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 …

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Clever Regions, Clever Australia – Enhancing the Role of Regional Universities

Dr Caroline Perkins, Executive Director, Regional Universities Network The Australian economy is moving from a heavy reliance on mining and manufacturing to a new era in which skills, knowledge and ideas will become our most precious commodities. The jobs and industries of the future will need highly skilled university graduates who can connect regional Australia with the global, innovative economy. The six regionally headquartered universities of the Regional Universities Network (RUN), CQUniversity, Federation University Australia, Southern Cross University, University of New England, University of Southern Queensland, and the University of the Sunshine Coast, make a fundamental contribution to their regions. …

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Shoalhaven Tourism: a new perspective

Shoalhaven City Council over the past two years has undertaken and number of initiatives to drive the domestic and international tourism economy in order to stay relevant in a fast changing industry. • Operator relationships: – A detailed survey of the local industry, identifying issues and what the community wanted – Staff spend time out in region visiting business – Regional forums and training partnerships • International tourism: – A joint partnership with a private company and DNSW to target the Chinese and Korean markets. This initiative has resulted in significant increases (40%+) in the number of tourists visiting from …

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Our Region Our Future: Securing an Economic Future for Gippsland and Latrobe Valley

Anticipating that a power station closure in the Latrobe Valley was highly likely, the Committee for Gippsland undertook a six-month body of work that included the input of hundreds of Gippslanders contained in a final 100 page report. Our Region Our Future: Securing an Economic Future for Gippsland and Latrobe Valley was launched in July 2016 and adopted by the Victorian and Federal Governments as a blue-print for a future transition. Only four months later Hazelwood power station announced it would close. Our Region Our Future includes economic and employment modelling on a closure scenario by GHD, the input of …

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Solar uptake spikes on farm & in rural industry in Tasmania.

Tasmania’s uptake of solar power is up 25 per cent, whilst the nationally solar uptake has fallen by 24 per cent over the same period. The figures come from the government agency, the Clean Energy Regulator (CER), that documents the issue of solar certificates nationally. Solar power advocates Solar Citizens said the data revealed the trend reversal. Consumer campaigner with Solar Citizens, Reece Taylor said in the first five months of this year the uptake of small scale solar in Tasmania had been up by at least 25 per cent and could be higher because of the lag in CER …

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Regional Development Conference 2016: Keynote Speaker and Program Announcement

We are pleased to announce Associate Professor Simon McArthur, Deputy Chair, Australian Regional Tourism Network as a Keynote Speaker at the 3rd Australian Regional Development Conference; Participation and Progress to be held in Canberra on 5 – 6 September 2016. Simon will be speaking on; ‘Out with the Plan, in with the Model’. Many standard tourism plans have tried to introduce actions to move tourism towards a more sustainable approach. But plans are like a visitor’s photo – almost as soon as the shot is taken, the people and place changes. Enter a new approach – the Sustainable Tourism Model …

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Naomi Klein says building new nuclear power plants ‘doesn’t make sense’

News.com.au, 1 September 2015. BUILDING new nuclear power plants to create a carbon-free world “doesn’t make sense” and just serves as a distraction from the risks, Canadian author Naomi Klein says. The activist and author of This Changes Everything, was asked what she thought about the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in South Australia, which a Royal Commission in the state is currently considering. Backers of nuclear power often spruik it as an alternative to renewables because it does not produce greenhouse gases, unlike coal-fired power stations. But Klein said building new nuclear plants did not make any …

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Association 5 year commitment to Developing Northern Australia Conference

The Association in business has made an initial commitment to host the Developing Northern Australia Conference for the next five years.

Our members believe that developing the Northern Regions will be one of the most significant undertakings in Australia since Federation.

Following the outstanding success of this year’s event in Townsville, which will see 6o presentations added to the podcast resource, planning has commenced on the destination and venue in 2016…

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Regiopolis: Rethinking Australian Regional Cities

Regeneration of many cities is essential to enable their sustainable re-development but importantly to maintain their viability and creativity in this global and rapidly changing world. The predominant focus of Australian planning and design literature is concentrated upon its coattail cities and the problems and challenges these burgeoning metropolises presently. Even state and commonwealth government policies preference these places against the rest of the Australia’s urban and regional centres biasing the focus of the majority of research activities and interrogations. For example, the recent round of the Commonwealth-funded National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) (2010-2013) projects concentrated over 80% …

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The Digital Work Hub Project: a catalyst for urban and regional revitalisation in SEQ

A 2013 collaborative Regional Development Australia project between the Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay, Logan/Redland, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, examined opportunities and challenges for establishing a network of digital work hubs across South East Queensland. The global megatrends influencing the future of work as highlighted by Deliotte & AMP Capital 2013 Its (almost!) all about me. Workplace 2030: Built for us, concludes that workplaces of the future will be designed to connect and facilitate as interconnected hubs providing the catalyst for diverse, vibrant work precincts. Presently however, Australian cities with their agglomeration of knowledge workers and innovative high value added …

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