A Tale of Two Towns: Policy and action in the Bathurst-Orange growth centres: A case of perceptions, politics and power in centrally commanded regional policy planning

Abstract

In October 1972 the N.S.W. Government announced it had selected the two central western towns of Bathurst and Orange as the State's pilot growth centre. Subsequently the Federal Government joined in the project and a public Development Corporation was imposed to implement the program. Ultimately the project failed dismally to achieve its stated goals and has been extinguished slowly over many years. This study seeks to document and explain the rise and fall of the Bathurst-Orange growth centre. Given that the centre started life as a political contrivance and was prosecuted on the basis of centrally commanded policy planning, the pervading theme of this work concerns the relationship between politics and planning: how the perceptions, imperatives and power relationships of political, bureaucratic, community and other actors meld to determine planning policy and action. The case is presented in four parts. The first three examine the selection, implementation and demise respectively of the growth centre. The fourth comprises an inquest over the corpse.