Updates

Really Local is back for 2025

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Posted by:
Bryn Davies
April 2, 2025

Really Local launched in June 2024 with a mission to connect people with what's happening in our community and with government, and to build a stronger community for it.

In our first year more than 300 people came to our face-to-face events, over 1,700 people visited this website, and we sent ten update emails to 433 subscribers.

This year we have a bigger job. Thanks to a community grant from Mount Alexander Shire Council, we'll be trialling a community-based deliberation process — bringing local people together to work through an issue and reach a shared position.

We hadn't yet chosen the topic, and we wanted input. Our thinking was that a good topic:

  • engages community attention — something topical, whether nominated by Council, by community, or arising from the Council Plan and Vision engagement
  • is solvable, or at least can get close to consensus in two sessions plus online deliberation
  • is within Council's powers to act on

‍Also in April: Mayor Rosie Annear joined Bryn Davies and Marty Sharples on MainFM's Ramble On to talk about the year ahead. And Castlemaine Free University hosted a discussion with Really Local on 'fostering democratic wellbeing' at the Northern Arts Hotel on 7 April — exploring the forces that enable good discussion, dialogue, disagreement and democracy, and what can be done about them locally.

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