• Citiworks-EMS
• Citiworks-CVA-EMS
• Citiworks-Citiwater-CVA-EMS
• Creek to Coral (EPA-CoT)

• Landcare & CCC/ICM
• Eg. TThLCA/TUPALG
• Haughton River ICM

• Integrating Catchment Planning, Water Quality (via USQMP) and Waterway Management into LGA TCC planning and operations

Sustainable Townsville – although energy focus – am finding that it connects across to all aspects – waterway management, habitat etc

Needs to be connected across

Landcare centre

Revegetation

Catchments

Establishing partnerships

1. Identify water management partners & hunting out opportunities including programs/initiatives (see examples TCC & partners **)
2. Make contact & establish relationship and common ground (prelim meetings, network opportunities – gut feelings – “be opportunistic”)
3. Provide agreement – in this case developing/negotiating amicable contracts for effecting engagement/involvement and participation “where and what people are interested in”

** Identifying organisational/individual “capacity to perform/deliver outcomes” including strengths and ability – eg:

• CVA ability to manage & supervise volunteers;
• GBRMPA Reef Education program – including Reef Guardians & Reef beat;
• NQ Water Festival;
• Youth Council with Community Services

Networks established with buy in (start it, eg. Haughton River – need to overcome suspicions, sensitivities and work with the rules and objectives of the organisation (identify these – map them out, develop a strategy. Using language of inclusion)

Buy in to programs – partnerships, alliances, networking – start with small steps and build, make relevant (eg. How benefits your resources and establishment) did this with Creek to Coral by establishing a system which identified and respected existing roles, responsibilities and working relationships. This is not always easy as suspicion, fear, lack of awareness or opportunity to develop awareness predominate. Doing it without offending – recognising that human beings are involved and are tribal

What you don’t know you don’t know – if you don’t know what you want how can you ask for it

## the challenges and opportunities for partnership building.

Challenges include

• Community and beuractatic (agency and Council) suspicions
• Developing understanding and agreement
• Recognising each others limitations, politics and sensitivities
• Don’t find people very good at this – saving face, looking good
• Gut instincts, chance meetings – follow up and make good
• Frustrations with people not getting it, time and space are the natural order of things (ie. took 18 months before local government accepted as individual role in Burdekin Dry Tropics Board)
• Dependent on the best efforts and capability of representatives
• Easy to say it is dealt with
• Levels of ignorance about how it all works – people seem to depend on “ideals/principles rather than possibilities” – that is the way it should work, if it doesn’t someone else fault and not up to us to fix

Opportunities include:

• Maximising outcomes, relationships, partnerships for resources available

• Working with winners – look around and actively identify and then support

• Recognising that it is all process, things happen at different speeds and at different times

• Being prepared to act when the opportunity presents – “get on boarders” vs the “waiting and seeing” and/or the “knockers – or value reducers”

• Clear demonstrations on the ground – eg. Picture paints a thousand words at Louisa Creek/USI (Institute of Public Works got where it was all coming from)

Challenges & Opportunities

## Panel discussions provide basis for broader discussions and questions

Broaden to and from?

##  key strategies and lessons-learned regarding partnership building

Key Strategies

• Be on look out for partnerships
• Develop relationships with various groups
• Put time into maintaining relationships (an action task not a thinking one!)
• Purpose of “over time” and “lack of meaning” in doing it for a purpose (pay-back comes at some point, or not)

Lessons learnt

• People take their own time to accept, participate and/or contribute
• You can only provide the framework and/or commence the conversations
• Don’t expect anything – let it happen or not
• At same time put in the personal/organisational energy commensurate with task at hand
• If you don’t communicate – people will do it for you

Partnership
Building

##  Prevalent and relevant circumstances such as:

# locations

There is great variability in our landscape and geography

Understanding where we are:

“Kakadu Syndrome” – its out there away from anywhere in some type of isolations

Example of Townsville – show slide of Cleveland Bay and Strand-North Ward – juxtaposed

What interests the community? What are there drivers and interests

Tropical north environments – long dry season, short intensive wet season

Means locations and responses may vary – eg.

1. Urban Stormwater management – late dry season hypothesis that this is the time when most critical or follow periods of dry and obtain different scales of response (post wet season changing environments)

Map out the environment – simple explanations for relevance and purpose

2. What is afforded, catering for maintenance and management constraints (difference between “ideals and possibilities”)
3. ie. What greenies want, we want, what engineers want

Wastewater management

Location of North queensland in wet areas – use of greywater limited  by soils assimilation, health issues and need to have waste water go back into sewer in times of zero absorption capacity, issue of going to end up polluting it anyway – hidden affects N:P go into sea anyway via the groundwater, plants don’t get opportunity to take it up

Economies of scale in north and regions

Establishing regional landfills and connecting with greater goals, objectives and opportunities for environmental protection – what other sustainability drivers are out there (AGO – Greenhouse – are they consistent marry up and/or support

Providing varying examples on ground – used to be called demonstration projects:

Train people up in partnerships, establish partnerships and networks

Building trust in relationships – understanding where others are coming from

Being synergistic with the place – concern for water management in dry places

No!!

# experiences,

Consistent messages – lack of resources, support, awareness and agreement about what required and needs

# scales,

Commonwealth push for regionalisation of nrm and agreement to support community “Green” aspirations

Established the “Burdekin Dry Tropics Local Government NRM Network” (BDLGN - NRM)

Local needs (“in the drain”) versus high level commonwealth/state policy

Are complimentary and not exclusionary (two sides of same coin with a middle connecting them – where they integrate)

# resource settings and

Far northern Australia

Regional environments

Economies of Scale

Distance tyrannies

Commonwealth funding – proving capacity/interest

Reflecting priorities

Understanding the system

SEQ status – centre of financial universe (where the money is)

Local people with inspiration – utilise local experience, creative work of locals

Eg. Low flows – size of catchments, capacity to capture stormwater

# socio-economic settings (highlight these and the implications for partnership building

People and what they are prepared to pay for – locally, regionally, nationally and internationally

What they know of their catchment and coast – local landscape valued/understood/aware??

Partnership is “reduced” or disempowered by lack of participation by broader community – frustrations observed of trying to “get” them involved or accepting responsibilities – eg. litter

Who pays – national and international icon – should local people bear full brunt of cost

There are competing interests for dollars and lag times (from inception to implementation)

So much disconnectedness in the socio-economic spheres between government and community

Working with a wide range of people with varying degrees of understanding and awareness about integrated waterway management

## Organization of authority and expertise is important to effectively protect water resources from the hilltops to the oceans.

Structures – evolutionary and revolutionary (question of when and where establish and/or reinforced by actions)

Drivers for establishing – emerging as in Creek to Coral

~ SEQ Healthy Waterways program came from sewage concerns discharges and who was responsible

~ locally got differing drivers, doesn’t mean can’t learn from them

# Characteristics of effective institutional frameworks for integrating water resource and coastal area management, and who is involved?

Effective institutional frameworks:

Integrated and facilitated communication between government spheres recognising constraints and limitations (entails being aware of what others can and can not do, what resources they have, how effective can the be – constraints apparent eg. Political)

Structure such as “Creek to Coral” established and resourced

On-ground performance of integrated approach manifest in multiple-permits as per TCC Integrated Drainage Permits (includes all relevant state department permits etc)

Integrated with community and community initiatives (eg. TAFE use of Townsville SOE)

Reinforce existing successful initiatives, partnerships, systems or fuel “success capacity” of existing initiatives and relationships (where they may well work ok if resourced appropriately)

Committed staff

Open discussions and dialogues

Difficulties of closed cultures and societies/organisations

Concerns, fears of employee/employers

Roles of staff etc

Marine Park

Dredging Permits

Mangrove removal etc

# How you do establish the required support?

• Putting effort into the top end of town
• Accepting that this won’t change only from the lower parts – bottom up and top down approaches being complementary (even if not happening at same period of time)

# What partnerships or strategies are effective?

Resourced ones

Open and accountable ones

Ones which meet each others needs

Maintaining communications (switching syndrome – agree to a proposal, leave it behind and move on looking for another one eg. Seagrass Watch Townsville

# Highlight these and the implications for partnership building

Implications for partnership building

## roles need to be designated and agreement to common, unified policies and practices obtained.

Creek to Coral  - commenced establishing roles

Drivers were different across the coast of Queensland and
Australia – high level common, agreed policies with variance in local on-ground implementation – “according to place and circumstance”

What community of Townsville think – did a customer survey and got interesting results

Integration, whose responsible for what

Compartmentalised – The Strand

Also a matter of training (5 Day Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Course)

##  a transparent system for management, regulation and enforcement needs to be evident and easily accessible

Resources available

Still trying to allocate responsibilities (fightin’ over them and the resources required to be allocated)

Simple clear models of “management, regulation and enforcement” – so that people can understand it – see where they fit in

That’s why CtC needs the model – of how it works

## with all involved institutions informed and up-to-date so that resources are not wasted on duplicated or counterproductive efforts.

Meetings, networking and reporting

People needing to read the words, agree to the findings, negotiating outcomes

Turf minding – need to recognise what groups need what and why function that way. At least to be working on it

##  How to successfully implement partnerships between government, the private sector, civil society and other stakeholders

– who is involved and what strategies are most effective?

In Townsville City Council – big ideals, so started small “small steps” and initiatives.

Build confidence and skills

Commence with an idea.

Currently underway seeking Supporters and commitments for Creek to Coral “Our Waterways, Our Responsibilities”

School/Youth Education – Community Waterway Educator

Catchment tours (showcasing the waterways and infrastructure – what going on in the catchment)

Project “Sustain” – working with Youth Environmental Network (Council) and other young peoples groups

Project “Respect” – working with and establishing partnerships with community social program groups (eg. Relationships Australia) – developing the idea of relationships to each other and between us and the environment

##  What institutional, legal, financial or other frameworks are essential and how to establish or strengthen them

Institutional –

Local Government is on the ground doing the work

Local Government is formed by elected representatives who report to and back to concerned residents (ratepayers)

Local Government in Queensland has planning powers and needs to be encouraged to use them (in case of TCC new City Plan – green zones set aside)

Legal -

Laws and bilaws

IPA

Coastal Management Act

Financial –

Commonwealth funding directed to regions in a manner which empowers

Needs to act as incentives to change, produce etc.

Has this worked in Townsville (yes - $$ made available have been utilised to conserve wetlands – Louisa Creek flowpaths to Town Common

- Serpentine Lagoon

Recognising appropriate roles

##  How to get multi-stakeholder partnership on the political agenda

Start talking and develop dialogue between spheres of government

Sustainable Cities 2025 – findings?? Relevance to discussion

Connecting to peoples interests

Meeting with Reefcheck

## How to finance the work?

From local, state and local government perspective