‘Our Darebin’ is a community engagement project to review the Darebin 2041 Community Vision and inform the development of other major long-term plans, including:

• Our Darebin Plan 2025-29
• Our Darebin Annual Action Plan 2025-26
• Our Annual Budget and Financial Outlook 2025-26 to 2028-29
• Our Revenue and Rating Plan 2025-26 to 2028-29
• Our Financial Plan 2025-26 to 2034-35
• Our Capital Works Program 2025-26 to 2034-35
• Our Asset Plan 2025-56 to 2034-35
• Our Operating Projects 2025-26

This update is carried out every four years to coincide with each new Council term, in line with the Local Government Act 2020.

Your recent input has been vital in shaping our draft 2025-29 Council Plan and other key documents.

Now, it’s time to review them.

Take a look at the items listed below (included in the 'Draft documents' tab on this page) and let us know if we’ve got them right. You can also review the handy Our Darebin and Budget fact sheets available in the document library.

• Our Darebin Plan 2025-29
• Our Darebin Annual Action Plan 2025-26
• Our Annual Budget and Financial Outlook 2025-26 to 2028-29
• Our Revenue and Rating Plan 2025-26 to 2028-29
• Our Financial Plan 2025-26 to 2034-35
• Our Capital Works Program 2025-26 to 2034-35
• Our Asset Plan 2025-56 to 2034-35
• Our Operating Projects 2025-26

There are lots of ways to find out more and have your say until 3 June 2025:

• Go to yoursay.darebin.vic.gov.au/ourdarebin to make a submission in your language
• Visit a feedback station at any of our customer service counters, aquatic centres or libraries
• Come along to a pop-up session.

In July 2024, we launched the Our Darebin project which saw Council working closely with community through two stages of consultation -broad and deliberative, to review our 20-year Community Vision, and help shape our 2025-29 Council Plan (incorporating our Health and Wellbeing Plan).

This Vision was influenced by feedback from over 3,500 residents and crafted by the Our Darebin Panel-a group of everyday residents representing Darebin’s diverse community. Their hard work culminated in a proposed Vision that was unanimously endorsed by Councillors in February.

The Panel also played a vital role in helping navigate tough decisions amidst financial challenges, such as rate capping and rising costs.

Using community feedback, insights from guest speakers, and their own lived experiences, they identified core community priorities for the next four years. From these, they recommended key focus areas where Council can have the greatest impact on community wellbeing, along with guiding principles to support fair and equitable decisions on services, assets, and financial planning.

This invaluable input has shaped our draft 2025–29 Council Plan (incorporating our Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plan), Asset Plan, Financial Plan, 2025–26 Annual Budget and other important documents.

The Darebin 2041 Community Vision was developed in 2021 together with our community. It outlines what our community wants Darebin to be like in 2041. It is the overarching statement that guides everything we do as a Council. In 2024 Council working closely with community through two stages of consultation -broad and deliberative -to review our 20-year Community Vision and an updated Vision was unanimously endorsed by Councillors in February 2025.

The updated Vision states:

Darebin is an equitable, vibrant, healthy and connected community where all residents and businesses experience safety, fulfilment and prosperity.

Darebin respects and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and our diverse communities.

Darebin has responded effectively to the climate emergency by implementing a circular economy and creating a sustainable, green and liveable environment.

Darebin is renowned for its collaborative environment, integrity, transparency and commitment to financial sustainability.

Councils are responsibility for delivering a breadth of services to the community, from waste collection to libraries. They also have responsibility for ensuring the wellbeing of the community.

Darebin’s 2025-29 Council Plan is called “Our Darebin Plan”.

Our Darebin Plan describes how the currently elected Council will work towards delivering its responsibilities in line with the community’s priorities.

The work undertaken by Council through Our Darebin Plan will contribute to meeting the long-term Community Vision as well as Council’s Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing responsibilities.

We now have a draft Our Darebin Plan and are seeking community feedback on this draft document.[KG1]

[KG1]do we want a line in here to explain our Council Plan is called 'Our Darebin Plan'

Our Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan is embedded in Our Darebin Plan. The Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, determines that Council has a responsibility to protect, promote and improve the public health and wellbeing of our community. One way we do this is to ensure Our Darebin Plan has a strong focus on actions aimed to improve the social, cultural, economic, physical and natural environments. We believe health and wellbeing underpins a thriving community, so rather than having a separate plan for this, Our Darebin Plan has critical actions for the planning, and collaborative delivery with other health providers, of health and wellbeing initiatives.

The 10 Year Financial Plan provides a 10-year view of Council’s financials.

It details the financial strategies the Council will follow each year as it sets annual budgets, to ensure financial sustainability is maintained so that Council can meet its responsibilities to the community now and into the future.

Council is responsible for a large and diverse portfolio of community assets, including roads, drains, buildings, and open spaces.

As Darebin grows and changes, the maintenance, renewal and replacement of assets will have a significant impact on Council’s long-term financial sustainability.

The purpose of the Asset Plan is to provide a strategic overview of how Council manages the community’s infrastructure and assets and what needs to be invested over time, in order to meet the defined service standards and levels.