Listening Tour Week 2: Northern Victoria and South Australia • PLACE

31 March – 4 April

Over the past week, PLACE hit the road again—visiting 11 regional communities across South Australia and Victoria—each grappling with complexity, courage, and care.

Our stops included:

GoGo Foundation
Our Town Cummins
Regen Labs
Substance Misuse Limestone Coast
Studio Purpose Murray Bridge
SA Communities for Children
Port Lincoln Aboriginal Corporation
Pirie Voices
Hope Whyalla

What we’re hearing loud and clear:

“We don’t just ask what’s wrong—we ask what matters.”
“We have the assets, the need, and the want to do it.”
“We are not only place based, but place grown”
“Trust building deepens relationships, capacity, and reminds us of the power of slowing down to listen.”

Across the tour, community leaders, practitioners and residents reminded us that real place-based change is relational, not transactional. When community-led, place-based initiatives are supported, the results speak for themselves—local buy-in, better outcomes, and strong social return.

Here are some common themes:

Move to meet community need, not provider need
Transport and driver licensing are major barriers to regional workforce participation
Staff retention and burnout are real >> “Support the supporters”
Volunteerism is undervalued in funding models
Interest in community wealth-building and enterprise is growing
New approaches like social prescribing are key to local innovation
Communities are doing complex recovery and remediation work, while managing service gaps and triaging crises

At every stop, we witnessed deep care, fierce local leadership, and a desire for systems that reflect what’s already working on the ground.

A question that stayed with us throughout the Community Roadshow & Listening Tour—and one that speaks to the heart of place-based change, “how do we give hope to communities that the future will be better than the past?” Sean Gordon, Chair, PLACE.