Community survey
March-May 2024

Through our first round of community consultation, 1430 community members shared their perspectives, ideas and priorities. We received 429 survey responses and we had input from over 790 community members across 10 pop-up events. We also held workshops with a range of community and special interest groups.

Community Panel
July-August 2024

A Community Panel, comprising 36 community members, met on 4 occasions to consider a range of information and make a series of recommendations to Council to help inform the development of the Integrated Council Plan 2025-2029, Annual Budget 2025/26 and other key planning documents.

About the Community Panel

The panel was recruited through a self-nomination process. Participants were selected to represent the diversity of our community, and included people from a range of age groups, suburbs, cultural backgrounds, abilities and identities. The make up of the panel included:

Feedback from children under the age of 18 was captured through the Stage 1 broad engagement Council conducted from March to May 2025.


Community Panel recommendations

To help inform their recommendations, the panel was presented with information including the results of the community survey, as well as other research and data presented by Council officers and other subject matter experts.

Following their in-depth considerations, the panel made a series of recommendations across 5 key themes for the future of our city:

  • A strong and connected community
  • Suitable buildings and spaces
  • Local business, jobs and learning
  • A healthy and natural environment
  • How Council works

The panel also considered health and wellbeing as a topic that is embedded through each of the above 5 areas, and provided recommendations on areas to focus on for the 2025-2029 period.

Read the full Shaping Whitehorse Community Panel Report including all the panel's recommendations.

Community survey results

Below is a summary of results from our community survey.

If you would like to view the full survey results, you can read the Shaping Whitehorse broad engagement findings report.

Your priorities by theme

Our Integrated Council Plan identifies 5 key themes. You told us your priorities for each theme are:

Theme 1: A strong and connected community

Theme 1: A strong and connected community

What matters most to you:

Theme 2: Suitable buildings and spaces

Theme 2: Suitable buildings and spaces

What matters most to you:

Theme 3: Local businesses, jobs and learning

Theme 3: Local business, jobs and learning

What matters most to you:

Theme 4: A healthy and natural environment

Theme 4: A healthy and natural environment

What matters most to you:

Theme 5: How Council works

Theme 5: How Council works

What matters most to you:

Your priorities for Council assets

You told us you want Council to invest in:

Health and Wellbeing

You told us focusing on these things would help improve health and wellbeing:

The recommendations of the Community Panel, together with the feedback received through the Community Survey, have been considered in the development the Integrated Council Plan 2025-2029, Proposed Budget 2025/26 and other documents.