Food, energy and water are key to Murraylands’ circular economy ambitions
At a summit at Tailem Bend, Regional Development Australia has promised to build on our region's strengths.
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Food, energy and water will be key to the Murraylands’ future circular economy, the CEO of the local Regional Development Australia board says.
RDA Murraylands and Riverland plans to build on the region's strengths in food manufacturing, renewable energy and water management to fuel a new project it is calling SoFEW.
The Southern Food, Energy and Water precinct, built around Greenhill Energy’s planned gas plant at Tailem Bend, aims to progress the region toward becoming a world-leading circular economy by 2030.
At an event at the Bend last week, CEO Ben Fee said the SoFEW project had recently gained significant traction, with more than $76,000 in contributions secured from local government, innovative businesses, and not-for-profits.
A circular economy draws greater value out of sustainable materials through reuse, repurposing, recycling and remanufacturing.
RDA’s plan for a circular economy was first formed in 2020 in order to create a positive and long lasting change on the region.
RDAMR chair Jodie Hawkes emphasised the importance of partnerships to the transformative outcomes it wanted to deliver for the region.
“The idea ... is to unite local governments, industry, not-for-profits and other stakeholders to have equal carriage in co-developing and implementing key transformative projects,” she said.
“SoFEW is an example of how the regional alliance model enables us to amplify our impact, uniting partners in food manufacturing, renewable energy, and water management to collectively tackle pressing challenges and create regional opportunities.”
A panel of five members spoke who had already contributed to the program spoke at last Wednesday’s event: Ngarrindjeri leader Luke Trevorrow, Greenhill Energy’s Nicholas Mumford, the Central Irrigation Trust’s Greg McCarron, the Coorong council’s Myles Somers and Sharon Billinger from engineering company Aurecon.
The program was a culmination of findings from four previous reports, they said: the Murraylands education precinct report, RDAMR’s 2019 infrastructure audit, a circular opportunities report and a 2023 Regional Development SA infrastructure prioritisation.
Three other strategic programs were also introduced at the RDA summit: water transition, dark sky, and resilience and wellbeing.
Mr Fee said the region had to think big, join and work together to help solve problems.
“These four projects are not the only things happening, it’s just where we’ve started from,” he said.
“We saw there were clusters of investment that industry was also seeing as the direction to go in.”
The theme for the RDAMR summit, which brought regional leaders together, was Reimagining our Region.
State Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister Clare Scriven highlighted the summit's role in driving future-focused initiatives that would respond to local needs.
“RDAMR’s collaborative approach to regional transformation exemplifies how regions can create tailored strategies to address both present and future demands,” she said.
- More information: rdamr.com.au.
- Read more: Greenhill Energy plans $425 million gas plant at Tailem Bend
