Mandurah was meant to be a strong satellite city but became a jobs desert — what went wrong?

Struggling to find work in Perth, Jess Hurley and her partner packed up their three young children and moved to Mandurah — a shiny city of canals and dreams that promised a brighter future and the holy grail: a job. But the reality of Australia’s unemployment capital quickly hit home. Ms Hurley said while COVID-19 had made the situation even worse, it was clear from the moment her family arrived four years ago that they’d landed in a job desert. Her then-partner, a landscaper, believed there would be more work in the place that had fast transformed from a sleepy fishing town to a shiny satellite city. “But it turned out people couldn’t afford to do landscaping,” she said. “He’s now gone back to Perth and is doing FIFO because there just wasn’t enough work here.” As a mother of three young children, she is not yet looking for work, but is worried about the the lack of opportunity and the growth in social problems. “It’s kid-friendly, there’s a lot of good playgrounds and beaches but I have noticed there’s a lot of homelessness. “I’m not surprised because it’s hard to get work. “A couple of my friends and their partners are doing fly-in fly-out. There’s a lot of people doing that, it’s often the only option.” ABS data released at the end of August found Mandurah’s jobless rate to be at a staggering 18 per cent in July. While this came down to 11.3 per cent in August as COVID restrictions were loosened, it still towered above the State average and national averages which both sat at 6.9 per cent. Mandurah’s job crisis existed long before the coronavirus, with a jobless rate of 9.4 per cent a year ago, compared to the State average of 5.8. Fast food worker Nicole Sowerby, 18, entered the workforce two years ago but during that time she’s found it harder and harder to find employment. “There’s not many jobs going around (for people) my age. They want people with experience but they also want people really young so they don’t have to pay them as much,” she said. “It’s a classic catch 22. You can’t get the experience unless you have a job, but they won’t give you a job.” Ms Sowerby, from Meadow Springs, north-east of the city centre, has recently had her hours cut from 35 to just five. She says Mandurah’s sky-high jobless figures don’t surprise her. “Every workplace is picky. Obviously you’re not going to employ someone who’s just got out of prison. But there needs to be something for the younger people to grow into. If they start off young they can grow into the job,” she said. Ms Sowerby says she’s willing to take on anything and fears that without more work experience and opportunities, Mandurah will suffer from spiralling rates of crime, drugs and homelessness. “People aren’t getting the money and then they’re relying on Centrelink or turning to crime.” Lake Clifton woman Donna Griffen, 50, and her husband Steve Stack, 53, have been looking for work in Mandurah for the past five years. Ms Griffen’s last formal employment was lecturing at Curtin University but she has found getting a job in Mandurah near-impossible, turning to busking to make ends meet. A living, breathing and singing statistic, she is unsurprised that Mandurah had highest percentage in the country of those out of work. “I’ve tried to get jobs, right down to kitchen hands,” she said. “To go into those positions, you need your certificates. It’s two, three, up to five grand to do those courses.” Ms Griffen said the impacts of unemployment were clear on the streets of Mandurah. “The drinking, the drugs, we’ve seen it all on the streets in the last five years,” she said. On the day The Sunday Times spoke to her, guitar in hand, there was a glimmer of hope: she had an interview lined up for that afternoon. She’d later get an offer for unpaid work. The dire reality Mandurah is now facing is made all the more stark by the boom the region enjoyed in the mid-2000s. Back then Mandurah was one of the “stars” of a housing industry boom. A Property Council report predicted Mandurah would be a key destination for those looking to flee the hustle and bustle of city life. The region was expected to be for Perth what the Gold Coast is to Brisbane: a glistening, modern and thriving hub and holiday destination. The author of the report, Bernard Salt, said back in 2005 that “a little town in Western Australia ... called Mandurah” was “really one of the stars of (the) study.” Fifteen years later, Mr Salt said the predictions in that report had come true, but that meant Mandurah was more vulnerable to blows to the economy such as the end of the resources boom and the coronavirus. “From 2005 through 2020, there’s been quite a significant population uplift in Mandurah, in line with the expectations of that study,” Mr Salt said. “Mandurah ... has a local economy that is substantially based around lifestyle and hospitality. “There seems to be a situation where there are higher levels of unemployment in the lifestyle locations. “In those places, people know that there are no jobs. If you know that there are no jobs ... then you tend to leave.” Kerry Vrossink helps coordinate soup kitchen Sutton Street Hall in central Mandurah. She moved to the region in 2005 with her husband who was retiring, and said from about 2015 she noticed a big demand for the kitchen’s services as drugs hit the region. “That’s when all the trouble started,” she said. Mrs Vrossink said a higher pension age also locked young people out of work, which especially affected Mandurah due to its ageing population. Dave, who asked for his surname to be withheld, agreed that drugs were a factor in Mandurah’s unemployment woes. The 53-year-old Mandurah resident, who was at the hall for breakfast, said he moved to the coastal city in 1997 for cheap rent. He’s been out of work on a disability pension after a stroke in 2008. Dave said the jobless rate was expected. “Since the turn of the millennium, Mandurah’s suffered a kind of social decay that I haven’t seen anywhere else,” he said. “I think drugs are a huge factor. A lot of high influx of lower income people came into Mandurah in the last 10 years.” Across from Sutton Street Hall, Halo Team runs an op shop and a kitchen that delivers food hampers to up to 100 people each day. Community centre co-ordinator Tanya Swayn said the region’s unemployment rate was in large part due to its population, which included a lot of elderly people, as well as single-parent families. “We are a tourist town, we’re not industrial. We don’t have a lot of stuff that will create work,” she said. “This was the holiday, sleepy town. I think it still is to some degree. “People do tend to be quite loyal to Mandurah, so they tend to stick it in.” Peel Chamber of Commerce and Industry general manager Andrew McKerrell said the downturn in the resources sector hit the area “significantly”. Mr McKerrell said the region was hosting a high level of FIFO workers and when work slowed up north, causing a spike in unemployment. “At the time Mandurah was going also through a construction phase, which employs about four times as many people as the operational phase,” he said. Mr McKerrell said Mandurah needed to attract significant industry, but didn’t have a large industrial area. “So we have to capitalise on the industries that we have, which centres around the water and tourism. Mr McKerrell said while Mandurah struggled with “demographic” and “social issues”, he believed in the city’s future. Murphy’s Irish Pub Mandurah manager Steve Janiec says his is one of the many local businesses that can’t find staff and said the JobSeeker payment had made the quest even harder. “A lot of our existing staff are under pressure. As long as JobSeeker is staying in effect I think it will keep the unemployment rate up for a while still.” Managing director of irrigation business, Peel Scape Solutions, Paul Holdon, went even further. Mr Holdon said while Mandurah’s reliance on FIFO work meant it was vulnerable to a downturn in the mining industry, many in Mandurah were “unemployable” rather than “unemployed”. “We ourselves have always found it difficult to find good employees,” he said. Mr Holdon said the struggle to attract quality staff had held his business back for 15 years. “It’s always been difficult and probably even worse now with JobSeeker. I think JobSeeker’s made it damn near impossible to employ good staff. “When it goes, it’s got to improve. But we’ve still got the ongoing issue.” City of Mandurah Mayor Rhys Williams, the youngest mayor in WA after being elected in a landslide in 2017, said the area’s economy has remained “largely that of a holiday town”. “In the early 2000s right through to 2012, Mandurah was one of the fastest-growing cities in Australia,” Mr Williams said. “This growth was driven, not because people were moving here for work, but because they wanted to live in a place with great lifestyle and amenity. “The major industries are those that you would expect to see in a holiday town — hospitality and tourism, along with the normal construction and retail industries that come from being a large population centre. “Despite the fact that the population growth has settled for the moment, all indicators suggest that Mandurah and the Peel Region will almost double again in size over the next 20 years, so it is really important that we put key foundations in place today to ensure that we have more diversity in our economy going forward.” He said the impacts of long-term unemployment had extended beyond financial struggles. “Family breakdown, stress, homelessness, a loss of hope ... these factors are the real impacts of unemployment,” he said. While expressing gratitude to those who worked to help those struggling, Mr Williams said he wanted to see more investment for those doing in tough in the wake of the COVID-19 recession. Mr Williams said the City’s Transform Mandurah Agenda was its priority in achieving economic diversity and getting the City out of its unemployment rut. “From an economic perspective Mandurah is largely a blank canvas, and that creates huge opportunity,” he said. “Our City is built in a biodiversity hotspot, with amenity, waterways and natural beauty to rival any other in the wider Perth Region.” He said a “bold agenda” had to be chased “aggressively”. “It is going to take time, and it will require major government investment to encourage the sort of private sector investment we will need to achieve this,” he said. “We’re going to need all levels of government working off the same page and a community pushing for change, if we’re going to achieve this important long-term goal.” WA Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan highlighted that the region’s jobless rate had “come back quite dramatically” and said the data showed there had been “volatility” in Mandurah over the last 20 years. “It does mean, for example, when the mining boom collapsed in 2015/2016, the unemployment went up to about 19 per cent,” Ms MacTiernan said. “As the State started to recover, it was actually doing better. “In 2018/2019 we actually saw Mandurah doing better than the State average. With COVID (unemployment) went up, but we’re seeing that that is recovering.” Ms MacTiernan said many in Mandurah were employed elsewhere and the Government was investing to ensure there were more jobs locally. She highlighted the upcoming Peel Business Park in Nambeelup, where stage 1 of works had been completed and blocks were being sold, investment in Mandurah’s Waterfront and the hospitality divisions of the local TAFE. Dawesville MLA for the Liberal Party, Zak Kirkup said Mandurah “always seemed to suffer” from a jobless rate higher than average. “The extreme situation we’ve seen recently though is particularly bad, with not a week going by without a person or family reaching out seeking help or assistance,” Mr Kirkup said. “We need to diversify Mandurah’s local economy, bringing more opportunity to our regional city and help respond to this crisis. “I think we should be working at promoting Mandurah as the place in WA for seniors to come and retire to. “That will bring more people to our city, which will have a positive impact on property prices and then we’ll see commercial opportunities develop around this.” Mr Kirkup said he was hopeful the situation would improve but the local economy needed to be prioritised. “For example, government contracts that go out for tender in our Peel community for example should go to local Peel suppliers, we shouldn't see contracts to overseas companies or even those hours away from Mandurah because that means we aren't keeping the money in our city.” He said his party’s Peel Local Jobs Guarantee would achieve that. Canning MP Andrew Hastie said Mandurah’s economy had been “hit hard” by the pandemic, and the area’s reliance on tourism and hospitality meant it felt the impacts of the hard border more than other areas. Mr Hastie said the Morrison Government’s Local Jobs Program would help local businesses connect job seekers with the right businesses and training. One local who shows the dream is possible in Mandurah is George Walley, who founded tourism business Mandjoogoordap Dreaming about six years ago. Mr Walley says the industry is limited in Mandurah because most visitors don’t stay for longer than a weekend. “I think it’s really hard in the tourism sector in Mandurah because there’s a finite number of people who come here. “If those people would stay here a bit longer then it means more businesses would benefit,” he said. However, he has found success by finding a “niche” in offering unique Indigenous experiences to tourists and by expanding to areas outside of tourism such as consultancy. He’s among a group of people who hope Mandurah still has that star quality they talked about in 2005, and that it can be as good as — if not better than — gold.