2016 Annual Report
Dalby
The Dalby CSG development story: Introduction.
Dalby is the eastern-most town and administrative centre of the Western Downs Regional Council area. It is a busy regional centre surrounded by diverse agriculture on some of Australia's most productive soils.
2016 Synposis:
Overall, Dalby appears to have better ‘absorbed’ positive and negative socio-economic impacts concurrent with - but not necessarily entirely caused by - CSG developments across the Surat Basin, particularly during the peak construction period 2008 to 2014. Population growth continued steadily and non-resident workers (NRW) to resident ratios remained ‘managed’, peaking at 1 NRW for every 12 residents in 2012/13. Consequently, personal income and business number growth accelerated from 2009 to 2013 and declined thereafter, but remains at or above its historical trajectory. Business income rapidly increased around 2012 and decreased over the following years, but remains around four times above its historical trajectory. Housing prices have remained largely stable since 2008 with only slight decreases since 2014. Likewise, rents did remain stable within the $250-300/week range since 2008, falling to $230/week only in 2015/16. In line with the Western Downs as a whole, the number of crimes and various offences (especially traffic and drug offences) has increased, but remains below the rates of, for instance, Miles. These findings suggest that inter alia Dalby’s existing population size, comparably higher number and diversity of business, and housing availability have prevented more pronounced socio-economic impacts associated with ‘boom & bust’ cycles.
What we did and why
The Dalby CSG development story has been created to understand the impacts on Dalby from coal seam gas (CSG) development. This has been done with the help of key members of the Dalby and district community, including:
- Community groups
- Staff from welfare and business support organisations
- Business owners and managers
- Real estate agents
- Police
- Staff from schools and training providers
- Local and state government staff
These people were presented with statistical data on ‘indicators’ of social and economic impact. The ‘indicators’ are:
- Population
- Unemployment
- Income
- Housing
- Training
- Top offences recorded by police
- Staff availability/ skills shortages for local businesses
- Available tourist beds
Working with our researchers, the people interviewed in Dalby discussed the accuracy of the statistical data from a local perspective. That was done in research interviews. More information about the interviews is available here.
Statistical data were collected and interviews with locals were conducted in 2014. That was toward the end of the construction phase of CSG development in Dalby. The data has since been updated to cover 2016. Researchers have included an interpretation of the updated data, and local peoples’ perspectives are based on interviews in 2014 and 2017.
From working with the Dalby community, here is what we found.