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Food garden working bees

Sonya — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:42:11 -0700

Food garden working bees start November 11.

The Eudlo Relocalisation Group meets on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month at 8.30am in the park opposite the Eudlo General Store – everyone is welcome. The groups’ focus is on community activities within Eudlo – particularly those to do with climate change and peak oil. Food production is a big issue for the future so the group will be starting Food Garden Working Bee days this November.

Working bees are simple – the garden owner sorts out a project, gathers materials and resources, lets people know what they need to bring (usually tools, wheelbarrows etc), they supply tea, coffee, etc and the ‘workers’ bring a plate of food to share. The work will usually be for about three hours, after which we can all relax and have a meal together and you can get to know people in your local area. Projects for the working bee include anything related to home organic food production – garden beds, no-dig gardens, compost systems, setting up a worm farm, mulching, pruning, planting, seed saving, building a chook house…

The first food garden working bee will be on Sunday November 11 at a property on Mossybank Road. Contact group coordinator Sonya raintreeorganics@yahoo.com.au for more information or to join us.

Eudlo Relocalisation Group

Welcome to CASSC

Sonya — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:44:45 -0800

Hi all,

Welcome to CASSC, please introduce yourself to the group so we can get to know each other.

I'll kick things off as group co-ordinator for CASSC.

My name is Sonya and I live in a little house at Eudlo surrounded by a couple of acres of lovely organic and permaculture gardens.

I was inspired to start a Sunshine Coast relocalisation group after meeting Andi Hazelwood from the Burnett Inland group (Rubi) at a Permaculture Design Course held at Eumundi in October.

With a strong passion for organic, locally grown, in-season food, local community, and sustainable living, it was only natural that the global concept of relocalisation appealed to me.

I hope you will join this fledgling group and be part of the development and structure of what we do and how we do to get the most benefit from this wonderful resource. I believe the future looks bright and we can all work together to make positive moves toward a better future.

Cheers,
Sonya.

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Where now for CASSC?

Sonya — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:54:03 -0800

Hi,

What would you like to see on this website? Here's a few ideas, let me know what you want and I'll do my best to get it here...

local resources
local community supported agriculture contacts
local producers of anything in particular
farmer's markets dates, times, locations
sustainable living forum - share tips and news
peak oil forum
climate change forum
links to other organisations
links to local organic gardening and permaculture groups
permaculture links (books, courses, community gardens etc)

What do you think?

Sonya

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Book reviews

Sonya — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:46:16 -0800

The Weather Makers - Tim Flannery
This book discusses; what does climate change mean?, how will global warming affect our lives?, Is it the cause of wilder storms and more frequent drought?, are these events inevitable?

A Big Fix - Ian Lowe
Sunshine Coast local and President of the Australian Conservation Foundation addresses radical solutions for Australia's environmental crisis in this book.

Information on peak oil issues can be found in a couple of good dvds - The End of Suburbia and The Power of Community. Contact me if you are interested in a public screening of either of these movies.

Sonya.

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Sustainable living

Sonya — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:11:31 -0800

Dr David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge

10 most effective ways to help conserve nature and improve our quality of life.

1. Reduce home energy by 10 per cent
2. Eat less red meat
3. Buy a fuel efficient, low-polluting car
4. Choose an energy efficient home and appliances
5. Stop using pesticides
6. Walk, cycle or take public transport
7. Buy locally grown food
8. Live close to regular destinations
9. Support alternatives to the car
10. Get involved and stay informed

Australian Conservation Foundation’s top tips to reduce your household’s contribution to climate change

1. Switch to green power (eg Energex’s Earth Choice)
2. Leave the car at home
3. Adjust your thermostat
4. Take fewer air flights
5. Eat less red meat
6. If it blinks, switch it off
7. Short showers
8. Look to the stars (energy efficient applicances)

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Why relocalise?

Sonya — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:59:05 -0800

Why the move to relocalisation?
Why is relocalisation a solution to peak oil?
What is relocalisation?

Relocalisation is about buying locally - it's as simple as that.

As peak oil pushes the price of fuel up, we as consumers will see that rise reflected in the price we pay for food, products and services. Anything that requires transportation or mechanical production to make it into our homes will increase in price - you've probably already noticed it happening.

Fresh food from the supermarket has travelled thousands of kilometres to arrive in your local shop. Supermarkets buy from large suppliers and price is the main factor in their decision making, not supporting local growers.

That salad you bought from a multi-national supermarket has been grown using petrochemical based fertilisers, harvested using petrol driven machinery, possibly processed or sorted using petrol-driven machinery, refrigerated - using fossil fuel energy, transported in large trucks running on - you guessed it - more fossil fuel, delivered to the supermarket where it is again refrigerated. You drive to the shop in your petrol driven car, buy the 'fresh' salad (which was harvested a few days ago by now), drive it home, refrigerate it again, then eat it.

All these steps require oil. All these steps will increase the price you, the customer, pay at the checkout.

So how can you short-circuit the oil driven process of food production and save money?

That's where relocalisation comes in - the idea behind relocalisation is to buy local, preferably organically grown, food direct from the growers. [Organically grown food has not had petroleum based fertilisers used on it - not to mention all the other chemicals used in commercial growing].

Another benefit will be that you are eating food that is in-season so the taste and quality will be at their absolute peak.

Ways to start relocalising...

Look out for farmer's markets - the Sunshine Coast has them at Noosa and a new one starting at Buderim. Any others out there?

Subscribe to Community Supported Agriculture - CSA is where you pre-pay a certain amount of money each month and are guaranteed a weekly box full of organically grown food direct from the supplier. The Sunshine Coast has CSA's at Beerwah (Sandy Creek) and Maleny (which deliver to your door) - and perhaps others are out there too - let everyone know - post their details here.

Another way to save money is to join or start up a buying co-op - this is where several households all buy in bulk and divide the food up - saving money, buying locally and you building community.

Or you could try the ultimate direct growing to table method - by starting your own organic vegie patch in the backyard, start a compost bin or two and kick off a worm farm.

Buying locally - relocalising where your spend your money - will save you money, reduce transportation and storage costs, support local economies, increase local employment opportunities and help build a culture of community.

Relocalisation offers a very positive solution to peak oil and its affect on our food supply.

This entry has only looked at one part of relocalisation - food production. There is also energy supply, transportation, goods and services, education, health, employment...

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

DVDs

Sonya — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:54:58 -0800

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
With the loss of Soviet oil in 1990, Cuba was forced to undergo an artificial "Peak Oil." This documentary explores how the island nation, through its focus on community, managed not only to survive but to transform their entire society to a sustainable, low-energy-use system.

The End of Suburbia
Oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream.

The Future of Food
Explores the issues surrounding the genetic modification of the world's food supply and who is controlling it.

Gardening Australia's Permaculture & Organic Gardening
A compilation of Josh Byrne's permaculture segments from Gardening Australia as he created a suburban food garden.

Details of gold coin donation public screenings on the Sunshine Coast of; The Power of Community, The End of Suburbia and The Future of Food - or any other movies of public interest - will be posted here. Keep an eye out for dates and details.

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

How do we relocalise?

Sonya — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 16:46:51 -0800

So how do we relocalise?

Thought I'd take quotes from David Holmgren's presentation 'Regional Sustainability in the Energy Descent Future'. Further information on this presentation is available in the blog section and in David's book - Permaculture Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.

David suggests we relocalise by...

1. Networking - for information and inspiration

It's a two way street, share what you know and be open to learning new skills and points of view. Networking with like-minded people also helps keep us inspired and gives us the energy and motivation to continue - we realise there are others who are thinking the same way we are - you're not the only salmon swimming against the flow.

2. Start producing your own food, products and services as much as you can and start linking with local producers.

Grow your own food, grow plants that have many uses - eg bamboo: windbreak, screening, mulch, building material, garden stakes, curtain rods, fencing, furniture, feature plant etc. Seek out local sources for what you cannot produce yourself. Eat in season locally grown organic food. Subscribe to Community Support Agriculture projects. Ensure your money is staying in your local community. Shop at Farmer's Markets.

3. Meet your neighbours - start bartering, LETS, PETS

Get to know the people in your local community, volunteer, join groups, barter food, products and goods. LETS = Local Energy Transfer System, PETS = Permaculture Energy Transfer System. Trade your skills for other skills - not reliant on cash money. Organise a bulk buying group and share the shopping, packaging and distribution.

4. Teach children about relocalisation

Become involved in school permaculture projects, support children's activities at local community gardens, educate your own children about food production and the importance of buying locally.

5. Reduce consumption

Goes without saying we all need to do this. Reduce, repair, recycle, re-use, reskill (learn how to do things yourself), reinvent, consider what you really need. Being sustainable isn't about going without, you can live a very comfortable full life, with lots of luxuries (time, health, great food, great friends, better personal relationships, very comfortable home) without subscribing to the condition of 'Affluenza'. Manage waste within your home systems using worm farms, compost bins, animals - keep landfill to an absolute minimum.

6. Share your home, take in a lodger

David believes this is the single most important thing you can do. Also has economic benefits to you. How many times do we hear about the increasing number of people living alone? Huge house with only a couple of people living in them.

7. Share your car

Use your car less, make trips count - doing as many things as you can while you are out, car pool, ask yourself - do I really need to use my car for this? Explore public transport (difficult in some areas) and fuel efficiency and alternatives.

8. Work around impediments

The mainstream world is not set up for the public to live like this. We all need to be creative and find ways to move forward to a better, more positive energy descent future. We can't rely on our leaders to do that for us.

9. Pay off debt / work from home

This is one of the best things we've done - paid off the mortgage. Working from home - can't get much more local than that. With the mortgage paid off, debt kept to a minimum, growing our own food... we don't need as much money. Our lifestyle has changed very little since paying off debt and quitting work.

10. Retrofit your house and garden for an energy descent future - not for the $$ value

Althoug in the future I think a retrofitted energy descent sensitive house will be of greater $$ value anyway.

I'd also like to add lobbying politicians and community leaders in there too. Letters to the editor, writing articles...

Hope this makes relocalisation a little clearer for you.

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Hello all CASSC members

Sonya — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:07:45 -0800

Hi all,

Just a check up on how you are all going and how you are finding the site?

Do you have some ideas to share about how we can relocalise and take CASSC to the next level?

Would you like to meet face to face sometime? [There's a nice organic cafe at Palmwoods]

Do you find this site useful?

Is there something more you would like to see here?

I'm planning some media coverage soon of our three Sunshine Coast relocalisation sites, so hopefully we will have a rush of new members to add their ideas and energy to the forum and to get more input from across the region.

Please feel free to post here when you have some relocalisation news.

I'd really like to hear what you have to say as this site will only work with input from forum members and sharing of ideas and information - get involved!

Cheers,
Sonya

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Your backyard, your choice

Sonya — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 13:40:04 -0800

People may be wondering what on Earth they could possibly do about Climate Change - the problem just seems too big, too far gone, too hard.

Well, here is an interesting and hopefully thought-provoking statistic for you:

It has been estimated that if there was just a one percent increase in organic matter in the soil of the crop lands of the United States, 4.5 billion tonnes of CO2 would be transfered from the atmosphere back into the soil.

Now imagine what we could all do here in Australia in our own backyards, in school yards, community gardens, government owned lands like libraries, prisons, railway lines... the list goes on and on.

Adding organic matter to the soil (by composting, worm farming, using green manure crops, mulching and leaving the root systems of food crops in the soil after harvesting) will remove CO2 from the atmosphere and return it to the soil.

Just like a ban on fluoro-carbons (sp?) stopped the hole in ozone layer hole, we have a way to halt climate change.

I have also heard another statistic that if 10 percent of the world's farmers changed to organic farming methods, climate change could be halted...

Don't ever under estimate the power you have as an individual. If we all did our little bit, united we can make a big difference.

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

How to create an unsustainable society

Sonya — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:10:01 -0700

How to create an unsustainable society
– a simple 10 step guide to successful unsustainability

1. Ensure population grows exponentially – include baby bonuses and exhortations to have ‘one more for Australia’.

2. Actively encourage an increase in the amount of consumption per person – create new perceptions of ‘need’.

3. Once the first two are in place – celebrate them publicly at every turn with glowing reports about ‘economic growth’ in all available media.

4. Deplete important non-renewable resources such as oil and encourage the over-use of renewable resources such as water, forests, and fisheries. Preferably while at the same time avoiding any public entanglements about ‘environmental damage’.

5. Create a highly specific transport and infrastructure systems totally dependant on a non-renewable resource that is rapidly running out.

6. To ensure ongoing economic decline, adopt the trading patterns of a Third World country by exporting raw materials, then celebrate this success and our status as a ‘global quarry’, meanwhile import manufactured, value-added goods and services without question.

7. Increase social instability by widen the inequities between rich and poor by putting up corporate salaries and pushing worker’s wages and conditions down.

8. Run public services into the ground and then move them to private provision, further ensuring social inequities and ensuring the ‘haves’ in society have more choices.

9. Encourage this unsustainable society to embrace materialism as the new modern ‘spirituality’.

10. Finally take whatever actions deemed necessary to totally disrupt the global climate system and continually deny and refute any scientific, logical or moral reason to stop.

Professor Ian Lowe AO, President of the Australian Conservation Foundation

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Invitation to post peak oil dinner

Sonya — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 23:50:28 -0700

Dear CASSC members,

You are all invited to a relocalisation dinner this Tuesday night
Maroochy Permaculture Group are holding a very special relocalisation, prepare for the future dinner.

All welcome - but...
you need to bring a plate to share of food that has been grown from within a 100 km radius of home.

It should be a fun night with lots of good food and good conversation.

Be prepared to explain the story behind the food you have bought - the ease or difficulty you had in checking the food miles attached to it.

Look forward to seeing you there

7pm at the Blue House 41 Farrell Street, Yandina.

Sonya

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Qld Home Garden Expo

Sonya — Wed, 16 May 2007 01:30:13 -0700

Smart gardening for a sustainable future

July 6, 7, 8

The impacts of climate change are widespread causing water restrictions to continue to tighten, but there is good news for garden lovers. Don’t let your beautiful garden turn to dust, learn from Australia’s leading permaculture and organic gardening experts how to create your own water-wise garden that boasts beautiful colour all year round, despite water restrictions and drought.

The program for this year’s Giant Organic Kitchen Garden, on display at the 23rd annual Queensland Home Garden Expo, will include a variety of lectures, workshops and demonstrations from worm farming and water-wise gardening to compost making and sustainable planting in order to develop and manage a water efficient garden. TV personality and Gardening Guru Jerry Coleby-Williams will launch the exciting program and host segments over the three days.

Barb Wickes, Program Coordinator, says last year the area really buzzed, she anticipates that the feature will be even more popular with visitors this year as demand for environmentally sustainable and organic gardening continues to grow.

“We have had an overwhelming response from exhibitors in the lead up to the event, which has forced further expansion of the site to accommodate exhibitors from all over Queensland and Interstate.”

Two popular Brisbane-based exhibitors Enviro Pots and Australian Bioactive Tea will be on-site throughout the event featuring alternative ways of providing efficient water solutions and reviving drought stricken gardens.

This year’s site is set to double in size compared to previous years, showcasing a fully planted sustainable garden constructed on-site. For the first time, the area will also include an entirely organic food court with plenty of space for visitors to relax and enjoy the festival atmosphere and offering a range of exciting products from organic chilli’s and chocolate to locally grown organic coffee and lemonade.

The environmentally-friendly display garden will exhibit an array of herbs, vegetables and fruit trees, complete with a frog pond which will feature at the entrance to the garden. This area will be crammed with bushfoods and native plants and include a chook run with plenty of chickens and ducks.

“We found this area particularly popular with young families last year and believe it will be one of our biggest attractions this year. The range of products and displays is really diverse and it’s a great opportunity for people to see such an extensive selection of organics in one area, ” said Program Coordinator, Barb Wickes.

Some interesting exhibitors include:
 Chilli Patch - will have loads of interesting chilli products, organic chocolate and tea.
 Portable Veggie Systems - suitable for small courtyards or balcony gardens.
 GreenHarvest - a mail order company from Maleny offering the largest range of organic products in Australia.
 Bioactive Compost Tea - a product that can revive a drought stricken garden.
 Enviro Pots - an alternative way of watering a garden when water suppliers are limited.

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Powerdown - Richard Heinberg

Sonya — Sat, 19 May 2007 21:22:15 -0700

Currently reading 'Powerdown - options and actions for a post-carbon world' by Richard Heinberg.

The book explore possible scenarios for surviving the end of the oil era.

Highly recommended.

I bought mine online from Gaia Victoria at...

http://gaiavic.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Coming back to life - Joanna Macy

Sonya — Sat, 19 May 2007 21:25:29 -0700

Currently reading this book - explores the despair and hopelessness we may feel when faced with the enormity of the global problems we face today and guides us to empowerment and action.

I bought my copy online from Gaia Vic at...

http://gaiavic.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

World Environment Day - Climate Change & Peak Oil Expo

Sonya — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 16:07:22 -0700

Hi all,

Spent two days at the Maroochy Shire Council / Sunshine Coast Environment Council World Environment Day expo.

Excellent presentations and attendance from the public. Lots of information and interest about climate change and peak oil. Excellent committment from the local council about solving these problems.

Next step - regional action planning to design our low impact future!

Stay tuned... more information on local action coming soon

If you are interested in getting involved in the early stages, please email me direct - help needed! Many hands make (low impact fluoro) light work.

Regards,
Sonya

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Permaculture & energy descent preparedness

Sonya — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:45:36 -0700

by David Holmgren [co-originator of permaculture]

"The relevance of permaculture to these energy descent and climate change scenarios can be considered at two levels. Firstly permaculture strategies and techniques that have been developed, promoted and applied by permaculture practitioners and activists may grow and spread rapidly in the social and economic conditions described by some of these scenarios. Examples of permaculture strategies might include household food production, owner building and retrofitting of houses, water and nutrient harvesting, ecovillages and cohousing, community gardens or local currencies. Examples of more specific techniques promoted though permaculture could include worm farming, sheet mulching, straw bale building, compost toilets etc.

However it is the fundamental design principles that underpin the diversity of permaculture strategies and techniques that are more likely to have relevance than any specific set of strategies and techniques. In this context permaculture is a set of thinking tools that can be used to assess current and future strategic decision making well beyond the personal and household level.

Peak oil and climate change have the potential to generate a cascade of novel threats and opportunities for planners and policy makers. Permaculture offers a conceptual framework, design principles, practical strategies and a robust history of grass roots community activism able to contribute to the strategic planning process in a context of unfolding climate change and imminent global oil peak."

Published 19 Nov 2006 by Energy Bulletin
Article; Energy Descent Scenarios: Integrating Climate Change & Peak Oil

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Expression of interest for action

Sonya — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:14:10 -0700

To all CASSC members,

I am wanting to gauge the level of interest in members in becoming involved in education programs, activities and action at all levels dependant on how much you want to commit to or are able to.

So, I'm seeking expressions of interest from you all about what you might like to be involved in or see something happen here on the Sunshine Coast.

Whether it is a dvd screening, a special guest speaker on peak oil, a meeting, a public meeting, a course, or to become involved in existing action, please let me know your interest by June 30.

Regards,
Sonya Wallace

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

A Crude Awakening : The Oil Crash

Sonya — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:53:45 -0700

New movie out... limited release so don't know if it will make it to our cinemas. I'm going to call and ask if they will screen it, maybe if enough people do that they just might.

Here is a review from the Energy Bulletin website.

www.energybulletin.net/31064.html

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Energy Descent - definition

Sonya — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:13:02 -0700

The term 'energy descent' is taken from Howard Odum's book, The Prosperous Way Down, and means "transition from a high fossil fuel-use economy to a more frugal one."

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

The Oil Depletion Protocol

Sonya — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:20:20 -0700

TAFE Cert 1 in Horticulture

Sonya — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:46:28 -0700

New course - Certificate One in Horticulture Using Permaculture Principles

Course will be run at the Yandina Community Gardens, 41 Farrell Street Yandina.

Starts July 19 and runs for seven weeks.

Course facilitator Elisabeth Fekonia

Phone; 3354 5507 to enrol (enrolment is through Grovely TAFE, but course run at Yandina)

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Your help needed

Sonya — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 19:24:41 -0700

We have an opportunity to do something serious about peak oil and climate change that will make a real difference in our region.

We are running a course, starting July 28 every Saturday for 11 weeks that looks at ways we can plan for energy descent.

We need people to enrol in the course to show community support for local government action.

If we do not get enough people enrolled we will miss the chance to really do something about this crisis.

Students will learn about David Holmgren's principles and permaculture perspective and be part of Australia's first Energy Descent Action Plan.

See the Kinsale report for the model we will be following.

transitionculture.org/wp-content/uploads/KinsaleEnergyDescentActionPlan.pdf

and Rob Hopkins site for further information about the innovative things they are doing in the UK. transitionculture.org/

Please consider being part of this project and let people you know who are interested in doing something about peak oil know about it.

Without community support this will not work and things will continue 'business as usual' and we will have missed a great chance to actually plan and have some control over the future.

Contact me if you are interested in doing this course.

Thanks
Sonya

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

Climate Change, Peak Oil & Permaculture - my opinion

Sonya — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:09:42 -0700

Climate change & peak oil action

I don’t know about you, but I am deeply concerned about the converging global crises of climate change and peak oil. These two issues are inextricably linked and both relate to our overuse and dependence on cheap oil and cannot, in my opinion be separated. Any solution to climate change must also address peak oil.

We have got ourselves in a real mess and the fragility and vulnerability of our ‘lifestyles’ is under the microscope.

There are an amazing number of articles on the background and history of both these topics available on the internet, in magazines, books, dvds, television programs and news items across all media, so I won’t go into the detail of defining what these problems are or explaining how we got ourselves in this terrible position, there are enough expert documents out there already.

I think instead, it is time to look at what serious action we, as members of our local communities, can take to really do something about this.

I’ve spent my career analyzing public opinion, monitoring topical issues and communicating messages to target audiences on behalf of corporations and organisations.

Recently, I have been putting these skills to work on the issues of climate change and peak oil with support from Janet Millington, a permaculture educator and sustainable systems designer.

Our local environmental group and council held a conference and expo recently about climate change and peak oil. Excellent speakers, well attended and very inspirational. But… there was no real talk of ‘action’. No presentations of what we can really do about it.

I see media stories with state and federal politicians talking about carbon trading schemes and planting trees in Indonesia as solutions. On the local front the best that most television programs and government seem to be able to offer is getting us to change to energy efficient light bulbs, buy energy efficient white goods, recycle and if you dare, start a compost bin.

All pretty basic stuff that most of us have been doing for years.

I see a gaping hole between the simple household changes that, to their credit, most people are embracing and the geo-political airy fairy ‘schemes’ the federal and international governments are touting.

To be honest, I think the lack of action by governments is that they really have no idea what to do about this overwhelming problem.

So I did a bit more research. I’m a permaculturist and permaculture was created in Australia by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison in response to the 1970’s oil shocks in the US. It was developed in response to our unsustainable reliance on cheap energy.

Now permaculture is extremely well known as a gardening method, and perhaps to its detriment is only known as a gardening method.

But a read of David Holmgren’s book; Permaculture; Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability and Bill Mollison’s Permaculture; A Designer’s Manual’s Chapter 14, reveals a much broader, holistic and social application of permaculture.

Further research uncovered the great work being done by Rob Hopkins in the UK. Rob is a permaculturist and he came up with the rather brilliant idea of getting his students to write an Energy Descent Action Plan, based on permaculture principles, for their local council shire.

The document was so successful and so useful, the council agreed unanimously to adopt its action plan. Kinsale is now the first town in the world to be a ‘transition town’, actively and publicly making the move from a high energy use town to a low energy use town. Real solutions, practical, achievable, timely, and measurable. Other towns in the UK are now starting to come on board as ‘Transition Towns’ following the idea we have here of ‘Tidy Towns’.

Now this sounded like a real solution to me. One people could get involved in and one that local government would grab with both hands.

Together with Janet, I’d already started work on developing a new permaculture course based on David Holmgren’s text that addressed peak oil and how we can move to a low impact, low energy use future (which therefore by default also addresses climate change).

The Time for an Oil Change course is being trialed in the second half of this year and students will study Holmgren’s principles and apply them to the restructuring of our region including; infrastructure, the built environment, relocalisation of food supply, economy, education, transportation, water, waste, energy, reskilling, employment and community governance.

From this the concept for a Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre (SEAC) evolved. The Centre will open this August in Yandina and provide free weekly workshops, guest speakers, dvd screenings and other events to raise community awareness, understanding, education and empowerment about these critical problems and the solutions that are available.

Another key component of this community education program is a website, which is now underway. The www.seac.net.au site offers a communication point for the community to learn about climate change, peak oil, energy descent and permaculture.

This is all being done out of my and my husband’s own pockets and with the very kind donation of $1000 from a member of our local permaculture group which allowed us to get the website up and running. This is in contrast to the AU$9M given to the Climate Change Centre of Excellence in Qld to research the impact of global climate change on Queensland. But we believe this issue is so important that we are committed to making this happen.

We have developed some key partnerships with the Local Council, who are very supportive of these ideas and the local University, along with local business people and environmental groups.

From all of this we (myself, Janet, local permaculturists, students, the community, and council) will develop an Energy Descent Action Plan, similar to the Kinsale report, but done incrementally, that addresses the necessary changes needed for us to make the smooth transition to energy descent.

I have great hopes for these projects; the course, the centre, the energy descent plan – I hope we become a model of community action that can be replicated around the world, I hope we can motivate people into action, I hope we can relocalise our lives and community, but most of all I know I can look the next generation in the eye and say that I did as much as I could about climate change and peak oil.

Sonya Wallace
SEAC coordinator
M :: 0408 013 012
E :: info@seac.net.au

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

NEW WEBSITE - SUNSHINE COAST ENERGY ACTION CENTRE

Sonya — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:38:26 -0700

Visit www.seac.net.au to see the Sunshine Coast's latest relocalisation website.

And coming soon, the opening of the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre at Yandina.

Stay tuned.

Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah