“The Tarnagulla community of the future will be different. Together we will work towards developing and sustaining a thriving town. We will have a strong social culture built on a diverse and connected population representing and welcoming peoples of all ages, status, ethnicities and interests. We will have a beautiful town with a sustainable economy built on local agriculture, businesses, clubs, organisations and tourism. To be resilient we will have developed the necessary capabilities to confidently address our future.”
The Tarnagulla community co-developed its own Resilience Action Plan. By establishing the Tarnagulla Alternative Energy Group (TAEG) in 2017, and using a grant from the Victorian Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP), the local group to engaged RMIT researcher, Dr Mittul Vahanvati to collaborate with TAEG members and the
community to co-produce the Tarnagulla Community Resilience Plan (TCRP).
With a population of 133 people, Tarnagulla is on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Central Victoria’s Golden Triangle, surrounded by Box Ironbark forests.
Tarnagulla developed their plan through three main phases of work:
i) increasing awareness, trust and participation;
ii) community identification of strengths, challenges, vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities; and
iii) development of a resilience action plan.
This was done through a series of eight workshops, involving an average
of 17 attendees per workshop, totalling 230 participants. Actions proposed by the community were prioritised through a citizen jury and later tested during a stakeholder workshop. EMV and other public policy representatives including SES, CFA, Loddon Shire Councillors, local Victorian police, and health sector members, contributed to testing of actions against a climate scenario.
Tarnagulla officially launched their Resilience Action Plan on September 10th, 2020.
