Live Charters Towers ambassador, Catherine McCabe, chats to Neil from The Regional 250 about her life living and working in the Charters Towers region.
On March 9th, 2023, our Live Charters Towers ambassador, Catherine, had a great conversation with Neil from The Regional 250, discussing the changes happening in Charters Towers and what it's like to be living here during this growth period.
The Regional 250 is a podcast that aims to tell the stories of the over 10 million Australians that live outside of major metropolitan cities and suburbs. Over 250 episodes, Neil will interview 250 Australians living rurally, talking about their town, their region, and their story. Charters Towers was lucky enough to snag the big 100th Episode.
"The most surprising thing about Charters Towers is the period of change it's going through at the moment. I'd even go so far as to say that its the most change we've had in 150 years since we were declared a goldfields town."
Catherine shares with Neil the many reasons for the current growth happening in Charters Towers, with the first being that gold prices are favourable at the moment. This is great for our mining industry, which has been the founding pillar of the economic base of the town and is what brings many families to town in the first instance. Catherine also mentions that beef prices have remained consistently high over the last few years, which is wonderful for the agricultural side of our town. This, in turn, has a flow on effect, fueling our education sector as many cattle families send their children to one of the three local boarding schools.
"Probably, the biggest, and certainly most visible change in Charters Towers would be the development that is happening, called Goldtower Central."
Catherine goes on to discuss the developments at Goldtower Central - a large precinct on the eastern side of town that is currently in the construction phase. Built for light industrial, commercial and retail, Goldtower is already home to a number of tenants following the first phase of construction. Goldtower has attracted the second largest Harvey Norman in inland Australia, and has also enabled a local hardware store to grow into a Mitre 10 with the convenience of drive-through service for our tradesman.
To hear about these topics and so much more, you can listen to Episode 100 here: https://pod.co/250/catherine-mccabe-charters-towers