over 41,500 square kilometres and is the largest region in Victoria. The community works and lives in a resource-rich landscape (one of the most diverse in regional Australia) from the Latrobe Valley’s industrial heartland to rich agricultural lands, coastal and lakes regions, highlands, and the forested north and east.

Each year, nearly eight million tourists visit Gippsland, attracted to the unspoilt lakes, beaches, snowfields, bushlands, and rainforests, as well as the beautiful towns and villages. Its major towns are Traralgon, Warragul, Drouin, Morwell, Bairnsdale, Moe, Leongatha, Sale and Wonthaggi.

Gippsland has a reputation for producing quality products and services across various industries such as food and fibre, energy, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, and tourism.

With such a strong tradition in agri-business, food production, mining and energy, it is not surprising that over time, innovative and high-tech advanced manufacturing companies have established themselves across the Gippsland region. Today, there is diverse range of products that are manufactured in the Gippsland region.

The Gippsland region has a long tradition in advanced manufacturing including the production of food, energy, pulp and paper, high-tech machinery, aircraft and more. Built on many of the region’s natural resources, advanced manufacturing has developed over time to be a globally competitive and vibrant sector in the Gippsland region. Numerous

Australian business icons, such as Burra Foods, Patties Pies, Australian Paper, Australian Gas and Light (AGL), Australian Sustainable Hardwood (ASH) and Esso have advanced manufacturing facilities in the Gippsland region.

The Gippsland region also has considerable strategic transport infrastructure in the form of major highways, railways and regional airports to ensure the smooth movement of people and products within the region and beyond. The region provides strong connections to the Melbourne CBD, Port of Melbourne (Australia’s largest container port), future Port of Hastings development and Melbourne International Airport. From the Gippsland region, companies can reach 87% of Australia’s population in 2 days of motor freight.

Representative of the strong advanced manufacturing and industrial nature of the Gippsland economy, the region boasts a highly skilled workforce, proving proportionally 20-25% more trades and technical workers than the state or national average.

Our premium, clean, and green products, supported by strong water policy and forest, land, lakes, and coastal management, are in demand worldwide. Our natural assets make us a renowned eco and Traditional Owner and Aboriginal cultural tourism, food, and beverage destination.

We are transitioning to become a leader in sustainable energy and forest products and cultivating the circular economy.

Regional Australia, and Gippsland are seeing a significant growth in “new energy” opportunities and projects such as medium-large scale solar and large scale off shore wind - Star of the South.

Climate change, climate variability and increased natural hazard risk is a significant barrier to the ongoing economic prosperity of East Gippsland.

The creative and entertainment sector is diverse, consisting of a mix of artistic and non-artistic sectors, commercially driven businesses, start-ups and microenterprises, individual practitioners, not-for-profit and community organisations, and cultural institutions.

The creative scene in East Gippsland is strong, but there is a lack of arts infrastructure and an under celebration of the region’s heritage and culture.

The state-of-the-art Gippsland Performing Arts Centre is set to electrify the region’s performing arts scene and create world-class professional training opportunities for artists across Gippsland.

Gippsland is renowned for its natural attributes, including Gippsland Lakes and coastlines, Wilsons Promontory National Park and one of Victoria’s largest visitor attractions, the Phillip Island Penguin Parade.

Roughly the same size as Switzerland, Gippsland covers over 41,500 square kilometres and is the largest region in Victoria. The community works and lives in a resource-rich landscape (one of the most diverse in regional Australia) from the Latrobe Valley’s industrial heartland to rich agricultural lands, coastal and lakes regions, highlands, and the forested north and east.

Each year, nearly eight million tourists visit Gippsland, attracted to the unspoilt lakes, beaches, snowfields, bushlands, and rainforests, as well as the beautiful towns and villages. Its major towns are Traralgon, Warragul, Drouin, Morwell, Bairnsdale, Moe, Leongatha, Sale and Wonthaggi.

Gippsland has a reputation for producing quality products and services across various industries such as food and fibre, energy, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, and tourism.

Gippsland is home to the Federation University campus at Churchill. Federation University provides easy access to a range of courses and research opportunities for rural and regional students.

The Federation University has the highest overall employment rating with 92% of any Victorian-based university. The university experience is highly regarded among graduates, rating Federation University 5 stars for both student support and overall satisfaction.

Complimenting Federation University’s program, the development of the Gippsland Hi-Tech Precinct in Morwell is currently underway, a centre for research, business incubation, new product development, start up support, and education and training.

Based in Bairnsdale and Sale, the Gippsland East Higher Education Study Hub provides local support services for students studying locally at Federation University or by distance education through universities across Australia. Vocational education and training courses are offered across the region at TAFE Gippsland’s campuses from Leongatha to Lakes Entrance.

Gippsland is the leading source of energy and resources, producing approximately 85% of Victoria’s electricity, 97% of Victoria’s natural gas and 26% of Australia’s oil. With a rich history in mining and electricity generation, the region has strong foundations and infrastructure in the energy sector. While production from the region’s traditional power generators will continue to cover the majority of Victoria’s power needs, opportunities have emerged for the private sector to take a leading role in the research, trialling and implementation of technologies and practices that will enable the more sustainable use of resources for power generation into the future.

Strategic opportunities associated with coal-based derivatives, clean coal energy production and associated renewable energy technologies offer leading-edge enterprises significant new areas for investment, exports and jobs growth in the Gippsland region. The Gippsland region will continue to evolve and develop as Victoria’s energy hub with current investigations into geothermal, clean energy and bioenergy well underway.

Due to large historical energy facilities in Gippsland, we have a network of transmission lines. The largest is a 500KV line, and there are also 220KV lines running to Melbourne and beyond; the 330KV Basslink to Tasmania; and a 66KV line east to Bairnsdale. These provide significant opportunities for renewable energy projects to feed into the grid.

As part of the movement to renewable energy, Gippsland features several wind farms, a solar farm with planning approval and Australia’s first proposed offshore windfarm, 10-25km off Gippsland’s coast. Additionally, there is a significant waste to energy plan proposed by Australian Paper Mills. With strong support from the government, programs such as the Macalister Irrigation District Efficiency Program are put into place to support farm-based businesses in the area.

The $60 million modernisation project activates the largest irrigation area in Southern Victoria covering 53,000 hectares, dominated by dairy cattle, but also supports horticulture and beef cattle. Gippsland’s water storage and supply infrastructure comprises 13 major catchments, including the Thomson Dam, which supplies 60% of Melbourne’s total water storage capacity. Gippsland is also home to the Victorian Desalination Plant, which provides water security as it is Victoria’s only source of water not dependant on rainfall.

Gippsland is well suited to agribusiness and the region is fortunate to have a combination of stable climate, strong rainfall patterns, arable soils and close proximity to processing, transport and markets, making it a premium investment destination.

Infrastructure like the Macalister Irrigation District covers 53,000 hectares and distributes water to irrigators through a gravity fed system of channels and pipes.

With a $7 billion net worth, the region is renowned for its high-end agricultural products, grown on some of Australia’s best-quality agricultural land. These natural advantages make it a favoured investment region for successful enterprises. The reputation of Gippsland’s food and fibre production is grounded in good stewardship of resources.

Gippsland has over 9,000 food and fibre businesses and employs 16% of the workforce in the region, with about three quarters of the workers engaged on the farm and roughly 25% in value-added production. Gippsland is a dairy power house producing 22% of Australia’s dairy including milk, milk powder, butter, cheese, yogurt and other value-added products.

The region also produces 25% of the beef in Victoria (much of it for export), wool and prime lamb as well as 27% of Victoria’s vegetables. Further, Gippsland houses the largest pulp and paper mill in Australia and produces 23% of Victoria’s timber. A strong trend towards the organic, viticulture and aquaculture sector has been growing with new businesses emerging.

Lakes Entrance is the home of one of Australia's largest fishing fleets, while Mallacoota is the base of a significant abalone industry.

Gippsland’s health sector is diverse with highly respected training and research facilities in place as well as a considerable health multi-layered infrastructure including 7 hospitals and a wide range of smaller organisations such as general practice or specialist clinics.

The Gippsland health system is staffed by an exceptional range of highly skilled health professionals and is the largest industry sector in terms of number of people employed. The 2016 Census recorded 13.9% of total working residents are employed in the ‘Health Care and Social Assistance’, which offers great investment and trade opportunities.

Is Australia’s housing crisis self-inflicted? If so, then we need a series of reforms to reverse it
The best long-term solution to the structural problems of the rental crisis is to build more public and/or affordable housing.

Make renting more Sustainable. Increase rent assistance or look at rental caps, similar to countries in Europe and some US states, long term tenancy agreements with incentives for all parties to the agreement.

Build to Rent
The Build to Rent property sector is growing in Australia – this new class of housing is focused on providing high quality purpose designed and built rental stock, creating an additional housing choice for Australian renters with greater security and service.

Build to Rent developments are typically owned by institutional investors for the long term and the owner could be the developer/ongoing building manager. The format provides tenants with the flexibility of renting with the security of home ownership.

Build-to-Rent developments are usually large-scale residential properties specifically designed, built and managed for long-term ownership and rental.

Social Housing
In the 40 years between 1981 and 2021 the percentage of all Australian households living in social housing (i.e. state owned and managed public housing or community managed housing) has ranged from 4.9 per cent in 1981 to 3.8 per cent in 2021. Such a drop in the proportion of social housing raises the question of has Australia achieved the balance right, and also just what is the right level of social housing for Australia?

In 2018 Statistics Canada said 628,700 Canadian households, more than one in ten renter households nationally (13.5% of 4,652,500), were living in social and affordable housing.
In New Zealand, as of 30 June 2021, there were 74,337 public housing households. This equates to 4.0% of households living in social housing.

In England (in 2018) 17% of households (3.9 million) lived in social housing, while the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes that 1.2 million households live in public housing, which is 0.98 per cent of all housing.

The aviation sector is well established in the Gippsland region with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base in East Sale, West Sale Airport and the Latrobe Regional Airport.

The RAAF base has recently undergone a $385 million dollar redevelopment, including new facilities, security upgrades, new air traffic control complex and numerous ancillary developments, whilst the Latrobe Regional Airport is part of the Latrobe City Aerospace Precinct to build on the airport’s manufacturing capabilities.

Across Gippsland’s aviation sector there are opportunities for aircraft (and component parts) manufacturing, maintenance, refurbishment, pilot training and more.

Given the existing aviation sector in the Gippsland region, there are strong supply chains already in place, providing a solid foundation for the aviation sector. Additionally, the large advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors provide a highly skilled workforce and a capacity to provide a wide range of parts and supplies.

Education in the sector is provided through numerous aviation-specific courses available through the local TAFE Gippsland network, which is expanding their aero skills courses and feature avionics training at the Sale campus.

Gippsland offers a variety of natural attractions like nowhere else in Victoria. From rugged alpine mountain ranges, historic rural towns to pristine beaches, Gippsland is a diverse place attracting local and international visitors all year around.

The tourism industry in Gippsland is an important contributor to the region’s economy, worth $2.4 billion in direct and indirect expenditure per annum. Gippsland has outperformed regional Victoria for domestic and international visitation percentage growth, with 10.8 million visitors to the region annually. The visitor economy supports over 3,000 businesses who derive the majority of their income from overnight and daytrip visitors.

Strongly backed by the government, multiple projects have been put into place to further Gippsland’s visitor economy. This includes the $48 million upgrade of the Philip Island Nature Park, the $30 million Latrobe Creative Arts Precinct and the $13.9 million West Gippsland Arts Centre.

To develop East Gippsland’s circular economy, there is then a need to support and foster initiatives to reduce waste, redesign products and production methods and increase the use of recycled products.

Many leading economists, like Ross Garnaut, see the transition to a net-zero economy as
a massive opportunity for regional Australia, creating an array of economic opportunities for new products, processes and industries.

Agriculture, as but one example, will have opportunities to transition to more resilient food production systems that are innovative, diverse, risk-managed and climate-ready. Places and businesses that act first can take advantage of being an early mover.