Bendigo's Green Future Hangs on Three Decisions Due Before Christmas

The City of Greater Bendigo must resolve three separate environment and sustainability commitments by December 2026, and the clock is already running. Councillors voted in March to finalise a revised Climate Emergency Action Plan, a document that has been in draft form since late 2024, alongside separate decisions on a proposed urban greening corridor along the Calder Highway median and the future of the Kangaroo Flat Solar Precinct, a 14-hectare site earmarked under the 2023 Bendigo South Structure Plan.

The timing matters. Victoria's state government is distributing the second round of its Community Climate Fund grants, worth $47 million statewide, with applications closing September 12. Councils that cannot demonstrate a certified local climate plan at submission time are ineligible for the larger infrastructure grants, anything above $250,000. Bendigo's draft plan, still awaiting community sign-off, leaves the city exposed to missing that funding window entirely.

What's on the table locally

Two organisations are pushing hard for the council to move faster. Sustainable Bendigo, the volunteer-led group that has operated from offices on Hargreaves Street since 2014, submitted a 34-page response to the draft plan in May, arguing the emission-reduction targets for council-owned buildings are set too low and that the 2040 net-zero goal should be pulled forward to 2035. Separately, La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, on Edwards Road, has been running its own Net Zero Campus Program since 2022 and has already cut electricity consumption in its science precinct by 22 per cent through a combination of rooftop solar and demand management software. University facilities staff have offered to share that data with the council's sustainability team, though no formal agreement exists yet.

The Kangaroo Flat Solar Precinct is the flashpoint. The site, bordered by Mackenzie Street West and the Calder Alternative Highway, was zoned for renewable energy infrastructure three years ago, but a formal development application has not been lodged. Two separate commercial proponents have flagged interest; neither has gone public. Local residents near the Kangaroo Flat town centre raised concerns in June about visual amenity and the lack of community benefit agreements, a mechanism that has been used successfully in comparable projects near Ballarat and Mildura.

The Loddon and what upstream decisions mean downstream

Beyond the urban boundary, the condition of the Loddon River system is forcing a separate reckoning. The Loddon Campaspe Landcare Network, which coordinates 47 active Landcare groups across the region, reported in its June quarterly update that riparian revegetation along the stretch between Newbridge and Serpentine has stabilised 11 kilometres of eroding bank since 2021, partly funded through the federal government's Landcare Australia grants. But the network flagged that a further 19 kilometres remain unprotected, and the current funding cycle ends in June 2027.

Water entitlements managed by Coliban Water add another layer of complexity. The utility, which services Bendigo's 115,000-plus residents, has committed to a 15 per cent reduction in potable water use across its Bendigo network by 2030, measured against a 2019 baseline. Progress has been modest, the latest annual report puts the reduction at 6.2 per cent as of March 2026. Coliban Water's board meets again in August, when it is expected to consider a mandatory waterwise garden rebate program that would cost ratepayers an estimated $3.1 million over three years.

The sequence of decisions ahead is tight but knowable. The council's Environment and Sustainability Committee meets July 22 at the Bendigo Town Hall, where staff will table a revised timeline for the Climate Emergency Action Plan. If that timeline slips past August, the September 12 state grant deadline almost certainly becomes unachievable. The Kangaroo Flat precinct decision is pencilled in for October, assuming a development application arrives in time. And Coliban Water's rebate program, if approved in August, would need a budget allocation before the council's mid-year review in November. Each decision feeds the next. Miss one, and the others get harder.