2005 Rural Partners Forum
David Beurle, executive director, Innovative Leadership Australia
One of the things that has most struck me at this conference is the interest in transforming rural communities. In my country we would describe what you are talking about as starting a bushfire. And if you think about what it takes to start a bushfire, you have to have a fuel load, something that is going to be ignited. And my observation is that I am so impressed by what I could call the fuel load - the igniters - in this state. The amount of programs, the resources. We've heard an overwhelming lot about that from the speakers here. And no question there is enormous leadership being provided by the Rural Center. Being able to light the fire. In an international perspective there is no question that you have the fuel load ready to go. However, a bush fire requires one other thing and that is oxygen in the environment. And where the oxygen comes from can only be the people in the communities. It's there, their commitment to fight for their town, their community, for something that they aspire to. I really can't tell if there is the oxygen there in the communities. We've certainly heard some examples of that from some of the case studies of communities. What will happen is you'll have a wild fire sweep across this state. If you're having sputterings of interesting things, but it doesn't quite catch on, then probably you are lacking the oxygen - the heart and soul - of the people in those communities. One thing I am very excited about, having had a quick read of the material, is that the Rural Center and its partners are taking into account both things. I think that you are on the cusp of having the ingredients and the balance right to truly usher in a new era of what rural communities can be. I think there's an entire new future for communities in this state that you can start to hear will emerge. In 10 years, people are going to look back and say, 'wow, that was when something was started to create this new future.' Its going to be you that is going to be out there stimulating, urging, challenging, cajoling in communities to say, 'this community is our community it's our future.'
