Launched in February 2023, ‘Innovation Upper Murray’ is an exciting new project for the region, that locals can join now.
Funded by the state government and supported by key stakeholders – Upper Murray Incorporated, Upper Murray Community Recovery Committee, Towong Shire Council, the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, and RMIT University – it aims to help the Upper Murray community and businesses identify opportunities for innovation, economic diversification and undertake long-term planning. The involvement of government and research bodies in the process, to support the successful adoption of initiatives, makes it a (place-based) method called Smart Specialisation Strategy (or ‘S3’).
“The ‘Innovation Upper Murray’ project builds on the substantial work of community consultation accomplished in the last decade and which led to the Upper Murray 2030 Vision Plan, as well as the post-bushfire Community Recovery Plan,” said Upper Murray Inc (UMI) chair, Jo Mackinnon.
“The S3 innovation focus aims to develop opportunities with strategic and robust competitive advantage that leverage the region’s natural strengths and assets.
“In other words, the project’s ambition is to champion exciting innovation opportunities derived from our region’s unique strengths.”
So far, data has been gathered to understand the region and its potential innovation opportunities.
They include demographic and economic data, analysis of existing plans and strategies for the region and close to 90 interviews conducted by a project manager, Juliette Milbank, who has since moved on to other ventures.
The 63 interviews were with members of the community, business, government, agriculture, the research and education sectors, along with an additional 25 organisations serving the region.
Interviews covered a broad range of community and business, from farmers to shop owners and from historical families to fairly new residents.
They revealed a rich range of motivated, skilled and inspired people.
Sixth generation farmer, Jayden Pierce and his wife Jasmine deliberately ride horses for the welfare of their cattle, while using electronic monitoring of their cattle movements to optimise feed and fertiliser.
Former teachers, Cathy and Warwick Ross, have been volunteering in the community since they retired in 2014.
Over the past 10 years, they have been heartily supporting Corryong’s recovery and tourism activities.
Enthusiastic new locals such as Shelley Neale (who created Khancoban Kitchen spice business in 2020) and Mick Butler (who bought Hobie’s Sports store in 2021), are running their businesses with a vision, while being actively involved in outdoor activities and local groups.
The data collected has provided the information for the Regional Context analysis and a summarised version of this document is available on the Innovation Upper Murray website, at the Corryong Neighbourhood Centre (CNC) and at the Upper Murray Recovery Hub, for consultation and feedback, to obtain a final list of innovation ideas as opportunities to investigate.
In early findings, many strengths of the region revolve around the landscape with significant areas of natural parks and abundance of water, the excellent growing conditions of climate and soils, projected climate resilience compared to other regions. These strengths, which will be increasingly important in the future in light of climate evolution, are the basis of many opportunities in agriculture, tourism, conservation and energy production.
The next step of the S3 process is to involve the community in Entrepreneurial Discovery Workshops, to investigate in detail each opportunity and understand which ones are worth pursuing.
This is done with the support of representatives from local, national government bodies and Australian experts in the discussions, to identify specific innovation opportunities with strong competitive advantage for the Upper Murray.
If you want to participate in this important step of the project, make sure you head to InnovationUpperMurray. org website, the CNC or the Upper Murray Recovery Hub to register your interest.
Feedback must be received by 28th February, 2024.
You can also receive updates by registering to the mailing list on the website, follow the project page on Facebook @innovationuppermurray or in the Corryong Courier.
This article appeared in the Corryong Courier, 8 February 2024.
