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Business View Oceania - October/November 2017
Marcia as well as going through long
periods of recovering from mining and
tourism downturns,” Ludwig laments.
Projects
Ludwig was first Mayor of Living-
stone from 2000 to 2008, and was
voted in again in 2013 – in time for
the de-amalgamation – and has re-
mained the governing elected leader
since. Fittingly, his perspective and in-
sight on the district and its many pro-
jects are thorough to say the least, and
his approach to servicing the wants
and needs of his electors is inspiring-
ly open and forthcoming. Recalling his
time on trying to get the foreshore pro-
ject off the ground, Ludwig tell us:
“I told people to dream what they
want here, and what they want from
the project, and then my job would be
to go and find the money.
“It’s a great philosophy to have I
think, to not limit people. There are
things you can achieve even without a
lot of money. You just need thoughtful
design and to get the synergy right. I’m
encouraging people to strive for excel-
lence.”
Ludwig is a firm believer that with well
thought out infrastructure, not only is
his council creating social amenities,
but they are making the town more
and more attractive for people to
come and live there. He states “This is
the key to private sector investment, if
you get your transport corridors right,
and get things like water, sewage and
other key infrastructure in place, what
naturally follows is that private sector
investment. It comes where we cre-
ate opportunities.” So what exactly
is some of the infrastructure develop-
ment going on at the moment?
P
anorama
D
rive
Once the Shire had de-amalgamated,
and started to get the ground running
on its infrastructure projects, Panora-
ma Drive was the first major project
the Council went for funding for. It’s an
entirely new road link to cost an esti-
mated $31.5 million, and will connect
the Shire’s northern suburbs of Yep-
poon with access to nearby resources,
while also relieving traffic congestion.
The drive also provides an alternative
emergency access route in times of
major disaster, which following the trail
of destruction left by cyclone Marcia,
would be hugely beneficial should dis-
aster strike again.
“In politics, people really focus on the
first 100 days that someone is in pow-
er. Day 99 is when we got the grant we
applied for. It was a great coup for us
to get a grant that size, that early in
new council,” Ludwig extols. Indeed in
April 2014 the state government com-
mitted to contributing to 50% of the
projected project costs, up to $15 mil-
lion, through its Royalty for Regions
Funding – an initiative committed to
developing Western Australia’s region-
al areas.