Oatlands (population 500), located on the shores of Lake Dulverston, retains the character of a 19th century town. It has the largest collection of colonial sandstone buildings in a village situation in Australia. Its main street includes 87 historic buildings.
Throughout most of the twentieth century, Oatlands was a prosperous rural service centre, and its business community benefited greatly from passing traffic due to its central Highway One location. However, the town suffered significant business and population decline due to the dual impact of rural recession (compounded by devastating drought) and the highway bypass implemented in 1989.
The community struggled for most of the 1990’s, but in the last 5 years or so the community has started to experience a process of renewal due to several projects that have been initiated in the area.
One initiative that has had a large, immediate and positive impact on the community (and will provide the basis for ongoing community enhancement) is the creation of the Central Tasmanian Community College. Located in the Old School House, this project was instigated in late 1999 by the Oatlands School and forms now the year 11 and 12 skill centre. The School was aided through funding available from the Skill Centre Program and Rural Communities Program.
A vehicle that has helped the community to facilitate change is the Midlands Initiatives for Local Employment (MILE). Initially called the Southern Midlands Initiatives for Local Enterprise (SMILE) it came into being in 1994 following a series of regional health forums involving young people who identified community priorities in terms of training, entertainment and transport. A Future Directions Conference sponsored by the State Government employment agency helped further explore these community priorities. In the words of one founding member of the SMILE -
We wanted this town to be able to provide some sort of a future for its youth, and we realized pretty early on that the only way of doing that was to have a viable community
The Central Tasmanian Community College has proved a most practical town response to creating the necessary environment required to retain and inspire young people, and giving the community new educational opportunities.
In its early stages the College instigated the following:
- Provision of over 160 short courses including a variety of accredited courses that enable local people to improve their employment prospects and/or formalise their qualifications;
- Specific workshops and support services such as Farms in Adversity as a response to the local devastating drought conditions;
- Creation of a Rural Industrial Centre which provided training for the largest number of wool classing students in Tasmania as well as addressing a wide range of farmer specific training needs;
- Coordination of a Health Expo which attracted a wide range of interactive displays and health providers; and
- Creation of a conference and meeting venue able to provide seating for 150 people, catering, video conferencing, computer network training room, interactive Team Board, internet access and a wide range of the latest technology. In the words of Sally Isles, who was integral in setting up the Community College and conference centre;
The conference centre is bringing people to the town, creating additional local business through catering and the positive and immeasurable social intangibles like local young people seeing new people coming into their town;
- Instigation of a Mentor program whereby local young people (years 9-12) trained in web page design (with international accreditation) are mentoring new computer operators and local business people in web design; and
- development of relevant Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs for local young people. The program has established itself as a viable alternative to young people needing to leave the community to seek further education.
Several years down the track, the college is still going strong. In particular it has been successful in gaining community interest in education across all ages, which has meant an expanded interest in mature age learning as well as a greater ability to retain year 11 and 12 students who wish to remain locally and still learn. Veronica Emery, principal of Oatlands School and Community College noted that at present there is one family with three generations of students in Oatlands School and College.
The short-courses are still in demand and a short-course co-ordinator has been appointed. Future plans for development include the combining of the school and community libraries, including the on-line access centre which will increase community access to these educational resources.
The College Conference centre, although a big success, is now less of a focus for the College, with a new conference centre being set up within the area which will build on the college’s experiences. Whilst providing important opportunities for work experience and training for students, Veronica Emery points out that it is extremely important to be able to remain flexible towards the changing needs of the community rather than concentrating energy into only one channel.
Success factors identified by locals and outside partners include:
- Commitment to young men and women. The underlying motivation for much that has happened in Oatlands is youth related. The community has consistently responded to the need to create a youthful environment where young people perceive opportunities for a positive future;
- Awareness and utilisation of outside funding. Over the last six years, the community has been successful in identifying and securing significant project funding. The commitment of funding by the local council for an administrative assistant to focus on grant identification has certainly been returned to the community tenfold;
- Embracing of technological change. By embracing the best in technology, Oatlands demonstrates how a small town can place itself within a global and labour market relevant context. Through the creation of a superior IT centre including the use of video conferencing and the latest technology, Oatlands has created a smorgasbord of educational opportunity, enhanced the marketing opportunities for local businesses and is now exploring its application to heritage tourism;
- Leadership. Oatlands has been fortunate to have local people both capable and prepared to provide the time, vision and energy to make things happen; and
SOURCES:
Small Town Renewal Vol I: Overview and Case Studies, by Peter Kenyon and Alan Black, June 2001 Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) also available from http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/HCC/01-043.pdf 
Phone interview with Veronica Emery, Principal Oatlands School, April 2004