Posted in Regional Australia

Liveable Communities Through Engagement, Culture & Connection

It is every conservationist’s goal to bring nature back to urban areas. Life begins with nature, yet sometimes it needs a little help to keep thriving.

Our current economic crisis is not deterring organisations in continuing vital conservationist work, and many are teaming up together to push forward with finding the best ways to achieve environmental and cultural sustainability.

Webinar 3 of the Liveable Cities Conference: Webinar Series 2020 will take this focus on Tuesday 23rd of June, with three keynote speakers delivering an incredible line-up.

CLICK HERE for the program details and read below for a glimpse of what to expect.

Bringing Nature Back to Urban Areas

Ms Geraldene Dalby-Ball, Director of Kingfisher Urban Ecology and Wetlands

Director of Kingfisher Urban Ecology and Wetlands, Ms Geraldene Dalby-Ball has been doing remarkable work within this field and will be presenting her case studies in webinar 3 of the Liveable Cities Conference: Webinar Series 2020 on Tuesday.

Ms Dalby-Ball’s presentation will show solutions on how to get multiple outcomes from urban waterways and wetlands, through essential consideration. Kingfisher’s goal is to maintain and design urban waterways through the reflection of dreamtime stories and collaboration of the ancient land, its people, and their natural surroundings.

Geraldene is deeply passionate about butterfly conservation and says that even in built up areas, nature can be preserved and helped to be reinstated by using the past to rebuild from. “Projects as simple as Butterfly Birth Places, where through design and planting and engagement, we can bring specific butterflies back, even around high-risk apartment blocks.”

The organisation’s focus is on connecting dream stories with plants and animals, their seasons and cycles, which helps people gain a sense of greater fulfillment, leading them to make better environmental choices that promote a more sustainable way of life.

This presentation is set to be one of honour – of the ancient land, its people and its flora and fauna.

Ways to Make Your Place in Town or City ‘Family’

University of Western Australia’s ARC Chief Investigator of the School of Indigenous Studies, Professor Len Collard

Professor Len Collard, University of Western Australia’s ARC Chief Investigator of the School of Indigenous Studies, will be our second keynote speaker for the final of our Liveable Cities Conference: Webinar Series 2020.

We are very honoured that Professor Collard will share his imperative insight on the land, culture and its people, through his presentation, “Engaging Indigenous Communities in Change.”

Professor Collard says, “from a Noongar cultural perspective, everything relates to everything else – like a big family”. There is however, an issue with the English language translation of the old language, causing a discourse in understanding the true Noongar language.

The Professor says, “the problem here is that moort, katitjin, Boodjar do not translate to English well at all, because English language explains these and other things as being separate to each other. Noongar language explains moort, katitjin, Boodjar as deeply, intrinsically connected – which is integral to a Noongar worldview.”

The Professor’s extensive cultural research is vital to Australia’s history and culture and his presentation is one to not missed, as he transcends us back 50,000 years.

Transitioning Aotearoa’s Streets To Places For People

Urban Mobility Manager of New Zealand Transport Agency, Ms Kathryn King

Organisations such as New Zealand’s Transport Agency are working just as hard to preserve and maximise community culture and sustainability.

Ms Kathryn King, the Urban Mobility Manager of New Zealand Transport Agency will be the final keynote speaker in the Liveable Cities Conference: Webinar Series 2020 next Tuesday. She will present evidence of where transitional design is building safer and more accessible streets, and as a result, it’s creating more trusting and happier communities.

Read more on Kathryn’s work from our previous BLOG and be sure not to miss our third and final webinar in the Liveable Cities Conference: Webinar Series 2020.

REGISTER FOR WEBINAR 3 HERE

You can also register for the full Liveable Cities Conference: Webinar Series 2020 from our Resource Centre to gain access to the final live webinar next Tuesday 26 June, playback access to the first two webinars in the series, and bonus book of abstracts, with 20 pre-recorded presentations and slides from the originally planned 2020 Liveable Cities Conference.

Community Energy Opportunities in Regional Australia

In 2016 the ACT government committed to a target of 100% renewable energy by 2020, moving the target forward and reflecting a growing commitment by sub-national and local governments, and city administrations to changing their energy dependencies and the energy mix, and decentralising the energy production process (reference – Paris Council of the Parties on Climate Change in 2015).

Governments are recognising the growing interest in renewable energy in their constituencies, and in fact the public is arguably leading the political agenda.

Dr Kate Auty

The regional Victorian experience in relation to community energy is instructive.

Daylesford began a conversation about two community owned wind turbines a decade ago.  That community is now held up as an example of change. They engaged in a massive amount of community discussion, forged a new way of funding the proposal, built constructive relationships with government, and then built two turbines which now produce the energy for the township. Recently they celebrated their success.  Soren Hermansen, the Danish community energy advocate from the island of Samso, a world energy transition leader embraced their work. Regional small towns Newstead and Yackandandah are working towards a 100% commitment.

Seymour and Euroa have formed a community alliance and been afforded a small grant to conduct a pre-feasibility study for pumped hydro energy storage in respect of three dams in the Strathbogie Ranges and the Trawool reservoir above the Goulburn River.  Recent scholarship recognises this as a significant component of any energy future. Changing conditions in the energy market, networks with experts and community determination made this submission possible.

Beyond the engineering, academic expertise and commitment to changing infrastructure, however, there are compelling social and cultural reasons why a submission such as this comes together.

Communities which start where they are, in the places they know and care about, will always be capable of and interested in driving change. Baseline knowledge – social, economic, cultural and political – is already available. Communities want to see the co-benefits. In regional settings communities also understand the need to organise, share and take responsibility to attain outcomes.

The final attribute in a regional theory of change should always be a desire to show what has been done. It is important to provide demonstration sites for innovation, illustrating successes and reflecting on mistakes.

Author: Dr Kate Auty, Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment

Innovation Tools for Regional Entrepreneurs

By Brian Ruddle, Impact Innovation Group.

Entrepreneurs in regional Australia often don’t have access to the services and support networks of their counterparts in capital cities and major centres.

When starting out, city-based entrepreneurs get information and inspiration from co-working spaces, attending networking and pitch events, and generally participating in ecosystem activities. Over time, they can test their ideas out on others and get assistance with shaping their start-up ventures.

In regional Australia, entrepreneurs have to work a bit smarter to access support.

Let’s look at what a new entrepreneur does. They generally start with an idea they think will be successful. Then they find out if the idea is unique or at least unique for the target market; develop and test prototypes; establish a business model; identify how to manufacture or distribute the product; and develop an associated revenue model. The focus often then moves quickly to capital raising to help the enterprise grow.

Online tools can help regional entrepreneurs stay on track. Here are four platform types to try:

  • Finding/Refining Ideas: As well as Google searches, there are dedicated sites to help find and refine ideas, including Enterprise Access, Springwise, and Yet2.com. These sources offer insights into ideas and technologies that could compete with or enhance your plans. Knowing what’s on the horizon in your industry helps gauge if an idea is worth developing.
  • Raising Capital: In Australia there’s TechFundr for start-up crowdfunding, Pozible for product/service crowdfunding, and Gust, a platform used by many investment Angel groups. Government websites also list funding opportunities, like this one: www.business.gov.au/assistance/results?q=business
  • Collaboration: LinkedIn groups, GitHub, slack and yammer allow you to tap into brain banks, seek help, ask questions and contribute to a community. The key with collaboration tools is that they need some effort to get the most out of them. That’s how active participants build their profiles and networks as well as their knowledge.
  • Innovation Management: For corporates, there are a number of systems for managing innovation and engaging with remote and dispersed workers, including Brightidea, Spigit and Crowdicity.

With tools like these, regional entrepreneurs are no longer subject to the ‘tyranny of distance’.