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Summary of full report Small Town Renewal Overview and Case Studies by Peter Kenyon and Alan Black (editors) in conjunction  with Jim Cavaye, John Duff, Michael O.Meara and Peter Palmer June 2001  RIRDC Publication No 01/043 RIRDC Project No ECU-6A

Executive Summary

Small town Australia is certainly at a crossroads. Many small inland and remote rural communities continue to haemorrhage in terms of population and business loss. This decline is not new, but has intensified over the last two decades. Mean age continues to rise, while the 15-24 age group contracts dramatically. Such a situation is not uniquely Australian. Similarities can be seen in the rural communities of midwest USA, New Zealand and South Africa.

Declining demographics are often the product of history and geography, and the stress and uncertainty of volatile world commodity markets, particularly within communities traditionally based on mining, fishing and traditional agriculture. In addition, there are other external pressures affecting the stability of small rural community life: growing environmental concerns, rapid technology changes, changing lifestyle options and consumer habits, low income and rising debt levels, decline in education and health services, national competition policy and practices, deteriorating infrastructure and high family and business costs. Also, throughout the later half of the twentieth century, the government and private sector policies that have sought to regionalize and centralise services have cumulatively had a major negative impact on small towns. Internationally, these issues are common themes, and affect most small inland and remote rural towns and communities.

However, despite the widespread economic and demographic decline of many small towns, other small communities have shown remarkable economic persistence and population stability and even growth: .local government development initiatives, specific local factors, urban push factors and small-scale flexible industry have enabled some . communities to adapt to the processes of change occurring at a higher national or global scale. (Tonts 1996:32).

There is a growing number of rural communities, both within Australia and internationally, that have recognised the long term effects of population and service decline, and despite the above issues and pressures have opted not to merely cope with a declining quality of life, but to adapt, embrace change and begin to prosper. They have begun to build resilient¹ characteristics and to plan and implement a range of rural survival and revival strategies.

This has resulted in positive outcomes for residents in terms of quality of life and economic opportunities.

These positive outcomes include:

• stabilising, and in many cases increasing, the size of population;
• retaining and attracting young men and women;
• diversifying the economic and employment base of the community;
• maintaining an adequate range of services and quality of life for residents;
• increasing the levels of civic participation and community pride by residents; and
• preserving what is special about the community.
It is vital that communities, governments and development agencies assess and understand why some rural towns have been able to achieve community and economic renewal, while other communities of similar location, size and weather characteristics continue to decline. The identification and replication of these renewal factors and processes that have enabled positive change is an issue of national significance.

Increasingly, governments and development agencies are recognising the importance of communities rebuilding from the "bottom up"
and "inside out", rather than the traditional model of "top down" and "outside in". They are implementing a range of community facilitation, technical assistance and funding schemes to foster rural renewal. However assistance is still limited, and Collits (2000:3) captured the situation well . .current efforts seek to provide small towns with hope for their futures, but hope based on their own efforts..

This Handbook is designed to generate action for community change and renewal by focussing on what communities are doing and can do. It seeks to enhance the capacity of small rural communities to take proactive renewal initiatives. It provides information, tools, resources and encouragement through:

• reviewing relevant and international literature and experiences related to small town renewal;
• analysing the experiences and lessons of fourteen small rural Australian communities that have in recent years experienced significant community and economic revitalisation;
• providing a set of process and development tools and Information Sheets to assist with planning and implementation of local development efforts; and
• compiling a comprehensive summary of key resources, including technical assistance programs, funding services and relevant publications related to rural renewal.
The Handbook is written primarily for two groups. Firstly, it is designed for those community builders who are able to fulfil that "spark plug" role within their community:
• people who can sense the need for community change and renewal, and know that the community needs to take responsibility for its future;
• people who can inspire a core group within the community to initiate action; and
• people who can motivate broad based community participation in planning and action.
Secondly, the handbook is intended as a resource for those individuals who provide a professional facilitation function with communities.

Dictionary definitions of the word facilitate include phrases like -to make easy, promote, help forward to an action or result, to remove difficulty, promote ease or readiness with aptitude, dexterity of fluency.

National and international experience has shown the importance of facilitators being able to fulfil the following roles:

• Energiser - creating an atmosphere of energy, excitement, optimism and positiveness;
• Broker - linking communities to experiences, methodologies, tools, networks, information and resources that may be relevant to their needs and aspirations;
• Coach - optimising the knowledge, confidence and experience of community participants by demystifying concepts, processes and strategies, facilitating group discussions and helping to overcome stumbling blocks and conflict.
• Champion - promoting the community and its revival efforts to the wider world.
Finally, this Handbook has been designed to assist users through the following steps:
• understanding the issues impacting upon small town rural life;
• demystifying the concept of, and processes involved in, small town renewal through the international and national experiences and case studies;
• assessing their own community's level of vibrance/resilience and potential for change;
• developing their own responses to the key questions of "where are we?"; "what have we got?"; "what do we want?" and "how do we get there?"; and
• identifying possible tools and technical and financial resources that could assist them with their small town renewal efforts.


1 'resilience' refers to 'intentional action to enhance the personal and collective capacity of its citizens and institutions to respond to, and influence the course of social and economic change' (Centre for Community Enterprise 2000:2)

 


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Last updated: 6 July 2001
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