What do you do when you live in the fastest growing regional Shire in Australia? How do you stimulate innovative and creative industries and provide opportunities to enable young people to stay in their hometown? How do you keep your community and cultural identity in the face of overwhelming population growth? How do you manage the change and protect quality of life, whilst welcoming and including "newcomers"? How can the "surf's up, tools down" traditions of the South West corner of Western Australia survive in the face of increasing urbanisation?

The answers to these questions for the City of Busselton were explored in the development of a Cultural Plan, through more than 50 community workshops and meetings over an 18 month period. Unanimously endorsed by Council on 26 October 2005, the Cultural Plan is a management system which has identified and enlisted Cultural Partners including key representative bodies from all art forms along with tourism, business and education.