Climate change is likely to impact on the Ballarat community over the coming decades. There are expected changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, changes to the water cycle affecting agriculture and other key industries, and concerns about the ongoing threat of natural disasters such as bushfires and floods. In terms of a growing population, the impact of such changes can have increasingly significant impacts.

Australia’s per capita production rate of greenhouse gases is one of the highest in the world. It is estimated that by improving the way we design, build and live, Victorians could save at least 50% of the energy that we use. As part of being an informed community, Ballarat needs to play its part by moderating its contribution to climate change/ reducing carbon emissions, and work to become more resilient to climate change impacts.

Recognised as a UNESCO City of Craft and Folk Art, Ballarat is the perfect place to switch off and choose your own analogue adventure.

Horsham Regional Art Gallery has an impressive collection of Australian photography and contemporary art. The Ararat Regional Gallery hosts a dynamic textile collection while the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery is home to a stunning collection of Australian colonial, goldfields and contemporary art.

The Museum of Australian Democracy Eureka, on the site of the Eureka Stockade, is Australia’s newest museum dedicated to democracy. The Eureka Flag, is on loan from the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, is the centrepiece of the museum’s exhibitions.

The Grampians hosts a range of festivals including the iconic Stawell Gift, the Horsham Awakenings Festival, Nati Fringe Festival, Grampians Grape Escape food and wine festival, Daylesford Chill Out, Clunes Back to Booktown, Ballarat Heritage Weekend, Grampians Wildflower Festival, the Ararat Jailhouse Rock Festival, the Grampians Jazz Festival, the Ballarat Beer Festival and the Ballarat Royal South Street competitions.

Stretching from the western edge of Melbourne to the South Australian border, the Grampians region includes the major townships of Edenhope, Nhill, Warracknabeal, Horsham, Stawell, Ararat, Beaufort, Ballarat, Bannockburn, Daylesford and Bacchus Marsh.

Steeped in gold rush history the Grampians is home to Sovereign Hill, the Silo Arts Trail and natural attractions including the Grampians National Park, Mt Arapiles and the Little Desert National Park.

Agriculture and food production are major industries across the Grampians, with extensive dryland farming in the Wimmera Southern Mallee sub-region. Opportunities across the region include artisanal food and beverage production, broad acre intensive cropping and diversified agriculture.

The Grampians region is positioned to capitalise on renewable energy, manufacturing, tourism and intensified agriculture production.

Ballarat is home to two major tertiary institutions – Federation University and Australian Catholic University Ballarat Campus – renowned for courses in nursing, education, IT, engineering, science and much more. Federation University also has its accompanying TAFE school based in the centre of town.

Agriculture is one of the largest employers in the Grampians region, employing 7,804 people and producing outputs worth $2.3billion.

The region is one of the world’s largest grain, pulse and oilseed growing regions and exports about 60 per cent of the total harvest. The regional economy is heavily reliant on agricultural production, which contributes millions of dollars each year to the Victorian economy and is fundamental to Horsham’s strength.

Grampians Health Ballarat is the main public referral health service to the Grampians region of Victoria, with a catchment population of over 250,000 people. A teaching, training and research provider, we deliver care across all health settings, including: in home, community programs, aged care and all hospital admissions.

Grampians Health Ballarat is committed to providing excellence in care for its patients, staff and communities – with a vision to deliver world-class health care, an engaged workforce, effective leadership, and a strong connection to the community and region.

We want a future Ballarat with an embedded culture of innovative thinking and entrepreneurialism, where the spark of creativity is nurtured everywhere. A Ballarat that celebrates is unique identity and heritage, that demonstrates leadership in sustainability, and a Ballarat that is a compassionate city – with a strong, caring community.

As chair of the Grampians New Energy Taskforce (GNET) Mr Benjamin oversees working groups to maximise the economic and community benefits of investment and innovation in new and renewable energy.

Mining at Ballarat Gold Mine aims to maintain a production rate of 40,000 to 50,000 ounces of gold per year from underground drilling programmes targeting resources adjacent to existing workings and which have significant additional potential for mine life extension.

Steeped in gold rush history the Grampians is home to Sovereign Hill, the Silo Arts Trail and natural attractions including the Grampians National Park, Mt Arapiles and the Little Desert National Park.

A year-round calendar of special events and festivals ensures there’s always a special reason to visit this regional centre, which is Victoria’s third-largest city. These events include the award-winning Ballarat Heritage Festival, the Ballarat Begonia Festival, the bi-annual International Foto Biennale, Sovereign Hill’s Winter Wonderlights and a celebration of incredible local wines at Pyrenees Unearthed Wine and Food Festival.

We want to get our contamination rate of recycling bins down to zero and reduce how much waste is going to landfill. Up to 16% of items that are placed in our recycling bins cannot be recycled.

Not transporting waste back to landfill would save about 22,000km each year. That equals about 200 semi-trailers loads, or 4900 tonnes, from Ballarat to Melbourne, and would save about 75 tonnes a year of greenhouse gases from reduced heavy vehicle transport each year.

Climate change is predicted to have significant consequences for the biodiversity of the Central Hume region. Research indicates that the effects of climate change will occur at many different levels, from individual animals to ecosystems. Species may alter their distribution, abundance, behaviour and the timing of events such as migration or breeding.

The most susceptible species will be those with restricted or specialised habitat requirements or small populations, as well as those that lack the ability to disperse easily.

Climate change will also have indirect impacts on biodiversity, through increased pressure from competitors, predators, parasites, diseases and disturbances. Altered patterns of water flow in rivers and wetlands and decreasing snow cover, combined with the increased occurrence of bushfires, droughts and floods will influence the composition of ecosystems, particularly in alpine areas.

The future climate of the Hume Region is predicted to be hotter and drier than the long-term average, resulting in an increased risk of droughts and extreme fire danger days.

A number of festivals are held in the Hume region offering something for everyone. The Bright Autumn Festival, Euroa's Show n Shine, Wangaratta Festival of Jazz, Rutherglen Winery Walkabout, APS Head of the River in Nagambie, the Australian Superbike Championship in Winton and SheppARTon Festival are just a few to add to your calendar.

Manufacturing is the largest employer in the Central Hume region, followed by retail, health and community services. Wodonga has an important manufacturing base, with many national companies established in the area as well as a significant defence force presence.

Hume is a fast-growing region in Victoria with a social and cultural fabric and heritage to match its natural beauty. Renowned for world-class wines and gourmet food, the region is woven together by the Goulburn, Broken, Ovens, Kind and Kiewa Rivers – all vital to sustaining a rich environment, lifestyle and business. The Strathbogie Ranges represent the gateway to Victoria’s High Country and integral to the region popularity for nature-based tourism and cycling.

Hume is extremely varied in its industry and employment make-up, with a strong concentration of agriculture in the west and the alpine, wine and gourmet food areas in the region's east making tourism a strong contributor to regional employment.

Two of Australia’s nationally important transport routes – the Hume and Goulburn Valley transport corridors – traverse the region, providing an exceptional competitive advantage by linking supply chains to national and international markets through Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra.

The Goulburn Valley area is a long-established agricultural region, which is at the forefront of global food production. Traditional broad acre farming combined with dairy, viticulture, orchards, olives and aquaculture endorse the 'food bowl' label, and various large and international companies call the region home including SPC Ardmona, Uncle Toby's, Mars Petcare and the Woolworths Distribution Centre.

Goulburn Ovens TAFE (GOTAFE) offers a range of courses at the Wangaratta and Benalla campuses.

The Upper Hume sub region is well serviced in higher education. La Trobe University has a student campus in Wodonga and a multi-purpose centre in Beechworth, Wodonga TAFE offers a broad range of courses and Albury- Wodonga Community College is expanding its higher education offerings.

Albury has campuses of Charles Sturt University, the University of New South Wales School of Medicine and Riverina TAFE. These facilities can be accessed easily from Wodonga and its surrounds.

Opportunities exist in the region for sustainable electricity generation in close proximity to existing electricity distribution infrastructure. Potential and existing alternative energy resources in the region include:

 wind energy in the Strathbogie Ranges
 solar energy, particularly in the northern parts of the region
 hydro-electricity related to key water resources
 bioenergy and biofuel generation from waste products, such as agricultural wastes
 other opportunities for local power generation and distribution.

Earth resources, in the form of minerals and quarry products, make a valuable economic and social contribution to the Hume Region. Opportunities to take further advantage of earth resources could support the diversification of the regional economy. Planning for these activities needs to continue to consider environmental and community values and access to markets.

Opportunities to develop minerals and extractive industries should be further explored, supported and managed. Past mining activities in the region have degraded substantial areas of alluvial soils. Minerals and extractive industry activities are now regulated to manage environmental impacts such as potential impacts on ground water.

Agriculture is still an important component of the Hume economy but its contribution is declining. The service economy has experienced the strongest employment growth in the last decade. Viticulture has grown as an industry, supported by fine-food areas, particularly in Milawa, Oxley and the Kiewa, Ovens and King Valleys.

The Goulburn Valley has a strong rural economy based on irrigated and dry land agriculture, grazing, viticulture and forestry. The region is widely regarded as the food bowl of the Murray darling Basin. In other areas particularly in Strathbogie Shire, there is a significant equine industry.

The Goulburn Valley region is of national significance for dairying and horticulture and supports a large fruit and vegetable processing industry. The dairy and beef industries account for a high proportion of this value, although wool and meat dominate in Strathbogie Shire. Major food-processing companies are located in the region, including SpC Ardmona, Campbell’s Soups and Unilever.

The main primary industries are horticulture, dairy, cropping, viticulture, wool, forestry and grazing (sheep and beef).

Grazing is the dominant agricultural land use and the proximity of the region to Melbourne accounts for the relatively high value of production, particularly from the poultry industry. Pockets of horticulture also exist, including nurseries, cut flowers, cultivated turf, tomatoes and berries produced primarily for the Melbourne market. The region also has viticulture and aquaculture industries (trout and salmon).

The Hume Region hosts the largest Australian Defence Force presence in Victoria and is bustling with industry already supporting Defence.

The Albury Wodonga Military Area consists of the Gaza Ridge, Wadsworth and Latchford Barracks, with the Army Logistic Training Centre headquartered in the region to provide effective logistic training to a large portion of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Local businesses already supplying to the Defence sector (either directly or through its major contractors) include Milspec Manufacturing, Australian Target Systems, Australian Aerospace Engineering (AAE), Meggitt Training Systems, Wodonga TAFE, Bertazzo Engineering, NIOA and many more.

Many of these local businesses are increasing the capacity of Defence through the innovation solutions they offer the sector.

The region includes four of Victoria’s six alpine resorts –Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller and Mount Stirling – which are managed on behalf of the State Government by Alpine Resort Management Boards

The Lake Mountain Alpine Resort is a significant tourism destination for the region. The Lake Eildon and Kinglake National parks and Cathedral Ranges State park are also major tourist attractions in the eastern part of the region.

Tourism in the region focuses on heritage, wine and food, recreational assets and nature-based touring.

The historic town of Beechworth is a major attraction and a popular rural-residential location, given its proximity to employment opportunities in Albury, Wodonga and Wangaratta. Rutherglen has a unique connection to wine making and wine tourism.

As the region’s population and industry grows, there will be an increased demand for waste and resource recovery management within the region.

This creates a challenge for securing land for future waste management facilities, including for sorting and processing, recycling and reprocessing, export, reuse and disposal of waste.

The largest PET recycling plant in the country is now up and running and will substantially reduce Australia’s plastic waste by recycling the equivalent of around 1 billion PET beverage bottles each year.

The $45 million plant in Albury-Wodonga has boosted regional jobs and is helping to build a domestic circular economy, along with increasing the amount of locally sourced and recycled PET in Australia by two thirds, from around 30,000 tonnes to over 50,000 tonnes per annum.

Climate change impacts are already being felt in communities across the region. The pressure is being felt in sectors like local water, food production, and health and wellbeing.

While it is important that we all take steps to reduce our emissions to mitigate against further future climate impacts, such as embracing renewable energy, we also need to reduce our current and future vulnerability by taking adaptation action.

Adapting to climate change involves taking practical actions to manage current impacts and future risks to build resilient communities and systems across the region.