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Business View Oceania - October/November 2017
full suite of assets, healthcare control
and maintenance, and responsibility
for our 1200 population.” A population
Fardon explains, is fairly steady, and
certainly not diminishing; the incoming
retirees seeking haven from the bustle
of their larger towns have seen to that,
as has as the increase in the Noongar
population via Australian’s “Return to
Country” program.
“The retirees are coming in from met-
ropolitan areas, looking for affordable
housing, safe community, as well as an
actual sense of community.” Indeed
this demographic is where growth has
stemmed in last decade of the Shire’s
existence.
Looking more microscopically, the
council itself operates the Shire’s ad-
ministration, its medical practice, a
childcare centre and a youth centre.
This is all while striving to maintain the
park and the area’s amenities (such as
the waste transfer facility), and help-
ing landowners comply to land-related
state legislation.
The time he’s spent on the council
has meant Fardon has seen the en-
trance and exits of many an elected
member, and as it stands today, the
Council operates a collective team of
around 40 staff, which in itself set the
council as an important employer with-
in a small community.
Of the economy at large, Fardon it-
erates the town’s predominantly agri-
cultural drive and in particular “cereal
canola and legume crops, a few sheep
and cattle and an emerging small san-
dalwood industry.”
U
pkeep and
D
evelopment
Sustainable practises
The council does employ an environ-
mental officer whoworks with likemind-
ed shires on sustainable practises in-
cluding offset planting, re-vegetation
projects and nature reserve projects.
The natural essence of what makes
this shire what it is, most certainly
does not linger on the side of being
taken for granted.
Caravan park
The refurbishment of the caravan
park has been a recent and positive
contributor to the community’s econo-
my. The park’s total rebuild had been
in the planning for five to six years.
“The car park was in particularly poor
condition, and the general facilities did
not comply with current legislation for
caravan and camping areas,” says Far-
don
$900,000 was streamed into this
project, with a further $300,000 ear-
marked for three new self-contained
cottages (subject to external funding).
But that was not all. The caravan park
refurbishment connected to a wider
web of infrastructure improvement, al-
lowing the council the chance to over-
haul the town sewerage scheme and