Beyond the Range Parkes - Beyond the Range

About Parkes

Parkes is a thriving inland centre, large enough to provide quality education, employment and investment opportunities, yet small enough to provide a quaint rural lifestyle where most things are only a two minute traffic-free drive away and you can duck home for lunch.

Parkes is a great place to raise a family, away from the hustle and bustle, with a level of amenity and sophistication allowing you to still enjoy life’s little pleasures.

One of the strongest reasons families and businesses are attracted to relocating to Parkes Shire is its geographical location. Parkes is a thriving Shire centrally located within NSW. Parkes is literally the crossroads of the Nation with the Newell Highway, connecting Brisbane and Melbourne, and the transcontinental railway linking the eastern seaboard to Perth, meeting in Parkes to form a unique logistics opportunity for Australia. Over 80% of the Australian population can be reached by road within 12 hours from Parkes.

This unique characteristic has made Parkes one of the most strategically significant locations in the future of transport and logistics in Australia. This strategic location will be boosted when the Inland Rail from Melbourne to Sydney is complete.

The Parkes Shire is a vibrant, fun loving and welcoming community, famous around Australia and the world for the Parkes Elvis Festival held annually in January and for the Parkes Radio Telescope, affectionately known as “The Dish”.

The Shire offers residents the quality and ease of life of rural living while providing many of the conveniences of larger centres. Parkes is a three hour drive from Canberra and five hours from Sydney.

Parkes is serviced by a regional airport with several return flights daily between Parkes and Sydney and is also accessed by daily coach and rail services to and from Sydney.

Useful Links

Parkes Shire Council

Parkes Community profile

Parkes Tourism

Parkes New Residents Information Booklet

Parkes Fact Sheet

Incentives for health professionals

Parkes takes very proactive approach to supporting health professionals to relocate to the region and, as a result, has a very strong network of health professionals and specialists who have chosen to call Parkes home.

The GP Cup, for example, is an initiative of the Parkes Shire Council and North Parkes Mine formed to address the shortage of doctors and services in the region. Money raised from this community event is used to help doctors and health professionals in the relocation process to Parkes. Please contact Parkes Council’s Tourism and economic Development Officer for more information.

Parkes Shire is classified as MMM4 under the Department of Health’s new “Modified Monash Model” classification system that categorises areas according to both geographical remoteness and town size. The system was developed to recognise the challenges in attracting health workers to more remote and smaller communities. Medical professionals moving from major city areas to Parkes may be entitled to relocation and retention benefits from the General Practice Rural Incentives Program.

Click here for more information on the General Practice Rural Incentives Program.

Council Contact
Kelly Hendry
Tourism and Economic Development
Kelly.Hendry@parkes.nsw.gov.au
02 6861 2333

The Health Community

(Above) Artists Impression of the new Parkes Hospital

Parkes has a well serviced health industry, with a strong hospital that can cater for accidents and emergencies, elective surgery as well as obstetrics, currently handling over 200 births a year. Parkes Shire has a commitment from the NSW State Government for $72.5 million to build a new hospital. The new hospital will provide state of the art technology which will take advantage of the NBN and expand current health services that will link residents to medical services that once required travel of hundreds of kilometres to access.

To view the latest information on this project visit the Lachlan Health Service Project website.

Parkes has three Medical Centres, several dentists, physiotherapists and chiropractors, an imaging and radiography service and a strong community health unit, which includes speech therapists, community nurses, social workers, dieticians and mental health professionals. Parkes’ strong sense of community is demonstrated in the community fund raising events such as the GP Cup, where the community annually raises over $20,000 to pay recruitment costs for new GP’s.

Plans are underway for the Parkes Garden Estate with development approved for the $190M facility. This exciting aged care facility will ultimately accommodate up to 900 new residents and will provide opportunities for increased general practitioners and specialised health care personnel.

Culture and Lifestyle

Parkes Shire has a thriving tourism industry with numerous events throughout the year and a large number of passing visitors along the Newell Highway. Overall, the tourism industry generates more than $48 million to the Parkes economy annually. The primary attractions are The Dish and major annual events including the Elvis Festival, Tullamore Irish Festival, Trundle Bush Tucker Day and ABBA Festival and the Peak Hill Spit and Spud as well as major sporting fixtures, car rallies and conventions. For more information visit Parkes Tourism.

Cultural facilities include the Parkes Little Theatre, Library and Cultural Centre and Henry Parkes Centre. The Henry Parkes Centre incorporates the Parkes Visitor Information Centre and four unique collections including The King’s Castle Elvis Exhibit, Parkes Motor Museum, Henry Parkes Museum (traditional history collection) and Antique Machinery Collection. Parkes enjoys a sister city link with Coventry, which is the oldest of the 505 such links in Australia and dates back to 1938.

Sporting facilities to earn the admiration of the most discerning enthusiast are found in Parkes. These include a solar heated Olympic Swimming Pool, an 18 hole grass-green Golf Course, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Little Athletics and AFL ovals, Synthetic Hockey Field, 3 turf wicket ovals for Cricket, 15 synthetic Tennis Courts, Squash, Basketball and Netball complexes, 2 Bowling Clubs, Racecourse, Trotting Track, Soccer Fields, Aero Club, Archery, Paintball and various forms of shooting ranges. Click here to visit the Parkes Community Directory page.

Parkes Stories

New Parkes Hospital and the Lachlan Health Service Project

...will provide enhanced health services and an improved partnership between the Parkes and Forbes Hospitals READ MORE
Parkes community supporting local doctors

Dr Thet said he loves it in Parkes and will become a part of the furniture, he plans to stay that long... READ MORE

Your Children

In Parkes, your child will have the opportunity to live the healthy, nurturing country lifestyle people dream of.

Parkes Shire is proud of its young people and of its education system. Within Parkes there are 3 Pre-schools (and 2 part-time pre-schools set up at Middleton Public School and Parkes East Public School), a successful Family Day Care Scheme, 4 Primary schools (three public and one Catholic), one High School and a Christian School which goes from Kindergarten to year 12. All of the smaller communities in the shire also boast progressive Central Schools.

Red Bend Catholic College is a co-educational day and boarding school situated in nearby Forbes.

Private Schools with boarding facilities are located in Bathurst and Orange.

Parkes is well equipped to deal with the educational needs of families who may relocate. The first objective of the Parkes Shire Council Community Strategic Plan is to ‘Develop Lifelong Learning Opportunities.’

Sporting clubs are very popular with children in country towns, from the social Swim Club get togethers at the local pool on lazy summer Friday evenings, to the rugby union, rugby league, soccer, netball, hockey and cricket teams for all ages.

Your Spouse

Where you live and work is just as important to your spouse as it is to you. We are here to help you and your spouse feel welcomed into our community. We will do all we can to help your spouse settle in to the community, to find employment, to find new friends and to find the right information about schools, training, clubs, activities to suit his or her lifestyle.

In considering relocating, the needs of your family or employees and their families need to be taken into consideration. Parkes is a community that is used to welcoming new residents. People from all over Australia and the world come to work at various organisations such as CMOC North Parkes Mine, the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope and various other employers. The Parkes Shire also attracts many people who are looking for a “tree change” and a more affordable lifestyle for their families. For information about relocating to Parkes click here. Additionally, Parkes has one of the lowest crime rates in NSW.

Parkes Shire Council has initiated a “Meet and Greet” BBQ for new residents where they can meet representatives from the services clubs, sporting organisations and community groups. The BBQs will be held twice a year with the aim to welcome and help new residents to integrate into the community.

New 2012 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show that more people are calling the Parkes Shire home, with the population increasing from 14,895 people in 2006 to 15,148 in 2012. More information about becoming a resident can be found on our New Residents page.

Please speak to Council’s Tourism and Economic Development Manager regarding employment opportunities and contacts to assist your spouse to find the perfect job and lifestyle in Parkes.

Council Contact
Kelly Hendry
Tourism and Economic Development
Kelly.Hendry@parkes.nsw.gov.au
02 6861 2333