SEGRA - SEGRA workshops

SEGRA 2010 workshops

Workshops on Thursday 21 October 2010

9:00 am – 5:00 pm	Climate Change: adaptation strategies for regions and communities	Assoc Prof Peter Waterman and Emeritus Professor Bob Miles
9:00 am – 5:00 pm	Study Tour 1: The Mineral Processing Chain Tour
9:00 am – 5:00 pm	Study Tour 2: Solar City Project Magnetic Island
9:00 am - 1:30 pm	Community Capacity Building and Mobile Communities	Dr Peter Vitartas
9:00 am - 1:30 pm	Regional Economic Development Skills	Assoc Prof Geoff Cockfield
2:00 pm- 5:00pm	Developing Research Collaborations	Dr Peter Vitartas

Climate Change: adaptation strategies for regions and communities

Setting the Scene

Globally there is general acceptance that climatic conditions are changing and that this is seen in more extreme weather and climatic variability. Australia wide there is indisputable evidence that rainfall and temperature conditions have changed markedly over the past sixty years. This is demonstrated through hotter and dryer conditions along the highly populated eastern seaboard and prolonged droughts in the usually highly productive agricultural regions. Extremes in weather have ranged from heatwaves that have impacted adversely on human lives and property in rural towns and farms to floods that have destroyed and damaged infrastructure and seriously interrupted economic activity in remote regions. Adapting to extreme weather events and climatic variability and change is a critical issue for regional Australia and is one that has inter-locking physical, biological, social and economic dimensions.

The Practitioners Workshop

The workshop aims to provide practitioners working in the regional and local development fields with:

up to date information on the realities of changed climate conditions and what this can mean for regional Australia;
insights into the international dimensions and implications of a post Copenhagen 2009 for Australia; and
perspectives on practical climate change adaptation strategies that are being applied sectorally in coastal, rural and remote regional Australia.

Key issues and questions for discussion

Most importantly, the workshop will provide participants to address questions such as:

What does the international and national situation with respect to greenhouse gas emission reduction policy and practice mean for sustainable economic development for regional Australia?
What governance frameworks and actions are needed to ensure that your region, your enterprises, your community and you become climate change adapted?
What are the current regional, community and industry sector responses to the realities of changing climatic conditions in Australia?

What can we as practitioners and individuals do to become better equipped to adapt to changing climatic conditions in our industry sectors, our regions and communities, and in our homes and lifestyles?


Emeritus Professor Bob Miles, Bob Miles Consulting	Assoc Prof Peter Waterman RFD, School of Science and Education, University of the Sunshine Coast and Managing Director, Environmental Management Services

The Mineral Processing Chain Tour

This tour showcases several aspects of the minerals processing chain and encompasses Queensland Nickels’ Yabulu Refinery and the Port of Townsville. Participants will be able to follow raw material as it arrives at the Port of Townsville, is the transported to the Queensland Nickel refinery at Yabulu for processing and is the transported back to the Port of Townsville for export.

Handling around 10 million tonnes of diverse cargo annually, Port of Townsville is a cornerstone of North Queensland’s economy. It is well connected to the internationally recognised North West Mineral Province and surrounding agricultural industries, and is strongly positioned with world class physical and social infrastructure, making Townsville an attractive place to invest and do business.
Since the Port’s first wharf was constructed in 1863, the Port has been central to the economic development of North Queensland. The port is situated in the heart of tropical North and provides Australia and its international business partners with a world class gateway for commerce and trade. Port of Townsville is unique in that its sea jurisdiction encompasses the World Heritage area adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The Queensland Nickel Refinery at Yabulu was established in 1974 to process ore from the Greenvale Mine. Having undergone several changes in ownership, it is now under the control of Clive Palmer, who acquired the operation in 2009 and secured the future of over 900 employees attached to the plant. Both nickel and cobalt are processed from concentrate imported from New Caledonia, Indonesia and Philippines through the Port of Townsville. Following processing utilising patented technologies, the finished product is used in a variety of industrial applications.

Community Capacity Building and Mobile Communities

This workshop is based on research, initiated at SEGRA 2006 and conducted by Sue Kilpatrick,
Peter Vitartas (picture featured), Martin Homisan and Susan Johns titled The mobile skilled workforce: optimising benefits for rural communities. The research was funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.

Background

Many small rural communities with ageing populations and limited opportunities for young people are not attracting skilled workers but have a flow of skilled people through the community such as locums, seasonal workers or contractors. GPs no longer spend their working lives in one country town; short-term locums or doctors who work in one place for two or three years are becoming the norm. Teachers are highly mobile. Sea/tree change and downskilling phenomena are seeing people move to or retire to rural areas, often to move on again after a few years. Some workers are dropping out, temporarily or permanently, from high-level, stressful jobs. Active retirees or ‘grey nomads’, some with high level skills, roam the countryside.

This workshop is based on the first Australian study to explore how rural communities capture the advantages of highly skilled mobile workers. Rural communities have many skills and strengths; the workshop will investigate ways communities can enhance these. By engaging mobile workers communities can optimise economic, social and environmental benefits. The multiple contributions of mobile skilled workers include meeting skill shortages in rural communities. The workshop also explores strategies that will encourage mobile skilled workers to stay for extended periods

Workshop overview

The 3 hour workshop will be a combination of information and practical hands-on discussion of cases and examples based on the study. Participants will be guided through the following areas with the aim of developing strategies and implementation plans that they can use in their own communities.

Objectives of workshop:

To provide knowledge about the characteristics of mobile skilled workers
To enhance understanding of the mobile skilled worker life cycle through and across regions
To develop strategic plans applicable to specific regional needs and capacities

At the end of this workshop participants will be able to:

Define mobile skilled workers and the skills they provide
Understand the mobile skilled worker life cycle of moving in, integration and decision to stay or leave
Understand community settings that assist with mobile skilled worker integration
Develop strategies for communities
Discuss and draft a mobile skilled worker strategy for their community

Key issues for discussion:

What are the benefits arising from mobile skilled workers?
How do community and policy settings influence mobile skilled worker involvement and retention?
What do rural communities have to do to create matches between themselves and mobile skilled workers?

Who should attend:

Regional employers, local government policy makers, economic development managers, recruitment and training managers, representatives from progress associations, chambers of commerce, community based associations and government departments.

Regional Economic Development Skills

In recent years, regional development theorists and practitioners have become less interested in industry attraction strategies and more interested in ‘economic gardening’, whereby local entrepreneurial skills, and consequently businesses, are developed and enhanced.

This workshop will first place economic gardening in the context of trends in regional economic development theory and practice. The concept will be further explained and strategies for developing entrepreneurial skills will be described and discussed.

This in an interactive workshop and participants will be encouraged to consider the potential benefits and limitations of economic gardening in relation to their own regions. The aim is to identify and refine gardening strategies.

Associate Professor Geoff Cockfield (picture featured) is the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Business, University of Southern Queensland and his research interests include rural and regional policy.

John Grace is an Innovative Regions Facilitator (Illawarra/Shoalhaven Innovative Regions Centre), in the Enterprise Connect Division of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. He was instrumental in introducing an economic gardening program to the Illawarra/Shoalhaven region and continues to work with this approach to regional development.

Developing Research Collaborations

A round-table workshop will be conducted to discuss issues facing rural and regional areas of Australia and how high level research can provide insights and solutions. The mix of participants will facilitate closer industry-academic partnerships by enabling University academics and senior people in regional organisations to come together to discuss potential research proposals. These partnerships can then develop the research proposals in order to have them submitted to nationally competitive granting organisations such as the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) for possible funding.

Targetted participants:

Practitioners and authorities who are seeking high quality fundamental and applied research to investigate issues affecting rural communities and regional Australia.
Industry who are looking to partner with academic institutions in order to find methods or approaches that can expand their economic development activities in regional Australia
Graduate students looking to develop their research skills and identify nationally significant research topics and partners
Leading university academics who are seeking to expand their research profile and commit to research projects addressing rural issues.


Facilitator: Dr Peter Vitartas, Southern Cross University

Workshop aims:

This workshop aims to bring together industry practitioners and academics with a view to initiating discussions that will lead to a number of collaborative research projects. Participants will discuss and identify the range of research needs for sustainable development in regional Australia – what issues are on the agenda, what are the characteristics of these problems, what are the key elements that could benefit from research. This would include consideration of existing research and current thinking in the area.

The workshop would highlight the role of high quality research in identifying, developing and implementing innovations, education and research training. It would also showcase the benefits of industry-academic partnerships and joint approaches to problem solving. The forum would include identifying potential partners who are willing to be involved in grant applications and facilitate moving such applications forward.

The workshop will also provide potential graduate research students opportunities to meet and discuss research in regional development and establish links with academics and industry participants. A round-table format will foster strong collaborations and networking opportunities.

Objectives of the workshop are to:

Identify current and potential collaborative research needs and opportunities
Develop long lasting industry-academic partnerships for fundamental and applied research
Facilitate the submission of nationally competitive grants to address rural issues
Encourage young researchers to consider rural issues for research
Raise the profile of priority issues in regional and rural research for sustainable economic and social development