A best paper award for a project on 'Measuring Community Wellbeing: A Central Queensland Case Study' was based on a project partnership between CQU and a State Government department.

The paper won the Best Conference Paper Award at the Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Association International (ANZRSAI) Inc conference held in New Zealand during September.

Professor Bob Miles, from CQU's Institute for Sustainable Regional Development, a co-author of the paper, said the project was a joint venture between the University and the Department of Local Government via the Central Queensland A New Millennium initiative.

CQANM is the regional growth management framework for the State Government. Details are at: http://www.lgp.qld.gov.au/?id=175

Professor Miles said the worthwhile partnership had involved the "key players" of Lindsay Greer (CQU) and David Kraatz (CQANM) and another co-author Dr Susan Kinnear (CQU).

The paper describes how a model to measure community wellbeing was developed following an assessment of local government needs specific to Queensland and a global literature review. It presents the results of this work, including the research and analyses used to define the model and preliminary results from a pilot-scale case study conducted in Emerald Shire to test the robustness, efficiency and suitability of the model.