Organising Beyond the Cities: Building Power in Regional Australia

Introduction 

The Organising Beyond the Cities workshop at Progress 2026 provided advice on how to build community power in regional Australia. The session was presented by Lu Allan (RE:Alliance), Coco Venaglia (Yes2Renewables) and Pat Simons (Yes2Renewables). The Progress 2026 conference was hosted by Australian Progress on March 24-25 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Narrm/Melbourne. This article was produced by The Commons Library to enable ongoing learning.

The key insight from the session was that organising with regional communities takes more than parachuting in during election cycles. It requires long-term relationships, local leadership, and organising infrastructure that’s built to last. Below we outline some of the key lessons from the panelists drawn from their work with regional and rural communities. 

Many of these lessons are from the perspective of people outside of regional communities building relationships, but the lessons are also relevant for people based in those communities working together. Similarly, while these lessons have been learnt by people campaigning on renewable energy, they will be relevant for people working on other issues. 

Lesson 1: Be Open Minded

The first lesson from the panel was to be open minded when working with regional communities. It’s important not to feed into the misinformation and disinformation that can be used by right-wing commentators to drive a wedge between urban and regional communities. In fact, regional communities are usually more diverse in makeup and political views than expected. 

The panel recommended trying to connect with people on the level of shared values. When working with different communities, this might mean using slightly different language than you’re used to. Connecting our shared values to the material struggles that regional communities are facing is a powerful way to build solidarity. Lu Allan suggested that in regional areas people’s values don’t line up neatly along party lines. For example, a local farmer might be suspicious of “greenies” but still care deeply about environmental issues on their property. 

Coco Venaglia stressed that progressive movements can sometimes suffer from being too rigid about values, but approaching communities more softly and allowing for diverse perspectives can create the space and care needed to build connections across difference. Pat Simons added that this doesn’t mean giving in to systemic racism or power imbalances, but that working with people on their material struggles is a shared practice of justice. He said: 

It’s not about left or right, it’s about justice. This is where we can start building relationships. That’s the starting point. – Pat Simons 

Lesson 2: Adjust timelines

One real distinction to be aware of between city and regional communities, however, is the tyranny of distance. Time and distance are experienced differently in regional areas where key services can be fewer and further between. Just traveling into town to deposit money in the bank could take half a day for someone living remotely. Be aware of the challenges this can present for regional communities and adjust expectations and timelines to reflect this reality. 

It’s also important to remember that all community organising is about relationship-building, and that takes time. One phone call isn’t going to be enough. Expect to spend months or more reaching out to different members of the community and building trust slowly. If you try to rush in with campaign plans and set timelines you’ll probably get less buy-in than you’re expecting and you could do real harm to the community by ignoring their needs and priorities. 

Lesson 3: Be useful and find out what the community needs

Lu Allan said that RE-Alliance will only do place-based work where they’re specifically invited by a partner organisation in the area. Once they’re involved, they don’t lead the work, but instead offer support to the local groups on the ground. This support might include capacity building, network-building and introducing key actors in the renewable industry, offering advice on where decision points are in renewable projects, and so on. They try to bring something tangible to the table that will be useful for local groups. 

The panel talked about the importance of mutual aid in regional contexts. There needs to be a balance between big picture campaign priorities, and addressing the community’s direct material needs. 

The foundation of everything we do is because we care about the impact on people and the impacts on nature. – Coco Venaglia

This means we should be flexible in how we work with communities to prioritise their needs. This might be through small, everyday priorities, or pivoting and redirecting resources to communities impacted by unexpected events and natural disasters. For Coco, when we’re able to support a community’s needs “…we’re empowering ourselves, we’re empowering the work that we do, we’re empowering the communities we’re working in. We’re building that trust.” 

Lu Allan said the Cairns and Far North Queensland Environment Centre (CAFNEC) was an excellent example of an organisation engaging in mutual aid and supporting the local community with what they need. To find out more about CAFNEC you can listen to Episode 2, Season 4 of the Commons Conversation podcast with Lucy Graham from CAFNEC. 

Lesson 4: Support local institutions

Lu saw an important role for progressive movements and larger organisations in supporting local institutions. It might not seem immediately relevant to campaign goals, but this is valuable long-term work. Local institutions are the building blocks of a community. They are where people gather, organise themselves, share resources and build trust. They help to draw diverse members of the community in, in ways that are safe and intersectional. These institutions can range from informal to formal: A group of locals who get together on the weekend, have a cuppa and plant a few trees, sporting clubs, environment centres, chambers of commerce, and so on. Whether they’re big or small, formal or informal, these institutions provide built-in networks and scaffolding that keep a community strong. 

Coco, for example, talked about experiences of bushfire in her local community. Because the community already had strong networks through local institutions, when disaster struck, these institutions were able to leap into action and provide support and care for those who needed it. Lu also talked about how local restoration groups could play an important role in convening conversations around what the community wants to see in a transition. Building long-term trust with these groups is an important step in working with regional communities. 

Moreover, extractive industries and far-right media can take advantage when local institutions fall away. Pat talked about the hollowing out of regional media. In one regional town Pat found the local paper was sponsored by the coal-fired power station in the region. Progressive movements need to take our role in supporting these institutions more seriously to prevent the creep of far-right misinformation.

Lesson 5: Advocate for long-term funding

The panel highlighted how regional groups can often only be eligible for small short-term grants. They said that most work in regional areas is long-term, relational work. Short-term funding cycles mean that groups might have access to funds one year, and then be cut off the next. They’re also wasting valuable time and resources writing grant applications over and over again for relatively small amounts of money. There is a role for larger, more resourced organisations here to advocate for longer-term core funding for regional projects. 

Funders also need to get better at valuing relational work. Pat said one way to push for this change was to get better at tracking the impact of relational work in our campaigns and projects. Remember to keep a log of data and colloquial examples of impact. If you had 1000 cups of tea and 1000 conversations, track this. How many people’s views did you shift? How many people were passive before who are now taking action on an issue? The more evidence we gather on the power of relational work, the more we can demonstrate this value to funders. 

Lesson 6: Where to start when approaching a regional community 

Finally the panel offered various tips for where to start if you’re looking to work with a regional community:

• Reaching out to communities takes months. Prepare to take your time to build trust. 
• Cold calling and emailing is hard but can be a great place to start. Map your “spectrum of allies” and “circles of commitment”, start with those who might be most aligned with your work and build out from there. 
• Lu talked about “loitering with intent”, a phrase she learnt from evangelical communities. This might look like a community organiser taking their time while buying a pie at the local bakery and chatting to the people in the shop. Don’t underestimate the power of just physically being in the community.
• Do a roadtrip or a reccie (reconnaissance or reconnoitre), have lots of conversations and ask people about what’s going on for them and how that might complement the work you’re doing. 
• Have a purpose. Have something practical and tangible to talk about, don’t be too open or broad with your approach.  
• Try to bring something useful to the table. For example, offering training to local groups that will be useful to them. 
• Have an introduction: having a connection to someone in the community who can offer an introduction for you. 
• Find the community builders. Many people wear lots of different hats in regional communities. Someone might work on the local council, be a landholder and also be part of various local groups. These are great people to work with who can introduce you to different sections of the community once trust is built. 

Explore Further

• Community Organising in Rural and Regional Areas with Hayley Sestokas (Environment Victoria) 
• Rural and Regional Organising with Lucy Graham (Cairns and Far North Environment Centre)
• Environmental Movement Resource Hub, Rural and Regional Organising
• Rural and Remote Communities Climate Organizing Toolkit (Canada)
• How Rural Organizing Can Build Power (US)
• Explore the Australian Progress collection on The Commons Library
• Explore other resources from Progress 2026
• Australian Progress Events & Training