Our 2026 AVCLP cohort recently visited Yackandandah, exploring the opportunities and tensions of the renewable energy transition, and how communities can take an active role in shaping their future.
Michelle Croker explored community engagement in the renewables space, including whose voices are heard, who benefits, who bears the impacts and how communities can meaningfully influence decisions. Blake Edwards and Katie Friedlieb from Totally Renewable Yackandandah shared the town’s renewable energy journey, including the work of building trust, sustaining participation and navigating systems beyond the community’s control.
The cohort then heard from Ian Fitzpatrick, YCDCo: Yackandandah Community Development Company, with a town tour and site visit bringing to life how the prospect of losing the town’s service station prompted locals to establish a community-owned company. What began as a response to a shared need helped build the relationships, confidence and capacity to pursue wider community ambitions, with local employment and reinvestment extending the benefits well beyond the original purpose.
Across these conversations, the cohort considered what it takes for communities to organise and act, how local aspirations interact with wider forces, and what leadership asks of us when interests and values differ.
