Abstract
Much of the eastern seaboard of Australia is in a state of transition. This transition represents a sea-change or tree-change for 'lifestyle' refugees, who are dramatically changing the face of traditional Australian agricultural landscapes. The South East Queensland Western Catchments (SEQ WC) is one such area undergoing transition in terms of landuse and population (which is expected almost double within the next 20 years). To date, there has been limited rationale in the selection of an appropriate mix of engagement tools for stakeholder engagement in natural resource management (NRM) in these transitional landscapes, such as the SEQ WC, where the effectiveness of traditional agri-extension approaches to engagement may continue to diminish. The authors propose a novel approach to engagement, where landholder motivations and preferences are matched with engagement practitioner capacities, and developed within the dynamic local context of engagement. The realisation of this approach has been to develop a typology of engagement (rather than some other potentially arbitrary grouping such as landuse, income or profession) to provide a rationale basis for targeting the trial of potentially effective engagement tools in conjunction with practitioners involved in NRM engagement, in order to improve the long-term capacity for improved effective engagement in the SEQ WC region, as well as other transitional landscapes.