Future Basin Economies: Innovative Approaches to Design and Deliver Economic Investments Wanted by Basin Communities

The starting point for the project is the recognition that Basin communities face significant pressures from change, especially less water in the future, and are looking for meaningful diversification of local economies to help offset the impacts of declining water availability.  This project will co-design local economic investment approaches and seek to foster diversification and resilience in local economies by drawing on insights from two effective but underutilised state-of-the-art approaches to regional and rural development: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Smart Specialisation.  These approaches seek to increase the competitiveness of a region and develop an environment where entrepreneurs flourish.  Through One Basin CRC’s uniquely collaborative network, this project has gathered a diverse group of federal, state and local actors and economics researchers to support community leaders and business people to identify the most effective – and practical – priorities for supporting economic resilience and diversification, and then promote training and capacity-building and other activities to give new and existing enterprises the best chance of flourishing.

About this project

It’s a perennial challenge in communities across the Murray-Darling Basin, and the holy grail of many regional authorities: developing industries and businesses that will flourish in rural areas and provide rewarding local jobs – without drawing further on their regions’ finite freshwater resources. In this context it is essential to support the competitiveness of existing and potential new industries, and create business environments where new and existing entrepreneurs flourish.

While renewable energy and critical minerals are often touted as popular panaceas for regional development, a number of other sectors are emerging as attractive alternatives to irrigated agriculture. Some of these are related to nature, such as ecotourism and hospitality; some to agricultural diversification – think pickles, probiotics, and premium healthfoods – while advances in agtech and automation are providing remote opportunities, and ‘tree changers’ are creating mini-booms in construction, social services, and aged care.

This project aims to build the capacity of community groups and businesses to work alongside local authorities and experts in regional economic development to identify practical opportunities for:

• supporting the competitiveness of existing industries; 
• diversification into new areas of potential competitive strength; and 
• creating business environments where new and existing entrepreneurs flourish.

Through a cohesive process of co-design, the project will bring together representatives of communities, councils, federal and state agencies, and local entrepreneurs to identify the most effective – and practical – local priorities for each area, build entrepreneurial skills, identify potential sources of investment, and support the launch of new enterprises in sectors with the greatest promise.

In order to achieve genuine engagement, the project will form local leadership committees in three locations across the basin, and use the CRC’s local networks to build awareness, and canvas support from governments, community groups, entrepreneurs and investors. As well as steering the project in their locations, the committees will host community events, support entrepreneurial activity, and facilitate training to build local capacities to support existing businesses and assist new entrepreneurs in starting new businesses. Researchers will support this work with data insights and analyses to gauge each community’s appetite for specific industries, as well as available skills, infrastructure and resources. It’s clear that increasing economic resilience and economic diversification can only be sustained with strong buy-in from the community – and will only succeed if local people are steering the agenda.

Outcomes

Since mid-2025 the project team has been consulting with community and business leaders in the Goondiwindi, Griffith and Loxton regional hubs, using One Basin’s networks to reach out to local organisations to gauge community appetites for specific industries and investment opportunities.

The project leads have also begun developing of a set of planning and data-gathering tools and models that will serve as essential resources for the project’s delivery. These user-friendly tools are designed to be replicable and adaptable in other communities with economies that are highly reliant on irrigated agriculture.

In early 2026, the project will be joined by a post-doctoral researcher with extensive regional economic development experience, who will be based at the Loxton hub.