Mr Brumby, presenting the annual Fairley La Trobe lecture, drew on the inspiration of a city founder to find hope for the future of Victoria’s regional cities.
He drew some themes from Thomas Friedman’s book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, which emphasised that thriving communities had to do two things at once: nurture tradition and embrace innovation.
Sir Andrew Fairley, a civic leader form the previous century, he said, had valued the community and played a pivotal role in turning around a struggling fruit cannery to enable it to export to the world.
Mr Brumby pointed to the opportunities for the regions in developing new technology in food production.
“The single biggest driver of productivity is technology,” he said.
“Productivity drove the Victorian gold rush, which generated about 40 per cent of the world’s gold.
“Our gold rush wasn’t just about people with pans, it harnessed the newest technology the world had ever seen.
“It transformed communities.
“The new gold rush won’t look like the last one. It will be about taking the things we already do well — for example, agriculture — and doing them even better.”
He said there were already promising examples of agricultural technology development in places such as La Trobe’s research and development arm, AgriBio, and the horticultural smart farm at Tatura.
“In the 19th century the world wanted gold,” Mr Brumby said.
“In 2050 the world will be wanting 50 per cent more food than 2010. This new gold may be more fertile soil, a more resilient peach or grain, or perhaps a new orchard system.
“In Victoria we are well placed to produce this new gold.”
Mr Brumby challenged the notion that “all roads lead to Melbourne” and suggested that regional cities could do better if they were linked around the state, and to prove the point threw up projections showing European and US cities that formed a network, rather than the coastal-based mega cities that Australia was developing.
“There’s no question that Australia loves the beach, but do so many of us need to cling to the coastline and major capital cities?” he said.
Mr Brumby pointed to the development of a growth centre identified in the days of Gough Whitlam, overseen by the Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation. That border region was to grow from 35,000 to 300,000 by the year 2000. Today it is about 100,000. If the goal had been achieved, the twin cities might have grown to the size of Adelaide.
And on regional development, rather than debating the idea of a “Big Australia” Mr Brumby preferred a discussion around a balanced Australia.
His Labor government relocated the TAC to Geelong, the state revenue office to Ballarat, the Department of Human Services call centre to Moe, and Rural Finance and State Trustees to Bendigo.
“But if we look at the regional development stories, we can see that despite the enormous strengths of regional Australia, natural beauty, thriving communities impressive industry, when it comes to a more balanced Australia, we have not shifted the dial,” Mr Brumby said.
“In fact, the gap is getting wider.”
At the conclusion of his speech, delivered at the Shepparton Art Museum, Mr Brumby spent about half an hour responding to questions.
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