Representatives of fifteen businesses , 16 community groups and a number of interested individuals participated in the first day of workshops for the development of the Three Brothers Community Economic Transition Plan on March 22. A 3 hour workshop was held at Kendall followed by smaller local workshops at Kendall, Johns River and Moorland. Participants came not only from the central villages but also Hannam Vale, Coopernook, Croki, and Lorne.
All workshops were given a brief introduction to the project by local Project Coordinator, Kevin Williams, before detailed presentations and workshops run by Pieter Verasdonck and Suzie Coulston from Trade & Investment NSW. They were able to give many very useful examples from other localities throughout New South Wales of projects from other communities similar in size and character to Three Brothers that have gone through this transition planning process.
The day was really a major brainstorming session looking for ideas and solutions for the future of the communities in the Three Brothers. Over 100 ideas were canvassed from the floor before being further workshopped by groups to identify priority ideas. These covered a wide range of topics from support for local food supply and providers to tourism and business marketing, to local energy schemes for the future, better infrastructure and many more. The feasibility and basis of the key ideas and projects will be investigated before the next series of workshops in late April.