Outlining strategies to strengthen and sustain rural communities was a key focus of a major conference that took place in Narabri, north-west NSW on 18 and 19 April 2012.

The Sustaining Rural Communities conference, opened by the Hon Simon Crean, brought together some of the country’s key thinkers to discuss ways to help rural communities across Australia.

Dr Anthony Hogan, director of the National Institute for Rural and Regional Australia (NIRRA) at the ANU and one of the organisers of the conference, stressed that councils and communities were in need of their own revenue stream.

"We really need to see money being invested in regions that stays in regions and that produces regional well-being for regional people.

We don't want to see what we call 'bypass economics' where money is spent on certain developments that have no regional benefit or long lasting impact on local people."

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