Regional community gets a makeover

That philosophy rings true for the Dowerin Do-Over, a community-led placemaking event held over one and a half days recently in Dowerin's town centre and attended by about 120 people.

Organised by Town Team Movement, an organisation that tasked itself with helping towns and suburbs to reinvigorate their main streets, the event kicked off with a Networking and Comedy Night on Thursday which was followed by a conference, interactive activities and workshops along the main street and a street party finale on the Friday.

Regional local and State government staff, community resource centres, local and regional businesses and community members and stakeholders attended the event with many participants representatives from other towns, hoping to learn how to apply the concept of community-led placemaking in their own regions.

With presentations from Tourism WA, Tabetha Beggs, WA Partnerships and Industry manager, RAC executive general manager Patrick Walker and North Midlands Project chairman Andrew Bowman, participants heard about a range of projects already in motion to revitalise WA's regional towns.

Town Team Movement co-founder Jimmy Murphy said the event also encouraged locals to contemplate what made Dowerin and people's respective towns unique and how communities might be able to capitalise on those things for their town's economic and social prosperity.

"From this event we have really seen Dowerin embrace its wildflowers, with an entry statement mural painted by Geraldton artist Phil Doncon highlighting Dowerin's local plant, the Dowerin Rose," Mr Murphy said.

"The Dowerin Rose is also featured in a mini park that the community, Shire and local businesses have built next to the butcher on their main street, which will be a kid-friendly zone with musical instruments, stepping stones and chalk boards for them to use."

Offering guests the option to purchase glamping tents as their accommodation in Dowerin, Mr Murphy said the temporary lodgings established for the event was just one example of the 'out of the box' thinking that Town Team Movement encourages to address the various challenges faced by those living in the regions.

Blown away by the response from the Wheatbelt community, Mr Murphy said when communities worked positively with their local shires, the sky was the limit.

"When we first started the Town Team Movement we weren't sure if regional people would really want pseudo city hipsters to come down and tell everyone how to do community placemaking, but we have actually had the opposite response and have been fully embraced by the Dowerin and Wheatbelt communities," Mr Murphy said.

Initially focussing their efforts on the suburbs of Perth in their first four years, he said the organisation hoped to work with those interested to either generate new or link with other groups to reach 25 Town Teams in the Wheatbelt over the next two years.

"As a direct result of the Dowerin Do-Over we have already had strong interest from either existing community groups or locals wanting to form their own Town Team in Dowerin, Narembeen, York, Northam and Wickepin," Mr Murphy said.

"The concept has been picked up by many local people, shires, businesses and CRCs out there as a result of the Dowerin Do-Over and we can't wait to continue to support them in their community placemaking journey as they improve the public space and activations in their town centres over the coming years."

After attending a Town Team Movement event in Perth, Wheatbelt Business Network (WBN) founder Caroline Robinson approached the team to see if it would be interested in conducting one of their events regionally.

With more than 350 members across WA, Ms Robinson said WBN's values were similar to that of the Town Team Movement that have "an underarching approach to supporting communities" and help to create vibrant town centres.

"We want to see strong businesses in the region to create a place that people want to live and want to do business," Ms Robinson said.

Agricultural region MP Darren West who spoke at the event, said Dowerin was a progressive community that had taken it upon themselves to revitalise their main street.

"Events like the Dowerin Do-Over not only help to get the discussion going but they also get it going in a more positive direction," Mr West said.

"There will be thousands of ideas and out of those there might be two good ones that will transform your community.

"We need to find ways to get people to make that life decision to move to the regions, so it was really good to have so many positive people in one place coming up with new ideas about how we can continue to build in the Wheatbelt."

With the State Budget due in September, Mr West said the government would be open to having a conversation with Town Team Movement about a possible partnership in the future.

"But first of all it's important to find out which communities are really receptive and have the personnel and horsepower to really push these events," Mr West said.

"Perhaps we can be a bit creative about some of the challenges that our regional towns are facing."

Using the lack of housing for rural workers as an example, Mr West said old buildings within regional towns could be repurposed.

"Today there are less people in most of our rural communities but no less houses, so that tells you there are less people in each house so we have to consider creative solutions like billet workers or where we rent rooms out," Mr West said.

"It's about adjusting to the model that we find ourselves with today."

With the McGowan Labor government now holding 21 of 34 regional seats since the March 2021 election, Mr West said Labor had now become the "party of the bush" and it was incumbent on the State government to repay the faith regional people had put in the Labor Party.

"It's important to think positive, be positive and talk up what we have here in the Wheatbelt - we have a strong sense of community, a beautiful environment and our cultural history," Mr West said.

"The past 12 months has taught us that when you slow your life down and get back to the basics it can actually be quite enjoyable and to appreciate your own backyard in WA."