History

Founder of the Expo Peter Bailey, has always had a strong interest in regional development and much of this was developed while serving on Tamworth and District Chamber of Commerce, Industry Board and then serving as President in the early 1990’s.  Later when the Bailey Family moved to Armidale Peter served on the Armidale Development Corporation and for two years was the Chairman.

In 2000 he and his wife Jenny sold their business "Peter Bailey Office Network" then employing 27 staff across three branches in the New England and North West. During that time Peter was instrumental in forming the Sharp Dealer Council and Office Network that merged into Office National; Peter recognised the strength in numbers allowed a united group to achieve better results for its members.

In early 2003 after discussions with the NSW Department of State and Regional Development, Peter & Jenny's vision of "Country Week" came into existence with a sponsorship of $100,000.

The Country Week Expo was all about providing a venue in Sydney where country communities from across regional NSW could unite to showcase what was on offer for Sydney residents and businesses who were interested in finding out about living, working and relocating to regional areas. It was cost prohibitive for country communities to market themselves individually or even with neighbours collectively.

In addition with everyone being so time poor it was designed to be an easy way for Sydney residents to find out about country living without the necessity of actually driving to see them!

The first Expo highlighted a number of things, people were interested in finding out about the country and regional areas of NSW; many Sydney residents wanted to get out of town, but knew little about what was on offer in non metropolitan areas.

Queensland

Unfortunately,  due to budgetary cuts to the Blue Print for the Bush program the funding and therefore the Expo  has not been re-scheduled despite overwhelming and ongoing support from Qld Councils, Communities & businesses from across the State.

Why a Foundation

In 2009 the key advisors to Country Week, Anthony Fox and Sam Notley recommended that Country Week evolve into a Not for Profit Foundation; so the Foundation for Regional Development Limited began it's good work.