Throughout regional and rural Australia, as with many other parts of the world, the challenge of sustaining a viable existence confronts the very issue of how human and natural resources combine to create economic security (Lockie and Bourke, 2001; Beer, Maude, Pritchard, 2003). In the face of unprecedented change, rural and regional communities are having to rethink the concept and implications of socio-economic development, and recreate new and innovative responses to newly emerging political, social, and environmental conditions. The magnitude of change, on so many fronts, is demanding a quantum shift in thinking about the way communities develop - the way resources are used, the structure of economic and social enterprise, and the way progress is defined and subsequently measured. As rural Australia grapples with the imperative to embrace change and actively engage in re-crafting its social, cultural and economic foundations, the opportunities which lie in 'social and environmental sustainability' are gaining clarity. These ideas are being widely reflected in the growing number of community-owned initiatives and enterprises, as well as in many programs in which unique partnerships have been effectively formed between public and private sector interests with a focus on stimulating regionally appropriate economic activity in ways that are socially responsible and ecologically sustainable. Little, however, has been done to date by way of researching and codifying these practices in the rural/regional context. This is the focus of our research. Thus the primary purpose of the paper proposed here is to explain and discuss the study presently being initiated by the authors with the aim of investigating case examples of the type of innovative enterprise briefly described above and their impact on regional development, and explaining how they may be adapted for wider benefit.