“Our Campaspe is welcoming, inclusive, and diverse.
Our People are supportive, resilient, and thriving.
Our Places are vibrant, healthy, and sustainable.
Stronger Together, like the three rivers flowing through our shire.”
That is the community vision presented to the Campaspe Shire Council Mayor following an intensive 3-day Citizen Panel held over 21-23 March.
Council’s first-ever Citizen Panel resulted in 35 participants from throughout the shire representing a broad demographic coming together to develop the Community Vision 2040 and provide advice to Councillors for the development of the Council Plan 2025-2029.
During February and March, targeted discussion groups were also held with youth and First Nations people, plus a shire-wide community survey to help gather information for the Panel to consider. 8,000 letters were also sent out across the entire municipality seeking expressions of interest from those keen to participate in the Citizens’ Panel, and from those, 122 people came forward.
A selection process to represent age, gender and location was conducted by the Sortition Foundation who specialise in organising democratic lotteries to achieve fair and broad representation of our community. Of those who replied to the letter wanting to be involved, there were people selected from Kyabram, Echuca, Tongala, Yambuna, Echuca Village, Rochester, Lancaster, Kotta, Wyuna and Roslynmead.
Throughout the course of the weekend, the Panel engaged in presentations, Q&As, information sharing, small and large group discussions, voting, and prioritisation. The Panel provided information and feedback for questions posed in relation to community identity, aspirations and priorities.
Campaspe Shire Mayor, Cr Daniel Mackrell said that the weekend was a great success and looks forward to using the renewed Community Vision will guide the new Council Plan.
The Panel also presented the mayor with the key priorities and themes that they developed over the weekend as a set of advice for Councillors to develop their Council Plan.
The new Community Vision is required to go to Council for adoption, and Councillors will be using the key priorities and themes presented by the panel to inform the development of the Council Plan 2025-2029.
“The Panel determined how they would work together as a group and how they would reach consensus on a
decision and they decided that a 75% super majority was required,” said the mayor.
At the end of the three days, the Citizen Panel, with a super majority support, presented the Community Vision to the Mayor.
“I am incredibly proud of the work done by the Citizen Panel. Their commitment to understanding and addressing the needs of our community is inspiring.
“We also had some great feedback from the panel that it helped them gain a much broader understanding of how Council operates and how their vision will assist with the formation of the Council Plan,” Cr Mackrell said.
Community members will have the opportunity to take part in further consultation about July-August when the draft document is developed.
Both the Community Vision 2040 and Council Plan 2025-2029 need to be adopted by Council by 31 October 2025 in accordance with the Local Government Act 2020. The community will be able to have further opportunity for consultation once the draft document is developed later this year.
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