About WHYLD

A community plan sets out the community’s vision for their town and proposes a roadmap (or set of projects) to achieve this vision. While it may be possible to seek some funding from a range of sources to support the projects, this plan will only be implemented if local community members get involved.

Why this plan has been developed?

A WHYLD Committee^[1] was established in May 2011 for the purpose of developing a community plan following two community meetings convened by the local Bendigo Bank Board (WYDCOM Financial Services Ltd).  The two community meetings in 2011 were held to look for ideas for community projects that the Bank might fund as part of its role in financially supporting local groups and organisations. While the meetings produced a long list of ideas, it was felt that there was no overall vision or direction. Hence, the WHYLD Committee was convened and it decided to start a community visioning project with a Community Plan (this document) being the outcome.

The Committee sought funding for developing the plan from the Bank and the Department of Planning and Community Development – this process taking up much of the remainder of 2011 and into early 2012. The Community Planning project kicked off in April 2012 with the appointment of Kimbra White and her associate Gillian Jones to work with the committee and the community to develop the plan.

[1] This Committee is sometimes known as the WHYLD2 committee as there had been an earlier group operating in 2004 that published a WHYLD Community Business Directory.