Our story
It started with eight people around a kitchen table
The Independent Sturt Project began in 2024 with a handful of locals who had never met before, and has grown into a community effort that put an independent on the ballot in Sturt and is now getting ready to do it again.
How it began
In July 2024, eight people with no prior connection to each other sat around a kitchen table in Oakden and talked about what they love about Sturt, from its parklands and hills to its cultural diversity and its people. What brought them together was a shared sense that our community wasn't being represented as well as it could be in Canberra, and a curiosity about what people right across the electorate, from Glenunga to Holden Hill, actually wanted from their federal member.
So rather than starting with a candidate or a set of policies, the group started by listening. Through the second half of 2024 they ran community conversations, workshops and surveys, and in September they opened the search for a community independent who could take those views to Parliament.
The 2025 campaign
- July 2024
A kitchen table in Oakden
Eight locals meet for the first time and agree to find out what Sturt wants from its representative.
- September 2024
Listening first
Community conversations, workshops and a survey begin, and the search for a candidate opens.
- December 2024
A candidate chosen by the community
Dr Verity Cooper, a local GP who had cared for people in our community for more than 30 years, is selected as Sturt's community independent candidate.
- January to May 2025
Five months on the ground
Volunteers knock on more than 3,000 doors and deliver more than 73,000 flyers across the electorate.
- May 2025
8,413 votes
On election day, 8,413 people in Sturt give their first preference to a community independent.
That result was built in a remarkably short time, and it rested on the groundwork laid by a small local team and on the generosity of the many volunteers, donors and supporters who joined them. We are grateful to every one of them, and especially to Verity, who stepped forward as our first candidate and continues to support the Project as we look ahead.
Building for the long term
The structure behind the 2025 campaign was set up to contest a single election. Since then we have been rebuilding it into something that can keep working between elections as well as during them, with a renewed board looking after governance and continuity, and a separate team to run the campaign day to day.
We are also developing a policy platform the way we started, by asking people across Sturt what matters to them, and we are putting in place a clear, documented process for choosing our next candidate, with a selection panel and published criteria.
What we could do with more time
Last time, everything happened in the space of a few months. With the next federal election anticipated in 2028, we have the chance to start earlier, build a bigger team and give our next candidate the foundation they deserve. If you'd like to be part of the next chapter, we would love to have you with us.