Goulburn Murray Climate Alliance · Draft for member review
Goulburn Murray Climate Alliance · Draft for member review
Foreword
01
The Goulburn Murray Climate Alliance (GMCA) is a regional collaboration of councils, Catchment Management Authorities, and partner agencies across the Goulburn Murray region of Victoria. We exist to enable our members to take meaningful, coordinated action on climate — sharing resources, knowledge, and partnerships to achieve outcomes beyond what any single council could achieve alone.
The combined area our members manage is over 42,000 km² — roughly the size of Switzerland, and about 19% of the entire state. Over the next four years, the region's population is projected to grow 18%, to around 331,000 people.
Our governance: GMCA currently operates as an unincorporated alliance, auspiced by Murrindindi Shire Council since 2021. The Alliance is governed by a Board of member representatives, supported by the GMCA Executive, a Technical Advisory Group, and Project/Working Groups delivering specific programmes. Day-to-day operations are led by the GMCA Executive Officer, who also maintains GMCA's participation in the Victorian Greenhouse Alliances (VGA) network.
15 organisations spanning 12 councils, 2 Catchment Management Authorities, and Alpine Resorts Victoria — each logo links through to the member's own website.
Alpine Shire Council
Rural City of Benalla
Campaspe Shire Council
Indigo Shire Council
Mansfield Shire
Mitchell Shire Council
Moira Shire
Murrindindi Shire Council
Strathbogie Shire Council
Towong Shire
Rural City of Wangaratta
City of Wodonga
Goulburn Broken CMA
North East CMA
Alpine Resorts Victoria
02
The Goulburn Murray region faces compounding climate risks — prolonged drought, increased flood frequency, bushfires, extreme heat and biodiversity loss — against a backdrop of constrained budgets and growing community expectations. The scale is already significant: over the past four years, Victorian councils have spent an estimated $3+ billion on flood recovery, bushfire cleanup and intervention, storm and green waste clean-up, and disaster-impacted road maintenance. The window for cost-effective, proactive adaptation is narrowing. Recent legislative reform adds to the load: since March 2025, amendments to the Planning and Environment Act 1987 require every planning authority to formally consider climate hazards and emissions targets in planning scheme decisions — a welcome mandate, but one that lands on planning teams already stretched thin across our largely rural, resource-constrained councils.
Victoria's legislative framework creates both obligations and openings for regional action. The Climate Change Act 2017 was renamed the Climate Action Act 2017 in 2024, alongside strengthened interim emissions targets — 45–50% below 2005 levels by 2030 — and net zero brought forward to 2045. The same reform amended the Planning and Environment Act 1987 to embed a climate change objective directly into the planning framework, a lever GMCA's own advocacy helped secure. Alongside the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008's requirement that councils have regard to climate change in their municipal health and wellbeing plans, and the new VicGrid framework reshaping regional transmission planning, federal and state funding streams, alternative finance, and rising community appetite for action all point toward a stronger, more empowered GMCA.
Since GMCA's last plan was adopted in 2021, the pace of climate impacts on the region has escalated. Globally, every year since has ranked among the hottest on record: 2024 became the first calendar year to exceed 1.5°C of warming above pre-industrial levels (1.55°C, World Meteorological Organization) — up from around 1.11°C in 2021, a rise of roughly 0.4°C in just three years. Locally, the region has weathered the October–November 2022 Victorian floods (among the largest in the state's recent history, inundating the Campaspe, Goulburn and Broken river systems), further storms and flooding across many of the same communities in December 2023–January 2024, and the North-East Victoria floods and storms of November 2024. Most recently, the catastrophic January 2026 Victorian bushfires tore through the region: the Longwood fire burned more than 136,000 hectares and destroyed hundreds of homes across Strathbogie and Mitchell Shires, while a separate fire near Walwa on the NSW border forced large-scale evacuations across Towong Shire. The region also set an extreme-weather record of its own over this period: the highest wind speed ever recorded in North East Victoria, 141km/h, at Mt Hotham.
These compounding events have taken a real financial toll on the region. Extreme weather-related damage now costs Victoria an estimated $2.7 billion every year, and nine Victorian councils — including GMCA members Alpine, Benalla, Mansfield, Mitchell, Murrindindi and Towong — have been struck by the 2026 bushfires, the 2022 floods and the 2019/20 bushfires in succession, compounding the recovery burden each time. Mitchell Shire's Whitegate Road illustrates the cost of repeated damage without resilience funding: repaired for $292,000 after the 2022 floods, it was damaged again just fifteen months later and required a further $200,000 in remediation — a cycle a one-off $900,000 resilience upgrade could have avoided. Rural councils are also losing rate revenue as homes and livelihoods are lost: Strathbogie, Mitchell and Murrindindi Shires alone estimate a combined $7.4 million in lost rates revenue through to 2027/28. Alpine Resorts Victoria — which together generate $2.14 billion in economic output and draw 1.4 million visitors a year — had one resort placed under a state of disaster declaration in the January 2026 fires on top of reduced revenue from an already-shortened 2024 winter season, while GMCA's own Catchment Management Authority members, Goulburn Broken CMA and North East CMA, have carried the ongoing cost of floodplain recovery and waterway repair across each of these flood events. (Sources: Municipal Association of Victoria submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the 2026 Summer Fires; Alpine Resorts Victoria Annual Report 2024.)
Against this backdrop, GMCA and its members have not stood still. Over the 2021–2025 MoU term, the Alliance delivered 16 regional projects, avoided an estimated 101,006 tonnes of CO2-e, attracted $2.6 million in external funding and leveraged a $9.5 million net return on member investment — equivalent to $6 returned for every $1 in member fees — while lodging 67 formal advocacy submissions. In 2024/25 alone, GMCA launched the Goulburn Murray Solar Savers programme with six councils, finalised a shared Sustainable Subdivisions Framework advisory service now assessing 35+ regional applications a year, expanded the Neighbourhood Battery Initiative to four councils, appointed a Regional Adaptation Officer through the Victorian Climate Resilient Councils programme, and lodged an Australian-first joint Disaster Ready Fund application — Disaster Ready Goulburn Murray — bringing together 10 councils and Alpine Resorts Victoria. Membership also realigned during this period, with Greater Shepparton City Council withdrawing after 17 years; the remaining 12 councils, alongside GMCA's Catchment Management Authority and Alpine Resorts Victoria members, have since shown strong support in signing a new 2025–2029 MoU. (Source: GMCA Annual Report 2024/25.)
This plan is responsive to the following key legislative and policy frameworks:
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Partnering within GMCA and externally with private, statutory, state and federal governments to create true multilevel decision-making.
A creative, solution-focused Alliance using the strengths of its members to create greater public value and action.
A just Alliance with actionable tools to increase equity for diverse communities experiencing a regional climate transition.
An Alliance that actively develops fiscal efficiency, alternative finance, and public value for its members.
04
GMCA's 2026–2030 work is organised around five interconnected priorities. Together they form a comprehensive approach to: build the financial structures and member capability to act, advocate for the right policy environment, and adapt our region in partnership to unavoidable change.
Understanding and managing climate risk at a regional scale is essential. GMCA will coordinate regional risk assessments, adaptation planning, and on-ground resilience initiatives that individual councils cannot deliver alone.
13 · Climate Action
11 · Sustainable Cities & Communities
6 · Clean Water & Sanitation
7 · Affordable & Clean Energy
To build a comprehensive picture of climate risk across the Goulburn Murray region and coordinate practical adaptation responses that protect communities, assets, and natural systems.
| Initiative | Timeline |
|---|---|
| 2027–30 | |
| Regional Climate Risk Assessments — group risk assessment for all members, with individual LGA and ARV risk assessments as outputs | 2027–29 |
| Goulburn Murray Solar Savers — partnership with member councils to deliver trustworthy household and business electrification and thermal efficiency services | 2026–2030 |
| Regional Grid Resilience Facilitator Stream (GMSS Option 4) — facilitator-only connector service introducing agricultural operators, businesses, community facilities and tourism operators to a verified battery/DER partnership | 2026–2030 |
| VCRC (Victorian Climate Resilient Councils) — Regional Adaptation Officer hosted by GMCA (programme ends 2028) | Ongoing 26–28 |
| Round 3 (Neighbourhood Batteries) — build low-carbon resilience via stored energy reserves | Ongoing 26–30 |
| Regional Emissions Opportunity Analysis — desktop gap analysis to map and prioritise projects by ROI and CO2 abatement | 2029–30 |
| Circular Economy Opportunity Analysis — understand and position GMCA members to benefit from circular economy initiatives | 2028–29 |
| Charging Goulburn Murray — EV charging infrastructure, standardised permits, drawings and a regional network | 2026– |
| EDPR assisted Streetlighting — final streetlighting changeovers to LED, and main road smart lighting infrastructure, supported through Victoria's Energy Distribution Price Review | 2027–31 |
Members cannot act on climate if staff lack the skills, tools, and systems to do so. GMCA will deliver targeted capacity-building programmes — including those which influence a circular economy within the sustainable procurement sphere.
12 · Responsible Consumption & Production
17 · Partnerships for the Goals
15 · Life on Land
To improve the capability of members to plan, procure, and deliver on climate action — reducing duplication, enhancing budgets through economies of scale, and building a regional knowledge base that benefits all members.
| Initiative | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Brief Ezy: ESD Tender Tool — roll out the ESD tender tool developed by SECCCA for GMCA members | 2026–27 |
| Goulburn Murray Sustainable Procurement Guideline — working group, tools, and webinars for circular economy procurement | 2028–29 |
| 2026–27 | |
| Annual Mayoral Forum — for councillors, CEOs and other upcoming leaders | Annual |
| Naturally Cooler Towns 2 — regional procurement of drought-tolerant species; establish Regional Arborist Network | Ongoing 26–30 |
| VGA Annual Conference — build knowledge, networks and goodwill across the VGA climate world | Ongoing 26–30 |
| Alternative Adaptation Finance webinar series | 2026–27 |
| Additional capacity-building workshops / webinar series | 2026–2030 |
| Councillor / Executive professional government lobbying training | 2027 |
GMCA has a role to play in representing the interests of rural and regional councils on government policy — ensuring that state and federal frameworks are fit for purpose and that funding flows equitably to regions that need it most.
17 · Partnerships for the Goals
13 · Climate Action
11 · Sustainable Cities & Communities
To be a credible, evidence-based voice for member councils in policy and funding discussions at state and federal level — securing policy settings and funding that enable regional climate action.
Advocacy projects are currently being developed. The following framework is proposed:
| Initiative | Timeline |
|---|---|
| State Election Advocacy with Victorian Greenhouse Alliances | 2026, 2030 |
| As required | |
| 2026–28 | |
| Federal advocacy programme | 2026–2030 |
Members face a declining pool of funding relative to the scale of climate risk. GMCA will strengthen research into alternative finance with commonwealth, state, business and legal entities, and its role in facilitating this — bringing financial value to members through avoided costs, partnerships and advocacy.
17 · Partnerships for the Goals
13 · Climate Action
7 · Affordable & Clean Energy
To establish GMCA as a trusted intermediary that can attract, structure, and deploy climate finance on behalf of its members — reducing the cost and complexity of accessing investment.
| Initiative | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Restructure of GMCA into an entity that will include, as part of its mission, facilitating alternative adaptation finance for members | 2026–30 |
| VGA projects: VECO (Victorian Energy Collaboration) | 2028–30 |
| Organisational Fleet Transition — prepare members for statewide LGA fleet project | 2027– |
| Investing in Nature — local carbon offset economy, partnering with GBCMA and NECMA | 2026 |
No single organisation can address regional climate change alone. GMCA will build and maintain strategic partnerships — with universities, state and federal agencies, industry, and other alliances — that multiply the impact of our work and open access to expertise and funding that members could not access individually.
17 · Partnerships for the Goals
7 · Affordable & Clean Energy
13 · Climate Action
To establish GMCA as a valued partner to a diverse range of organisations, creating a network that accelerates climate action and brings external resources into the region.
| Initiative | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Goulburn Murray Energy Transition — facilitate understanding and sharing of the Regional Energy Accord (REA) across GMCA members | 2026–27 |
| Investing in Nature — local carbon offset economy, partnering with GBCMA and NECMA to explore a COP framework | Ongoing 26–30 |
| Ongoing 26–30 | |
| VGA collaboration programme | Ongoing |
| Engage in multilevel governance opportunities across Australian government tiers — including with DEECA and DCCEEW — to pilot regional risk priorities and adaptation finance | Ongoing 26–30 |
05
A strategic plan is only as strong as the accountability behind it. Members, funders and the community are entitled to know whether GMCA is delivering against the priorities set out in this plan — not just at the end of four years, but year by year. A clear reporting structure turns intent into evidence: it disciplines the Alliance to track what it said it would track, gives the Board and members a consistent basis for oversight, and builds the kind of transparent track record that strengthens funding applications and partner confidence.
Rather than build a bespoke measurement framework from scratch, GMCA reports its progress against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — the internationally recognised framework used by governments, businesses and community organisations worldwide to track climate and sustainability outcomes. Aligning to a globally recognised standard, rather than an internally invented one, gives our reporting external credibility, lets funders and partners see at a glance where our work sits within a shared global effort, and avoids the trap of tracking bespoke indicators that are costly to collect and mean little outside GMCA. Each of the five priorities in this plan is mapped to the SDGs it contributes to (shown alongside each priority above), and GMCA's existing Annual Report — which already gathers metrics such as emissions avoided, funding leveraged and projects delivered — will continue to serve as the primary vehicle for reporting progress against them each year.
SDG 6 — Clean Water & Sanitation
SDG 7 — Affordable & Clean Energy
SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities & Communities
SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption & Production
SDG 13 — Climate Action
SDG 15 — Life on Land
SDG 17 — Partnerships for the Goals
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The single worst projected climate risk for each part of the region by 2030, and what's actually at stake there. Victorian councils have already spent an estimated $3+ billion over the past four years on flood recovery, bushfire cleanup, storm and green waste clean-up, and disaster-impacted road maintenance — a bill this map helps explain.
🖱 Click (or tap) any marker — click again elsewhere, or use ← Back, to reset.
Click a marker on the map to see its 2030 climate impact.
Member councils: Alpine · Benalla · Campaspe · Indigo · Mansfield · Mitchell · Moira · Murrindindi · Strathbogie · Towong · Wangaratta · Wodonga — plus Alpine Resorts Victoria, Goulburn Broken CMA and North East CMA.
