The Bend Motorsport Park starts to pay off for its region’s economy
Tailem Bend has had its struggles in recent years — but the local economy has been revved up by having one of the one of the best motorsport tracks in Australia on their doorstep.
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It is 11:30am on Thursday morning when I finally get through on the landline to the Tailem Bend Bakery, but they are too busy to talk.
The revelation would amuse many who have ever been in the sleepy and badly signposted main street of the town, cut off as it is from the highway and a large volume of passing traffic through the previously important junction.
Back when regional tourism was a minor concern, and the trains didn’t scream past at 80-100km/h on the way too and from Melbourne, some genius decided to have the main street run along the line.
Sadly at the same time it turned its back on the best views of the River Murray in Australia, now the preserve only of a few petrol stations, retired farmers, the hospital and a hotel.
The award-winning bakery, which judges at annual shows suggest is the best in SA, caters for large orders from as far away as Victoria.
In foot traffic terms, it used to be quiet. But not today, not this week, and not this month.
It is the town’s economic barometer since the $160 million The Bend Motorsport Park opened its doors on the doorstep in 2018.
A pie and a doughnut, washed down with a beer at the pub down the road is the staple diet of the thousands of tradies, contractors, race goers, and at least one journalist.
When they do have time to talk the owners explain they double orders of ingredients for the weeks around The Bend’s V8 race, and the five-tonne truck full of flour I saw unloading on the Wednesday before the race weekend was testament to this.
Publican Frank Dean has time to talk, but by the sound of it is pulling a beer at the same time.
“I would say my takings for the week are between a third and 50 per cent more than before the race, we take $15,000 to $16,000 more,’’ he said.
“There are still people here today, when the race finished three days ago, the last of the contractors out there still come in for a meal.’’
The anecdotal stories from the town back up the hard data kept by officials responsible for growing the region’s economy.
Regional Development Authority manager Julie Bates said the success of the motorsport park was a positive story for local towns ever since planning began for the park half a decade ago.
She said while Supercars rounds get much of the attention, the year-round use of the venue for multiple events was also significant.
The Bend is busy almost every weekend.
For example in January a round of the Asian Le Mans Series comes to town, part of a program that in the last financial year recorded a live stream audience of 4.33 million viewers around the world.
Eighty three accredited media attend each round, with most expected to come to Tailem Bend next year.
“The Murray River, Lakes and Coorong region has posted a massive increase in visitor numbers and spending over the past 6 years,’’ Ms Bates said.
“The region recorded 334,000 visitors over the 12 months to March 2019 — a rise of 25 per cent on visitor numbers six years earlier.
“These are the latest figures from the March 2019 National Visitor Survey.
“Those visitors stayed an average 1.1 million nights a year in the region — up a whopping 39 per cent from 759,000 in 2013.
Visitor expenditure also rose by 40 per cent over the same period — up to $172 million annually, from $123 million.
In another indicator, the Tailem Bend postcode is making it onto the list of the fastest growing statewide for total spending.
NAB Quarterly Customer Spending Trends data for the third quarter of 2018 recorded a 20.5 per cent increase on the same period in 2017, before the Motorsport Park — and a huge but unrelated solar farm just outside town — took off.
Just down the road in the Wellington postcode growth was 28.9 per cent, a location which likewise previously didn’t even make it into the SA regional SA postcodes for spending increases.
In terms of regions, the The Coorong 13.5 per cent and Murray Bridge 11.8 per cent, are the third and fourth fastest growing in SA for spending at the present time. But The Bend is only part of a much bigger agriculture picture regionally, of which the major factor is the Thomas Foods International rebuild of its Murray Bridge processing facility.
The flow-on from this project alone will add $1 billion to the Murraylands economy as well as 2000 direct and 4800 indirect jobs.
MORE ON THE BEND
Locally nobody has calculated the economic benefit of the single biggest event in Tailem Bend, last weekend’s Supercars round attended by 35,100 people. At Winton Raceway, a two-and-a-half hour drive north east of Melbourne, 60,000 people attend the three day Supercars event this year.
Over the last two years, authorities have calculated a direct economic benefit of $5m and $8m.
The injection of money into the area in turn, makes tourism offerings better, Ms Bates said.
“We now have a mix of accommodation offerings from caravan parks through to holiday cabins, river shacks, houseboats, hotel rooms, luxury riverfront escapes and even glamping at major events,’’ she said.
“There are so many reasons to stay and explore and we are finding that visitors coming for a specific event are choosing to stay overnight and extend their holiday.”