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‘Communities of practice’ are groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise. This paper identifies different types of communities of practice that emerged in Australia over the period 1997-2000 as a consequence of the national Framing the Future staff development program, a major initiative of the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) which began in the first half of 1997 and continued until the end of 2000 (see TD/RTF 95.75, TD/RTF 95.74, TD/RTF 95.70). The paper provides insights into the nature of these communities of practice and the positive impacts of the networks on the participants and their organisations and the vocational education and training (VET) sector. The nature of this networked learning community and its impact were evaluated thoroughly in a number of recent evaluations, including ‘Re-framing the future: a report on the long-term impacts of Framing the Future’ (TD/RTF 95.65).