Upgrade plan for Millicent town centre amid bid to stop country towns declining

The future of country towns revolves around services and eateries – not shopping – a council chief says, and upgrade plans for Millicent and Penola aim to bring people back to main streets.

An artist's impression of Wattle Range Council's plans for the Millicent town centre. Picture: WAX Design

More alfresco dining, a new town park, public art and activated laneways are among plans to spruce up a South-East town centre.

Wattle Range Council has released concept designs to upgrade the heart of Millicent, seeking public comment before pursuing costings and going cap in hand to the state and federal governments for funding to bring them to life.

Chief executive Ben Gower said the future of country towns revolved around services, art galleries, coffee shops and eateries – not shopping.

Artist's impressions of Wattle Range Council's plans for Millicent, town centre. Picture: WAX Design

“We’re seeing this transition slowly and what we’re trying to do is stimulate it,” he said.

“(Millicent) probably looks like every regional town in Australia at the moment, which is slowly declining as the whole retail market is changing globally,” he said.

“Towns of this size no longer have a whitegoods store as the whole retail world is changing to online.

An artist's impression of the Millicent town centre upgrades planned by Wattle Range Council. Picture: WAX Design.

“We have lots of vacant shops that would have been filled with those sorts of retail commodities in previous generations.”

Towns including Millicent were slowly moving towards businesses that couldn’t service customers online, such as coffee shops and gyms.

Mr Gower said the council’s plans were flagging new elements that were was “people-focused, rather than retail focused”, such as more space for outdoor dining, extra trees and landscaping, public art and a new town park.

If supported during consultation, the plan’s features, such as all-weather shelters, traffic calming measures, new pavement and undercroft parking, will be rolled out over about a decade as funding becomes available.

The council has also drafted up designs to improve Penola, which were prioritised after a new Riddoch Highway bypass was completed last year.

Wattle Range spent about $70,000 for concept plans for the two towns.

It is seeking comment on the Millicent plans until Monday, May 24, at 9am.

A community information session with consultants WAX Design will be held at the Millicent Civic & Arts Centre on Monday, May 17 at 5.30pm.

View the plans at wattlerange.sa.gov.au.

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