Hello fellow communitarians,
Pan Community Council – Northern Rivers Network news.
Spring is here, blossoms of delicious fragrances lighten my dawn and dusk. Equinox celebrations have invigorated many souls.
Date Claimers
- The next general meeting will take place on Sunday 4th of October at 10am. In the relaxing space of Birth and Beyond. Next to the Environment Centre.
- Or zoom in:
https://zoom.us/j/8271056360?pwd=123456 Meeting ID: 827 105 6360 Passcode: 123456
- A small group is actively working on details of our weekend gathering at Siddha Farm over the weekend of 20-22 November. Stay Tuned for further details.
Donations
As reported in the previous newsletter it is possible to donate via direct deposit to Pan Community Council – Northern Rivers Network.
If you do make a donation ensure you provide a name in the transfer description so our Treasurer can issue a receipt.
•Bank account◦Pan Community Council◦BSB: 728 728 (Summerland bank)◦Account #: 22361371
Excitedly there is also another option for Pan Com to raise the necessary funds to cover our basic admin and website costs, which is a:
Go Fund Me campaign
Please visit and share within your networks.
You’ll see sharing via social media is simple, check the links at the bottom of the page.
Help Rebuild PanCom — Connecting Our Communities.
Please assist the launch of PanCom’s website and forum — a shared space for connecting our communities of people, promulgating collective knowledge and skills.
PanCom has a proud history of showing what can be achieved when communities come together with a collective voice.
PanCom worked constructively with government around the development of State Environmental Planning Policy No. 15 (SEPP 15) — Multiple Occupancy of Rural Land, which created a formal planning pathway for Multiple Occupancy communities in NSW.
Almost 40 years later, Australia is facing a growing housing crisis. Planning frameworks have evolved
Which leads to our next topic of positive developments
Legislative State of affairs
The meeting held on this topic was productive and there is fabulous news to report.
Two town planners and a Lismore Councillor were in attendance.
It may be appropriate to initially elucidate the acronym soup.
- Local Strategic Planning Statement (LSPS) commits Council to developing a Rural Land Use Strategy
- Multiple Occupancy Titles (MOs), how it was, SEPP15 repealed: Rural Landsharing Community (RLC) = Multiple Occupancy
- State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP)
- Local Environmental Plan (LEP)
- Lismore City Council (LCC)
- Development Control Plan (DCP)
- Community Strategic Plan (CSP)
- Rural Land Use Strategy (RLUS)
- Rural Use land has defined zones: RU1 Primary Production Zone, RU2 Rural Landscape Zone, RU3 Forestry Zone, RU5 Village Zone
Current state of play
The current state policy is called – State Environmental Planning Policy (Primary Production) 2021 and the enabling provisions for RLC’s is located in Schedule 5 Rural land sharing communities. This policy is quite similar to the original SEPP15 that was repealed in 2016.
Some councils are developing their own legislation which will require state ratification. Lismore City Council adopted it’s new Rural Land Use Strategy (RLUS) in early September 2026. In Lismore, currently, RLCs are permissible in certain mapped land and LCC has a DCP (Development Control Plan) spelling out the requirements that any application a RLC needs to meet. RLC permits Community Title subdivision. These new changes do not become law until the state government endorses the RLUS, and Council updates its planning provisions to reflect these changes. Broadly speaking it includes all of the northwest segment of the Lismore LGA.
Concerns about low cost housing in NSW has been somewhat alleviated by the new Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Act 2026 which deals with “manufactured homes”. This act applies equally to RLS as to other kinds of developments.
Another item of interest was raised concerning Owner Builders Licensing on Rural Landsharing Communities. Within the State Government it is now recognised that such licences are unnecessary.
The outcome of this meeting can be summarised simply: it is unnecessary for Pancom to pursue changes in state legislation concerning rural landsharing. Although other Local Council’s situations may be different.
Related news is the flood affected homes. Expressions of interest for reuse of at least 73 homes closed on the 17th of September. Some of our members lodged expressions of interest as did the Aquarius Archives after identifying parcels of vacant land within the Nimbin Village.
Which brings us to the the next exciting item to report.
Nimbin Aquarius Foundation Inc
See NAFI website
In the general meeting of NAFI following the AGM on 16th of September unanimous agreement to auspice the Pan Community Council web site was enthusiastically achieved.
This has enabled us to register our web site domain name
Agenda for This Sunday’s meeting (Oct 4 10:00am)
Acknowledgement of Country
Apologies
PanCom Update
- NAFI auspicing PanCom
- Great news — NAFI has agreed to auspice PanCom at their AGM, thank you Robert for attending. This allows us to move forward with our chosen domain name.
- Website Update
- GoFundMe launched
- The PanCom GoFundMe has now been provisionally launched, thank you Lynda. Once finalised please share the link. Funds raised will initially go towards setting up the PanCom website, as well as practical costs such as meeting-room hire and, depending on how much we raise, hopefully equipment to enable Zoom participation at PanCom meetings.
- Legislation Circle Update
- Any other updates
Agenda Items
1. PanCom Membership
Discussion and vote – around how PanCom membership will operate and be administered subject to what is technically and administratively practical.
To consider:
- Admin system: Can membership be managed through an online system/program, or will we need someone to manually maintain the membership database?
- Online/paper/cash: Can we offer both an online membership/payment option and a paper/cash option so membership remains accessible.
- Sliding scale: Could we have a sliding membership fee of $5–$100, allowing people to contribute according to their means?
- Duration: Should membership be annual or lifetime?
- Individual: Should membership be held by individual people rather than companies or organisations, ‘people’ bring personal involvement, participation, accountability.
- Access: In relation to the PanCom forum, paid members would have full access to view and post.
2. Interim PanCom mailing lists
Discussion and vote – Until our membership structure is finalised, can we split the mailing list into two groups?
- Members list: Everyone who has attended a PanCom meeting. This group would receive all PanCom correspondence, including meeting minutes/notes.
- General mailing list: Everyone else on the broader mailing list. This group would receive newsletters, announcements, Focus Circle information and other general correspondence, but not meeting minutes.
3. PanCom public representation
Discussion (and vote if needed): How do we represent who we are, what we do and what our Focus Circles are doing through our own communications to build a positive and consistent public identity for PanCom.
PanCom activities should align with our aims and objectives, and our activities may involve challenging issues. Do we want PanCom to be represented as a facilitator of positive change — creating opportunities for dialogue, participation and constructive engagement, rather than being portrayed as combative or oppositional?
It would therefore be useful to establish some shared understanding around how we are represented in correspondence, perhaps this would be a role of our communications team – for example a set of guidelines can be agreed and all communications must meet the criteria of those guidelines?
4. Video Conferencing – volunteer and equipment
It would be good to provide access and ability to participate to those whom may not be able to attend meetings in person.
We need a volunteer who would be willing to help make video conferencing participation possible for PanCom meetings.
- Providing a video conferencing service involves — the equipment to be stored, organised, transported, set up and tested beforehand, managed during the meeting, and packed down afterwards.
- Provisioning our pancom.org.au server with capacity to provide the service.
- Or paying for a commercial third party service.
At present this would involve someone using their own equipment at meetings until the Admin team can identify and purchase the equipment PanCom needs subject to funds raised through the GoFundMe campaign.
The setup previously used has included a laptop, projector, Bluetooth speaker and wireless microphones but we may require less.
5. Focus circles
Are we happy to proceed with a management model based on Sociocracy?
Follow on from prior discussion on the various management circles.
6. Action
Next meeting?
Other news
One of members has shared news of another campout; Resonance & Wunjo presents an all ages & all people event with a focus on alternative education and community living. The Peace Lane Festival. November 20,21,22