Rural land use planning

Rural land use planning

Rural landscapes support a diverse array of economic, social, and environmental activities such as renewable energy, tourism, rural living, mining, protection of biodiversity, in addition to agriculture. Land use planning responds to the complex set of drivers acting on rural land, and the values and aspirations of rural and regional communities.

RMCG assists government and individual clients to understand these drivers, identify the key values on rural lands and the needs of their communities, so that considered and appropriate land use planning can occur at both strategic and local levels.

Our strengths include:

  • Expertise and understanding of agricultural industries and their contribution to regional economies
  • Understanding of Australia’s key agricultural enterprises, how they operate and some of the tensions between agricultural and other land uses
  • Knowledge and appreciation of identifying strategic or significant productive agricultural land
  • Expertise and understanding of water resource management including water sharing in regulated systems, waterway management, wastewater, drinking water catchments and floodplain planning
  • Awareness of issues related to protecting heritage, both Indigenous and European, in the landscape
  • Awareness and experience identifying environmental and biodiversity values across rural lands
  • Expertise of State Planning Schemes and Policy across Victoria, Tasmania, and New South Wales
  • Tailored community and industry engagement and consultation to ensure strategic recommendations consider their needs and aspirations for the places in which they live and work.

Rural land use planning Services

  • Strategic land use planning   View 

  • Expert witness statements   View 

Rural land use planning Team

Shelley McGuinness

Shelley McGuinness

Associate

B.Ag.Sci. (Hons)

Shelley has strongly developed strategic planning skills and an ability to develop and apply logical methodologies to complex problems resulting in workable, robust strategies and policy solutions. With over 25 years’ experience she has an in-depth understanding of rural communities, industries, environments and natural resources, their inter-relationships and inter-dependencies. Her skills and experience have been applied to rural and regional strategic land use planning, agricultural industry analysis, assessment of land capability and suitability, land use conflict and environmental planning.

Dr Kristen Stirling

Dr Kristen Stirling

Associate

PhD., B.Ag.Sci.

Kristen is an experienced researcher and industry development specialist. She successfully combines project management skills and technical expertise to deliver projects in agriculture and water related industries. She enjoys working with landholders and large organizations to inform and clarify decision-making. Areas of expertise include strategic planning, stakeholder consultation and program evaluation.

Michael Tempest

Michael Tempest

Senior Consultant

B Env

Michael is involved with projects relating to land use planning and environmental assessment and monitoring, including effluent reuse. He is also an Accredited Bushfire Hazard Practitioner.

Meg Caffin

Meg Caffin

Senior Consultant

Master of Urban Horticulture, Bachelor of Commerce

Meg is a dynamic, empowering and engaging professional who offers exceptional leadership experience derived from a diverse portfolio of engagements, and a demonstrated history in delivering on strategic intent, legislative compliance, and corporate governance. She possesses a range of critical skills and competencies across the environmental industry and extensive experience in policy and strategy development and implementation in line with climate change, biodiversity and health and wellbeing strategic objectives.

 

Meg has worked with over 25 Councils and State Government agencies across Australia to develop fit for purpose urban greening frameworks. From the micro to the macro – Meg has a passion to be a ‘change-agent’.

Marg Sangalli

Marg Sangalli

Associate

B.RurSc., B.L.Arch.

Marg is an accomplished leader and strategic thinker. She has demonstrated proficiency in the development and execution of strategy to improve quality and business performance. Marg possesses highly developed skills in people and project management, strategy development and stakeholder consultation and facilitation. Her emotional intelligence, interpersonal and communication skills enable her to build strong relationships. She is able to devise unique practical solutions to complex problems throughout the life of a project and deliver projects in a timely and efficient manner.

Duncan Wallis

Duncan Wallis

Associate

BEng (Ag), MEng (Env), CPEng.

Duncan is a Chartered Engineer with 25 years’ experience in environmental, irrigation, agricultural, drinking water, domestic wastewater, sewerage, trade waste, recycled water and catchment management engineering in the public and private sectors.

He specialises in water related infrastructure planning and investigations and uses skills and tools such as GIS mapping, spatial data analysis and network analysis to develop practical solutions to complex problems and uses the ‘power’ of spatial data analysis to convey information effectively.

He can communicate technical concepts in non-technical forums and has experience consulting and working with farmers and landholders, government departments and wider community on route planning for pipelines and shared trails including rail trails. He has recently prepared successful EPA works approval applications for major food processing companies and expert witness statements in agricultural settings.

Duncan is currently involved in Australian Water and Wastewater’s mentor program and reviews articles for their Water Journal. He previously helped run the Institute of Engineers’ EngQuest regional program for students.

Samantha Gadsby

Samantha Gadsby

Senior Consultant

BSc, M Env Man.

Samantha specialises in water resources and delivers services in natural values and development approvals. Samantha’s main work at the moment is delivering a dam safety audit project for Taswater.

Sally Scrivens

Sally Scrivens

Consultant

BSc (Hons)

Sally has a background in ecology with extensive field experience. She specialises in natural values assessments and has experience in water resources and land use planning.

Sam Chalmers

Sam Chalmers

Consultant

B.Sci. (Hons)

Sam is an ecologist who has worked both independently and collaboratively on a range of conservation projects throughout Victoria. While completing his Honours degree in Botany, Sam has gained experience in undertaking field surveys in a range of ecosystems throughout Victoria, in addition to analysing data, writing reports, developing management plans and managing spatial datasets on a variety of GIS software. Sam aims to expand this skillset through new opportunities to contribute to projects that aid in the conservation of ecosystems and communities across Australia.

Anna Kilborn

Anna Kilborn

Senior Consultant

B.Sc., GAICD

Anna has 30 years’ experience across Government and in private industry, working on a diverse mix of natural resource planning, infrastructure, agriculture, emergency management and regional development challenges.

She is an analyst who works across complex and uncertain issues, engaging closely with responsible authorities, knowledge-holders and communities to develop adaptive responses to contemporary and future challenges.

Case Studies