Located in the Indian Ocean, far off the WA coast, Christmas Island is known for its diversity of wildlife, coral reefs and cultures. With an ageing population, predominantly made up of Australians with Chinese or Malay heritage, many elderly residents live alone or with primary carers who work away from home. Limited access to public transport means that this demographic has become isolated and lonely – a feeling compounded in the last few years by the confusing and upsetting COVID restrictions.

The Shire of Christmas Island, in collaboration with Indian Ocean Territories Health Services, is the only organisation offering valuable programs to support the wellbeing of the island’s senior community.

These programs include the Stay on Your Feet program on Friday night’s, an initiative by the Australian Health Department designed to help seniors maintain balance and confidence through activities like Tai Chi, dance and aerobic exercises.

A respite program at the Senior Citizens Centre is another avenue for providing engagement activities such as games, arts, crafts and music to foster social interaction and mental stimulation.

In 2022, The Shire received an $8,979 Strengthening Rural Communities grant through the Rebuilding Regional Communities stream, which funded by the Australian Government to support COVID recovery, to enhance and expand their programs and activities on offer to the community.

The respite sessions at the Senior Citizens Centre are now more vibrant than ever, with new arts and craft materials bringing creative activities like clay moulding, painting and crafting to life. A newly installed arcade table featuring 60 classic games adds a fun, social element while also helping to sharpen cognitive skills.

Meanwhile, the Stay on Your Feet program has been revitalised with fresh exercise equipment, including exerciser steps and pool noodles, which replace the worn-out gear and add variety to workout options. Grant funds also went towards the development of bright new program t-shirts, giving participants a sense of belonging and appreciation for their group and wider community.

Challenges are always involved when delivering an initiative in a very remote location such as Christmas Island, particularly when it comes to the cost of freight and couriers to deliver new products. The Shire reported that every purchase was made with careful deliberation, ensuring the most value was attained from the grant.

It is clear that the senior community on Christmas Island looks forward to the Shire’s activities every single week. With their new and exciting additions, The Shire continues to create enriching and inclusive programs that support seniors in staying active, connected and inspired.

Rural communities set to benefit from multi-year partnership

FRRR and Colonial Foundation today announced a three-year partnership that will see $3 million invested in supporting remote, rural and regional communities to strengthen their digital skills and resources.

The funding will go a significant way to addressing the shortfall in funding requests that FRRR has seen from community groups in remote, rural and regional communities for its most in-demand and flagship program, Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC).

Natalie Egleton, FRRR’s CEO, said that small grants are critical to remote, rural and regional communities and one of the areas in highest demand for grants is around digital connectivity.

“Through FRRR’s SRC program, we provide support to some of the smallest, most remote communities in Australia. These places experience the greatest digital inequity, which is why offering flexible funding to strengthen the digital skills, confidence and safety of these places is critical.

“These funds will enable more locals to get online, build social connections and access services, information, education and employment through training. Additionally, it will assist in enhancing digital connectivity by funding infrastructure when needed.

“We are also grateful that Colonial’s support will enable FRRR’s team to spend more time on the ground, in community coaching, listening, learning and connecting groups across the country facing similar challenges,” Ms Egleton said.

Andre Carstens, CEO of Colonial Foundation, said that the Foundation is committed to advancing regional and rural Australia and shares FRRR’s commitment to empowering remote, rural and regional communities to be vibrant, resilient and sustainable.

“The digital divide between remote, rural and regional communities and their metro counterparts has a significant impact on the prosperity and wellbeing of people in these places.

“We are thrilled to be able to partner with FRRR to offer targeted yet flexible funding to help reduce this gap in digital literacy, services and skills and enhance connectedness, capability and resilience.

“Rural people deserve the opportunity to build technical skills and knowledge so they can improve their quality of life and the way they engage both locally, and with the broader world. This tangible support of local not-for-profit groups will help provide better access to services, information, education and employment,” Mr Carstens said.

Applications for the next round of the SRC program, which will include these additional funds, will open at the end of March, with funds awarded in late August 2025. FRRR welcomes additional contributions to its collaboratively funded SRC program. For more information, contact FRRR’s Partnerships team on 03 5430 2399 or email partnerships@frrr.org.au.

FRRR awards grants to more than 80 community groups and NFPs

More than 80 community groups across remote, rural and regional Australia are sharing $827,253 in grants thanks to FRRR’s flagship grants program, Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC).

The funding will be used by grassroots not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) for a wide range of initiatives that celebrate, strengthen and support their rural communities to be more vibrant, resilient, sustainable places to live.

Nearly $560,000 has been awarded through SRC’s Small & Vital (S&V) stream and will support 67 projects that create inclusive and accessible community spaces, provide mentoring and training and learning opportunities, improve employment prospects, or offer people the chance to connect and engage with others and their wider community.

The Prepare & Recover (P&R) stream of the program has awarded nearly $270,000 to 17 initiatives that build community resilience, preparedness and capacity to mitigate the impact of future extreme weather events, as well as support medium to long-term recovery in regions impacted by previous disasters, such as the 2022 floods and the Black Summer bushfires.

Jill Karena, Head of Granting at FRRR, said the SRC team is continually inspired by the strength and resilience of the NFPs dedicated to helping remote, rural and regional communities thrive.

“What makes rural communities amazing are the people that live there. These places are filled with locals working hard to keep community spirit alive and willing to step up to see their region navigate the highs and lows that come with living in the country. We see our role as walking beside them and empowering local groups to lead the projects they know will have a real impact.

“Small grants really do make a big difference and FRRR’s SRC program is so popular because it offers flexible small grants year-round to remote, rural and regional communities in all states and territories.

“Take for example the Forest Heritage Centre in Dwellingup, WA. With a Small & Vital grant of less than $1,500, the Centre will modernise the local gallery and gift shop’s point of sale system. This isn’t much funding but by updating their system, the Centre can look after the volunteers that help to keep the doors open, as well as encourage people to visit and spend money in the region.

“We’re also funding activities that bring people and resources back into country towns, helping these communities stay vibrant and sustainable. Places like Goulburn, NSW, where a $4,000 Small & Vital grant will help to upgrade infrastructure and host community workshops on environmental sustainability at the Goulburn Farmers Market.

“After supporting communities impacted by disasters for the past 25 years, we also know just how important flexible recovery and preparedness funding is, because communities’ needs change over time. By using a medium to long-term recovery lens, we’re able to support projects that strengthen the social fabric of a community through preparedness, capacity and resilience-building activities.

“Although it’s been five years since the 2019/2020 bushfires, the Eurobodalla community in NSW is still healing. Our Prepare & Recover grants allow us to continue supporting places like Eurobodalla, when other funders have moved on. This round, we’ve granted $10,000 to help the Shire Council run a 10-week cultural and personal development program to help connect socially isolated First Nations young people within the region.

“Our grants are often just one part of the bigger picture in terms of getting projects off the ground. But we know that this funding is often a crucial catalyst, encouraging further investment in local solutions. For example, the 84 projects we’ve supported in this round of SRC, are worth over $2.67 million.

“Demand for funding continues to grow, as the cost of living and operational expenses rise, government priorities shift, and the impacts of climate change and disasters evolve.

“To meet this demand, FRRR needs the support of the philanthropic and corporate sectors. A collaborative effort is needed to empower rural communities to lead a vibrant and sustainable future,” Ms Karena said.

The SRC program is collaboratively supported by donors, ranging from private individuals to larger foundations, who are acknowledged on the FRRR website.

If you would like to help, you can donate at www.frrr.org.au/donate.

FRRR always accepts applications to this program, which awards funds around four times a year. Local not-for-profit organisations and community groups are encouraged to review the program guidelines and apply. More information about the SRC program is available at www.frrr.org.au/src.

The full list of grant recipients and their projects are below.

This story was submitted as part of FRRR’s 25th birthday celebrations.

“As tourism development consultants who work with regional, rural and remote communities, we owe a great debt to FRRR – so many of the communities we support have received funding for a tourism development project from you – there’s even been some projects where we were hired with FRRR funding!”

Linda and Kushla, Tourism Development Consultants, Tilma Group Pty Ltd

“In 2023, we felt so inspired by business for good initiatives that tourism business owners were doing. We decided to start our own business for good initiative, and together while brainstorming what that could be, we decided there could be no better partner than FRRR – you’ve supported us and the communities we work for, and we want to support you! Making this decision brought us so much joy!

“Today, Tilma Group donates 1% of profits towards FRRR’s pool of funds. A personal concern is climate change, as we see its impacts in the communities we work with and in our industry, such as more extreme bushfires, floods and cyclones. While a festival that we supported took place, a bushfire started lapping the edge of town, and the event coordinators had to leave to fight the fire! Businesses we coach share their struggles with loss of visitors, such as the many Gold Coast business mentees who suddenly faced cancellations due to a flood in their busiest season.

“In the tourism industry, climate change is a major threat to business viability. For this reason, we’ve chosen to donate to FRRR’s Prepare and Recover grant, which helps regional communities adapt to future extreme weather events or recover from experiencing one. Anyone can join us in donating to FRRR here.”

This story was submitted as part of FRRR’s 25th birthday celebrations.

“Congratulations FRRR on 25 years of community support and grant making. First Steps Count has been fortunate to work alongside FRRR in the delivery of several grants over the last few years. FRRR recognises the value and the power of place-based, community-led projects, funding and supporting the hard work of people on the ground in rural and regional areas who have the passion and drive to make a difference for their communities. Thank you FRRR for your dedication to rural and regional communities and we wish you all the best for the next 25 years!”

Clare Brennan, Director

“First Steps Count received a $25,000 Investing in Not-for-Profit Capacity grant to engage the community with the co-design and development of our amazing centre for families with children aged 0-12. An additional Strengthening Rural Communities grant enabled us to engage with children and families local to the community to create artworks that feature on the internal and external walls at First Steps Count Child and Community Centre.

“Without FRRR funding, we would not have been able to work with an artist to coordinate the art project which enabled us to engage over 250 children and women in the community to create the art. The community’s involvement in the project has had a significant impact on their sense of belonging and ownership of the hub.

“We would also not have had sufficient resources to engage in genuine co-design to ensure that the way in which our hub operates truly meets the needs of the community.”

First Steps Count’s vision for the future

“Babies born today will be in their mid 20s in 2050. It is my hope that more of the children born today successfully finish their education and are supported by their families and community to engage in meaningful study, employment or work. It is my hope that more children have positive childhood experiences that ultimately influence the way they parent and manage relationships. It is my hope that the statistics show better developmental outcomes across all domains for children starting school.”

While it covers around 210 km, the locality of Porongurup in the Great Southern region of Western Australia has a population of only 370. A short drive east of Mount Barker, the community is nestled in the unique and ancient mountains of the Porongurup Range.

Thanks to a $9,961 Small & Vital Strengthening Rural Communities grant, locals aged 20 to 75 were supported to participate in the creation of an original, community led, intercultural, intra-regional dance performance. 

Called The Stars Descend, the final performance was part of a broader project called Distributed 15 – a work about climate action and hope that explored our shared responsibility to care for each other and the natural world through an immersive, ecological creative arts experience.

Auspiced by Denmark Community Resource Centre and facilitated by Annette Carmichael Projects; professional dancers, choreographers and artists ran 20 dance workshops with the participants during 2022 and 2023. Participants collaborated with facilitators throughout the creative process, and the importance of connection to the unique ecological sites in the region, climate action and hope were interwoven into the workshops and the culminating performance to a packed audience from surrounding communities.

The Porongurup dancers were joined by residents from Albany, Denmark and Mt Barker in their performance of The Stars Descend, creating connection through dance and art.

The project made a huge contribution to the vitality, social inclusion, wellbeing and community cohesion of Porongurup. One participant said there was an increased feeling of connection through the program and an intense pride in their achievement.

“This project gave me so much connection with people, place and myself. The joy that I felt contributing for the greater good was food for my soul. The way it incorporated the locals into a story that’s bigger than us all. We moved on the land, for the land.”

Watch the project in action here.

Funding awarded to more than 100 community groups and NFPs

FRRR has awarded $1,051,688 to 103 community groups to enhance the vitality and liveability of remote, rural and regional places across Australia, through the Foundation’s flagship grants program, Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC).

Thanks to the SRC program’s two streams of funding, these grants will empower local organisations to take the lead on ‘small and vital’ projects, like community hall maintenance or mental health first aid training, as well as support regions recovering from, or preparing for, disaster events such as bushfires or floods.

FRRR Place Portfolio Lead, Jill Karena, said the Foundation is committed to empowering local groups and organisations to develop and lead projects that will best meet the needs of their community.

“We know that for every state, region and town, priorities will be different, and we are here to work with local groups to help them address their needs and strive to celebrate their vibrancy and acknowledge their tenacity.

“The projects we fund truly matter and have a meaningful impact. Our Strengthening Rural Communities program proves that a grant, no matter how small, can make a big impact in a regional place.

“Although innovative and resilient, local not-for-profit organisations just don’t have the resources to withstand the acute impacts that wide-sweeping policy changes can have on remote, rural and regional Australia.

“For example, in South Australia, we have seen an increase in requests for kitchen and bathroom upgrades in community halls and buildings to meet increased hygiene standards required by the state’s revised Health Act. These community spaces are gathering places for the community, in times of celebration and when disasters strike, so it’s critical that we support local groups, like the Riverton Bowling Club, to make these upgrades to community spaces.

“In New South Wales, a directive for public sector employees to return to working in offices has meant an increase in supply of housing and a drop in house prices in some parts of regional NSW. This migration back to metro areas has a knock-on effect, impacting the economic and social wellbeing of these regional NSW communities with fewer people and less money to buoy the regions.

“Creating activities that bring people, and money, back into these towns, is one way that communities are working to remain sustainable in the face of this changing social and economic landscape. Warren’s ‘Turn Right for a Night’ Tourism Sign Project is a great example of this. The local Rotary Club will use a $10,000 grant to promote tourism and boost the local economy by installing signage at key locations to encourage drivers to visit the region.

“The upcoming 2025 Western Australia election build-up has seen some disaster-affected communities suddenly getting cash injections from the state for rebuilding projects. But we know that disasters affect more than just infrastructure, so we will continue to be here to support projects that strengthen the social fabric of these communities by funding preparedness, capacity and resilience-building activities.

“For example, the Warmun Art Aboriginal Corporation will use an SRC grant, funded through the Prepare & Recover stream, to prepare for future flooding events by developing flood-proof infrastructure to protect a nationally significant Aboriginal art collection.

“In both Queensland and the Northern Territory, we are hearing that Government promises of crackdowns on youth crime are causing anxiety in some regional communities. Projects that foster and encourage community members to connect, like the Kilkivan Great Horse Ride Street Market and Family Fun Day in Queensland or the Northern Territory Writers Festival, are vital for communities, and we are funding these kinds of activities as much as possible.

“In Tasmania, groups are acknowledging the strain that their volunteers are under and are seeking ways to support those people who are helping to keep their doors open. In Chudleigh, the Agricultural & Horticultural Society is increasing volunteer safety and satisfaction by using an SRC grant to upgrade the kiosk kitchen.

“More generally, we are seeing an increased numbers of applications from more rural and remote communities across the country looking to improve online access and reliability through Starlink connectivity. Like in Burren Junction, New South Wales, where the Burren Progress group will use a $10,000 grant to install a Starlink internet service and new digital equipment at the School of Arts Hall to improve the community’s internet connectivity.

“We are also supporting an increasing number of projects to ensure established local newspapers, newsletters and community radio continue, with locals concerned about the loss of community connection and identity and increased social isolation if these local institutions, like the Prom Coast News in Foster, Victoria, and the Midwest Aboriginal Media Association in Carnarvon, Western Australia, are lost,” Ms Karena explained.

Small grants are catalytic

Since its inception in 2019, FRRR’s SRC program has been a vital source of funding for more than 2,360 remote, rural and regional communities, distributing more than $27.4 million to NFPs across every state and territory in Australia.

“Our funding is often the critical catalyst that community groups need to get their projects off the ground. A grant from FRRR can encourage other organisations to invest in local solutions or can be used to leverage the additional funding their project needs,” Ms Karena explained.

In just this round, FRRR was able to contribute more than $1 million in grants for 103 projects that are worth over $2.3 million.

However, demand for funding continues to outstrip what FRRR has available, with this round seeing more than 32 ‘funding-ready’ and worthy small and vital projects seeking $362,000 in support missing out.

“To meet the continued demand for funding, FRRR needs the support of the philanthropic and corporate sectors to empower rural communities to lead projects and local solutions that will ensure their future is vibrant and sustainable,” Ms Karena said.

The SRC program is collaboratively supported by donors, ranging from private individuals to larger foundations, who are acknowledged on the FRRR website.

If you would like to help, you can donate at www.frrr.org.au/donate.

FRRR always accepts applications to this program, which awards funds around four times a year. Local not-for-profit organisations and community groups are encouraged to review the program guidelines and apply. More information about the SRC program is available at www.frrr.org.au/src.

The full list of grant recipients and their projects are below.

Thallon State School P&C is dedicated to supporting the local school, and in turn the vibrancy and sustainability of their small town.

After severe drought, a mouse plague and then COVID, student numbers were dwindling, so the P&C decided to upgrade the school playground, hoping to encourage new families to join. But first they needed to raise some funds. This led to the annual Thallon Team Truck Pull event. In its first year alone, the event drew 300+ attendees and raised more than $17,000 for the school playground project.

To make the event even more comfortable for those attending the Truck Pull – and to provide vital sun protection to students – the Thallon State School P&C Association received an $8,577 Small & Vital Strengthening Rural Communities grant, funded by Hand Heart Pocket – The Charity of Freemasons Queensland, to buy new shade structures. They are designed to be set-up with ease (just 60 seconds) and are 100% waterproof and UV protected, ensuring the safety and comfort of students and the wider community. The covers are also branded, showcasing the Thallon State School logo, which creates a sense of identity, wellbeing and place for its users.  

The structures are also now available to the whole community for a variety of purposes, including swimming days, athletic carnivals and community events such as ANZAC day and Christmas in the Park. To the Thallon community’s delight, the structures arrived before ANZAC Day, ensuring that they could be used for both the in-school and community service.

P&C representative Janna Spierenburg said, “This is one way that the school can offer support back to the community, as a thank you for their continued support.”

A clever project led by Yorke and Northern Local Health Network Incorporated (YNLHN) has improved health and wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal people living in rural and remote regions in South Australia. The campaign involved offering a free shirt, featuring First Nations art, to connect community members to a vital health check program.

YNLHN recognises that an Aboriginal-specific health service is crucial for the delivery of culturally appropriate care. It encourages community members to interact with clinical staff in a comfortable environment, provides valuable opportunities for Aboriginal health professionals to practice their clinical skills and helps to give Aboriginal people autonomy over their health.

The 715 Aboriginal Health Checks are an opportunity for early detection and prevention of a range of health issues through treatment, education and support. YNLHN data showed that only 21.17% of their regular clients were up to date with their 715 checks. Incentives have been proven to increase the number of Aboriginal people seeking these assessments, which aid in closing the gap in health inequalities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

The YNLHN Aboriginal Health Team was conscious of engaging the beneficiaries in every step of the project. They called for expressions of interest from community members to develop artwork that focussed on place, community, health and wellbeing. This was an opportunity for local artists to showcase their abilities and connect to culture through artwork and storytelling. The successful submission received overwhelming support from community voters and was used for the final shirt design.

The slogan was the only point of contention. Originally it was ‘Stay alive, have your 715’. However, the artist workshopped it with her high school art class to find a culturally relevant alternative. They chose ‘715 Deadly Unna’ which, roughly translated, reads ‘having your 715 is good yes?’ This meant that the project’s reach extended to young people in high school, a notoriously difficult age group to engage with.

A $10,000 Strengthening Rural Communities grant funded the printing of the shirts, which was executed by Aboriginal-owned and operated printing company We Create Print Deliver.

The shirts were officially launched at a health and cultural event, Tarpari Wellbeing Day in Port Pirie in April 2024. This was fantastic exposure for the project, with 66 agencies and more than 3,000 community members in attendance.

The project has been a huge success: there has been a significant uptake in MBS 715 health checks since its launch. The Aboriginal Health Team was even required to develop a new schedule to manage the influx, and additional funding has been sourced for a further 250 polo shirts to accommodate their popularity. In addition, the artist has had an increase of commissioned artwork; discussions have opened between healthcare professionals and the Aboriginal community; and the wider community is more open to discussing the discrepancies in health outcomes for Aboriginal people.

YNLHN representative Kit Prior said, “We are so proud of this project and what it has achieved. People from all walks of life love these shirts and we have had numerous requests to purchase them.”

Health outcomes in the Yorke and Northern region have improved considerably because of this project, a fantastic example of how targeted small grants can have a profound impact.

FRRR’s CEO, Natalie Egleton, recently spoke at the Social Impact in the Regions Conference. Before participating in a panel discussion that was focussed on addressing challenges in remote, rural and regional Australia, Natalie delivered a brief presentation. The following are her speech notes.

All too often, regional communities are only visible to the rest of the country and to policymakers through a lens of crisis, disadvantage, or as somewhere from which resources needed by others can be extracted.

From the hundreds of community grants and conversations we have at FRRR, we know that is not the narrative regional communities want to focus on. The challenges are definitely there; regional communities live them every day. But what would happen if we flipped the narrative to one where regions are understood, invested in and valued for their intrinsic value – their innovation, intelligence, creativity and contribution to their own and the nation’s wellbeing and economies?

The possibilities are remarkable when we do this. I’m going to share three case studies of communities and organisations that FRRR has partnered with over multiple years as they navigated these very questions. I’m not telling their story on their behalf but sharing what we noticed throughout our funding partnerships with them. They stand out but are by no means the only such organisations and communities. And a hint – there are some common themes about the different types and roles of backbone organisations; the capacity for challenges to catalyse innovation; and why place-based change takes time – sometimes generations.

Red Ridge Interior Queensland

Red Ridge Interior is in Blackall – almost the centre of Queensland. They are an arts organisation at their heart and evolved into so much more during the drought that crippled much of western Queensland in the mid 2000’s until very recently. Their model is one of collaboration that supports outcomes like intergenerational connection, First Nations economic self-determination, women’s health and wellbeing, and leadership development.

The first grant we awarded was just $2,500 to help them build a better business model. We have since supported many of their initiatives. Over the years, as they’ve grown in confidence – and people have built confidence in them –they’ve blown it out of the park.

Red Ridge described themselves as an auspice for local projects – but I would argue that they have played a backbone role for western Queensland.

In remote communities like Blackall, there are fewer services, small, dispersed populations, and narrow economies. They need organisations that can play integrated and multifaceted roles across population groups, industries and join dots in policy and funding systems to make them work for their local context.

One of their activities is the now annual Channel Country Ladies Day – an event with the tagline ‘inspiration in isolation’. It brings together women from across the channel country, right down into Birdsville and further north to Longreach and surrounds.

It was an idea born during the drought, when the load that women were carrying – caring for family, finding ways to generate off-farm income, managing the farm business – was noticed, alongside the fact that they weren’t caring for themselves. This is not any ordinary event; it brings together hundreds of women for reprieve, wellbeing support, fun and skill development. It also builds economic opportunity by creating space for micro-enterprises, and enterprise development. It’s a space for hard conversations and care for people doing hard work.

As the drought’s impacts deepened, Red Ridge saw an opportunity to play a role in ‘finding beauty in the drought’ and created the Dress the Central West event. They partnered with Central West Hospital and Health Service (CWHHS) and Central West Aboriginal Corporation (CWAC) to create the fashion parade of the year, Dress the Central West. Teaming with Fashion designer Claudia Williams from Llani Creative, each outfit represented the history and traditions of the four communities involved in the project – Winton, Blackall, Longreach and Barcaldine.

The event tapped into layers of talent in the community and gave people who were often excluded from opportunities a platform to shine. With support from a fashion designer, communities designed several outfits that best represented their towns, stories and culture in the adversity of drought, using recycled or found material.

The work that Red Ridge and the communities of the Central West faced – and still face – include big challenges, but they have found ways to create energy from within communities to co-create new stories and futures.

Red Earth Community Foundation

Red Earth Community Foundation is one of about 40 place-based philanthropic foundations in Australia – a network that is growing and evolving dynamic community-owned models of generating and redistributing capital in their local communities. Red Earth covers the North and South Burnett and Cherbourg communities in Queensland.

FRRR has partnered with Red Earth since it was a seed of an idea, through many grants and strategic partnerships. It’s a leading model of community mobilisation and transformation from the ground up.

Like many innovations, a crisis was the catalyst for the formation of Red Earth Community Foundation, following a major flood event in 2014. Conversations among a few key people were about what the Burnett needed in 100 years’ time – it was a different vision and one that held a new narrative about its challenges. This was in a context of the Burnett describing the region as the hole in the doughnut – the region that had high needs and one of the highest rates of socio-economic disadvantage in the country. They saw investment flowing everywhere but the Burnett Inland.

Funding to support flood recovery occurred around the same time as funding to support setting up good governance for the emerging Foundation. The latter involved much consultation and education about what a community foundation structure might bring to the Burnett.

There was a space to shift – they could continue blaming and being victims of poor systems, or they could mobilise and create something else. So, they set out on a different path to most community foundations – instead of starting with money, they started with people and developed a community leadership program. More than 200 people have now graduated from the program and are activating opportunities across the region.

In just a decade, Red Earth has become a vital backbone for the region – they are a trusted convenor of community voice and action. Beyond the leadership program, they are facilitating major drought resilience and disaster preparedness initiatives, and brokering opportunities for community benefit from renewable energy projects.

FRRR and Red Earth are currently partnering on the Disaster Resilient: Future Ready program, which is supporting community co-design of disaster resilience across the small towns in the Burnett Inland region. The teams were together at the recent AIDR conference to showcase the work and learnings.

Red Earth’s is a story of people power and a collective decision to adopt an opportunity mindset.

Toolangi

The final example is not of a single organisation but rather a small community – population just 335 – in an area affected by Black Saturday bushfires in 2009; it’s about an hour and a half north east of Melbourne.

In this tiny village, the Community House is the hub and provides a central point of connection and information. It is mostly volunteer run, with a tiny amount of funding for operations and programming. When the fires impacted the town, the Community House was the central organisation for recovery efforts. They had to step up and play a far more complex role in rebuilding the town and people’s lives.

The Community House brought together the ideas and needs of the town and went about gradually planning and actioning – with small amounts of funding as they went. Of course they couldn’t do it all at once. And as such a small town and organisation, nor could they accept too much support all at once. So, FRRR worked alongside them, supporting the community when they were ready and as needs evolved and people were able to do some of the actual implementation.

The focus was on long-term recovery, regeneration, over weeks and months. Support was given in different places, at different times. The support via the Community House similarly took different forms, and as needs evolved, investment went with them. Some of the projects supported by FRRR included strategic thinking about how to approach recovery; a focus on wellbeing; the need to create a place where health and fitness – physical and emotional wellbeing – could support social wellbeing across different groups – students; women; men etc.

The weekly community fitness program had a huge impact on the community as they recovered and found a ‘new normal’ after the fires. People were at risk of becoming isolated and mental health was a growing issue. In a largely ageing community, physical wellbeing was the way in to addressing mental wellbeing. An evaluation of this program found significant reduction in risk factors and increases in wellbeing at a population level. In fact, the program is still running.

They also hosted others including the men’s shed and the community garden – and reactivated spaces in town that could support connection, healing and regeneration. While there were many people involved, one person in particular was, and still is, the glue for this town – she carefully, kindly, and strategically worked with the community to reimagine spaces and opportunities. She did it knowing that they would never attract the big money or media headlines and so worked smartly too – with locally led sustainability as the goal.

That’s often the reality for those working in remote, rural and regional communities – the challenges are there and it’s up to those of us living and working there to find our unique assets and strengths.

These three examples showcase what’s possible if we flip the narrative and invest in communities, especially in backbone organisations that can take carriage of maintaining focus for the long game. They come in different shapes and sizes and, when built from and by community, are vital parts of community infrastructure. The other lesson I’d share, both from my work at FRRR but also as the resident of a small rural community, is to work on the assumption that the money may never come – hard as that is, it can liberate new thinking and opportunity. I hope that these anecdotes encourage you to reconsider your view of remote, rural and regional Australia. It’s not all doom and gloom – even when times are tough. Imagine what might be possible if regions are truly understood, invested in and valued for their innovation, intelligence, creativity and the contribution they make to our nation’s wellbeing and prosperity.