Creative Industries in in Australian Suburbs – Who is out there?

Anna Daniel & Mark GibsonSchool of Journalism and Australian Studies,

Monash University

Presentation to the Creative Suburbia Symposium, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, September 2010

Punch 4Aug09

Project description

• Are creative industries necessarily inner urban? The need to rethink of suburbia:– Growth of suburban SMEs– SMEs a key driver of economic growth– Suburbanisation of employment

• Both an ‘industry development’ and ‘place-making’ premise

• Aimed to listen to creative workers in the outer suburbs

• Caveats– Sample is indicative not representative– Typologies

Is Creative Work your Primary Income?

Who we spoke with

- 140 interviews, 55 in Frankston

- 500 identified out of a maximum pool of ca1400

- Educated

- Not hobbyists

Attained Education Level

in peak earning career stage…

not hobbyists, but artisanal industries

Suburban Creatives as Placemakers

• Low transience amongst participants (Dandenong average = 15 years)

• Best of city and rural life• CBD perceived as an entertainment destination• 80% do NOT commute a long distance to work• What are the satisfaction levels of suburban

creative workers?

They said:

it’s still got a very sort of rural feel about it and the thing that I really like is its proximity to the bay, to the water … which is one of the main reasons I initially set up business here rather than closer to the city (Frankston Graphic Designer).

I always thought that it would make the perfect artist’s colony ... young people gravitate towards Frankston the way young people used to gravitate towards St Kilda (Frankston Author)

Satisfied

(%)Indifferent

(%)Dissatisfied

(%)Satisfaction as a place to work 81 8 11Satisfaction as a place to live 68 2 30

Current Satisfaction in the Suburbs (percent of interview responses)

Ideally, Where Would You Prefer to Live? (percent of interview responses)

All sites Redcliffe Frankston Dandenong

(% of responses)

No change 61 83 56 43

Rural 19 0 23 37

Inner City 19 17 21 17

Indifferent 1 0 0 3

Spacious Suburbia

• Headspace - absence of distractions

• Physical

• Environmental

They said:

they’re very open, they’re a bit slow, they have time, you know, they’re not … as stressed. …And they bring all that to the public realm and sometimes they, like we all do, they step outside of that. They step outside of their own limitations for reasons which are quite unexpected. …. Sometimes they even engage in conversation(Frankston Street Artist)

I’m free in this area (Frankston Visual Artist)

Cosmopolitan Suburbia

They said: this is a fascinating place to work … you’re really forced to pay attention and think.… there’s a lot more that unites people than divides them .. they’ve got so much culture at their fingertips … but you mightn’t see it. But it’s there and it’s IN them, a lot of these people are carrying it in them like a flame that they’re keeping burning and all they need is a venue to express it in and off they go. … Dandenong I think the energy comes because they’re all thrown together, I think that’s what it is and it sort of percolates. You’ll get people here like Italians saying “isn’t it” at the end of sentences like Indians tend to do … there’s a sort of a cross over thing happening (Dandenong Librarian)

• Perception of the suburbs as a ‘struggletown’, monoculture

• Diverse: 25% of participants born overseas• Dandenong was highly multicultural, with high

proportion of new immigrants• Importance of ‘hubs’ in multiculturalism

Networking in Suburbia?

• Low levels of professional networking – CBD centricity of professional networks– E-networking

• Stronger informal local networks

• Importance of physical ‘hubs’• Hubs of outer suburbs differ to CBD

They said: if I lived closer to the city, you might find people dropping in or they know you’re close so you can pop around and maybe…… you talk about work and you may get a job…. the lack of networking has definitely inhibited the work coming in. (Frankston Illustrator)

there’s a lot of people moved here that then lost their anchors … there was obviously nothing here and I said ‘let’s go for it’ so we started and we’re still going. (Caroline Springs Craftsperson)

Degree of Formal and Informal Networking amongst Outer Suburban Creative Workers

The Correlation between Networking and Satisfaction in the Outer Suburbs

Degree of Networking Activity

High Medium Low

Prefer to live closer to city (%) 7 33 60

Prefer to live further from city (%) 41 18 41

Prefer to stay in current location (%) 31 38 31

Concluding Points

• Significant numbers of creative industry practitioners in the outer suburbs. They are ‘not just hobbyists’.

• Economic importance: most participants were at a lifestage of peak earning potential and with families.

• High degree of artisanal workers who value ‘space’.

• Low networking – how can this improve and be connected with employment opportunities?

• Suburban creative practitioners seem to be less transient and potentially important 'place-makers'.

• A reminder that the outer suburbs are not an amorphous homogenous monoculture, but dynamic, evolving communities. ‘Cookie cutter’ approaches to suburban development do not apply.

Reg Mombassa

3 bands, a film maker and studio owner at a studio in an industrial park ……

and just down the street from the headquarters of a bikie gang.

(photo use consent given)