A new survey is asking regional residents from all walks of life about their communities.

For Regional Development Australia Southern NSW and ACT (RDASNA) CEO Olivia West, it’s a chance to abandon the “very metro” focus of other data sources.

Ms West described the organisation’s Thrive Regional Pulse Survey as an annual temperature check of the region’s communities.

“It can be very hard to tell a regional story sometimes,” she told Region.

“Our datasets aren’t very good at telling the nuanced story of our differing regional needs – they’re often collected at too large a scale.”

It asks respondents about their opinions and ideas across multiple topics – such as housing, regional resilience, business development and the transport network.

“Every year, we will also continue to produce reports on transport, housing, workforce and childcare to check in [on those areas],” Ms West said.

“The Pulse survey will inform that.”

RDASNA was formed in 2024 when Regional Development Australia’s southern NSW and ACT branches merged.

“In that time we’ve released a number of reports looking at how the region is tracking … What we want to do now is build on that articulation of the vision and on the reports that we’ve released.”

The new survey builds on its landmark roadmap, Regional Vision – Thrive, which was released earlier this year.

Ms West believes finding the nuance is especially important in southern Australia, which spans cities, farmlands and coastal communities.

“What I would say we noticed when we’re looking at the data across the region is there are differences across the region for a number of factors,” she said.

“There are differences relating to different livability elements … We’ll be really interested to see how those differences are expressed in the Pulse survey results.”

But she said the survey went beyond creating a record of what we think at the moment.

For RDASNA, it’s about knowing for what it should be lobbying the different levels of government.

“The important thing is to be able to understand where our community needs us to advocate,” Ms West said.

“We don’t necessarily hold the pen in terms of decision-making, but we talk to the governments that do.”

The survey is open until early August to people who live, work or invest in southern NSW and the ACT.

“It’s not something that we’re collecting for our own navel-gazing. It’s something we’re actually going to do something about,” she said of the responses collected.

Once the survey is completed, the results will be reviewed ahead of an industry roundtable focusing on aged care.

“As part of our Pulse survey this year, we’ll be looking at (in particular) how our region wants to age and how they think it’s looking for them.

“[That focus is in terms of] services, supports, connectivity and livability … We’ll be deep diving into that.”

The Thrive Regional Pulse Survey is open until 11:45 pm on 9 August. For more information on its work, visit RDASNA’s website.