Infusing the spirit of ancestry

Developing a liveable and sustainable community at Kinma Valley has involved years of collaboration and ongoing engagement with co-creators, including the Kabi Kabi people, ensuring the master planned design protects and enhances local fauna and flora while retaining and enhancing culturally significant aspects of the land.

The Kabi Kabi Peoples Aboriginal Corporation was established to act as a Prescribed Body Corporate on behalf of the Kabi Kabi First Nation Traditional Owners to undertake land management activities, make representations to all levels of government, and coordinate Kabi Kabi involvement in “caring for country”. 

On Friday May 20, Lendlease held a special ‘Meet the Creators’ event at Kinma Valley, inviting the Kabi Kabi people for a behind the scenes look at the creation of the community and learn how the project has been designed to identify and preserve its local heritage and natural environment.

Uncle Mick Douglas delivered a Welcome to Country, followed by Q&A session with the project consultants and an official site tour.

“It was an honour to be at this special event. This place has great significance, which is why it’s so important we maintain the environment here. What’s not to be excited about with this community masterplan?” a Kabi Kabi participant said.

“Other parts of this project are amazing, like the fauna corridor. That particular process offers a lot in environmental training and longevity with job outcomes in the land management space; also the 10-hectare offset property out west. All of these types of outcomes offers that economic sustainability for our people and will become an asset to Lendlease moving forward.” 

Lendlease Senior Development Manager Tanya Martin said the engagement event, introduced the project consultants to the Kabi Kabi people.

“Kinma Valley has been a co-creation project with many experts involved and the key players being the Kabi Kabi people,” she said.

“It’s really important that we engage the community from the beginning. We established a community environmental reference group and held workshops with key community members who have collaborated with us on design of the masterplan.

“We’re creating a place that will make it easy for people to make sustainable choices, putting hard work in now, so the residents can just enjoy it. One of our key design drivers was to bring all the parks into green linear corridors, which required a different way of thinking.

“We have worked with the Kabi Kabi representatives to help us in the creation of Kinma Valley. It is important that we are being authentic and caring about the place we are developing, as this will be a place that people call home.”

The first lots at Kinma Valley are expected to be released soon. Don’t miss your chance to be one of the first Kinma Valley residents. Register your information here.