NGAA Symposium

Hume City Council

NGAA is delighted to announce Hume City Council as the host of the first day of our annual Symposium on 11 October 2023. Under the leadership of the Mayor, Cr Joseph Haweil and CEO Sheena Frost, Hume City Council is one of Australia's fastest-growing and most culturally-diverse communities. It is home to almost 260,000 residents and is forecast to grow to 389,000 people by 2041.

We are looking forward to a showcase of the innovative ways Hume City Council is responding to population and housing growth, with a strong commitment to equity and collaboration.

City of Swan 

The City of Swan is a thriving hub of demographic and economic growth with almost 165,000 residents living in approximately 60,000 dwellings across 42 suburbs, 74,200 employed residents, more than 10,000 actively trading businesses, 67,800 local jobs and a gross regional product of $9.95 billion.

With some of the fastest growing suburbs in Western Australia, two regional centres, major commercial and industrial areas, historically significant town sites and a thriving tourism industry, it’s no wonder the City of Swan is considered a great place to live, work and play

Astrolabe Group

Astrolabe Group is a change management consultancy delivering strategic services to clients across all tiers of government, industry, universities, and not for profit and peak bodies. They are recognised experts at helping clients build clarity and consensus across diverse stakeholders in the planning of sustainable and resilient cities.

A pioneering approach to greenfield development in Melbourne’s north

The City of Hume will present their pioneering approach to greenfield development for the Cloverton Major Activity Centre (MAC). Key to this approach is a collaboration between the City of Hume, the City of Whittlesea, and Mitchell Shire to create a revolutionary Regional Partnership.

Rachel Dapiran
Director, City Planning and Places
Hume City Council

Robinson Park - from dry land to dwellings

This presentation will follow the journey of Robinson Park from underutilised to a lively subdivision and public open space showcasing award winning design. This is a great case study on how to convert underutilised space into a subdivision and assess the impact on the community and the local housing market.

Martyn Glover
Director of Infrastructure
City of Gosnells

Melton East Precinct Structure Plan – Climate Resilience Assessment

The presentation by Melton City Council will focus on challenges that Council and communities will face as a result of climate change, and the opportunities that are on the horizon with the climate mitigation tools being developed for the Melton East Precinct Structure Plan (PSP).

The presentation will explore some of the key findings from the Climate Resilience Assessment and will touch on how these will be integrated into the future Melton East PSP.

Anastasia Badina
Senior Strategic Planner
Melton City Council
Anastasia is a Senior Strategic Planner at Melton City Council coordinating Council’s response on the Melton East PSP. She has been with Council for nearly 5 years where she is specialising in growth area planning and is contributing to making Melton a vibrant, safe and liveable city accessible to all.

Beveridge North West Resilience Plan

The Beveridge North West Resilience Plan will support the development of a community and suburb that can respond to future disruption as well as existing chronic stresses in the surrounding area. This Resilience Plan is the first of its kind and will support a thriving, liveable and strong community where residents experience social connectedness with positive health and wellbeing.

This Resilience Plan for Beveridge North West has been developed in partnership by Mitchell Shire Council, the Victorian Planning Authority (VPA), the the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP), formerly the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), Yarra Valley Water and RMIT University.

RMIT Presenters:

• Professor Jago Dodson
• Professor Andrew Butt
• Dr Annette Kroen

Nic Adams
Research and Advocacy Officer
Mitchell Shire Council
Nic Adams is a Research and Advocacy Officer at Mitchell Shire Council, as part of the Advocacy and Social Planning team he works across areas including research and social policy with a focus on advocacy.

Revisiting Ellenbrook

In this ground breaking presentation, one of Australia’s most respected urban planners will revisit his award-wining and highly regarded Ellenbrook development in Perth’s north. Mike will outline what worked and what he would do differently today – some of which may surprise you.

Our host, the City of Swan will then outline how Ellenbrook’s urban design has impacted community outcomes, and what more needs to happen to ensure the area’s continued amenity and liveability.

Jindee – Form based code

Jindee redefines the potential of greenfield development and sets a new benchmark in liveable and sustainable urban growth.

A groundbreaking Form-Based Code developed by the project team has given rise to a truly unique community distinguished by its beautiful homes, leafy streets and a profound sense of place drawn from its coastal environs and the principles of traditional neighbourhood design.

Cath Roberts
Hatch Roberts Day

Mark Dickson
Planning & Sustainability
City of Wanneroo

Economic State of Australia’s Growth Areas

This presentation offers an overview of Australia's Growth Areas economic landscape, encompassing its performance since COVID-19, competitive advantages, evolving industries and future economic prospects, providing valuable insights for policymakers and community builders alike.

Rob Hall
Lead Economist
.id
Rob is driven by a desire to help shape communities for a better future. Trained as an economist, he has a unique fifteen-year background in economics, demographics, statistics and strategic planning with a focus on understanding how economic forces influences local government areas across Australia.

Choose Casey Investment Attraction Framework

Investment Attraction is often a priority objective within Economic Development Strategies of growth area councils. Where a residential growth rate far outweighs the number of jobs, attracting new business into a municipality is a key component in creating a resilient and sustainable local economy. At the City of Casey, a renewed focus on Investment Attraction and Facilitation was spurred on through the development of its Economic Development Strategy 2021-25, with ‘Be Investment Ready’ heading one of five strategic objectives Kathryn’s talk will outline Casey’s approach and share learnings for other LGA’s who are beginning their investment attraction journey.

Kathryn Sierlis
Manager Growth and Investment
City of Casey
With 20 years’ experience across planning, infrastructure and economic development in growth areas across South-East Melbourne, Kathryn is the Manager of the Growth and Investment Department at the City of Casey, which drives the delivery of connected and resilient communities by planning and facilitating innovative development and investment outcomes.

The Suburban Economic Challenge In Australia

Conversations around the suburban nature of Australian cities are often tinged with notes of derision or even occasional ridicule by professionals who, for whatever reason, believe the suburban preference of many residents and businesses is somehow inferior to their vision of a centralised urban utopia. This prejudice has lasted as long as many Australians have voted with their feet (and mortgages) for suburbia - when that choice is available.

This has shaped our cities - in particular since the post World War II era - into large sprawling metropolises with high density commercial cores and dispersed middle and outer suburbs with occasional centres, most of which are serviced by a legacy “hub and spoke” transit model.

But this is changing, fast. A new suburbanism is reshaping how our cities operate, and once again this can be at odds with the preferred or ‘authorised’ version of urbanism extolled by many professions. Its origins predated the upheaval brought on by Covid lock downs and their lasting impacts. It reflects a new economic model where the “9 to 5” commute is less and less a reflection of life for the average Australian city dweller, who is increasingly working in suburban located health or education industries or - if in previously city-based occupations – who is now preferring their suburban home as a workplace over their glamourous but distant city office tower.

With economic winds once again blowing out from city centres (not in) what can policy makers do to make the most of this opportunity?

Strategies to support Precincts to evolve post pandemic

In response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Melbourne, in partnership with the Victorian State Government, sought third party service providers to reduce shopfront vacancies, increase vibrancy and drive visitation of areas which were most impacted across the City of Melbourne. Hindered by consistent lockdowns across the city, the program aimed to provide support to precinct associations, businesses, landlords, leasing agents and communities on a bottom-up, community driven approach.

It is believed the City of Melbourne’s shopfront activation program was the most intensive and successful shopfront activation initiative domestically and globally. In total, the program delivered 67 activations of which 39 were located in the CBD-Core delivered by Plan1 Project Management & Consultancy along with Ginnane & Associates.

Over the length of the program, 3,059sqm of space was activated in the CBD-Core delivering 509 weeks of activation. The program provided a number of businesses to test their concept in a bricks & mortar environment having only existed online previously, creating an estimated 108 full time employment roles over the program. Highlighting the success of the activations, 63% of activations extended their occupation beyond the initial duration of support provided through the program.

Using Systems Thinking To Improve Biodiversity In Penrith

Research on the value of urban nature and ecosystem health on human health and wellbeing and threatened species survival is growing. While this thinking is slowly being reflected in planning and policy documents, such as the New South Wales Government Architects Draft Greener Spaces Design Guide, it is not translating fast enough into impactful outcomes on the ground.

To assist in accelerating this sustainability transition it is critical to understand how the social-ecological system in a place helps or hinders an area from taking action to improve biodiversity and where interventions could best shift system outcomes.

To contribute to this knowledge a systems methodology called ‘Group Model Building’ was undertaken on the Penrith Local Government Area (LGA). Fifteen local and state-based stakeholders, who have the capacity to influence aspects of the system, came together to consider the factors that help or hinder the Penrith LGA from taking more impactful and rapid action to improve urban nature.

They brought policy, planning, landscape architecture, regeneration, public works, and community perspectives to the issue through the workshop-based process. While every social-ecological system is different and forever evolving, this project’s findings can be used by practitioners and policy makers to consider: 1. systems thinking and methods as a tool to coalesce support for more action on biodiversity, as well as other sustainability transitions. 2. the factors that may influence biodiversity outcomes in their social ecological system. 3. where interventions may be focused to ameliorate their system outcomes for biodiversity.

Nature Play In Whittlesea: A 4 Prong Approach

The presentation “Nature Play in Whittlesea: The 4 Prong Approach” will delve into the significance of Nature Play for Council, addressing its background, open space requirements in growing regions, and management. It will also highlight the importance of supporting biodiversity for human health and the positive impact of nature play on physical and mental health and well-being. The City of Whittlesea’s aims to normalise nature play in growth areas consistent with its Municipal Health & Wellbeing Plan, taking advantage of the limits and opportunities that environmental planning has created for the use of open space.

The comprehensive 4 prong approach consists of:

• Infrastructure Integration: Implementing informal nature play into capital renewal projects by retrofitting existing infrastructure.
• Large event coordination: Demonstrating effective ways of organising and coordinating significant nature play events.
• Kindergarten Skill Enhancement: Fostering nature play and bush kinder expertise by providing specialised programs to individual kindergartens.
• Inclusive Family Nature Club: Establishing a family-oriented nature club, with a focus on engaging disadvantaged communities and addressing social isolation in new growth areas.

Collaboration across various teams within Council plays a pivotal role in realising these initiatives, exemplifying the commitment to make nature play an integral and accessible part of Whittlesea’s landscape.