Initial Insights - Across the NR Region
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, 394 people participated in 27 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.
So far we have collated the following findings from 27 workshops across the Northern Rivers:
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.
What does a safe, regenerative & adaptive future look like?
Possible Future of Climate Adaptation (2035)
Participants generated 3048 responses to this prompt: "Imagine... It's 2035 and a child born today is turning 10 years old. The outcomes of 10+ years of work by government and community to adapt to climate change and strengthen resilience is becoming visible around them. What has changed in the design of our built environment and our relationship with the natural environment, that is strengthening our resilience to an increase in temperature, severe fire weather, sea level rise & changing rainfall patterns? ... What changes do you notice in how your child's family is living and moving around in the world, that is contributing to shared resilience and regeneration?"
More data to be published soon.
Detailed reports are available below.
Reports for each of the above themes are available here:
THE PRESENT
THE FUTURE