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A Just Transition for Collie
Collie is a community of 8,812 people located on the Boodja (Country) of the Wilman (Freshwater) peoples of the Bibbulmun Nation. Collie has a strong community spirit and a long history of people supporting each other. Click the image below for a video from Collie.
CJU has been working to support a just transition in Collie for a number of years now. 
In 2019, CJU was involved in a process with Collie community and Beyond Zero Emissions which produced a report in 2019 called 'Collie at the crossroads: Planning a future beyond coal.' The report identified industry opportunities for the Collie community as it moves away from coal extraction and energy generation, such as land regeneration, social care, renewable manufacturing, and low emission industries.
In 2020, following the release of Collie’s Just Transition Plan, Collie community partners and CJU identified the need to embed climate justice in Collie’s transition, with a whole-of-community social justice approach that leaves no one behind and addresses the environmental and social impacts of climate change.
Over recent years, we have collaborated with Collie community members and Edith Cowan University’s Centre for People, Place and Planet (CPPP) to undertake a social justice analysis of Collie’s just transition and the existing and future threats from climate change. The project supports Collie’s Just Transition Plan of the WA government. But it goes further to ensure that the needs of Boodja (Country) and the whole Collie community are included. We call this 'a just transition for Collie that leaves no one behind'. You can see more about this report below.
In 2023 CJU secured a Federal Grant from the National Emergency Management Agency to support community preparation and disaster resilience in Collie, Kwinana and across Ballardong Boodja (the Wheatbelt region). This project is called First and Last. Community reports and information about some of this work is included below.
A Climate Justice Analysis of WA Government Funding for Collie's transition from coal 2019 - 2024
Collie Elders and community have been meeting now, every couple of months for years with stakeholders from local government, state and federal government, service providers and researchers to influence and engage in the transition from coal and to ensure they have a say in the future of their home and boodja.
During these conversations there were frequent discussions around the funding that was being spent. The community members asked researchers to help them understand what had been spent and whether the funding was addressing the priorities they had identified in the report below.
Researchers from Edith Cowan University's Centre for People Place and Planet developed this report which analyses the distribution of Collie transition funding between January 2019 and July 2024 from a climate Justice Perspective.
A Just Transition for Collie That Leaves No-one Behind
This report shares the experiences and perspectives of more than 200 Collie community members about economic, social, cultural, and environmental changes due to the transition from coal-fired energy production and climate change.
It highlights the importance of including the voices and needs of people in all their lived experiences, particularly people who are frequently marginalised in the community, to support the transition to help build a stronger, cleaner, and fairer community.
The findings in this report can support the process of planning and implementing Collie’s transition to build on these community strengths.
The reports contain 7 key strategies developed by the community for a successful transition with the longer version including a summary of the elements of transformative policy development.
You can find the community report here (a shorter version) and the full referenced version (ideal for policy and strategic campaigner folks) here.
community updates
- Manufacturing for 'Defence' (otherwise known as weapons and war). Are we really here again? A public statement. 27/5/2026
- Bunuru Community Report back 2026 - Community activities, building connection, strength, skills and pride in Collie
- First and Last Bunuru Yarns 2025
- First and Last Community information sheet. 2024
- First and Last - Disaster resilience and community preparedness - First Aid Training
- A Ridiculous Distraction and Deeply Offensive - Community Statement on Dutton's Nuclear proposal
- Request to speak at Public Hearing into Nuclear Energy Dec 2024
- Community Update Nov 2023 - Collie Research Project.pdf
- Community Update March 2023 - Collie Research Project.pdf
- Community Update July 2022 - Collie Research Project.pdf
We look forward to continuing this journey and collaborating with others.
To attend future workshops or hear more contact CJU: admin@climatejusticeunion.org
We acknowledge that we begin our work as The Climate Justice Union on the Boodja (land) of the Wadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. We honour the Wadjuk people and their kin in other Nations and Country across these lands and waters, who have always cared for this place and all who lived here.
We acknowledge First Nations Elders past and present, and acknowledge that those of us living here, who came from across the seas, live on land that was taken, stolen. We acknowledge the responsibility that comes with this understanding and that we personally and collectively benefit from this theft.
As such, we all have a responsibility to decolonise ourselves, our lives and work, and to heal the harm these oppressive systems have inflicted.
Click here to read our full acknowledgements
We are a community union and do not cover you in your workplace. All Climate Justice Union members are also encouraged to join the relevant industrial union. Click here to find your industrial Union.