We work closely with the Traditional Owners of the the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks, the Eastern Maar and Wadawurrung Peoples.

Annual Community Survey

On this page, you’ll find a summary of what we heard in our 2025 Annual Community Survey, along with the actions we’re taking in 2026 to improve the way we engage with you.

2025 Annual Community Survey Findings

Our second Annual Community Engagement Survey asked how well we’re listening, engaging, and including your voice, building on what we heard in 2024.

The 2025 Annual Community Survey responses reflected a significant year of community engagement activity. In particular, major projects such as the Geelong City Deal, including the Point Grey Redevelopment (our most viewed Have Your Say page), and coastal adaptation planning featured strongly in feedback.

People who completed the survey were asked to nominate their primary place of residence, and the top five, in order, were Melbourne, Lorne, Aireys/Anglesea, Torquay, and Apollo Bay. The highest number of respondents were in the 60 to 80 age bracket (67%), 58% identified as male, and 55% retired.

When asked why people participated, the majority (72%) were interested in a specific project, 63% wanted to contribute to community decision making, and 55% were directly affected by the project/issue. The ways in which people engaged with us showed most (70%) participated via a survey, 53% attended an in-person engagement event, followed by online webinars and other engagement activities such as walk and talks.

Overall, engagement with our communities in 2025 was robust and sometimes challenging as we took important steps toward protecting the coastlines we manage along the Great Ocean Road.

Compared to 2024, overall satisfaction levels were slightly lower. Feedback indicated reduced community sentiment around:

  • use of people's time spent engaging with us
  • the information we shared
  • confidence in how community feedback was used
  • how clearly we explained the impact of community input

Positively, results showed that community members:

  • valued the way engagement activities were delivered, and
  • appreciated having opportunities to get involved.

These results highlight that we still have work to do. In particular, we need to be clearer about why, when and how we engage, and about how community feedback influences decisions and projects.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their feedback with us. We are grateful for the feedback provided and will use it to continue improving how we engage with our communities.

Stop | Start | Continue

One of the questions we asked in the survey was what things they would like us to Stop, Start and Continue. You can see a summary of the results below.

Actions We're Taking

In our 2024 and 2025 Annual Community Surveys, you shared valuable feedback on how we can improve the way we engage with you.

Your insights have helped us identify key priorities and shape the actions we are now putting into practice, as listed below.

The feedback will also inform the development of a new Community Engagement Framework, guiding how we connect, listen, and work with our community into the future.

How we're doing this

  • Sharing upcoming projects and engagement opportunities as early as possible.
  • Clearly outlining project negotiables at the start of each engagement, so the community understands what they can and can't influence.
  • Publishing a report for every engagement, outlining what the community influenced and rationale to why some elements couldn't be changed.

How we're doing this

  • Expanding our geographical reach through social media outside of the Great Ocean Road region.
  • Factoring broader participation into future engagement planning, ensuring people outside the Great Ocean Road region have meaningful. opportunities to get involved and share their views.
  • Growing our regional networks within the Great Ocean Road region and further afield, by connecting with local events, groups, and initiatives.
  • Collaborating with other agencies to align and enhance community engagement efforts.

How we're doing this

  • This guide is currently under development, and we anticipate it will be available later this year.

How we're doing this

  • Reviewing who we’re currently engaging with, identifying who’s missing from the conversation and exploring ways to actively involve them.
  • Developing a set of diversity targets to guide inclusive engagement across all activities.
  • Collaborating more closely with local groups to strengthen connections and broaden community representation.

2025: The Year That Was in Community Enagagement

2024 Annual Community Survey Findings

Our first ever Annual Community Engagement Survey asked how we were doing when it came to listening, engaging and including your voice in our work.