Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 71, no. 4, pp. 469–474 doi:10.1111/1467-8500.12002 COMMENTARY Collaborative Approaches to Regional Governance – Lessons from Victoria Andrew Wear Department of Planning and Community Development Victoria’s Regional Management Forums were established in 2005 to facilitate collaboration between Victorian Government departments and local government in each of Victoria’s eight administrative regions. At the time they were established, Regional Management Forums were a pioneering experiment in collaborative governance. Seven years after their establishment, this paper examines the Regional Management Forums to consider how they have evolved, what role they now serve, and what lessons can be learned. This paper finds that Victoria’s Regional Management Forums have been able to adapt to an evolving policy and governance context. While not without their challenges, Regional Management Forums have given rise to regional-scale thinking and collaborative relationships. Key words: regional governance, regional development, collaboration Late in 2006, a group of senior bureaucrats from Victoria’s Hume region were gathered together, discussing the challenges the region faced in attracting government investment in infrastructure. The group, consisting of coun- cil chief executives, regional directors from state government departments and the Secre- tary of the Department of Premier and Cabi- net amongst others, observed that the region did not have a defining large regional centre (such as Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong or Latrobe City) but rather was made up of a number of medium-sized centres such as Wangaratta, Be- nalla, Shepparton and Wodonga. This made it hard to build the case for investment, partic- ularly when councils were competing against each other for funding. To address this situa- tion, the group resolved to work together on a strategy that would enable regional stake- holders to build on their strengths as a re- gion. Four years later, the Hume Strategy for Sustainable Communities was released (Hume Regional Management Forum 2010), endorsed by twelve councils, the Regional Development Australia committee and the state government. The group of bureaucrats that made this pos- sible was the Hume Regional Management Fo- rum, established by the Victorian government in 2005 as one of eight such forums across Victoria. The establishment of Regional Manage- ment Forums was an experiment in collabo- rative governance. Similar governance struc- tures had also been established in other jurisdictions: Regional Managers’ Coordina- tion Networks in Queensland; Regional Coor- dination Management Groups in New South Wales; and Regional Coordination Networks in South Australia (Wear 2008). Nevertheless, Victoria was a pioneer, and seven years on, hav- ing survived a change of government, Victoria’s Regional Management Forums are still going strong, while adapting and evolving as needed to fit a changing context. This article examines Victoria’s Regional Management Forums to ask how they have per- formed, how they have evolved, what they are actually doing in practice, and also what im- pact the Commonwealth’s strengthened focus on regional development is having. Finally, this C  2012 Department of Planning and Community Development, State of Victoria Australian Journal of Public Administration C  2012 National Council of the Institute of Public Administration Australia