Sean Cunningham, Narrandera Argus
A push to breathe new life into the town’s vacant main street shops was presented to Narrandera Shire Council, with a proposal to form a joint committee between the council and the Chamber of Commerce.
Councillor Bob Manning submitted the Notice of Motion to last week’s meeting, with the idea of establishing a new committee to investigate initiatives and strategies aimed at attracting new businesses into empty commercial premises in Narrandera and Barellan.
Under the motion, the proposed committee would explore ways designed to encourage businesses to establish themselves locally and in doing so, make the main street more “vibrant”.
However, the motion was lost as only Cr Manning and Cr Jenny Clarke voted in favour of the proposal.
In looking for support for his proposal, Cr Manning noted that the town needed a main street “that’s lively and active – that’s important to a main street”.
He said he had submitted the Motion because “someone has to start it somewhere” and asked fellow councillors to “let’s be positive and start the ball rolling”, but it was not to be.
“If our towns lose our key shops, more people will go elsewhere,” Cr Manning said.
“It’s a need that we have a main street that’s vibrant.
“A way to go about this could be if we have a committee of representatives of the shopping town and council and I think this is no doubt the best way to go about it.”
The Motion also highlighted examples from other councils which introduced incentives to attract businesses into regional communities.
One of them highlighted rental assistance and package deals aimed at helping businesses establish themselves in vacant shopfronts.
“There are different ways to find different solutions, but if we look at it in the long term, it could be that we support new businesses with two amounts of money – one for set-up costs, which is quite extensive and one for the first lot of bills that come in – that’s important I’ve been told,” Cr Manning said.
Cr Tracey Lewis agreed it was important “to try and fill our shops and create business and do more”, but questioned whether business owners were keen on attending more meetings.
“I believe that council’s door is always open to anybody that wants to set up a new business,” she said.
“There’s going to be that support and help out there for many people in the chamber of commerce already.
“I don’t know whether they’d want to go to another meeting when they’re already doing that.”
Cr Manning’s proposal comes amid ongoing concerns in many regional centres about declining retail activity, empty shops and the challenge of attracting new investment into country towns.
Narrandera, like many regional communities, continues to face economic challenges, including competition from larger centres such as Wagga and online shopping.
This article appeared in Narrandera Argus, 28 May 2026.
