New name reflects regional alliance

Members of the Bunbury Wellington Economic Alliance voted to change the name of the group at the annual general meeting on Monday, according to alliance chief executive officer Chris McNamara.

The alliance will now be known as the Bunbury Geographe Economic Alliance.

Mr McNamara said the name change was made to reflect other organisations in the region.

“It fits in well with the Bunbury Geographe Chamber of Commerce, you have the Bunbury Geographe Tourism Organisation, so it made sense to have the Bunbury Geographe Economic Alliance,” he said.

“The three fit in nicely together and it also gives a much better view to people of the area we work in.

“It shows the change in the way we want to collaborate with the people we work with so it fits nicely with those who want to work with us.”

Mr McNamara said there were a lot of positive outcomes from Monday’s meeting.

“We had 50-odd people there and the whole idea is that we have the Bunbury Geographe growth plan which has had a lot of money, time and effort spent on that in the last couple of years,” he said.

“That gives us a road map for the region working towards producing growth, investment and jobs.

“Our role is to facilitate that process and to make this region more competitive, but more importantly to make us more business-friendly so people want to come and do business here.”

Mr McNamara said there was a wealth of projects happening in the region over the next 18 months to two years.

“There is probably a couple of billion dollars worth of investment – you have got the new Albemarle project which has just got State approval and is only waiting on Federal approval,” he said.

“You have the water for food project which Harvey Water is involved in in the north – there is probably about 800 jobs there.

“There are 500 jobs with the Albemarle project with another 500 ongoing after that with the running of it.

“You have Talison mine with a 25-to-30-year life of that mine providing spodumene to Albemarle and another 400 jobs there.”

“On top of that you have the Bunbury Outer Ring Road – so you are looking at about 1400 to 1500 new jobs generated and we need to plan for that.”