The possibility of promoting community development as well-being through a community learning ethos was examined to determine whether learning can be used to develop a framework for conceptualizing community well-being in order to contribute to Australia's regional sustainability. The examination focused on the following: the relationship between learning and community sustainability; indicators of community well-being; "critical learning" as the basis for positive community learning; learning in collectives; organizational learning; and values, group learning, and communities of practice. The following conclusions were reached: (1) learning consists of sets of valued social practices that depend on prevailing social and economic conditions; (2) the valued knowledge and skills around which learning occurs are constructed in and by groups as they learn for common purposes; (3) environmental turbulence, knowledge as a primary source, multidimensional change, more permeable and fuzzy boundaries, reduced time frames, and internationalization are forces that shape organizations and regional communities; (4) community development and/or sustainability can be achieved through sets of strategies based on reconciling differences in value sets in achieving common purposes, spurred by an ethos of critique as communities seek to understand their nature and role in their own construction and reconstruction. (MN)