Lake Grace shire is an agricultural community specialising in grains and sheep, approximately 400km south east of Perth with a shire population of approximately 1500. Like many communities of its type, the people of Lake Grace who are involved with Living Communities are concerned about capital leakage and finding new purposes for the community additional to agriculture.

Winter 2010 in Western Australia has been very dry. In Particular, Lake Grace managed only 9mm of rainfall in August, a month where they should expect to receive up to 6 times that. It has proven difficult for farmers cropping and means that for local businesses there is less money being spent in town as farming families reduce their spending.

A proactive community, Lake Grace leaders are looking to discovering what other economic purpose the community could develop apart from agriculture.

Living Communities Lake Grace will be driven by the local Lake Grace Development Group and will work with Living Towns to implement the program and engage the community in finding ways to plug leaks and discover a new purpose.

Watch this space for updates.

The Lake Grace pilot project is supported by funding from the Australian Government’s Stronger Rural Communities program, as part of the pilot of drought reform measures in WA. For further information on Stronger Rural Communities and the  drought pilot, please visit www.daff.gov.au/droughtpilot <http://www.daff.gov.au/droughtpilot> .