WHEN GEMLIFE RAINBOW BEACH SALES MANAGER CRAIG DIXON FIRST MOVED TO THE PORT MACQUARIE-HASTINGS REGION 30 YEARS AGO, HE CAME TO THE AREA AS A QUALIFIED PLUMBER.
But like many young people at the time, he quickly discovered there was no work in his then profession, and it was common for locals to move away from their home towns to gain employment.
GemLife Rainbow Beach provides work for more than 100 locals at the new over-50s lifestyle resort, ranging from permanent GemLife employees to electrical, carpentry, concreting, roofing contractors and more.
“It’s great that GemLife can offer jobs for locals. It means people who want to grow up and live in the region can stay in the place they love, close to their family and friends, and continue to enjoy the fantastic lifestyle here,” said Craig.
“I feel proud that a development like GemLife Rainbow Beach is giving opportunities to so many Port Macquarie-Hastings residents and their children,” he said.
“We have a large number of contractors from all sorts of trades working on site in addition to nine GemLife employees which include the sales team – Sam, Leanne, and myself – the site team, and the resort managers.”
Craig said that the development brought many benefits to the wider community, both directly and indirectly.
“We even purchase a lot of our materials locally, supporting Eastland Truss & Timber, Fastplast building supplies, and Petries Mitre 10 in Port Macquarie, for example,” he said.
“Jumping forward from 30 years ago, it’s so satisfying to see how many opportunities are available for local people, not to mention the knock-on benefits for small businesses nearby the resort, and it makes me happy that GemLife is contributing to this.”
Other local companies doing contract work for the Lake Cathie resort include glass, painting, plumbing, door supplies, joinery, kitchen, civil construction, digging and servicing companies.
GemLife Rainbow Beach is the company’s first over-50s lifestyle resort on the Mid North Coast of NSW. For more information, visit GemLife.com.au/grb