Hepburn weekend | Saturday Dinner at Bellinzona | SOLD OUT

Open Door Series | Saturday Dinner at Bellinzona following the Private Tour of Hepburn Energy’s Wind Farm.

Saturday 24 October, 6.30pm arrival please.

Hosted by Peter Duncan AO, Chris Gallagher and Weston Lewis

Bellinzona Hotel, Augustus Room

Saturday October 24th 2026, 6.30pm arrival.

$55pp, includes two course share-style dinner. Alcohol is available on consumption.

Menu = alternate drop of 2 x Entrees and 2 x Main Courses. Dietary requirements should be identified at the time of booking and paying please.

Please note: Numbers for the dinner are capped at 18 people.

_______________________________________________

As part of the dinner, we are delighted to feature Guest Conversation Leader, NSW Agriculture Commissioner, Alison Stone. 

>Who Gives Way? Competing Demands on a Finite Landscape.

Now more than ever, we are asking a great deal of Country, land and landscapes.

Since colonisation, Australia has transformed land on a vast scale. For a long time, it appeared there was enough land to accommodate almost every need: housing, agriculture, food and fibre production, transport, industry, manufacturing, mining, waste disposal, forestry and conservation.

At the same time, First Nations peoples have had to pursue recognition of their rights and interests in traditional lands through processes that remain lengthy, complex and often contested.

The demands on land are now intensifying. We need more housing, transport infrastructure and mineral production, while also making space for renewable energy, transmission lines, data centres, critical minerals, carbon sequestration, reforestation, biodiversity conservation and environmental offsets.

But land is finite. We cannot simply make more of it.

How, then, do we avoid framing every decision as a “land-use conflict”? That language can quickly push debate into an either-or contest: production or conservation, development or protection, the environment or the economy.

The real challenge is to build a bridge across these divides.

Increasingly, we need to identify where the same land or landscape can deliver multiple benefits, where different uses can coexist, and where genuine trade-offs must be acknowledged. We also need greater clarity about how decisions affect property rights, communities, industries, environmental values and competing government priorities.

When all demands cannot be accommodated, who gives way—and who decides?

Alison is a highly experienced leader who has shaped strategic direction and driven reform across primary industries, land use, fire and emergency management. Over a career spanning more than 40 years, she has contributed through senior executive, board, consulting and advisory roles in New South Wales, Victoria and the Commonwealth.

As the inaugural statutory NSW Agriculture Commissioner, Alison is deeply committed to rural and regional advocacy and to fostering collaborative, inclusive and community-led approaches. She also brings practical experience from 25 years of hands-on involvement in a prime lamb and farm-stay enterprise in Victoria’s western Otways.

As Agriculture Commissioner, Alison has four key priorities:

• piloting a Farm Practices Panel, with an initial focus on intensive agricultural industries;
• supporting the NSW Government’s development of agricultural land-use mapping;
• working with the NSW Net Zero Commission and providing advice on the renewable energy transition; and
• promoting a more coordinated and collaborative approach to agricultural matters across government.

Further information about the Commissioner’s work is available through the NSW Agriculture Commissioner website.