This article was written by Australian Rural Leadership Foundations. Director of Impact, Jorunn Lorenzen after attending the Developing Northern Australia Conference in July 2025.
Trying to develop Northern Australia feels a bit like assembling an Ikea chair without instructions, or without all the tools you need.
No offence to Ikea. This reflection came from someone in a leadership workshop my colleagues Andrea Hogg and Andrew Bryant ran at the Developing Northern Australia Conference in July. It was one of many reflections that sum up what it’s like to tackle something complex, where people have different ideas about the outcome, and the process is rarely smooth.
Calling our session a “workshop” is actually generous. In 45 minutes we attempted to mimic some of the activities of our two-day Changemaker Workshop. Experiential leadership in under an hour? Why not, we love a challenge. I suspect some people walked away unsure, or at least curious. That’s often how our work feels at first. Conversations take time. Sometimes they make sense later. Sometimes they spark something new.
We asked participants to reflect on what it means to be a changemaker and to consider their place in an adaptive cycle. Because developing a region as a collective isn’t linear. We can have frameworks, plans and ambitions, yet no matter how well-crafted they are, there’s no step-by-step manual and we don’t always have the resources or agree on the destination. But zooming out, most people want the same things: opportunity, safety, respect, to be heard. How that looks varies, but the need is shared.
We know the best outcomes happen when ideas take root and turn into action driven by local insight, leadership, and a willingness to adapt.
I live in Northern Australia – just!
The conference also reminded me that I live in Northern Australia – just. We’re halfway up the Queensland coast, just inside the boundary. I’ve lived in the NT and the Kimberley, and I can say Central Queensland is quite different. That difference matters.
The Northern RDA Alliance spoke about this and highlighted the importance of local knowledge. We’ve worked with RDA’s, local government and other local community organisations particularly through the Future Drought Fund. They help us connect without imposing. Because we’re not the experts, the people who live here are.
Big infrastructure, but what about people?
I was struck by the scale of infrastructure investment. It’s substantial. And I likely need to do some more homework, but I kept thinking: what about people?
In one session on workforce development, the challenges weren’t surprising: housing, skills shortages, retention. Neither were the opportunities: career progression, valuing local skills, and building pathways for people who already live here.
Someone from the business community stated the cost of sending one person south for professional development. What if we brought someone in or partnered with a local organisation or facilitator to work with 20 or 30 people locally? Build support and capacity here. That makes sense to me.
Showing up matters
This was the first time ARLF had a stand at the conference during my time. I didn’t see all of the excellent presentations, but the impact of showing up was clear.
I spoke with a handful of our inspiring alumni, some of them presenting at the conference, and many people looking for the next step in their leadership, for themselves or their teams and two first-time councillors hungry to create authentic and positive conversations in their communities. Others talked about having to relocate to cities to progress in careers. And I keep asking, if moving is the only way to advance, do we lose out in the regions? I will keep challenging that until proven otherwise.
There’s no single step-by-step manual for developing Northern Australia. And we don’t need one. What we need are real conversations, leadership at all levels, inclusion of First Nations voices and cultural knowledge and the time and space for ideas to grow into action.
It was a fantastic well-organised conference, bringing together leaders and changemakers from government, industry, and community, all focused on the future of the north.
If you live in Northern Australia and want to explore how leadership development could support your community or organisation, feel free to drop me a DM or email at jorunnl@rural-leaders.org.au
We can’t hand you that step-by-step manual. But we might help you uncover a shared vision, offer tools to move from idea to action, and connect you with others doing the same. Because it’s not just about ambition, it’s about the people who realise and act on the ambition.
