Saturday 13 - Monday 15 August 2011
On August 13, 2011 more than 250 members of the community came together at the Queen Elizabeth II Community Centre in Geraldton to identify what they valued most about their city, what they wouldn’t want to lose as the city grows in population and size in the coming years and most importantly, to set boundaries for growth and formulate design principles that underpin the desired built and natural landscape forms within the City that they value most.
The forum was lead by a team of multi-disciplinary professionals who presented design and planning principles to the group and worked behind the scenes to distill the ideas generated during the event into planning scenarios.
The prioritised outcomes generated from the forum will be used to inform the City Of Greater Geraldton Town Planning Strategy.
A final report summarising the findings will be attached soon.
The 'Gero feel' is a combination of the sunny warm climate, beaches, sunsets, sports, friendly community, relaxed lifestyle and small town feel.
In the Community Directions and Key Themes 2010 document endorsed by Council in April 2011, one of the Key Themes was Identity – maintaining the ‘Gero Feel’ but also adopting new ideas. This Key Theme was a summary statement representative of comments that came out of the community engagement in 2010 relating to the aspects of Geraldton that the community really enjoy and value and want to retain as the City region expands.
In order to determine what the ‘Gero Feel’ is the City of Greater Geraldton ran a competition calling for entries to describe what the ‘Gero Feel’ means to local residents. The community was asked to submit stories, poems, drawings/paintings and photographs that depict the Geraldton feel. Submissions were collected over May and June 2011.
There were 168 entries submitted by the community, 48 drawings, 13 photos, 30 poems and 77 stories. In addition to the competition information was collected from the world cafes and the Enquiry by Design forum.
A final report summarising the findings will be attached soon.
Friday 17 - Saturday 18 September 2010
The Big Sky Big Ideas festival was held on the 17 and 18 September with the purpose of inspiring new ideas and learning from others.
As part of the Big Sky big Ideas festival, the City of Geraldton-Greenough hosted the first ever BIG Ideas Summit. The Summit featured BIG names such as Professor Larry Beasley, the driving force behind making Vancouver the most liveable city in the world. The Friday evening the City hosted the 2029 and Beyond Hypothetical event where speakers from the summit combined with local people to explore what life might be like in the year 2029.
On the Saturday the festival switched to community with a range of activities happening all over the city. Activies included a workshop on sustainable housing, a homegrown garden tour, 2029 and Beyond ageing booth and much more.
See the Big Sky Big Ideas program here.
14 August 2010
The first 2029 and Beyond community forum was held on Saturday the 14 August 2010. The forum featured some exciting speakers who provided attendees with insights into some of the big decisions our City region is facing. The forum allowed community members to gain a greater understanding of the issues and the big decisions that the City is currently facing. Participants were seated at tables, each with a networked computer that allowed table groups to submit comments and questions to the speakers.
Read the Community Forum Agenda
Read the Community Forum and Community Survey Report.
July 2010
In July 2010, a community survey was sent to 3000 residents who were randomly selected from the Electoral Roll.
The survey focused on two key issues:
1. Whether the city region should expand or adopt a fly-in/fly-out model
2. Whether the city region should invest in becoming carbon neutral.
Read the Deliberative forum and community survey report.
May - June 2010
World Cafe sessions were held all around the Greater Geraldton region through May and June. These sessions were run by the volunteer Community Champions. A ‘world café’ is an opportunity for people to have serious conversations about questions that matter to them. In these world cafes, community members discussed three questions:
1) What is it about the Greater Geraldton City Region that makes it a GREAT place to live for you and your family and friends? What do you most appreciate about it and want to KEEP into the future?
2) IMAGINE the Greater Geraldton City Region in 2030 and it’s a great place to live: What are the most important descriptions of your vision; What has changed?
3) What should we be doing NOW to ensure the Greater Geraldton City Region is a great place to live in 2030?
A total of 36 world cafes were held with 395 community members participating overall. Seven world cafes included a majority of Indigenous participants, seven cafés included a majority of youth participants, and eleven cafes included primarily blue collar workers (this category also included office workers).
Read the about how ideas from the world cafe will be actioned.
Monday 19 April 2010
This was the inaugural meeting of the Greater Geraldton City Region Alliance Governance Group.
Read more about the Governance Alliance Group
Sunday 18 April 2010 and Monday 19 April 2010
Forty-three community members volunteered to be Community Champions for the 2029 and Beyond project. These Champions play an important role in the project by running some of the project activities in the community and helping to spread the word about the 2029 and Beyond project.
The Community Champions received their first training session in April 2010 at this training they learnt how to facilitate World Cafes in the community. This involved skills to lead community discussions about a shared future vision.
Read more about the Community Champions
Tuesday 23 March 2010, 5:15pm - 5:30pm
18 nominations were received for the three community representative positions on Governance Alliance Group. On 23 March 2010 prior to the Council meeting, three community representatives were chosen by random draw. The successful nominees were Martin Matthews, Lisa Keeffe and Jennifer Kniveton.
Read more about the Governance Alliance Group
Thursday 4 March 2010, 7:00pm - 9:00pm
On Thursday 4 March 2010, members of the community came together to launch the Sustainable Future City Region project (now called 2029 and Beyond). The evening consisted of a panel of local and international experts, discussing the critical issues facing Geraldton into the future and responding to questions from the community. The speakers were Charles Landry (UK), Steven Ames (USA), Janette Hartz-Karp (Australia), Fiona Della-Sale (Geraldton), Jackie Gill (Geraldton) and Ian Wheatland (Geraldton).
