Sunshine Coast - Australian Cultural and Creative Activity: A Population and Hotspot Analysis - QUT
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Australian Cultural and Creative Activity:
A Population and Hotspot Analysis
Sunshine
Coast
Australian Cultural and Creative Activity:
A Population and Hotspot Analysis
Sunshine Coast
This report is an output of an Australian Research Council Linkage project (LP160101724) led by Queensland University of Technology in partnership with
the University of Newcastle, Arts Queensland, Create NSW, Creative Victoria, Arts South Australia and the WA Department of Culture and the Arts.
Suggested citation: Cunningham, S., McCutcheon, M., Hearn, G., Ryan, M. D. and Collis, C. (2019). Australian Cultural and Creative Activity: A Population and
Hotspot Analysis: Cairns. Brisbane. Digital Media Research Centre. Available https://research.qut.edu.au/creativehotspots/wp-
content/uploads/sites/258/2019/11/Report-Sunshine-Coast-FINAL-20191021-Reduced-web.pdf
Strategic summary
The Sunshine Coast (unless otherwise specified, Sunshine Coast refers to the region which includes
both Sunshine Coast and Noosa council areas) is a classic regional hotspot. In many respects, the
Sunshine Coast has assets that make it the “Goldilocks” of Queensland hotspots: “the agility of the
region and our collaborative nature is facilitated by the fact that we're not too big, not too
small - 330,000 people” (Paddenburg, 2019); “We are in that perfect little bubble of just right of
about everything” (Erbacher 2019).
The Sunshine Coast has one of the fastest-growing economies in Australia. Its population is booming
and its local governments are working together to establish world-class communications, transport
and health infrastructure, while maintaining the integrity of the region’s much-lauded environment
and lifestyle. As a result, the Sunshine Coast Council is regarded as a pioneer on smart city initiatives,
while Noosa Shire Council has built a reputation for prioritising sustainable development.
The region’s creative economy is growing at a faster rate that of the rest of the economy—in terms
of job growth, earnings, incomes and business registrations. These gains, however, are not spread
uniformly. Creative Services (that is, the advertising and marketing, architecture and design, and
software and digital content sectors) are flourishing, while Cultural Production (music and
performing arts, publishing and visual arts) is variable, with visual and performing arts growing while
film, television and radio and publishing have low or no growth.
The spirit of entrepreneurialism amongst many creatives in the Sunshine Coast was similar to what
we witnessed in other hotspots: a spirit of not necessarily relying on institutions, seeking out
alternative income sources, and leveraging networks. How public agencies can better harness that
energy and entrepreneurialism could be a focus for ongoing strategy. There does seem to be a
lower level of arts and culture funding going into the Sunshine Coast from governments than its
population base and cultural and creative energy might suggest. Federal and state arts funding
programs are under-delivering to the Sunshine Coast.
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There is a well-established and highly successful Innovation and Entrepreneurship framework that
should stand as a model for other regions. Given the range of cultural and creative enterprise
development occurring often outside this system, there is further opportunity to incorporate such
activity into the system.
Population growth and major infrastructure development on the Sunshine Coast has driven
investment and business growth. Given this, there could be greater focus on leveraging these
fundamental growth assets to promote the role of cultural and creative activity in social and
economic development.
The Sunshine Coast region is home to a full spectrum of cultural and creative activity, ranging from
fully-publicly-funded and council-managed galleries and festivals through to fully commercial media
companies, architects and a growing cohort of software developers and designers. Between those
ends of the spectrum, hybrid models are emerging. Given this range, there may be a need for
greater clarity around the rationale for support and the outcomes expected for fully publicly-funded
arts and culture.
Tourism, of course, is one of the biggest industries in the region and one that contributes centrally to
its identity. But there seemed to be an underdeveloped sense of its potential to open opportunities
for cultural and creative activity, and vice versa. Cairns and the Gold Coast have shown that
Indigenous cultural attractions, for example, are proven tourism assets. The Central West is fully
committed to cultural infrastructure as a crucial part of the tourism offer. There is a significant
opportunity for the Sunshine Coast’s potential in cultural tourism to be further developed.
Given the ever-increasing public, private and philanthropic resources going into health, there is an
opportunity for greater strategy and planning based on the well evidenced role that cultural and
creative inputs can make into health and wellbeing.
Sunshine Coast officials and community leaders are right to extoll the “just-right” (“Goldilocks”)
nature of their region in terms of its range of assets. We trust that this report may contribute to
further success in strategy and planning for the development of cultural and creative activity.
We structure this report around three strategic themes: the interrelationships within the sub sectors
of the creative industries; the relationship of cultural and creative activity to the wider economy;
and comparative perspectives on hotspots.
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Contents
Strategic summary .................................................................................................................................. 1
Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................. 4
Background and context ......................................................................................................................... 5
Strategic theme 1 Interrelationships across the sub sectors of the creative industries ...................... 11
Strategic theme 2: The relationship of cultural and creative activity to the wider economy .............. 17
Strategic theme 3: Comparative perspectives on hotspots.................................................................. 25
References ............................................................................................................................................ 27
Appendix A.1 Creative employment by place of work, Noosa and Sunshine Coast, 2016 .................. 29
Appendix A.2 Total earnings by place of work, Noosa and Sunshine Coast, 2016 .............................. 30
Appendix A.3 Total earnings by place of work, Noosa and Sunshine Coast, 2016 .............................. 31
Appendix B Creative industry employment, Noosa and Sunshine Coast, 2016 .................................. 32
Appendix C.1 Creative industry employment by ANZSIC4 category, Queensland hotspots ............... 33
Appendix C.1 Creative industry employment by ANZSCO category, Queensland hotspots................ 34
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Acknowledgements
The research team gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the following people and organisations
for providing the information and insights that made this report possible:
Peter Allen, musician
Michael Brennan, Noosa Regional Gallery
Calli Burnett, photographer
Philippe Ceulen, Creative Enterprise Australia
Sam Coward, HOT91.1 and XS Entertainment
Claudia Di Blasi, Sunshine Coast Council
Michael Doneman, Edgeware Creative Entrepreneurship
Anthony Dow, Noosa Shire Council
Kate Edmiston, Creative Alliance
Adam Erbacher, Film Tree
Phil Graham, University of the Sunshine Coast
Nicole Jordan, Creative Enterprise Australia
Glenda Johnson, Arts Queensland
Anne Lawrence, Sunshine Coast Council
Santiago Maldonado, Latitude Zero
Alison Mooney, Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre (at the time of interview)
Mark Paddenburg, Sunshine Coast Innovation Centre
Cara Robinson, musician
Alicia Sharples, Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre
Phil Smith, Creative Arts Alliance, architect
Zohar Spatz, Horizon Festival
Coby Sullivan, #SCRIPT
Roger Todd, architect
Santiago Maldonado, Latitude Zero
Simon Van Der Spoel, Seven Network
John Waldron, Blue Sky View and Makeway Lab
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Background and context
Noosa Shire—different by nature (Noosa Shire Council, 2018a).
Australia’s most sustainable region - Healthy, Smart, Creative is Sunshine Coast
Council’s corporate vision for the region (Sunshine Coast Council, 2018a, p. 12).
The Noosa Shire and Sunshine Coast Councils were established as separate local governments on 1
January 2014, following the 2008 amalgamation of the Caloundra, Maroochy and Noosa councils and
subsequent campaigning by Noosa residents for independence. Although the economies of the two
local government areas are closely intertwined, they have distinct place identities that reflect their
heritage, the people who live there and their economic development. The Sunshine Coast is
represented in promotional and other material as being family-friendly and lifestyle-oriented locale,
with a vibrant beach culture and dynamic music scene—and an increasingly strong and growing
economy. Noosa, on the other hand, is a premium tourism destination with strict development
controls that prioritises its environmental and built heritage. Both local government areas are well-
known for their cultural and music festivals and both have an interest in nurturing their creative
industries, in recognition of their role in attracting and retaining the skilled and talented individuals
that they anticipate will be important for the future of their respective economies.
Population
The populations of Noosa and the Sunshine Coast are vastly different in size and in the rates at
which they are growing. At more than 300,000, the Sunshine Coast’s population is more than 40
times the size of that of Noosa and is growing at nearly twice the rate (Appendix A). The Sunshine
Coast Council expects its population to reach 500,000 within 20 years (Australian Bureau of
Statistics, 2016; Sunshine Coast Council, 2018a).
Despite their size differences, the demographic profiles of the two council areas are very similar.
For example, with an average age of 45 and 42 years respectively, their residents are both older than
the average Queenslander at 38 years, and the proportions of people with school, trade and
university qualifications, and people with Indigenous heritage are almost identical. In both council
areas young people experience high unemployment relative to the rest of the population (Figure 1),
even though significant numbers leave in their 20s for study and work (Figure 2). The somewhat
higher youth unemployment rate in the Sunshine Coast compared with the higher youth
unemployment ratio in Noosa points to a slightly greater proportion of young people in Noosa
studying or in training while not working at the time of the last census (Appendix A).
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Figure 1 Demographic profile, Noosa and Sunshine Coast local government areas
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016)
People with creative qualifications on the Sunshine Coast are younger. The proportion of people
with creative qualifications, however, does differ across the two local council areas, reflecting the
changing economic dynamics of the Sunshine Coast, and the increasing cost of living in Noosa. Noosa
has higher proportions of people with creative qualifications in the 40-49 to 60-69 age groups,
making it a mini-Byron Bay, while the Sunshine Coast, with its flourishing economic opportunities,
has higher proportions in the 20-29 and 30-39 year age groups (Figure 3).
Figure 2 Population by age, 2016 Figure 3 Proportion of population with creative
qualifications by age, 2016
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016) Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016)
Geography
Three parallel strips define the Sunshine Coast. Located immediately to the north of Brisbane, the
Sunshine Coast extends from a developed and urban coastline with popular tourist beaches to the
hinterland of the Blackall Range and its country towns, rainforest and farming land.
Entrepreneurship and innovation coach and creative broker Michael Doneman (2019) described how
the region’s spatial geography has determined its socioeconomics, with a dense urban footprint on
the coast, a chain of more affordable redevelopment along the railway line (the “railway towns”),
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and communities dotted through the hinterland. These three vertical strips are visible on the
Queensland government’s map of key resources in South-East Queensland (Figure 4). The coastal
strip is more expensive, with affordability under pressure from tourism, retirees and new estates,
while the hinterland has seen relatively little development. Following a period of economic
downturn with the collapse of old industries, the railway towns are now attracting core creative
practitioners as they are being reshaped for more affordable living and locations for new forms of
enterprise.
The Sunshine Coast is also “a village of villages,” with towns maintaining a strong sense of their
own identity: “the Sunshine Coast is hyperlocal, with 18 villages with completely different cultures”
(P. Graham, 2019). Radio announcer Sam Coward said locals “don’t cross the river” and will not
travel far for entertainment, “which is handy if you're wanting to tour a little production because
you know you're not going to be pinching audiences” (Coward, 2019). Claudia Di Blasi from the
Sunshine Coast Council said that the council arts plan deals with this by focussing on the creation of
cultural hubs, providing experiences in the places people live (Di Blasi, 2019).
But the geography makes fashioning a vision that embraces the whole region harder. Critical
cultural infrastructure is underdeveloped and spatially dispersed, although there are definite plans
for signature developments (new gallery and artists’ working spaces) in Caloundra and cultural
activation of spaces in the new Maroochydore CBD.
The proximity of Brisbane has little pull for locals. Despite its proximity, Brisbane doesn’t have a big
pull for people living on the Sunshine Coast, with unreliable rail connections and an inadequate
highway diluting the gravitational pull of the state capital. According to Claudia Di Blasi (2019) , most
would only commute for significant reasons—and this is supported by 2016 census data that shows
that 82.7 per cent of employed people resident in the region work there.
However, there is a perception on the Sunshine Coast that the region is too close to Brisbane to
justify large-scale expenditure in arts and cultural infrastructure such as performing arts complexes
because potential patrons travel to Brisbane for those experiences. Remote regions such as Cairns,
of course, don’t have this “problem”, and have invested strongly in cultural infrastructure, but more
pertinently the Gold Coast, which is closer to Brisbane, and has better road and rail connectivity, has
invested strongly in cultural infrastructure. Sunshine Coast Council is challenging this perception
with plans to build a new gallery in Caloundra and to further develop the Horizon Festival.
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Figure 4 Key resource areas on the Sunshine Coast
Source: DILGP (2017)
Economy
The Noosa and the Sunshine Coast economy generates more than six per cent of Queensland’s
gross regional product and is growing strongly, by as much as five per cent per annum (Table 1).
The Sunshine Coast Council is focussed on cultivating economic growth and driving growth in
employment—particularly for young people who might have been able to study locally but had to
leave to find work (Di Blasi, 2019). At his 2018 State of the Region Address, Sunshine Coast Mayor
Mark Jamieson highlighted the gains being made as the Sunshine Coast economy grew—household
incomes, employment, building approvals and tourism had all increased, while the health of the local
population was among the best in the state (Sawyer, 2018). Growth has been an impetus for
business on the Sunshine Coast, with the new opportunities flowing from population growth and
infrastructure development “resetting the social order” and “activating” the city (Salt, 2017).
Table 1 Economic indicator summary, Queensland creative hotspot study areas, 2016 unless otherwise
indicated
Population GRP, 2017-28 Total Total
employed businesses
Noosa Measure 52,147 $2,819m 22,011 22,422
Avg annual growth 1.3% 3.0% 1.5% 0.5%
% of state 1.1% 0.9% 1.0% 1.6%
Sunshine Measure 294,365 $15,744m 129,634 99,973
Coast Avg annual growth 2.5% 5.0% 2.6% 1.7%
% of state 6.3% 5.2% 6.1% 7.1%
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018), .id (2018), .id (2019 ) Regional
Australia Institute (2014)
The largest industry in the Sunshine Coast is health care and social assistance, in terms both of
people employed and value added, followed by construction, retail, and education and training,
reflecting its status as a growing community (Figure 5). The Sunshine Coast is also a popular tourism
destination, with tourism ranking as its fourth-largest industry in terms of value add (Figure 11).
In comparison, sustainability is a focus for Noosa Shire and ensuring that growth does not
adversely impact its environment is a priority. Economic development is considered hand-in-hand
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with environmental protection, with the prevailing attitude being to avoid growth at any cost.
According to Noosa Shire Council’s Economic Development Manager Anthony Dow (2019): “I think
it's important to consider the position of Noosa, which is obviously the environmental credentials
and Noosa attracts a certain interest and population and community spirit. So economic
development within that context is really starting to mature in Noosa and evolve”.
Tourism is by far Noosa’s most significant business sector, contributing 11.6 per cent of its total
value add and 15.3 per cent of its employment. Its top two industries in terms of employment are
accommodation and food and retail trade, while construction is its largest in terms of value add,
reflecting demand by local residents as well as travellers for the Noosa lifestyle (Appendices A and
B).
Figure 5 Economic indicators by ANZSIC division, Noosa and Sunshine Coast
Note: An interactive version of this figure for each LGA is available at http://research.qut.edu.au/creativehotspots
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), Australian Business Register (2019), .id (2019 )
Creative economy
The creative economy is growing—and it is growing faster than the rest of the economy. In both
Noosa and the Sunshine Coast, growth in all creative economy measures—employment, earnings,
mean incomes and active business registrations— was stronger than the economy as a whole. For
example, between the census years of 2011 and 2016, employment in creative roles increased by an
annual average of 4.3 per cent, while total employment increased by 4.2 (Appendix A).
Growth in the creative economy is not distributed uniformly, with gains most apparent in
architecture and design, software and digital content and music and performing arts. Between the
census years of 2011 and 2016, employment of architecture and design specialists grew by an
annual average of 6.1 per cent, the software and digital content specialists by 7.6 per cent and
performing arts specialists by 13.3 per cent, well above average employment growth at 4.2 per cent.
Other areas of strong growth included specialists embedded in other industries: software and digital
content workers at 9.0 per cent, advertising and marketing workers at 5.6 per cent and musicians
and performers at 5.9 per cent. Growth in employment in other creative industry sectors was
generally well below average. The trend in business registrations is similar, although there is no
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employment within existing organisations.
Visual and performing arts businesses and architecture and design businesses are less likely and
software and digital content businesses are more likely to be registered for GST that other creative
businesses. That is, visual and performing arts and architecture and design businesses are less likely
to earn sales above the GST registration threshold of $75,000 per year (Figure 6). These are also the
industries and occupations that earn the lowest mean incomes (Appendix A).
Figure 6 Employment, total earnings and mean income compared with business registrations, 2011 to 2016,
Sunshine Coast and Noosa
Note: An interactive version of this figure is available at http://research.qut.edu.au/creativehotspots
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), Australian Business Register (2019)
Geographically, the region’s creative industries are concentrated along the three north-south
strips of development, as can be seen impressionistically by mapping census employment data
(Appendix B). The coastal strip, with the Maroochydore CBD is home to the advertising and
marketing, and film, TV and radio industries. The architecture and design and software and digital
content industries have similar footprints, with a presence in the Noosa hinterland, Peregian and
Maroochydore. People working in the cultural production industries are more likely to be located
away from the coast. Those working in the publishing industry are concentrated in the
Eumundi/Yandina area, while those in visual and performing arts are generally located in the
hinterland. While Noosa was a magnet for artists and cultural practitioners aligned with the
environmental and social movements of the 1980s and 1990s (Noosa Shire Council, 2018b), its
increasing attractiveness as a tourism destination has pushed up property prices, forcing many
practitioners into the hinterland and the inland villages of the Sunshine Coast.
Local government policy context
Population growth and major infrastructure development on the Sunshine Coast has driven
investment and business growth. With a population increasing by an annual average of 2.5 per cent
between the census years of 2011 and 2016, and gross regional product growing in the order of 5.0
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foster local-global connections and opportunities for business growth (Sunshine Coast Council, 2013,
2018b). The Sunshine Coast Airport has been expanded to support international flights, leasing
airport operations to a commercial partner and plans to connect it to Caloundra with a light rail link.
A new Maroochydore Central Business District has been developed on a greenfield site next to the
existing town centre, and is offering new office and residential space, and with international
connectivity via an international submarine broadband cable. At Kawana, a new public hospital and
a recently completed building program at the University of the Sunshine Coast are also stimulating
business activity in the region. Outside these areas, in 2017 the council commissioned a 15MW solar
farm, west of Coolum, to offset all of its own electricity consumption (Jamieson, 2017; Salt, 2017).
As a result of its infrastructure initiatives, the Sunshine Coast Council is regarded as a pioneer on
smart city initiatives (Yigitcanlar, Kamruzzaman, Buys, & Perveen, 2018). In 2017 Infrastructure
Australia listed the Sunshine Coast as one of five cities in addition to the state capitals that will drive
productivity in Australia, and in 2019 it was ranked as one the Intelligent Community Forum’s top
seven intelligent communities of 2019, based on its performance in innovation, entrepreneurship,
creativity and sustainable energy solutions (Jamieson, 2017; "Region’s brilliance recognised on world
stage in New York," 2019).
Noosa Shire Council’s approach to regional development differs to that of the Sunshine Coast, with it
strategically growing priority industry sectors to maintain its urban footprint and cap its population.
For Noosa, finding ways to diversify its economy away from tourism, retail and construction is
imperative (Noosa Shire Council, 2015, p. 8). According to Economic Development Manager Anthony
Dow, Sunshine Coast Council is doing a “great job on leading” infrastructure development in the
region, while the Peregian Digital Hub means Noosa can benefit from “having the natural
environment and then the infrastructure”.
Given all this, there could be greater focus on leveraging these fundamental growth assets to
promote the role of cultural and creative activity in social and economic development.
Strategic theme 1
Interrelationships across the sub sectors of the creative industries
The Sunshine Coast region is home to a full spectrum of cultural and creative activity, ranging from
fully-publicly-funded and council-managed galleries and festivals (for example, the Noosa Regional
Art Gallery and the Horizon and Caloundra Music Festivals) through to fully-commercial media
companies, architects and a growing cohort of software developers (for example, Network Seven
Sunshine Coast and its production hub for the rest of regional Queensland). Between those ends of
the spectrum, hybrid models are emerging—for example, arts centres that are publicly underwritten
with base funding, but are to at least some extent covering their operating costs (Cooroy Butter
Factory Arts Centre, The Old Ambulance Station in Nambour) and co-working spaces for emerging
and high-tech start-up companies (the Peregian Digital Hub).
With such an array of support and business models, different views of what the creative industries
represent are at play on the Sunshine Coast. On the one hand, the creative industries are seen as
high-tech and scalable digital businesses that have enormous commercial potential to contribute to
economic development (Brennan, 2019; Di Blasi, 2019). Professor Phil Graham, for example, pointed
to the development of Sunshine Coast University’s Creative Industries program as an important new
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hand, from a creative arts perspective, it is seen as an “ecology that includes everything from sole
traders and independent artists to cultural institutions like galleries, museums and performing arts
centres” and that is reliant on subsidisation and is being encouraged to become more commercial
(Rowland, 2019). The Horizon Festival, for example, is explicitly about social inclusion and
community building, connecting the diverse communities of the Sunshine Coast through the arts.
Given this range, there is a need for greater clarity around the rationale for support and the
outcomes expected for fully publicly-funded arts and culture.
The Horizon Festival’s rationale for public funding should rest on social indicators as much as cultural
indicators. To what extent do projects like it reach out beyond the more affluent coastal population
to the young families living further inland who make up a significant proportion of population
growth? How do they factor in the needs of the widely different demographics of lifestyle retirees,
school-age and postschool/post-compulsory education youth, and young welfare families?
There is also a generational shift in the people who engage with the arts and culture and how they
do so, with Phil Smith observing that it is becoming harder to get creatives involved in participating
as audiences or facilitators than it should be. There is evidence that significant differences,
stereotypes and prejudices in attitudes to arts, culture and creative industries risk alienation of some
practitioners and lost opportunities for collaboration. Although the sectors we have observed in the
region do encompass the full spectrum of the creative industries, there is little recognition at an
institutional level of the opportunities that may arise from building tighter connections across the
sectors. There is a community of creatives, “makers” and createch entrepreneurs who are emerging
independently of the Sunshine Coast’s institutions—and an increasing recognition of the need to
make entrepreneurship training available to cultural practitioners in addition to supporting higher-
tech start-ups (Paddenburg, 2019; Smith, 2019).
Councils’ arts and culture focus and strategy
With the economic development policies of both the Noosa Shire and Sunshine Coast councils
focussed on growing innovative tech-focussed creative businesses, the arts and culture activities of
the two councils are managed under separate strategic plans, alongside the state-appointed
Regional Arts Service Network provider, the Creative Arts Alliance, which develops limited programs
on an even more limited budget.
The Sunshine Coast Council’s first-ever Arts Plan 2018-2038 was developed in consultation with
more than 1000 local artists and arts sector workers, led by the Sunshine Coast Arts Advisory Board.
The plan defines the role to be taken by the council on arts and culture projects as: “facilitator,
advocate, partner, provider, asset owner, investor, information and service provider and creative
leader” (Sunshine Coast Council, 2018a, p. 17).
A centrepiece is the Horizon Festival, which was launched in 2016. In January 2019 it renewed its
commitment to the festival until 2023, increasing its budget (in recognition of the festival’s lack of
success in raising grants and analysis showing a direct correlation between festival participation and
monies expended) and adopting a new Horizon Development Plan 2019-23. Included are social
inclusion and wellbeing objectives; pathways for local artists to develop content, skills and networks;
unique arts experiences that engage and inspire; strong social and community benefits for Sunshine
Coast residents; and direct economic impact and tourism benefits. Planning includes the
development of key festival hubs (including using the new Maroochydore CBD), one key blockbuster
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opportunities.
Noosa adopted its five-year Cultural Plan 2019-2023 in December 2018, with the council needing
time to re-establish its planning processes after its de-amalgamation in 2015. The plan takes
“culture” to include vocational and recreational arts, the more commercial creative industries and
cultural heritage. With the plan referring to “a collaborative and supportive [community who] will
readily work together to produce an activity or event” Noosa Shire Council does not run festivals or
events, with the focus of the plan being the cultural infrastructure managed by council, its gallery,
multi-use theatre and its libraries (Noosa Shire Council, 2018b).
Councils’ galleries and arts centres are evolving. One of the more innovative aspects of cultural
policy and planning on the Sunshine Coast includes a shift from social enterprise to business
enterprise. Both the Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre and The Old Ambulance Station in Nambour
encourage artists and cultural producers to commercialise their work, thereby progressing their
artistic careers rather than simply renting gallery space, while also contributing to their local
communities by running workshops and courses. Another aspect of their evolution is the networking
and coordination between the centres—they do not operate in isolation, but cooperate within a
regional network that extends from Noosa to Caloundra and provides artists with a pathway from
their first exhibition at a regional gallery to the prizes offered and coordinated by the Caloundra and
Noosa regional art galleries (Brennan, 2019; "Calling budding artists," 2018; Mooney & Sharples,
2019).
The Sunshine Coast Council’s two festivals, the Caloundra Music Festival and the Horizon Festival,
are evolving their approaches to social enterprise—although it did appear at the time of our
interviews that the creative community might benefit from a clearer articulation of the council’s role
and interests. Speaking with us soon after the Sunshine Coast Council approved its new Horizon
Festival plan, some interviewees worried that Horizon was failing to deliver promised development
opportunities for the local community, including in social cohesion. The festival’s new curatorial
framework looks to address these points.
The Sunshine Coast Council’s cultural policy needs to connect more strongly with its economic
development policy as the latter works to make the region attractive for business re-location. The
Council will be moving into its new CBD space in the next three to four years and the Creative Arts
Alliance and SunCentral are working together to activate buildings in the new Maroochydore CBD as
cultural spaces as they progressively open for business over the next 20 years. If the new CBD can
facilitate cultural production and consumption dynamics it will make the place more attractive for
business relocation (Di Blasi, 2019; Smith, 2019). The Council’s Arts and Heritage Manager Claudia Di
Blasi (2019) said: “The biggest conversation the economic development team have with me is, we
get people to come here … and they use the attractor of beautiful environment, cheaper to live here
than to live in a big city. [B]ut when the people come here, what do they do? What do they do on
their weekends? … [M]y child's interested in the arts, what is there for them? What are the school
programs and the history of the region?”.
Grants programs are arts focused—RASN, RADF and other programs
While local councils are aware of other models of support and engagement, grants continue to be an
important form of income for the sector. Megan Rowland (2019) told us that grant funding is “just as
valid as a pay for product or service model… We expect to hear new music on the radio, we expect
to see art in the galleries with free entry. Who is paying the artist to create these products? Grants,
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or low cost or as part of their everyday.”
We found, however, little evidence that on the ground people had a strong sense of the range of
funding sources available in the region, even though the councils and regional arts organisations
offer regular fora on grants and grant writing. The Refinery’s Coby Sullivan (2019), for example, told
us that it can be difficult to find out how to access funding, that it is not clear where to go and who
to talk to. Those that are familiar with the different funding programs available criticised them for
being insufficient, challenging and bureaucratic—but also gave us conflicting opinions about
whether the local councils were significant funders of the arts or not.
We also found that the available arts funding programs are under-delivering to the Sunshine Coast
(Figure 7). At the federal level, it received Australia Council funding in only two of the last four years
and at the state level, of the eight state-government-run arts funding programs listed on the
Queensland government’s website, only one scheme, the Queensland Arts Showcase Program
(QASP), delivered arts funding to the Sunshine Coast region in the last three years. Last year, in 2018,
the region’s artists received no funding from the Australia Council and four grants under the QASP.
These were all under the Arts Impact category, with three out of the four going to festivals rather
than directly to artists: $8700 for the Nambour Winter Jazz Festival, $15,000 to Sunshine Coast
Council for the indigenous Dawn Awakening festival, $17,000 to artist Meaghan Shelton and $60,000
for the 2019 Sunshine Coast Anywhere Festival (Arts Queensland, 2019).
At the local level, the biggest source of arts grants is the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF), a
funding partnership between the Queensland Government and local government which is
administered by local councils. Total RADF funding expended in the region is significantly greater
than grants expended through the Queensland Arts Showcase Program, with the Sunshine Coast
receiving from the state government a total of $110,000 and Noosa $46,000 per annum (unindexed).
The RADF grant sizes are, however, very small—the mean grant in 2018 was $2,015.
Arts grant funding on the Sunshine Coast
In the first half of 2019, two Sunshine Coast creative practitioners successfully obtained funding from two
government grant programs: Sunshine Coast band Bearfoot received a Queensland Arts Showcase Program
grant of $24,500 to assist them record and release their debut album, and a Sunshine Coast RADF grant of
$1500 to help them expand their reach; and artist and chairmaker Michael Epworth won an Australia Council
grant for Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups of $42,311 and Queensland Arts Showcase Program grant of
$26,000 (Arts Queensland, 2019; Australia Council, 2019; Sunshine Coast Council, 2019).
Grants funding does not represent the entirety of local government subsidisation of creative activity.
For example, Kate Edmiston and Claudia Di Blasi told us about Sunshine Coast Council’s Creative
Spaces program that connects artists to low-cost working and studio spaces, meeting demand for
affordable space to create and collaborate for low-income practitioners. The program operates
across the region/hinterland and is not artwork specific. The council also allocates funds raised
through its heritage levy and parking meters to cultural activities.
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Version 21 October 2019Figure 7 Federal, state and local government arts grants by year (nominal dollars to June 2019)
Total value of grants expended Mean grant per recipient
Note: Excludes Regional Arts Service Network program funding
Sources: Arts Queensland (2019), Australia Council (2019), Noosa Shire Council (2019) and Sunshine Coast Council (2019)
The fourth source of arts and culture support in the region is the Creative Arts Alliance, the Regional
Arts Service Network (RASN) provider, an organisation that spans the breadth of creatives and
chaired/convened currently by Phil Smith, a local architect. Appointed as the RASN provider in 2018,
the Creative Arts Alliance started as a Noosa Council initiative in 2008, then became the Sunshine
Coast Creative Alliance in 2009, before re-establishing as the Creative Arts Alliance in 2018 (Sunshine
Coast Creative Alliance, 2019). Responsible for arts program delivery in six local government areas
north of Brisbane, interviewees regarded it as actively working to develop a strong network between
artists (Waldron, 2019). We saw this at first hand, at a breakfast gathering to launch The Refinery
(see below), the extent to which it effectively networks across the creative spectrum.
In its RASN role, the Creative Arts Alliance is working with very limited resources. We were advised
that it receives $240,000 each year from the state government, from which $120,000 is allocated to
salaries and administration, leaving about $110,000 for program delivery. Even with program
funding being matched by local partners (which may include in-kind funding), this allows for less
than $15,000 to deliver programs in each local government area per year.
A further constraint for the Creative Arts Alliance was explained by Phil Smith (2019). The types of
programs it delivers cannot be generalised for the whole region. While programs need to play to
localised strengths they nevertheless need to expand and become regional programs over two to
three years. This is forcing it to look for opportunities that require little direct investment. One
example is its work with the Sunshine Coast Council to activate spaces for low-income creatives: it is
about to take over the council’s Caloundra Transit Centre to run it as a creative collective with micro-
tenancies and foster a creative leadership program (Edmiston, 2019; Smith, 2019).
Creative careers
With a full spectrum of creative activity and diversity of business models, there is also a variety of
possible creative career pathways in the Sunshine Coast. We encountered several career pathway
models at play:
Busy professionals are fully occupied running their own businesses, contributing to the economy.
These are professionals that risk flying under the radar—they are too busy to participate in
consultation on the policies that might benefit their sector. This career type was exemplified by the
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Version 21 October 2019architects we interviewed—architecture is a particularly strong sector on the Sunshine Coast, and
the most successful practices are working at capacity with high demand for existing properties
(Singer, 2018). It is also the norm in the innovative tech sector, with people fully committed to
growing their businesses and the local economy and increasingly with artists who want to
professionalise and commercialize their practice.
Portfolio careers are necessitated by the precarious nature of creative employment and was the
most common work pattern we observed amongst cultural producers, particularly performers, on
the Sunshine Coast. Examples of portfolio careers are very diverse and include actor and radio
announcer, Sam Coward, who began his career as a live theatre performer. He now combines
working for radio station HOT 91.1 with running an entertainment company, XS Entertainment, that
he co-directs with his wife (Coward, 2019). Musicians Cara Robinson and Hat Fitz are another
example, who became festival organisers after deciding there was not enough live music on the
Sunshine Coast and building a venue on their property to host international and national acts. They
have however “pulled back” on hosting bands, saying it became too large and raised concerns about
insurance and crowd control. For the last three years Robinson has been program consultant for the
Woodford blues stage (Robinson, 2019). And difficulty sourcing ongoing public funding for their
independent opera company Operatif! led Stewart Cameron and Jennifer Parish to start organising
tours of musical events, from Opera on the Harbour in Sydney, to events in Tonga and Italy.
(OPERATIF!, 2019; "Tours with a niche difference," 2018).
The brokers are people with experience who are giving back, contributing to the industries in which
they have deep expertise. We interviewed two important brokers, who are making significant and
positive impacts on the development of the creative industries on the Sunshine Coast. Architect Phil
Smith’s work with the Creative Arts Alliance is a personal passion, part of living a creative life and
giving back to the community (Smith, 2019). Michael Doneman, on the other hand, is not a creative
practitioner, but a businessman and entrepreneurship coach, co-founder of Edgeware Creative
Entrepreneurship and Innovator in residence at Comlink. He has had a deep involvement with
developing The Old Ambulance Station and the revitalisation of Nambour, and has been key in social
entrepreneurship approach, bringing together digital and scientific innovations in creative ways to
address important health and social service challenges (Doneman, 2019).
Publicly-funded arts workers. Although some of our interviewees were somewhat critical of the
money spent on salaries for arts workers while there is so little money available for direct
investment in the arts, publicly-funded arts workers are crucial for coordinating and resourcing
creative activities in the region. Examples of arts workers whose roles are acknowledged as critical
are Alicia Staples from the Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre and the Creative Arts Alliance’s Kate
Edmiston.
Not a career, volunteer. As everywhere, strong informal networks and active community
involvement support the creative industries on the Sunshine Coast, with the museums and council
galleries heavily dependent on volunteers. Kate Edmiston spoke about people who are not
necessarily interested in earning money from their art or professionalising but engage in artistic
practice personally as a form of well-being and to contribute positively to their local community as a
social good. A different community of practitioners was identified by Michael Brennan, director of
the Noosa Regional Gallery, people who identify as artists but have had successful careers
elsewhere, giving them the stability to shift their focus to their art.
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Version 21 October 2019Broadcasting and print media as community pillars and major-scale producers of place
and cultural identity
The Sunshine Coast is an important hub for regional Queensland broadcasting services, with the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Grant Broadcasters and EON Broadcasters operating radio
studios and Network Seven a television studio in Maroochydore, and community broadcasters based
in Buderim. According to Simon Van Der Spoel (2019), a media professional working as one of four
producers for Seven Network Queensland, its Maroochydore studio produces seven news bulletins a
day for the state, local bulletins for Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Wide Bay, Sunshine
Coast and Toowoomba, with live bulletins for the Sunshine Coast region and around 300
advertisements per annum, plus occasional programs extolling the Sunshine Coast lifestyle
broadcast by Seven to the rest of Queensland and Australia. Van Der Spoel also undertakes
documentary filmmaking and photography passion projects in his “spare time.”
The role of broadcast advertising, community-oriented and tourism-related programming
constitute a major-scale contribution to popular perceptions of sense of place, community
belonging and cultural identity.
Despite the presence of the television industry, the Sunshine Coast is lacking a strong screen
production industry. Local audiovisual producer Adam Erbacher (2019), for example, specialises in
corporate videos and commercials and works independently of the television sector, with about 30
per cent of his work coming from businesses based in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. According to
Erbacher, larger companies on the Sunshine Coast would not look inside the region for production
services but would be more likely to look for producers in Brisbane. Cheaper technology costs mean
that the barriers to entering the industry are falling: Erbacher told us he needs to keep up with
technological advancements to improve workflow and quality (Erbacher, 2019).
Strategic theme 2: The relationship of cultural and creative activity to the wider
economy
Creative talent finds the magnet, finds the opportunities that they are inspired and
are passionate about. So for me, it's about opportunities for creators and innovators
(Paddenburg, 2019).
The Sunshine Coast’s highly elaborated “innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem”:
Where are the creative industries?
The innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem developed on the Sunshine Coast is a great success
(see Figure 8). As one example, in 2018 the only successful Queensland businesses in the federal
government’s Entrepreneur’s Programme: Accelerating Commercialisation were from the Sunshine
Coast. The entrepreneurship ecosystem undoubtedly underpins much of the vibrancy of start-up
culture and deserves consideration as a model for other regions.
However, there is a definite gap between arts and culture and start-up culture on the Sunshine
Coast. We stress this is a “good” problem to have, because most regions don’t have the Sunshine
Coast’s elaborated innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The two interface across different
council and government portfolios and personnel, so the silos are very much reflected and
reinforced at the government level. Both the Sunshine Coast Council and Noosa Shire Council
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Version 21 October 2019prioritise developing opportunities for innovative high-tech and digital content activities under their
economic development policies and deal with arts and culture under separate plans. The two
councils are looking at investment in innovation and entrepreneurship for somewhat different
reasons—Sunshine Coast Council sees the high-tech creative sector as important for attracting
investment and driving growth, while Noosa believes it will provide sustainable and
environmentally-friendly economic diversification. But the attitude from the arts side was consistent
across both, that is, that the reputation of the start-up scene is overblown. From the economic
development side, it was that the arts scene was locked into a traditional public funding mindset.
Key here are the sophisticated planning and strategy frameworks of the Innovation Centre Sunshine
Coast, a well-established and nationally-leading regional innovation infrastructure institution, and
the strategic regional development planning being coordinated through the federal/state/local
government #SCRIPT partnership:
The Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast was set up with the aim of retaining talent in the
region and to stop leakage overseas and interstate by providing assistance to launch and
scale businesses. It currently has 33 members, with membership fees starting “at about
$400” (Paddenburg, 2019). With a national profile, the Innovation Centre attracts
entrepreneurs from across the eastern seaboard, attracted by the Sunshine Coast lifestyle.
Established in 2017, the #SCRIPT (Sunshine Coast Regional Innovation Project Team)
program has $1 million in invest over three years in business innovation and tech educators
and training providers. Initiated under the state government regional innovation program,
Advance Queensland, with Regional Development Australia Sunshine Coast, the councils and
31 other local organisations matching funding, #SCRIPT identifies five key areas (pillars) for
focussing its resources: smart cities, food and agribusiness, health and wellbeing,
sustainability and environment, and creative industries (#SCRIPT, 2019; Sullivan, 2019).
The Innovation Centre hosted Demo Days for each of the five industry pillars. For the
creative industries day, the top 10 of about 25 applicants pitched their ideas to about 150
people. According to Innovation Centre CEO Mark Paddenburg, this was a daunting
experience, but the applicants had seen what the program achieved for food an agribusiness
and wanted to learn more about developing business models themselves (Paddenburg,
2019).
Figure 8 There is a clear sense from interviews with the CEO of the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast
Mark Pattenburg and the Sunshine Coast Council’s Head of Industry Advancement Anne Lawrence of
what is being delivered against the first four of the #SCRIPT pillars: smart cities and sustainability and
environment (International Broadband Submarine Cable landing station at Maroochydore, new
Maroochydore CBD with advanced sustainability and environment technologies, activation
strategies around public art/cultural consumption spaces, major upgrade of airport); food and
agribusiness (locally branded produce start ups, proposals for tourism centres); and health and well-
being (new Sunshine Coast hospital, Sunshine Coast Health Precinct). This is to be expected, given
the sophisticated planning and strategy groundwork in place.
However, the status of creative industries among #SCRIPT’s innovation and entrepreneurship pillars
may need sharper focus. Reflecting larger scale national and international debates, there is a
difference between, on the one hand, creative industries as sector deserving of new economy status
and of consequent policy and program support and, on the other hand, creative skills as an enabling
input (compare this to the role of ‘enabling technologies’ in innovation theory) including as a
lifestyle factor for attracting business investment. Clarity about the different opportunities these
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Version 21 October 2019Figure 9
two approaches present and rationales for supporting them are needed. Near Field Creative is an
example of the “enabling input” model:
Near Field Creative, member of the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast
Online sales and marketing manager Duncan Barker established his business Near Field Creative with the initial
goal of developing wearable technology for fundraising: “less and less people are carrying cash and because
fundraising is competitive enough.” Barker started by creating a clothing label targeted at gamers in order to
establish a manufacturing supply chain, before embedding wearable technology that was useable by small
business. Near Field Creative has worked with “one of Australia’s biggest bands” on smart merchandising, that
gives fans access to exclusive content and is developing a “lead capture solution”, so people can immediately
initiate contact at an event or conference. In July 2019, Near Field Creative received the first Australian
investment from international technology company Everledger after pitching to Queensland’s newly-
appointed Chief Entrepreneur and blockchain tech pioneer Leanne Kemp at a members-only event in
November 2018. For Barker, the benefits of the Innovation Centre include “being able to have a surf before
work and hit the ground running”(Barker, 2018, 2019; Innovation Centre, 2018).
The outstanding example of a program specifically designed for the creative industries as a sector is
The Refinery, a business development program aimed at assisting arts and cultural practitioners
build sustainable businesses, including in the fashion, retail, e-commerce, education, environment
and First Peoples sectors. A partnership between Sunshine Coast Council, the Creative Arts Alliance
and SunCentral, and partly funded by #SCRIPT, The Refinery’s first program was delivered by QUT’s
Creative Enterprise Australia between May and July 2019. Nicole Jordan, Executive Manager,
Development & Operations, QUT CEA and the Creative Arts Alliance’s Phil Smith both spoke about
how the dominant model of start-up culture—rapid scaling tech businesses designed to be bought
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Version 21 October 2019out—inhibits support for the “slower burn” lifestyle businesses characteristic of much of the creative
industries, especially in regional areas. Jordan argued that much regional creative industries business
development could learn from the very distinct business culture of the Northern Rivers/Byron Bay,
based on sustainability, cultural alignment and longer-term horizons.
The first Refinery programs have already had an impact, with all 15 people invited from nearly 90
applicants completing the program, and vying for $10,000 in funding for their new venture. Three
participants have already sourced funding for their ideas—digital content resources: for teachers, for
having difficult conversations with children, and on nature trails.
Another example is the Peregian Digital Hub in Noosa. A physical place rather than a program, it is
owned and operated by the council, independently of #SCRIPT, and was established to drive
entrepreneurial activity—for locals, providing youth development and mature age reskilling
opportunities, and attracting new talent, particularly in the evolving disciplines that are changing the
future of work (Dow, 2019; Hinchcliffe, 2018; Noosa Shire Council, 2015, p. 8). Offering shared work
spaces, gigabyte fibre connectivity and onsite entrepreneurial support, the Hub opened in
September 2018, with 40 people working at the site including both sole entrepreneurs wanting to
get out their home office and established businesses (Hinchcliffe, 2018; Sullivan, 2019). According to
Anthony Dow, it is attracting specialists in areas including AI, coding and blockchain: “the talent that
we are attracting, are critical thinkers, are designers, are creatives and they are driving the new
opportunities for diversification. They’re designing new things and using new technologies.”
Ben Duncan, atmail
Ben Duncan, founder of atmail, an email service provider, was a key instigator of the Peregian Digital Hub. He
founded Atmail in 1998, and relocated to Peregian Beach from Sydney after ‘discovering’ the Sunshine Coast
on a 2001 working road trip, developing his company and programming in the desert while travelling with
friends. Duncan’s presentation at TEDx Noosa in 2013 created the impetus for Noosa Shire Council to establish
a co-working place. He described how a place that was affordable, with other tech-entrepreneurs around and
meet-ups, drinks after work and people talking about their ideas would create an ecosystem that would allow
“magic” to happen. In 2018, atmail moved all its operations for his headquarters and its R&D to the Hub. In
July 2019, 30-plus of Atmail’s global employees met at the Hub for their annual sales conference (atmail, 2018;
Peregian Digital Hub, 2019)
Creative entrepreneurs are flourishing—often independently of public support
We saw a similar spirit of entrepreneurialism amongst many creatives on the Sunshine Coast that we
witnessed in other hotspots. A spirit of not necessarily relying on public bodies and institutions,
seeking out alternative income sources, leveraging networks, of being “inherently entrepreneurial”
(Rowland, 2019). The difference, if there was one, lay in the lower level of strategic focus on the part
of public bodies in and with respect to the Sunshine Coast.
Fashion design, for example, is one of the more dynamic areas of the creative industries on the
Sunshine Coast. This strength also came out at The Refinery—four of the 15 ideas that were
accepted into its program were for fashion start-ups, and one of its case studies was of local ethical
travelwear designer, Tasi Travels (Beale, 2018). The region has its own Sunshine Coast International
Fashion Festival that showcases local designers and “is renowned for discovering new design talent”
("Emerging talent," 2018).
There is a wide range of entrepreneurial creative industry businesses in the Sunshine Coast region.
Examples of creative services businesses include:
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