2019 saw many great things happening with the Grafton Chamber of Commerce. The executive worked hard to make sure that information was passed on, we were proactive in our advocacy role for local businesses and all the while business networking continued to grow as a Chamber focus.

Our breakfasts saw a HUGE variety of speakers coming and talking with us about a variety of issues and sharing information with our business members. We had speakers from RMS, Serco, Findex, Courtney Tune from Alt Collective, Win Tv, Loving Life FM and Scotty Schlinder as well as Candidates that were running in the State and Local elections, and that is just to name a few.

Our Meet the Candidate evenings for both the local and state elections were a great success with people being able to meet with and hear what all the candidates had to say in regards to what they would bring to the Clarence Valley. We had some great feedback from these nights so were very happy to hold them for our members.

We were involved in community and Council meetings, sharing our ideas and giving local business a voice in some decisions that were made, something that will of course continue into the future.
2019 saw the bridge project come to an end – with the opening on Thursday December 12.  The Grafton Chamber of commerce have been involved with this project since around 2001 so to see it finished and open to the public is an amazing feeling – thank you to all involved in making this happen.

Thanks to Government funding we were able to run out CCTV to over 100 business’s with police already using the footage from these cameras to help with arrests. The grant of $200,000 has made an impact on the safety of business’s and the community as a whole.  Thank you to all those who took us up on the offer of the CCTV and to those that helped to make it all happen – thank you, this will help to keep everyone safe.

Keeping Christmas Local has been important to the Chamber this year, with our Decorated business / Shop Front Window competition in its second year. Congratulations again to South Grafton News and Gifts for winning this, and Angelite Energy for coming runner up. There were many beautiful displays, so everyone who entered should be proud.

The Grafton Freight Hub is in its infancy, but was one of the Grafton Chamber of Commerce’s big ideas that we released last year. Working together with Pacific National, Council and local business this will become a huge part of the future of Grafton and we look forward to seeing how this all comes together.

2019 has certainly been a very busy year for the Grafton Chamber of Commerce and we thank everyone that has helped in any way. We look forward to 2020 and what it has in store for us.