Ali Wastie is CEO of Bass Coast Shire, south-east of Melbourne, which features spectacular beaches, wetlands and bush reserves and includes Phillip Island, the major towns of Wonthaggi and Inverloch.

Tourism and hospitality are a huge part of our economy, so asking visitors and holiday-homeowners not to visit us is the antithesis of our usual stance. But we must, to protect the health of the region.

We don’t have major hospitals here to provide high-level care to coronavirus patients, so we’ve worked closely with health and emergency management agencies to ensure the message is clearly heard. We even closed all our beaches over Easter so people would stay away.

Many people avoided Gippsland during summer due to the bushfires, which brought some local businesses to their knees, now COVID-19 threatens them further. In response, we’ve implemented a $1 million community and business recovery package, waiving permit fees, offering rent relief, and providing grants to assist local sport, recreation and arts groups. Rate deferment is also available.

Our community has been quite awe-inspiring – neighbours are being so kind to one another, especially towards elderly and differently abled residents. That’s very heartening to see.

I see this as an opportunity to build resilience in regional Australia and increase our reliance on local resources rather than looking elsewhere. Everyone is becoming more comfortable working from home, so in future people won’t need to travel several hours to attend meetings or commute long distances to offices. They will be able to live and work in Bass Coast shire (and other regional towns) because they know they can still access everything they need from here.

Ali Wastie
Chief Executive Officer
Bass Coast Shire