Hedlow Aspiration Makes Horse Sense

Not sure if my column in the paper is now going to be Saturday or Mondays. Anyway the below aspiration was in todays paper. Hope you find it interesting and feel free to comment.

The horse came to a brief stop its chest heaving after the series of jumps, the rider pressed his knees in tighter and with a little urging the four bar high jump with water trap on the other side widens in the horses eyes.

The ex-Olympian rider, now teacher, leans forward in the saddle as the horse clears the jump and water hazard.  The attentive secondary school girls are impressed.  The Rockhampton Girls Grammar School Equestrian class was gaining an international reputation and following, particularly out of Asia.  Justifying the brave entrepreneurial decision the school board took several years beforehand to co-develop an equestrian residential community at Hedlow.

The strategy was to develop an international standard equestrian centre to attract more students, both nationally and internationally.  By making the equestrian centre the hub of an acreage residential estate the costs and profits of the development could be shared amongst the financiers of the project.  Hedlow was identified as an ideal site, its picturesque beauty, volcanic plugs, lake and creeks made it ideal for an acreage lifestyle along with the planned horse trails, walking and cycling tracks.

The Bruce Highway by-pass of Rockhampton and the improvements to the Greenlakes Road, now the major route into Yeppoon and Byfield also made the acreage blocks attractive to buyers, despite the must own horse covenant.  The spin-offs from the Equestrian Centre was not only an increase in student numbers at Rockhampton Girls Grammar School, but the centre was hosting show jumping events, holiday classes and tourists wanting to explore the Hedlow district on horseback.  Land set aside for boutique horse related businesses and accommodation was now seeing construction taking place.  The CQ University Australia Rockhampton campus was also benefiting from enrolments in the new Bachelor of Equine Science Degree and their access to the Centre.  The Capricorn Regional Council was also busy with applications for more residential development along Greenlakes Road, remaining sensitive to Hedlow’s unique eco riches and potential.

This aspiration can happen if we make it happen. Our future is not to see but to create. Do nothing and what will CQ be like after the resource boom? We need to show how CQ can continue to make a significant contribution to the state and nations economy after the boom. Justifying the major infrastructure investment required now to help make CQ the region we aspire to.