And the historical settlement pattern of the mid-north coast offers the holidayer wide options: rudimentary weekenders and cottages in beachside towns, hot-box walk-ups and sparkling resorts in bustling Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour, and camping grounds almost everywhere.

Sure, January for the mid-north coast means over-milked coffees, sliced white bread and chicken schnitties, but coastal breezes, thongs and long days by those beaches turn the dagginess of it all into pleasant holidays. But when summer ends so does the tourist dollar and then much of the mid-north coast resembles other struggling NSW regions.

Employment figures released on Christmas eve reveal the Taree to Port Macquarie strip of the mid-north coast has an unemployment rate of 8.5 per cent while further north the Coffs Harbour to Grafton strip has a rate of 5.9 per cent. Sydney's unemployment rate, western suburbs and all, is only 4.1 per cent.

Worse are the labour force participation rates along the mid-north coast. For Coffs Harbour-Grafton, there are 56 people in work for every 100 people of working age. For Taree-Port Macquarie there are a mere 47 in work for every 100 of working age. Sydney's equivalent rate is much higher at 67 and Newcastle's is 68. Clearly, the mid-north coast has a major jobs deficit. But how does a region like the mid-north coast generate sufficient jobs and so avoid the downward spiral of population loss and economic decline common in regions away from large coastal cities in nations all over the globe?

The realignment of the urban hierarchy of the mid-north coast over the decades offers insight. At the top of the region's array of settlements, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour have enjoyed spectacular growth over a long period. Between the 1966 and 2016 censuses, Port Macquarie grew by over five times, from only 7063 residents to 44,814, while Coffs Harbour grew a whopping seven times, from 7667 to 68,486.

The reason for this growth is multi-fold. Investment in tourist accommodation is one. The in-migration of retirees is another. A third is the drift of households from the small mid-north coast towns into the two big regional centres to access better education and health services, shopping and so on.

Related, is the significant investment in these centres by state and federal governments. The most important ones are in the health and education sectors. Both Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour now host major hospitals and significant university campuses. Professional employment opportunities have expanded as a consequence.

However, recent decades have not been as kind for Taree and Kempsey, once the region's largest hubs. Population growth in these centres over the past 50 years has been miniscule compared with the growth of Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.

Both Taree, with 18,117 residents in 2016, and Kempsey, with 10,646, lack critical mass to attract the private and public sector investments enjoyed by their coastal rivals. For both, the decline of local agricultural processing chains - for meat, dairy and timber - has not been countered by growth in services. Not quite on the coast is not quite enough when it comes to attracting holidayers and retirees.

The sad thing for Taree and Kempsey is the absence of government plans for their futures. Upgrades to the M1 mean the loss of through traffic, a good thing for townships with strong hinterland relationships eager to thrive, but the Taree and Kempsey districts no longer have a place in Australian agricultural policies geared to help large-scale players on global markets.

One suspects that the success of Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour has come more from good fortune than good planning. But there are lessons from their experience for regional centres across NSW. Sustained government investment in quality health and education services can underpin strong regional economies, a virtuous cycle of growth and investment gets momentum, while providing counter-balance to those townships in a region struggling to survive.

For there are limits to the job-generating effects of inflated prices for cucumbers.