Champions look to their future

Shire of Broome president Graeme Campbell has praised a think-tank known as the “Community Champions” after the group met to discuss the future of the town for the first time last week.

The citizens were nominated as part of the Broome2040 project to help put together a vision for the future of the Shire.

It is the most extensive gathering of community views ever undertaken by the council and aims to capture the community’s vision for what it wants Broome to be like in 30 years’ time.

Workshops were held on Tuesday and Wednesday and were hosted by experts in urban planning and economic development.

Mr Campbell said discussions revolved around people, place and prosperity and what people would like to see in 10-year stages over the next three decades.

“It was very harmonious and very amicable,” Mr Campbell said. “The elephant in the room was the oil and gas, but people were not fixated on that, they were there to vision out Broome over the next 30 years.”

Mr Campbell said almost 80 people in total attended the sessions. He said ideas would eventually be formulated into a roadshow and taken to places like shopping centres and schools.

“A lot of the stuff discussed at the workshops shows there are some very common threads with what councillors also want to see achieved,” he said.

“It shows we are on the track, the public are on the track and the champions are on track and we are all going down a similar path.”

Mr Campbell said the consultation process would be advantageous when council applies for grants because “the people have already spoken”.

More information on Broome2040 is available from www.broome2040.com.au.