Our History: Dubbo ran a promotional campaign in the 1980s to bring families to town

Mr Berry along with the Real Estate Institute (REI) of NSW helped Dubbo City Council (now Dubbo Regional Council) launch a campaign which aimed to bring people to town due to the low cost of living.

In the late 1980s, Mr Berry and several others launched the 'Dubbo Open for Inspection' campaign, something the real estate icon believes had a big impact on several families moving to town.

"Back in 1988 there was a massive housing boom even greater in percentage terms than what we've gone through," he said.

"It was after the 1987 share market crash, the banks poured liquidity in because they were seeing at that time worldwide depression.

"The real estate institute (of NSW) carried out a survey around the state through their divisions of what was the change in the median house price from January 1988 to July 1988.

"Whilst we didn't have all the data collection we have now, it showed Dubbo had a median house price in the middle of 1988 of $60,000 which was the lowest in NSW for a regional city or town."

Mr Berry said the REI played an integral part alongside the council to start the idea.

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"We came back to them at a state conference and said how can we capitalise on the fact that Dubbo has the lowest median house price in NSW," he said.

"So we said we could go out and publicise that but we'd be seen as a bunch of (real estate) agents trying to flog real estate.

"We suggested to Dubbo City Council a promotion for Dubbo based on the availability of housing and the affordability of housing."

Fellow popular real estate personality Richard Tegart's father Lindsay also had a big role to play in the campaign, Mr Berry believes.

"Lindsay Tegart hadn't long been appointed Development Officer for council and he coined the phrase 'Dubbo Open for Inspection'," he said.

"So we had this weekend at the end of October where we had petrol vouchers, accommodation vouchers and had a massive crowd here.

"We gave them all lunch in the Civic Centre, we had buses lined up which had two agents on it.

"So we took them on a defined route around the town and showed them certain things.

"Dubbo Council won a national award for that."

The Daily Liberal at the time reported Dubbo City Council were swamped with phone calls from Sydney residents who were interested in moving west.

Media organisations came from all over the state, with Mr Berry featuring on television on an award-winning program.

"A Current Affair came up here, I remember because I was REI Orana division president at the time," he said.

"I stood in front of a house we just sold for $60,000 to a young policeman and his wife in Manera Heights.

"They put that on national television and the interesting thing is, it attracted the Maas family."

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