Thank you to all who joined us for our Think Tank Review last Friday (December 10th 2021). We recapped our Think Tank 2019 event, and updated on progress and future priorities. We heard from James March and Jon Durdin on the vote for an effective merger of Barossa Grape & Wine and Tourism Barossa operations, and their collective vision for a collaborative future. We also heard from “The Dairyman” Michael Wohlstadt on planning for reform for food production areas. On the topic of water security , RDA Chair Rolf Binder and Simon Schutz expressed their respective priorities, concerns and plans for the future of water security and supply in the Barossa. Tertiary education in the Barossa through Barossa Campus was explained and impact analysed by Anne Moroney.
In addition to the progress made, there are still some hard things to tackle to realize the vision of our 2019 Think Tank: Character Preservation and a locally informed regional land use planning framework, brand protection and climate resilience.
A panel of Stephan Knoll, Martin McCarthy, James Lindner and Rolf Binder put forward a range of considerations and perspectives on character preservation and what exactly we hope to, and can, achieve.
Dr Paula Zito gave an in-depth and intriguing presentation on protecting the name Barossa as regional intellectual property, with examples of previous failed attempts or explored solutions, and gave new suggestions.
Dr Mark Siebentritt offered insights into the global shifts in climate change action urgency and what this means at a local level, together with ways of managing our carbon footprint at an enterprise level, now and into the future.
Thank you to the volunteers at The Tanunda Bowling Club for their incredible hospitality and accommodations, and a big thank you to John from The Coffee Run, with his amazing effort of making 40 coffees within ten minutes. Brilliant!
