What’s happening in Bundaberg is part of something bigger. Across Australia, communities are coming together to reimagine how support systems work and the Bundaberg approach is aligning closely with this national shift.
The Stronger Places, Stronger People (SPSP) initiative, supported by the Australian Government, is demonstrating how place-based, community-led work can disrupt disadvantage and create better futures for children and families. Bundaberg’s efforts through cross-sector collaboration, community voice, and systems thinking are contributing to this movement.
What makes Bundaberg’s work nationally significant is not just what’s being done, but how. There’s a clear commitment to the principles of shared leadership, equity, and local accountability. These align with Closing the Gap Priority Reforms, especially around formal partnerships and building the community-controlled sector.
Bundaberg is also reflecting the six systems change conditions outlined in The Water of Systems Change. Local actors are working not just to fix problems, but to shift the rules, roles, relationships, and mental models that hold those problems in place. That’s what makes this more than a service reform, it’s a systems transformation.
This work is already showing up in tangible ways. New alliances are forming between education and health. Young people’s voices are being included in planning. Lived experience is being valued alongside professional knowledge. And local data is driving decision-making like never before.
National organisations such as ARACY, CQUniversity, and Collaboration for Impact all point to the importance of place-based governance, long-term commitment, and genuine community leadership. Bundaberg is on track with all three.
As governments look for new ways to tackle persistent disadvantages, Bundaberg offers a hopeful example. It shows what can happen when power is shared, voices are heard, and systems are reimagined from the ground up. Bundaberg is not just responding to national policy priorities, it’s helping to shape them.