Wimmera Southern Mallee Collaboration
What is the Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Energy Collaboration?
When energy organisations work together, they can collectively deliver benefits for regional communities to realise the community’s shared vision. We’re seeing this happen in the Wimmera Southern Mallee as a pioneering collaboration.
The Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Energy Collaboration built on a workshop hosted in Horsham in late 2023, where Wimmera Southern Mallee Development invited representatives from renewable energy and transmission companies working in the region to come together. The ask was whether these businesses would be willing to work together and with the Wimmera Southern Mallee community to create genuine partnerships that ensure that the region benefits directly from the shift to clean energy.
The answer was a resounding yes!
During the 12-month co-design process in the Wimmera Southern Mallee led by WSM Development, we:
- Supported existing community leadership + vision
- Brought together 10+ renewable energy developers + transmission businesses
- Facilitated co-design of commitment for industry collaboration on initiatives enabling collective benefit sharing + better community outcomes.
What’s the outcome?
Together, community leaders and energy collaborators co-developed the Wimmera Southern Mallee Collaboration Agreement providing the structure and foundational commitments needed to enable energy participants to collaborate – and work with the Wimmera Southern Mallee communities – to ensure long-term community benefits are delivered.
What's next?
As a result, the Wimmera Southern Mallee Collaboration Agreement has delivered:
- Commitment to Collective Action initiatives, with alignment of benefits e.g. young people, fire risk, mental health and RD&E
- Commitment to Better Practice operations and key areas of community concern
- Established a Regional Partners Forum for ongoing listening and co-design
- Early and authentic collective engagement with community
- Deep-dive workshops on local issues e.g. Succession Planning, Floodplain Management, Ag Tech impacts and Agrijustice
- Pooling of resources and shared information to ensure a cohesive, transparent dialogue between business + community
- A trial of a landholder network, to ensure that landholders in the region are supported and heard.
The success of the Wimmera Southern Mallee Collaboration, an Australia-first initiative, provides a replicable process for energy participants working in other regional communities across Australia.
Who’s involved in the collaboration?
The Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Energy Collaboration is being coordinated by Wimmera Southern Mallee Development and The Energy Charter.
Collaborators: AusNet Services, Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Transmission Company Victoria (TCV), planning authority VicGrid, renewable energy developers: BayWa r.e., Cubico Sustainable Investments, RES Group, RWE Renewables Australia, Squadron Energy and WestWind Energy.
Co-design process supporters: Also supporting the co-design process is Barengi Gadjin Land Council, Department of Energy, Environment & Climate Action (DEECA), Nexa Advisory, Nine Creeks Consulting, RE-Alliance and Regional Development Victoria.
Independent research
Wimmera Southern Mallee Development is working with the local community to understand, based on evidence, if renewable energy projects will increase or decrease farming profitability and resilience – and if future developments will increase the broader liveability and prosperity of communities in the region.
Head to their website to learn more about the suite of independent research they have engaged.
“Partnerships are challenging, and this collaboration encourages companies to reflect on their engagement practices and, more importantly, improve them. We know that progress can be made, and all partners are committed to working together to make this happen. This partnership exemplifies how effective collaboration can create better outcomes, garner respect and empower communities as equal stakeholders in Australia’s energy future. A partnership done well means we are #BetterTogether.”
Chris Sounness
CEO, Wimmera Southern Mallee Development