In one sense, Bowral has been in decline. It’s not the shopping mecca that it used to be, attracting ‘shopping tours’ to our mix of once interesting specialty shops and cafes.

As greedy landlords have sought to raise rents to match, or better, Sydney/Bondi Junction/Oxford Street/Double Bay rents, many of the more interesting, specialty retail businesses have been forced to failure, being replaced by mostly ‘national brands’.

As one of these specialty shop owners said to me, on closing, Bowral has become “a bloody Westfield without a roof!”

This situation has been compounded by the limited availability of parking spaces, and the ruthless enforcement of parking infringements.

Parking is a major reason why the Mittagong Market Place has been so successful.

However, recent developments maybe will work to reverse this decline. The Mill and the revamp of Dirty Jane’s, even Harris Farm, are conspicuous, encouraging examples, but, at the same time, we hear of the inevitable approval of the Kmart that would become the devastating ‘entrance’ to Bowral from the south.

I’m disturbed that our council seems to have no overarching view of how Bowral should develop, with many past examples of them ‘selling out’ to mates/developers.

In the last couple of weeks I have visited both Leura and Berry to compare the retail scene. Both were seriously booming as retail locations. Even discounting their natural tourist attractions, they made Bowral look like a ghost town.

The future of Bowral needs a complete rethink, as a matter of urgency. Tulip Time is of limited local significance, especially now it competes with Floriade in Canberra, and is dominated by tourists with little or no interest in local businesses.

So many other regional towns have embraced some sort of nationally significant event, such as Parkes and the Elvis Festival,  or the Tamworth Country Music Festival.

Then we need a strategy to manage the transition, with hard evidence about the consequences of the various outcomes. 

The community needs to have an open debate about these very important structural challenges. Once decided, the community needs to, somehow, own it, and drive it.

Yet, who is going to lead this, and drive it? What about a Bowral Community Forum, perhaps driven by the Combined Southern Highlands Chambers of Commerce?

But the council should be particularly concerned. I have been most impressed by councils such as the Byron Shire Council, which has had a very focused and specific view of what the region should look like and how it should develop. They have blocked many commercial developments, such has fast food outlets, and enforced many building codes, including height restrictions. Opportunistic developers have been a no-no!

Unfortunately, it seems that groups such as ColesWorth have been able to have their way with our local council, even though ALDI has been able to open in both Mittagong and Bowral. So far, Woolworths have failed to kill off IGA in Moss Vale – but perhaps, with the Land and Environment Court, it is just a matter of time.

It is our community. We all have views and concerns about what our community can and should be. Let’s encourage a debate about where to next.