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Managing Green Wedge Land - Stakeholder Meetings

I recently facilitated two meetings of a group of about 20 people representing a range of land owners and interest groups in the rural area of Whittlesea Shire Council over two evening sessions. Whittlesea is one of the fastest growing areas on the northern edge of metropolitan Melbourne with an array of new suburbs and rural land.

Many of the land owners are on land that has been held and farmed by their families for several generations. Land that was once remote is now fast being approached by the spread of suburban Melbourne. The land is also precious to people who have an interest in the streams, wildlife and vegetation of the hinterland.

The usual conversation at such workshops is dismay or anger at people’s livelihoods being eroded, the inability to stay on the land due to the rising value of the land and consequent high cost of land rates. Also the loss of wildlife and vegetation as the numerous dogs, cats and motor bikes that come with the approach of suburban life. There may be other people who are waiting for the opportunity to sell their land and reap the profit. In Melbourne, this very common dynamic on the edge of every major city and town is in part controlled by the State Government’s urban growth boundary policy.

Workshops to consider the future management of such urban/rural interface land is often fraught. Council staff by chance had a lot of great photos of the area under discussion. So we decided to ask people bring a photo of a favourite place to the first meeting. We also placed a wide range of the council photos on the floor in the middle of the circle. At the beginning of the meeting I invited people to choose a photo from the floor (if they didn’t have their own photo) and simply asked each person to introduce themselves and to tell the group about the photo.

Gosh. What wonderful descriptions of place; and the importance of place to each person in so many different ways. We all had such a vivid picture of the land we were talking about – even though we were sitting in a standard council meeting room. And importantly it set the tone of the conversation throughout the two meetings. The issues remained and people were passionate but it was always connected back to the fundamental values that people held for this place. I am sure this is the same sense that is gained when stories are used in facilitation. The photos gave us a simple way into people’s values and connection to the place being discussed.