We report on the design and progress of a two-year initiative to enhance multi-stakeholder collaborative planning around visions and options for post-mining land use (PMLU) in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. The Valley’s three brown coal mines are slated for closure by 2035, with Hazelwood mine and power station closed since 2017.
Significant focus has been devoted to livelihood support for current mine and power station workers in transition. The individual proponents are preparing mine closure and rehabilitation plans for approval, following the requirements of ‘safe, stable and sustainable’. However, the visioning of opportunities for the 130 km2 mine land has been inadequate, leaving the Latrobe Valley community with an uncertain future. In particular, adequate space has not been made to incorporate Traditional Owners’ concerns and aspirations. This work is in direct response to the community’s request for a positive post-coal legacy, healing the environmental scars, whilst providing future economic opportunity.
Here we bring together licensees, regulators, local government, Traditional Owners, and multiple community organisations to build a shared vision for these sites. The ‘Latrobe Collaborative Planning’ initiative is designed as an action-oriented research project, informed by theories of collaborative planning and regional development. The project is distinctive in that it seeks to facilitate voluntary multi-stakeholder and citizen deliberation on preferred PMLU options, in a contested setting. A combination of scenario-thinking, economic analysis, and multi-criteria assessment (encompassing environmental, social and cultural values) are proposed to facilitate new knowledge generation. The work will make a significant contribution to the next iteration of the Latrobe Valley Regional Rehabilitation Strategy.
We address how key challenges during the project’s initiation have been navigated, including: mobilising resources from a diversity of partners; building trust among stakeholders; anchoring the project in a supportive institutional context; establishing an adequate initial knowledge base; and facilitating the co-production of new knowledge.
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