1. Shared objectives and values are the foundations of collaboration, and not all collaboration needs to be equal. Three entities collaborating around one thing can be defined as success.

2. Collaboration requires participants to be commercially "vulnerable" and because of that there needs to be trust, shared objectives and processes that don't leave participants exposed.

3. Coal really matters to regions. In the modern enthusiasm for decarbonisation it's vital not to overlook the daily investment of money, time and professional contribution of people which the mining industry currently provides.

4. Local industry and local government collaboration is critical to the success of any long-term regional procurement and employment strategy.

5. Councils are the pivot point of sustainability. The importance of developing capability and capacity into regional Councils is vital considering the local content and engineering considerations of the energy transition.

Collaboration in its very nature is challenging. It takes skill, time, intent, clarity and an organisational maturity and pragmatism that allows participation and investment. Collaboration certainly doesn't happen overnight, with the Options Report being an example of this slow developing maturity, given that HEA were engaged in mid 2022 by a group formed on the concept of collaboration in October 2019 by CHDC.

Undertaken by HEA under the project name CH Invest, in order to provide CHRR with a reliable and accurate future strategy and direction, the Options Report required the inputs of highly sensitive data, not least of which was procurement and employment related. Whilst collaboration has progressed post COVID, given the modern increased supply chain and workforce constraints of project "deliverability", sharing procurement spend, category and location is whole new level of request.

To that end, both CHDC and CHRR should be applauded for challenging the nature of things and persevering with the pursuit of collaboration across a range of shared and mutually beneficial interests.

Further adding to the challenge of the scope, the volume of questions needing to be answered to enable the development of actionable local content outcomes was significant, and at the time there was increased media coverage of mining royalties. HEA also needed to establish a clear definition of what is “Local”. “Local” was defined as anything within the CHRC area, with the rest of Central QLD being included in the whole of QLD report structure. Being unable to identify the immediate local government neighbours supply chain was a conscious step in the report development that supported the stated priority of not economically robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Finally, not all the CHRR members are miners, with one being a Council, and as such there was an additional layer of probity required and the requirement to customise our local content calculator to define the opportunities for both industry and region, whilst ensuring all reported data and inputs remained anonymous.

Therefore, in order to deliver an options paper that both met the requirements of the scope whilst also providing in depth research and analysis, HEA were tasked with providing a framework through which members of the CHRR could provide their strategic input securely and collaboratively.

By drawing on our 15 years’ experience of developing local content frameworks and growth strategies, a diverse range of opportunities from this collaboration of CHRR members were uncovered, which resulted in the identification of six strategies, containing 54 initiatives that could be pursued from a local content perspective. Information anonymity and document version controlled was also maintained without fault.

A successful ecosystem is one built on open and transparent communication, a consistent improvement of practices and approaches, and a system framework within which to work. There has been a significant amount of ecosystem strategy alignment in the context of the CH Invest Concept, starting with CHDC, CHRC and CHRR working within their shared ecosystem since 2019.

Writing the Options Report aligned with Government policy practices and requirements, including Australian Industry Participation Plans, Queensland Government Best Practice Principles and the Queensland Local Content Leaders Network (QLCLN) definition of local as defined in the "Keeping in the Regions" report.

The actionable appendices of the Options Report covered off 54 initiatives in total. These included: CH Practice Establishment, The Enablers, Procurement/Contracting, Recruitment/Employment, Human Logistics and Accommodation and Regional Investment.

In production of the Options Report information produced and available online by GW3 was used along with input and support from C-Res. Together with CHDC, these groups are both active members of the Queensland Local Content Leaders Network. Input was also kindly provided by LocalBuy given their interest in seeing sustainable regions and expertise in local procurement strategy.

With the delivery of the report contingent on active collaboration by CHRR members, early in the project, the HEA team adopted a maxim that successful collaboration would be simply defined as "three entities collaborating around one thing". Understanding the backgrounds and other external commitments of the CHRR members, there was never an expectation that all members would participate equally in the process, but rather HEA identified the shared interests, viewpoints and goals of individual member entities and looked for alignment between the parties.

Collaboration varied in terms of financial investment, data inputs, workshop participation, and survey completion however the engagement model and local content calculator anticipated that to be the case. It was never expected or designed that all participants would be completely on board from the beginning, and as such, after three workshops and over 128 questions across four surveys, to have 100% participation from the CHRR members in the final survey of the investigation was a very pleasing sign of a collaborative and interested group that want to support their community, economy and industry in the face of numerous challenges.

In addition to collaboration with the member entities, collaboration with CHDC was equally crucial in the delivery of the project, with HEA working in partnership with them to closely define and execute the scope of work requirements. The initial scope for the project was quite broad and ambitious; therefore, the HEA team reviewed the initial documentation, held initial meetings with member parties, and commenced collecting and analysing the data. As these activities were undertaken, HEA reported back to, and further collaborated with, CHDC to redefine the scope without diminishing the original primary objectives of the project.

The assistance and advice from the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), was a significant early step that helped develop the framework for the project delivery. This small, but impactful collaboration, saw QRC providing invaluable guidance on initial methodology and approach, coupled with a generous offer to utilise their existing economic data reporting structure.

It was very satisfying to also corroborate our findings with that of the QRC's annual Local Content Code Effectiveness Report, which reported that the mining industry already has very high levels of individual local content investment. Therefore, with a pre-existing individual commitment, collaboration between the parties is the natural answer and only obvious course of action, to further the individual interests of the member parties, given both the challenges in accessing resources, and the opportunities for economy of scale and practice in the ongoing investment into the CH region.