CSIRO Survey of Community Wellbeing and Responding to Change: Western Downs Region in Queensland

Aim: The aim of this research was to investigate community wellbeing and responding to change in the Western Downs Region, an area which has seen major development in coal seam gas. The key topics were community wellbeing, community resilience, the expected level of future wellbeing; and the attitudes and feelings towards coal seam gas development in the region. Method: Attitudes and perceptions were collected from a representative sample of 400 randomly selected residents in the Western Downs region using a survey design, telephone interviews and quota sampling. The sample comprised residents that lived in town and out of town and that identified with one of four major communities within the region: Dalby, Chinchilla, Miles, and Tara. Benefits of the research: The research provides rich data that can be used by policy makers, community groups, community leaders, and coal seam gas companies to enhance community wellbeing and resilience processes in the Western Downs region of southern Queensland, Australia. The data provides opportunity to support and enrich the region as follows: Ӣ Identifies those areas of wellbeing and resilience that residents believe are functioning at unfavourable or unsatisfactory levels Ӣ Identifies the most 'important factors' underpinning wellbeing and resilience now and in the future Ӣ Provides a depth of analysis for more targeted interventions and improved outcomes for different segments of the community in need of support, based on social and geographic characteristics Ӣ Provides the region with baseline data, which can be used for goal setting and measuring progress of interventions