Alocal business is celebrating its relocation into the heart of the Mount Gambier CBD which will allow it to be more accessible to the community.


Regional Development Australia Limestone Coast (RDALC) recently moved to 30 Gray Street from its previous residence in the OneFortyOne Mount Gambier Office on Jubilee Highway East.


RDALC commemorated the new space with an official opening last week which was attended by RDA staff and board members, industry representatives and local dignitaries including Mount Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin OAM, Grant District Mayor Kylie Boston and Ben Hood MLC.


Regional Development Australia Limestone Coast chief executive officer Lauren Oxlade said the opening was a chance to reconnect with people they have worked with in the past or present and to open up the conversation to people who might be interested in working with them in the future.


“It’s pretty informal but it’s just a good chance to catch up and connect,” she said.


“It has been a good shift, we had a beautiful space but it is more important to be amongst the workforce.


“We work with small business and to be surrounded by them and to connect with the work they’re doing is really important.


“It is an opportunity to have a street presence and people can start to recognise who RDA are and the work that we do.


“We have got a beautiful space upstairs as well for our board to meet and we have also got sub tenants from the state and federal government who work with us … so it is really important to keep those partnerships going and people can come in and meet with any of us.


“We are happy to have a conversation, if we cannot help you we will find someone who will and we are happy to get out and about and hear people’s stories and see where we can help.”


RDLAC has three main focuses; working with businesses where they are at, encouraging investment through grants and growing the leaders of tomorrow.


Ms Oxlade said the RDALC is currently working with the Limestone Coast Local Government Association (LCLGA) on the Limestone Coast Regional Growth Strategy.


“There was one in developed in 2017 and when state and federal are looking to invest in things, they look to a document like that,” she said.


“That’s a really important piece of work and we will release that for community consultation in early November.


“We did some early engagement early this year to get the initial ideas from community and this is sort of closing the loop on that one.”