The Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub recently hosted its inaugural Drought Resilience Conference, in Geelong Victoria. The conference brought together experts from across the sciences, health, law, business, technology, humanities, arts and Traditional Knowledge. The Vic Hub’s aim for hosting such an event was to create new relationships and strengthen existing ones by sharing ideas and exploring collaborative approaches to build resilience in communities, economies and ecosystems.
SW WA Hub Knowledge Broker, Tanya Kilminster, was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend and present across all days of the conference.
WA perspectives on Grower Group innovation
On Day 1, Tanya presented on the role and impact of grower groups participating in climate and drought projects, their contribution to knowledge exchange, adoption pathways and long-term sustainability of agriculture. Her presentation included a review of the literature of Western Australian grower groups participating in applied research and extension and how this has evolved over the last 35 years. The results from a comparative survey analysis by 15 broadacre grower groups to understand research priorities and identify shifts in topic importance and relevance, completed for the Grower Group Alliance (GGA) in 2020 and repeated in 2025, complemented international literature showing a shift away from production-centric research models to integrated climate resilience strategies. This presentation was well received and highlighted how unique we are in WA for the strong grower group network, and the importance of collaboration between research organisations, government, industry and grower groups to develop and implement targeted applied research projects leading to more adaptive and resilient farming practices.
Drought Hubs facilitate connections
The Knowledge Broker panel “From research to impact: leveraging local and regional networks for innovation and resilience” was a highlight on Day 2. All eight Drought Hubs were represented, giving each panel member the opportunity to describe their Hub and how it works with local organisations and particularly the key differences for Hub starting points. The SW WA Hub is in the fortunate position to be hosted by GGA, with access to a mature and diverse network of grower groups and industry partners. It was evident the relationship between GGA and its members has allowed the SW WA Hub to familiarise itself, particularly with farmer groups (grower, NRM, industry associations), without the lag time for building new relationships, which was a key hurdle for the other Hubs all hosted by regional Universities. While there were key differences between the Hubs, the common feature was the ability for Hubs to connect researchers working in drought and climate resilience with local groups and industry and assist building projects to target regionally relevant priorities.
Collaboration in practice and lessons learned
On the final day of the conference, Tanya participated in a panel that discussed “Collaboration in Practice”. The panel was made up of Associate Professor Dorin Gupta (University of Melbourne), Dr Sara Healy (Victoria Hub Director, University of Melbourne), Cam Nicholson (Nicon Rural Services) and Tanya. All panelists provided a 10-minute overview of their different experiences collaborating in research projects, within and across Hubs and projects bringing together grower groups. Each panelist covered the context of the collaboration, what worked well and how, what didn’t and why, how were challenges overcome, what actions or processes were key, and lessons learned. Facilitated by qualitative researcher, Professor Ruth Nettle, the audience then participated in a Q&A session with the panel. This session was a pre-cursor to the “Collaboration in Practice” workshop that built on the insights of the earlier discussion and explored a Collaboration Capability Maturity Model (CCMM) developed by Robyn Keast and Niall Connolly (Southern Cross University), a practical tool to evaluate collaboration readiness and guide practice quality and pathways to increase relational maturity.
Building collective impact for the future
The Drought Resilience Conference brought together participants with a well-balanced mix of disciplines from across Australia, as well as international guests, all playing a role in drought resilience research. The conference showed a strong willingness to build relationships, with a common theme of bringing others along the journey and collaborating to create impact. A final quote adapted from an African proverb and echoed throughout the week, captured the essence of how we tackle complex challenges, “if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
