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Lismore City News
  • 6/6/2024
The Living Lab's Look Ahead project is a series of community and expert meetings aimed at defining a vision for Lismore after the flood.
Transcript
00:00 (gentle music)
00:01 - Lismore has suffered some of the most severe impacts
00:06 from the 2022 floods.
00:09 Towards the end of 2023,
00:20 we started to be very concerned about the fact
00:24 that people in the Northern Rivers
00:27 don't have a clear picture of what the plan
00:31 might be for recovery.
00:33 - I think this is actually one of the sort of
00:35 quintessential challenges of the time, really,
00:38 looking at how we make our cities more resilient.
00:40 And Lismore is this really interesting city
00:43 that's got big challenges
00:45 because it was located in the floodplain, basically.
00:48 - When we think about the best possible future
00:51 for a wonderfully complex and diverse community like Lismore,
00:56 it's a really big project.
00:58 There's no other way to start
01:00 than to start with the people who live here.
01:02 - More than one of these.
01:03 Who's a resident?
01:04 If that's primarily what you're representing,
01:07 who is from--
01:08 - The hope with a process like the Look Ahead process
01:12 that the Living Lab has led
01:14 is that you can bring together so many different voices
01:18 in a neutral, independent, but well-resourced space
01:24 that connects them to the type of expertise
01:29 that members of the community
01:31 might otherwise only be able to access
01:34 sort of through official channels.
01:36 - The Living Lab is a collaboration
01:40 between University of Technology in Sydney
01:42 and Southern Cross University
01:44 and the Reconstruction Authority.
01:46 It was established in the immediate aftermath
01:50 of the floods in the Northern Rivers
01:54 and the idea is it provides a space
01:57 where we can bring together research and creative practice
02:02 to really try to solve the problems
02:06 of how this region might recover
02:09 and become more resilient into the future.
02:12 The methods that we use are very much
02:16 about bringing communities together with experts
02:20 in co-design processes to solve these problems.
02:24 - And it makes sure that the voices
02:26 and the views of the community,
02:29 which are very diverse,
02:31 but incredibly important to driving
02:35 what should happen in Lismore's future,
02:37 it makes it absolutely possible
02:40 for those voices to be heard,
02:43 but also to connect with other types of expertise.
02:50 - We began this process with very broad
02:54 community consultation and engagement.
02:57 We have talked to many, many local groups.
03:00 We also ran a couple of open workshops
03:04 inviting the general public into this process.
03:09 - In this reconstruction moment,
03:11 we absolutely need access to technical experts
03:14 that can help us really understand
03:17 not only what's happened and why,
03:19 but what the possibilities are to go forward.
03:21 - We've got architects, landscape architects,
03:25 housing experts, communications experts.
03:28 It's really a great sort of diverse group
03:30 who are all trying to solve the problem
03:32 from different perspectives.
03:34 - But just speaking to those folks alone
03:38 might give us some kind of pathway forward,
03:40 but it's highly unlikely it'll speak
03:42 to the needs of the community.
03:44 And it's almost certain that we'll miss
03:46 some great opportunities based on the lived experience
03:49 of being here.
03:49 - I think one of the things about these kind of challenges
03:53 is you always have to understand the politics
03:55 that are going on and then think about the economics,
03:58 and then you can come to a spatial and design solution.
04:00 So having the Living Lab here based in Lismore,
04:03 having the university involved,
04:05 having the three levels of government involved,
04:07 it's sort of a really interesting mix.
04:10 - Living Lab is better positioned to be able to do this
04:16 because we are completely independent.
04:18 And so it allows us to operate purely in the public interest.
04:23 And it means that we are an honest broker in this process.
04:32 We represent no special interests,
04:36 and it means that we can bring people together
04:40 in a way that I think other kinds of institutions
04:43 really can't.
04:44 - I think one of the great opportunities
04:47 is to look at how we can turn the flood,
04:50 which is maybe the biggest problem, into the solution.
04:52 The flood-prone nature of the city centre,
04:54 what can we create out of that?
04:56 - So we're really excited to share the work
05:00 that we've developed as part of the Look Ahead process.
05:04 It's not just about delivering a set of ideas
05:08 and visions for the future to government
05:09 and hoping they implement it correctly
05:11 in line with what people have said.
05:14 But the process itself, in my experience,
05:17 has helped individual families and businesses
05:21 and smaller groups within the community
05:24 make some decisions now
05:26 about where they want to be next year and in three years,
05:30 with a sense of where we might be going together
05:32 over the longer term.
05:33 - We're hoping that these scenarios
05:41 are gonna guide and form the basis
05:43 for future planning work
05:45 that we hope will be done by local and state government.
05:49 In our experience in other places,
05:55 public sentiment and people's views on these things
06:00 are often incredibly influential
06:03 in where government goes in terms of making decisions.
06:07 - My great hope is that the knowledge
06:11 can be generated, exported, and shared from this region
06:15 as a great demonstration project.
06:18 - It's not about getting it right and calling it done.
06:23 It's about a shared journey.
06:24 This kind of planning work, in my opinion,
06:27 is never finished.
06:28 We need to get it to a point
06:29 where it can start to be acted on,
06:32 but we're always open to learning
06:34 how people see the future differently
06:36 and how we can move together.
06:38 (audience applauding)
06:41 (upbeat music)
06:43 (upbeat music)
06:46 (upbeat music)
06:49 (upbeat music)
06:51 (upbeat music)
06:54 (upbeat music)
06:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]