Initial Insights - All Regions
So far we have collated the following findings from 26 workshops across the Northern Rivers:
The Imagine Northern Rivers workshop series was held across the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales between May 2025 and June 2026. In total, 410 people participated in 26 workshops across the seven local government areas (LGAs) that comprise the region, as well as a regional workshop convened by Plan C. Participants represented the civic, business, not-for-profit, resilience, government, university and cultural sectors, as well as general residents.
At the beginning of most workshops, participants were asked: “what adjective best describes your community and/or our region at the present time?” After articulating their aspirations for a regenerative, safe and adaptive future, participants were then asked to return to the present and respond to two questions:
• What do you value most about your community and/or our region and want to retain as we move towards the future?
• What do we need to stop doing in order to help our region regenerate and move towards our preferred future?
In total, participants contributed 336 adjectives describing the present, 1,116 responses about what they want to retain, and 1,076 responses about what we collectively need to let go of. This report analyses those responses and draws out the most important themes
How Do People Describe the Present?
Across all the workshops, participants generated a total of 336 responses to the question “what adjective best describes your community and/or our region at the present time?” To the right is a word cloud representing the frequency of participants responses.
What do people want to retain from the present?
Participants contributed 1,116 responses to the question “what do you value most about your community and/or our region, and want to retain as we move towards the future?” Responses were grouped into nine themes. Two themes – community connection and the natural environment – account for just over half of everything said.
What do people want us to stop doing or let go of?
Participants contributed 1,076 responses to the question “what do we need to stop doing in order to help our region regenerate and move towards our preferred future?” Responses were grouped into seven themes. Strikingly, the two dominant themes are not external forces but ways of being – how we relate to each other, and the economic values we live by.
