Our Story
The Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre is the result of a pioneering, local government-led initiative that connects the health of local communities with the health of the natural environment. It serves as a global model for how local areas can drive the required change to combat climate and environmental crises, restore the health of natural systems and build healthy, resilient communities.
What is ‘Planetary Health’?
Planetary Health is a concept that goes beyond traditional environmentalism. It focuses on the direct, interconnected relationship between human civilisation and the natural systems (air, water, land and biodiversity) that sustain it.
Its core premise is simple: when we degrade the planet’s ecosystems, we directly harm the health, safety, and well-being of humans and all living things.
Background
A Unique Geographic Stewardship
The Blue Mountains is one of only two cities in the world surrounded by a UNESCO World Heritage Area. Because of this, Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) manages a landscape of global biodiversity significance, including 10,000 hectares of bushland, 300 kilometres of waterways, and rare and endangered ecological communities.
Blue Mountains City Council established the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative in 2021 as a key part of its journey, with its community, to create a more sustainable Blue Mountains: environmentally, socially, and economically.
On the Front Line of Climate Change
A key catalyst for the Planetary Health Initiative was a gruelling sequence of natural disasters. Between 2019 and 2023, the region faced five declared natural disasters. This began with the catastrophic 2019–2020 "Black Summer" bushfires, which surrounded the region on three fronts, and was followed by four extreme wet weather and flooding events that caused massive infrastructure and ecological damage.
Faced with these compounding crises, the Council and local community realised that traditional local government frameworks were no longer enough to handle the cumulative impacts and threats of natural disasters, climate change and ecological degradation.
How it evolved
The Planetary Health Initiative can be traced back to the year 2000, when BMCC developed its Blue Mountains Sustainability Model with planet Earth at its centre, and its 25-year Map for Action for a more sustainable Blue Mountains. This action plan was seminal in driving integrated social, economic and environmental and sustainability outcomes for the Blue Mountains LGA. In 2020 the Council adopted its Local Strategic Planning Statement with a focus on Living Sustainably and including an action to investigate the establishment of a Planetary Health Centre.
Following the Black Summer bushfires, in late 2020, BMCC purchased the former Katoomba Golf Course clubhouse and its 30-hectare site as a possible Planetary Health Centre site.
The Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative
In September 2021, BMCC established the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative and appointed a dedicated Planetary Health Advisory Committee. Over the next two years, partnerships were forged with with Western Sydney University, the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, the University of Technology Sydney Institute for Sustainable Futures, Notre Dame University and the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute.
In April 2023, The Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative succeeded in gaining $1.1 million in grant funding from the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund, administered by the New South Wales Reconstruction Authority and funded by both the State and Federal Government.
Partnering with BMCC in the collaboration were Lithgow City Council, Western Sydney University's Lithgow Transformation Hub, the Sustainability Workshop and Mountains Community Resource Network.
This grant funding was instrumental in developing the 30 hectare precinct as a demonstration site for circular water management and in establishing six local community news sites sharing solution-based restoration stories.
By October 2023, the council endorsed a comprehensive Precinct Plan to transform the former golf course into the Planetary Health Precinct & Parklands.
The Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre
In May 2024 the physical site was formalised as the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre, with the aim of establishing a physical and online Centre of Excellence for Planetary Health providing local, national and international leadership through a Blue Mountains lens.
In 2025 the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre was awarded the prestigious Innovative Leadership Award at the NSW Local Government Excellence Awards, with particular recognition of its work on Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change.
Timeline
2000 – The Blue Mountains was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Area
2003 - BMCC develops its Sustainability Model and adopts a 25 year map for action for a more Sustainable Blue Mountains
2004 - Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute established
2005 - BMCC develops an award-winning Local Environment Plan (LEP) setting a ‘sustainable development threshold’
2014 - Gundungurra Indigenous Land Use Agreement
2016 - BMCC adopts a Carbon Abatement Action Plan (CAAP)
2019 - BMCC declares a climate emergency and commits to carbon neutrality by 2025
2020 - BMCC adopts the Planetary Health ethos into its Local Strategic Planning Statement ‘Blue Mountains 2040: Living Sustainably’
2020 – BMCC purchases the former Katoomba Golf Course
2021 - BMCC becomes the first council in Australia to recognise the Rights of Nature
2021 – Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative established
2023 - Blue Mountains and Lithgow Bioregional Collaboration for Planetary Health secures Disaster Risk Reduction Fund grant
2023 – BMCC endorses a Precinct Plan to transform the former Katoomba golf course into the Planetary Health Precinct & Parklands
2023 – Six local news sites established across the Blue Mountains and Lithgow regions documenting stories of local action and providing live weather & air quality data, local event calendars, and resources for building disaster preparedness and resilience.
2024 – Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre formally established by BMCC on the former 30 hectare Katoomba Golf Course site.
2026 – The Blueprint website was launched to bring stories of positive, solutions-focused action to a global audience.