Renew Australia

Renew Australia builds upon the success of Renew Newcastle, which took a city centre with a high proportion of boarded up and vandalised buildings, limited foot traffic and low commercial prospects, and harnessed the creative energy of the local community to bring entire streets back to life.

The issues facing Newcastle are not unusual. Many Australian cities and towns have been negatively impacted by the spread of the suburbs, the competition of outlying malls and their declining place in people’s daily lives.

Renew Australia believes city and town centres play an integral part in bringing together diverse communities, offering an alternative to unsustainable urban sprawl and providing a real sense of public space.

Renew Australia works to find short and medium term uses for buildings that are currently vacant, disused, or awaiting redevelopment. Using flexible license to access agreements, they find artists, cultural projects and community groups to activate and maintain these buildings until they become commercially viable or are redeveloped.

It’s a win-win situation. Social enterprises and community groups access and maintain space for little or no cost while property owners get caretakers for their buildings and increasing viability of their properties as areas are renewed and towns and cities regain their bustling, beating hearts.

Renew Australia is a collaboration between Renew Newcastle, Renew Townsville and Renew Adelaide to produce a national model and toolkit for community driven urban renewal.