Remember I was awarded a Permaculture Design Certificate scholarship by my local council? One of the other recipients was Maria, a teacher from Kiama Primary School, and she’s been heavily involved in getting this garden up and running. I’m helping to get a similar garden (although perhaps not quite on the same scale!) going at Jamberoo Primary School as the community project aspect of my PDC scholarship, so it was a great opportunity to gather ideas.

Here’s Maria (in the checked shirt) speaking at the opening ceremony:

During the ceremony, all the school kids were lined up along the swales to watch:

Costa Georgiadis (from Costa’s Garden Odyssey on SBS TV) was the celebrity guest and keynote speaker. What a great guy! He was funny, informative, and has an incredible way of relating to kids with irreverent humour and infectious enthusiasm. Here’s Costa with our mayor, Sandra McCarthy, and Vanessa John (Environmental Strategy Officer at Wollongong Council, and coordinator of the PDC scholarship programme) presenting students with some fruit trees for the garden:

I’ll write a follow-up post in the next couple of days to give you a tour of the garden.

Update: Here’s the promised follow-up: Kiama Primary School Permaculture Garden Tour.

Related posts:

1. Kiama Sustainability Expo 2011
2. Costa’s Garden Odyssey – Tonight 8:00 on SBS
3. Backyard Veggie Patch Workshop in Jamberoo

I went to an all-day workshop with Joel Salatin (of Polyface Farm, brought to fame by Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma), right here in Jamberoo. I was there with a bunch of friends from around town and from further afield, I met some interesting new people, and I finally got to meet Kirsten and Nick from Milkwood in person!

My head is spinning with all the ideas I heard today, and working out ways to scale them down to work on our acre. I’m going back over my notes, and I’ll be watching more of Joel’s videos on YouTube, and reading his books, to get even more ideas.

But most importantly, Joel’s enthusiasm just fires you up to get out there and try stuff. One of his sayings that struck a chord with me was “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly first”. There’ll be plenty of time to refine and get it right as you go. He actually used the example of a fox eating all your chickens as just a setback, something to learn from and move on from.

I was hugely impressed that both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Kiama were there today. I think that shows the level of commitment they have to supporting localised and sustainable agriculture here. I’m sure they can’t have missed all Joel’s points about government regulations and bureaucracy getting in the way of producing and selling food on a local scale!

I even got to try raw milk for the first time in my life, from a local dairy farmer. It was really good, like bought milk but better. Too bad I’ll probably never be able to have it again!

I’ll post some more of my notes over the next few days, as I get it all straight in my head.

Related posts:

1. Joel Salatin in Australia
2. Jamberoo FutureCare – My First Meeting
3. Jamberoo Community Growers Launch

Sonia, I have your email address from the blog comment, so look out for a message from me!

To select the winner, I used Random.org‘s True Random Number Generator. There were 16 comments, but one was a follow-up comment by somebody who’d already entered, so I chose a random number between 1 and 15. Sonia’s was the 4th comment.

Thanks to all who entered, and I hope everybody had a nice Tree Day!

Related posts:

1. “Choosing Eden” Winner
2. National Tree Day 2011 – Giveaway!
3. Book Giveaway – Choosing Eden

This is a great excuse to get the family outdoors, celebrate trees and all they do for us, and do some good for the environment. If you want to engage with others in your local community, you can use the online tool to find out what events are happening in your area (or even register your own event!).

For our part, my family will be planting some more fruit and nut trees in our yard.

As a bit of a promotion for National Tree Day, Planet Ark has sent me a $50 Bunnings gift card to give away. One lucky reader can use it to buy some trees!

To enter the draw, simply leave a comment below telling me what your favourite type of tree is, and why.

The giveaway is only open to people from Australia (Bunnings is an Australian store, so the prize would be useless to everyone else!), but overseas readers are welcome to comment too. You can list multiple trees and/or make multiple comments, but you’ll only get one entry into the draw per person.

I’ll select the winner at random from all eligible comments made before 8:00 pm AEST on Sunday the 31st.

What is your favourite type of tree, and why?

Related posts:

1. Schools Tree Day 2011
2. Kiama Sustainability Expo 2011
3. Planting Out Fruit Trees

The aim of the day is to get kids outdoors, planting and caring for trees and shrubs, improving the environment where they live and learn.

Back in March, Planet Ark commissioned a study to see how childhood interaction with nature has changed over time. You can access the full study, or read the 2-page media summary.

I wasn’t surprised that kids today spend less time playing outdoors now than they (we!) did a generation ago. But the actual figures really shocked me – of the parents surveyed (all had kids aged 3-12):

• 73% said they played outside more often than inside as a child. Only 13% of their children do now.
• 72% said they played outside every day as a child. Only 23% of their children do now.
• 64% said they climbed trees as a child. Only 20% of their children do now.

The main reasons parents gave for this change were crime and safety concerns, and their own lack of time.

On a personal note, I’m proud to say that my girls have recently discovered the joy of climbing trees. My 8-year-old likes to stop and say hello to her favourite climbing tree every day as she walks up the drive from the school bus .

Do those numbers surprise you? Do you actively try to get your kids to play outside?

Related posts:

1. Kiama Sustainability Expo 2011
2. Backyard Flying Fox (Zip Line)
3. Jamberoo Community Growers – A Successful Launch!

What can I say – it was an excellent event! Really well-planned and promoted in the runup, and very smoothly executed on the day. I helped out on the Jamberoo FutureCare booth until midday, then had a quick look around the Community Garden before heading home to prepare for the afternoon’s Jamberoo Community Growers meeting on backyard beekeeping.

Below are some photos I took on the day…

Green Box is a cooperative based in Gerringong, aiming to source produce for members from within a 100-mile (160 km) radius. They want to support local farmers and producers, and even source some stuff from local backyard growers who have a surplus. I’ve had a bit to do with them in various sustainability initiatives, and they’re all very committed and passionate local foodies. Interesting coincidence – Fiona from the Inner Pickle blog, who I finally met in-real-life the day before the Expo, is on their committee.

Chrissy (in the headband!) from Eco Manifesto, a Gerringong company supplying eco-friendly products for the home. It’s worth signing up for their newsletter at their web site to get notice of new products, specials, and eco-living tips.

Another Gerringong company, Fresh By Nature provides services and equipment for hydroponics, aquaculture and aquaponics. The owner John Burgess has also helped out Jamberoo Community Growers, delivering an excellent presentation on backyard aquaponics.

Evelyn from Nappiness, showing off her range of eco-friendly reusable cloth nappies, nappy covers, and baby products. She also has a great blog about choosing and using cloth nappies. Don’t you love the funky designs? These aren’t your mother’s cloth nappies!

Edwin, owner of Kiama company NetSense Computers, is a member of Kiama FutureCare and was one of the organisers of the Expo. They offer good quality computer services at very reasonable prices, as well as parts, upgrades, peripherals and new systems. They have a very interesting range of low-energy-consumption computers.

South Coast Organic Fertilisers are based at Tomerong (just past Nowra), and supply worms, worm castings, and worm liquid for your garden.

Deputy Mayor Ben van der Wijngaart was one of the presenters of a variety of talks on sustainable living issues. I wasn’t able to attend any talks, but did hear positive reports from others that attended. In case you’re wondering, Ben’s not headlining a 5-year-old’s birthday party – the talk was in the room normally used for a creche by the Leisure Centre.

Costa, of SBS’s Costa’s Garden Odyssey fame, lent a little celebrity flair to the Kiama Community Garden’s workshops and information sessions. He was extremely popular with the kids, and gave a ton of information to the adults as well.

This shot was taken from about halfway up the slope of the Kiama Community Garden, looking back down at all the Council activities taking place. I got a lot of great ideas from the garden (it was the first time I’d had a good look around it). It was good to see how they’d used the slope of the block, and I’ve now got a lot better idea about how I’m going to develop the growing areas on my sloping block.

All up, the Expo was a really good experience. I saw a lot of people there I knew (including Ally from HappyEarth), and met a few new friends as well. Everyone was really friendly and seemed to be having a good time, the weather was great, and the turnout was excellent.

Did you go? What did you think of the day?

Related posts:

1. Sustaining The Library
2. Kiama Show 2010
3. Jamberoo Community Growers Launch

The expo was organised by Jamberoo FutureCare, in conjunction with Shellharbour and Kiama Councils. There were a number of solar power and solar hot water suppliers there, displaying their products and giving people quotes. There was also a wind power company and a few other energy-related displays. FutureWorld had the table next to us, which was great as I finally got to meet Meryl who I’ve exchanged plenty of emails with in the past.

We put on talks on solar hot water, solar power, and residential wind power. The talks were so popular that the lecture room was filled to capacity several times, and we had to schedule repeats of the presentations.

We estimate that around 500 people attended on the day, which was way higher than anything we had hoped for! We had to run out and photocopy more of our information sheets a couple of times.

I met and talked with lots of interesting people, and hopefully helped explain some of the mechanics of having solar power and hot water installed, how the government rebates and incentives work, and what it’s like to live in a house with those systems. We also chatted a fair bit about sustainable living in general.

One great couple I met had just been on a four-year tour of Australia by caravan, relying on solar power and bottled gas for all their energy needs. Upon returning they realised it really doesn’t take much energy to meet their requirements, and so they’re working towards taking their house in Wollongong totally off the grid. They’ve already disconnected from the town gas main, and would like to disconnect from the electricity, water and sewerage services as well and handle it all themselves on-site. It’ll be really interesting to see how they go!

Russell Hawkins, my partner in crime for the Jamberoo FutureCare “Home Journeys” documentary, was also there to shoot some footage. It’s great to have that project under way!

A highlight of the day was the raffle – the top prize was a 1.5 kW grid-connected solar power system, fully installed! It was generously donated by GreenSmart Electrical. Other prizes included $1000 towards purchase of a solar power system from Solar Shop Australia, $500 towards purchase of a hot water system from SolaHart Wollongong, a HP mini notebook computer from Bass Electrical Engineering, a $250 energy pack from Pyramid Power, and two solar sun jars from C2C Solar. A huge thanks to all the donors.

Given the success of the day, I’m sure there will be another similar expo held again in the future. So if you missed out, keep an eye on the media for details!

For those who missed out on copies of the Jamberoo FutureCare handouts, here they are:

• JFC Solar Hot Water Consumer Guide (578 Kb PDF)
• JFC Solar Power Consumer Guide (266 Kb PDF)

Related posts:

1. Solar Power Information Nights – Jamberoo and Kiama
2. Solar Hot Water Information Night – Gerringong
3. Solar Hot Water Research

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll probably know that our sustainability journey really got going when my family joined the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge. It gave us the impetus to stop thinking and start acting on the changes we wanted to make.

The Sustainable Illawarra web site contains a lot of valuable information and resources to help people learn more about living sustainably in the Illawarra region. With that project coming to an end later this year, the web site’s future was up in the air. A proposal was put to the three Councils involved (Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama) to keep it online for a relatively small sum of money. Unfortunately, Kiama was the only council willing to pay, so the proposal didn’t go ahead.

Since the content developed belonged to the three councils, Kiama decided to take all the general information and the Kiama-specific content, and repurpose it as the Kiamasphere site. I think it’s great that all that hard work has been saved from the bit-bucket. Kiamasphere has also been enhanced with a FreeCycle-style service (named “Up4Grabs“) for residents to give away stuff they no longer want or ask for things that others might be throwing away, and more additions are in the works.

Council also took the opportunity of the event to present this year’s health and sustainability grants. Two local schools, Kiama Public School and Ss Peter and Paul Primary School, were awarded funding to develop no-dig vegetable gardens and composting systems. The Kiama Netball Club was awarded funding for training and development of coaches. The Green Box cooperative was awarded funding to develop their brand and help get the coop off the ground. This one is a particularly exciting initiative, and I’m really keen to see them succeed. They have the potential to really develop local food production.

I got my web site up on the big screen for all to see!

Kiama Mayor Sandra McCarthy presented me with a copy of the book “Beyond The Blowhole” as a thankyou gift. I’d wanted that book for a while!

Thanks to my mate Darcy Moore for the photos! You can read his write-up on the event here.

My talk at the launch was basically about how the Sustainable Illawarra project has helped my family’s efforts to live more sustainably.

It’s easy to feel helpless about all the problems going on around the world, from fisheries collapse and climate change to peak oil and rising sea levels, to name but a few. Sites like Sustainable Illawarra and Kiamasphere bring those larger issues into a local perspective, providing practical information and ideas for things we can all do, and highlighting the resources that are available in our area to help us. They reduce the feeling of hopelessness, and replace it with community response and personal action. Networking with like-minded people in the local area is a source of inspiration and motivation, and restores a sense of optimism about where we might be heading.

We’re now at a time where community groups need to step in and take over some of that community education role. For example garden clubs can hold composting workshops, CWA groups can hold preserving workshops, Slow Food groups can hold cooking workshops, climate action groups can hold electricity efficiency workshops, and so on.

Councils have the profile and contacts to help publicise community events, and hopefully can help to provide affordable venues as well. But volunteers are needed to organise them – you can imagine how much it would cost Councils to stage regular workshops if they have to put everything out to tender and pay commercial rates for everyone involved.

Councils and community groups can work together, drawing on the strengths they each bring to the table, to get things done. We can’t just sit around waiting for someone else to do everything.

If you live in the Illawarra region, I encourage you to check out Kiamasphere and register to be involved in the forums and the Up4Grabs service. Let me know what you think!

Related posts:

1. First Post!
2. Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee – First Meeting
3. Opportunities

Don Cairns, former resident of Kiama and Kangaroo Valley and now living in Nowra, gave an excellent talk about growing food through the season.

Don has been gardening for many years, and understands our climate and weather patterns very well. His tips and local knowledge were very interesting.

Some of his interesting recommendations included:

• growing tomatoes early in the season (for eating around Christmas), then planting a second round in the new year (for eating around May/June) to avoid the worst of the fruit fly during summer
• planting “green dragon” broccoli from seedlings, rather than seed, for truly impressive heads
• sow lettuces in between larger plants like broccoli – they can be harvested before the broccoli expands into the space
• treat your vegies like spoilt children – they have been bred to provide large amounts of food for their size, and need lots of pampering to do that effectively – don’t try to grow a “drought-proof” vegie garden or you’ll get poor yields
• sow sweet corn into warm ground – if you sow too early, you get poor germination and stunted growth, with lower overall yields
• stick to growing the vegies your family eats – it’s kind of obvious, but it’s a shame to leave good vegies in the ground until they spoil, and it’s a waste of time and money
• position your plot for best sun, and avoid planting near eucalyptus trees especially – they’ll suck all the moisture out of the vegie beds
• start new vegie beds in your lawn by simply cutting and lifting squares of turf (adding it to your compost pile), then digging the ground over and adding some lime and manure
• pay attention to soil moisture – peel back the mulch and see what’s happening underneath it
• if light rain is coming, it can be worthwhile to peel your mulch off the beds and onto the paths so the beds absorb the moisture, and then replace the mulch on the beds afterwards
• don’t crowd vegies together too much – you’ll stunt them and get a lower overall yield
• mulch, mulch, mulch

Related posts:

1. Jamberoo Community Growers Launch
2. Jamberoo Community Growers – Small Gardens and Chooks
3. Jamberoo Community Growers – A Successful Launch!

Ten years ago, The Greens donated about $1200 worth of books and CDs about the environment and sustainability to the Kiama Library. Last night they did it again. There are some great books in the collection – I particularly want to read the ones by Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver. Some nice DVDs were included too.

As part of the event, The Greens wanted to highlight and promote some local sustainability groups that had formed since the time of the last presentation – Jamberoo FutureCare, Kiama FutureCare, Jamberoo Community Growers and the Green Box Initiative. Representatives from each group gave brief presentations on how and why they were formed and what they were doing.

There were some brief talks by Howard Jones (on the book, A Reef In Time), Ben van der Wijngaart (on Council activities, particularly the idea of community farms), and Greens MP in the NSW Upper House Dr John Kaye.

It was wonderful to so many new books and DVDs going into the library, but it was also an excellent opportunity to network with other sustainability groups and meet some more local, like-minded people. Hopefully there will be more get-togethers like this in the future!

Related posts:

1. Kiama Show 2010
2. I’m A Living Book!
3. I’m On The Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee!

Venue: Berry Poultry Pavilion located at the Berry Showground Alexandra Street Berry NSW

Date: Sunday 18th April 2010

Time: Poultry Shed will open from 9am to view the birds. The Auction will commence at 10am sharp.

Penning fee: $2 per pen maximum 3 birds per pen and no commissions. Limited pens available and they must be booked by April 15th or until pens are fully booked. Information cards on breed, age and sex will be able to be placed on pens. Penning available from 4 – 6 pm Saturday and from 7 – 8.30 am Sunday. We reserve the right to refuse sick birds.

Payment: Cash only sales. Payment for sold birds will be made on the day. All penning fees and profits from the day will be donated to Hands Across NSW, a local charity helping drought effected families.

There will be educational displays on keeping chooks and ducks, even in residential areas, and knowledgeable volunteers will be happy to answer all your questions about the birds on auction.

Refreshments available all day and camping facilities available at the Berry Showground.

For more information or to book pens, contact Shayne on 0410 548 704 or Shayne_earley@hotmail.com and Nathan at nathan.peter@bigfootoz.com.

No related posts.

The three groups pooled our resources and had information on all the various government rebates and incentives for improving the sustainability of households. We also had handouts and giveaways from Kiama Council.

The Kiama FutureCare group organised for some local businesses to have stalls – there were low-energy-use computers, wind generators, local organic vegetables, aquaponics kits, and ceiling insulation options on display, as well as Business Treading Lightly.

Kiama’s deputy mayor, Ben van der Wijngaart, helped out on the day as well with his Vectrix electric motorbike on display. That generated a lot of interest – many people didn’t realise that such things were already in production and were practical right now.

I enjoyed checking out the produce displays in the pavilion too. Who knows, perhaps next year I might be organised enough to enter something!

Related posts:

1. Kiama FutureCare Is Launched!
2. Kiama FutureCare Update
3. Solar Power Information Nights – Jamberoo and Kiama

Talks and/or workshops will be held monthly throughout the year, with guest speakers covering topics such as rotational gardening, organic pest control, garden design, composting, backyard chicken keeping, cooking, sustainable living and more. Kids’ activities are planned to coincide with the talks, so it will be fun for the whole family.

The JCG launch event went very well, and we now have over 25 families and individuals who have joined up. Now it’s time to get the ball rolling…

Our next meeting will be held at 2:00 pm on Sunday 1st November, at the Anglican Hall in Jamberoo.

Guest speakers will be Robert Curll and Monique Dare-Ward. Robert will be talking about how to get the most produce out of our smaller spaces, whilst Monique will be pondering the wonders of keeping chooks in the backyard. There will also be organised activites for the children.

This event is free to Jamberoo Community Growers members. Non-members are invited to come along and see what we’re about before joining. Annual membership for families is $15, or $5 for individuals.

Feel free to invite your friends and neigbours.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Related posts:

1. Jamberoo Community Growers Launch
2. Jamberoo Community Growers – A Successful Launch!
3. Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Launches!

The kids had a great time too. We had planned some organised activities for the kids, but our kids leader was called away at the last minute and wasn’t able to attend. So the kids just did some colouring-in, running around, face-painting, and park-playing. They had a fun time and all got along well.

We got 17 new families signing up to be part of the JCG group (adding to the 6 or so we already had), which was a tremendous result. I’m sure more people will join as we hold our monthly events and start to get some networking happening within the community.

On a personal level, Megan and I really enjoyed the event. We’ll be moving to Jamberoo in about 6 weeks, so it was great to meet some more locals. We even met one of our new neighbours, who has a daughter the same age as Sarah! She’s met a few local kids now, so starting at the new school next year isn’t going to be such a daunting prospect.

If you missed the launch, keep an eye out for future JCG activities. We’ll generally be holding our monthly events on the 1st Sunday of the month, although we’ll skip October due to the long weekend.

Related posts:

1. Jamberoo Community Growers Launch
2. Solar Power Information Nights – Jamberoo and Kiama
3. Jamberoo FutureCare – My First Meeting

Here’s our handout:

Jamberoo Community Growers Launch
Sunday September 20, 2009
2 pm at the Jamberoo Youth Hall

Everyone welcome!
Free entry
Guest speakers
Children’s activities
Stalls
Refreshments

Do you love gardening? Does the thought of growing and eating your own food delight you?

Jamberoo Community Growers is proudly launching on Sunday the 20th September. Families and friends of all ages in the area are welcome to join this great community initiative. Relax and enjoy a host of expert guest speakers, or stroll through the stalls while the kids are introduced to the joy of gardening and the great outdoors in the children’s activities.

If you love what you see and would like to take advantage of annual membership, don’t forget to visit the membership stall to enjoy monthly guest speakers, events and classes to be held here in the beautiful Jamberoo Valley.

Family membership is just $15, and singles are $5.

Jamberoo Community Growers is an affiliate of the Garden Clubs of Australia Inc.

This will be a gardening club with a difference – rather than running rose and dahlia competitions, we’ll be primarily focussed on growing edibles in a sustainable way. Kids will be specifically catered for at the monthly events, with qualified carers leading their activities while the parents listen to a guest speaker or participate in a workshop.

Related posts:

1. Jamberoo FutureCare – My First Meeting
2. Solar Power Information Nights – Jamberoo and Kiama
3. Costa’s Garden Odyssey – Tonight 8:00 on SBS

It was a great session, with beautiful food and lots of local families to meet. I was pleased to see a nice strong Kiama contingent! It was great to see lots of young families involved too. Once again backyard vegie gardens came out on top as the most popular goal households had set.

Now we just have to get Mr Rudd onboard.

Yesterday’s Kiama Library Living Book session went really well too. I was ‘read’ by about half a dozen people, and we had some really good conversations about what we’ve done to become more sustainable and what the ‘readers’ were thinking of doing.

If I spoke to you this weekend, chances are I sent you to this web site for more detailed information about something. To make it easier to find, here are some of the most common things people asked about:

• chest fridge conversion
• converting halogen downlights to CFLs
• plug-in power meter review
• Kiama FutureCare launch
• our rooftop solar electricity panels
• solar hot water
• wicking beds and wicking boxes
• make your own tumbling compost bin
• 5 things to cook with lilli pillis
• feral peach filo pastries
• green manure crops
• growing potatoes in the front yard
• growing mushrooms under the house
• aquaponics in Gerringong
• chicken ark plans
• where to buy chickens in the Illawarra
• Sydney Water “love your garden” service
• the “Kev’s Patch” campaign
• Australian rebate information
• Illawarra green directory
• backyard escargot

Whew! I’m sure there’s something in there for everybody.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments!

Related posts:

1. Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Launches!
2. Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge 2009 Call For Participants
3. Interview And Photos

This is an exciting new project which provides the opportunity for you to meet someone with an unusual occupation or lifestyle, or from a different social, religious or ethnic background, in the congenial atmosphere of the library building.

Readers sign up for a half-hour session with a living book (no need to pre-register, just come along on the day). They then sit down with that person and ask questions, chat, and learn more about their story and what they have to share.

Books that will be available on the day include:

• A Lifetime of Lantana
• Bale Tales (straw bale building)
• Envirovolunteering!
• Environmentalist/Vegetable Grower
• Green Girl
• One Family’s Green Change (that’s me!)
• Slow Down (Slow Food Movement)
• Streamwater (Streamwatch volunteer)
• Sustainable Dairy Farming in Kiama Region
• Valuing Land (all about Voluntary Conservation Agreements)
• WIRES (Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service)
• Your Planet Needs You (a travelling dancer’s omnibus)

The idea of a Living Library came from a concept developed by the Danish youth Non Government Organisation “Stop the Violence” in 2000 to counter racism and discrimination in their community. The original inspiration was: “Meet your own prejudice” literally. Their Living Library operated at large music festivals and invited people who were suffering discrimination and prejudice to be ‘living books’ and sit down with a ‘reader’ who could ask questions about all aspects of their life.

While we’re on the topic of self-promotion, I’m also going to be speaking at the launch of the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Round 2 on Sunday.

Related posts:

1. My First Podcast Interview
2. Lyn Bagnall Organic Gardening Book Competition

Kiama FutureCare is a grass-roots group of motivated community members interesting in promoting the concept of sustainability in the Kiama area. We are modelling the group off the highly successful Jamberoo FutureCare in a neighbouring town, and while we will be a separate group we are planning to pool resources and collaborate with them as well as other local organisations.

Last night’s meeting was focussed on planning for our upcoming launch event. The group will be officially launched by Kiama Mayor Sandra McCarthy on 5 June 2009 – World Environment Day. We are in the process of finalising a venue, and I’ll post details as soon as I can.

For the launch event, we’re planning to have a couple of brief talks by various people to discuss what sustainability means for Kiama and what the Kiama FutureCare group is trying to achieve. Then we’ll have a fairly short (under 1 hour) workshop activity, gathering information from attendees as to what they see as the main local sustainability issues and how they might be addressed.

While we’re hoping to attract members to the Kiama FutureCare group, we want anyone with any interest at all to attend so we can get a wide range of viewpoints. We’ll be using the output of the workshop activity to guide future projects and events. We’ll also be providing people the opportunity to sign up for our email distribution list where we’ll announce future events and provide local sustainability information.

We’re inviting local businesses to set up display tables around the room to show off their environmentally-friendly products and services for a small donation ($20). This will defray the costs of organising the event, and should give us a small amount of money left over to get the group up and running and to bootstrap our first project. It should be a good opportunity for the businesses, too, with an expected audience of 50-100 motivated and environmentally-conscious locals.

I’m finding it really interesting to be involved with such a diverse group of local people with a shared concern for the future of our community, all working together to get something happening to address it.

If you’re doing something similar in your community, please let me know about it in the comments below. Any tips and advice are greatly welcomed! I’ve been following Gavin for a while, who is in the process of setting up a similar group where he lives in outer Western Melbourne.

Related posts:

1. Jamberoo FutureCare – My First Meeting
2. I’m On The Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee!
3. Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee – First Meeting

You may be able to take advantage of the $8000 means-tested Government rebate which ends 30th June 2009, or the new non-means-tested solar credit scheme starting from 1st July 2009!

Jamberoo FutureCare will be hosting two information sessions, in association with Solar Shop Australia. The presentation will explain the technology, existing government rebates and the new solar credit scheme.

Full information is contained in the Jamberoo FutureCare Solar Power Information Sessions Flyer.

JFC is organising a discounted group purchase through Solar Shop Australia, and you can register your interest on the night. This will not be a hard-sell session, though – you’re welcome to attend even if you intend to purchase through someone else, or don’t intend to purchase at all but just want to learn more about how it all works.

Everyone is welcome, and these events are completely free of charge.

Jamberoo Solar Power Information Session

• Tuesday 31 March 2009
• Jamberoo Bowling Club
• 6:30 pm (bistro meals available)

Kiama Solar Power Information Session

• Wednesday 1 April 2009
• Kiama Community Centre, Hindmarsh Park
• 6:30 pm

The presentation by Solar Shop Australia will commence at 7:00 pm for both venues.

Related posts:

1. Solar Hot Water Information Night – Gerringong
2. Jamberoo FutureCare – My First Meeting
3. Solar Power On It’s Way!

I’m not sure yet what we’ll do. Maybe we’ll turn our lights off a bit earlier so the kids can join in, and play board games by the light of a candle.

On the topic of candles, Gerringong sustainable home products seller Eco Manifesto has specials on Queen B 100% beeswax candles this month, to help you celebrate Earth Hour 2009 with style and perhaps a little romance. Beeswax is a natural wax, much better for the environment and healthier for you than the normal petrochemical-based candles.

If you’re looking for ways your business or school can get involved in Earth Hour, check out these info packs. There are also packs there for individuals, councils, churches, sporting groups, and just about every type of organisation.

If you’re a blogger, there are buttons, banners, widgets and more in the blogger downloads section.

Don’t forget to sign up to register your participation. Sign-ups are an important way to judge the level of support this event is getting within the community, and gives them some weight when lobbying governments for change.

So what are your plans? Share your great ideas in the comments below! I’d be especially keen to hear of any events planned in the Illawarra region.

Related posts:

1. I’m On The Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee!

There were about 10 people at the meeting. Being my first, I didn’t know what to expect, but the other people were all very friendly and welcoming. They’d all brought snacks and drinks to share, and it was a very laid-back and social event.

One guy brought packaged tamarinds for us to try – they were really nice, sweet like dates but with a citrussy tang. He also had some pigeon peas for people to take home. I had really wanted some of those, but forget to take any home! I’m planning to grow some around the chook pen to prepare the soil for when we put in fruit trees.

The meeting was held at the Dapto Community Farm (map). I’d never been there before (I didn’t even know it existed until a couple of weeks ago!), and it was amazing. You can rent beds around 50′x4′ in size for around $20/month. I wish we had something like that closer to Kiama!

We had a walk around the garden beds and met a few of the gardeners. One man had a few chickens in a chicken tractor that was the width of his garden beds. He could move the tractor up and down the bed, depending where he wanted soil turned over and manured. Very cool!

Here are a bunch of photos from the day:

The next Seedsavers meeting will likely be in February. I’ll post details when I have them.

Related posts:

1. SeedSavers Meeting This Afternoon
2. Upcoming Illawarra Seedsavers Meeting
3. Keeping Cows In The City?

I’ll be there!

Related posts:

1. Upcoming Illawarra Seedsavers Meeting

• Date: Saturday 22 November 2008
• Time: 9:30am – 12:30pm
• Venue: Girl Guide Cottage, Hindmarsh Park, Kiama (map)

Learn which parts of your house consume the most energy and the action you can take to save money and reduce your carbon footprint. Find out if you are eligible to participate in an upcoming energy monitoring pilot program – where you could receive a home energy monitoring device valued at $160.

To register call Byron at Kiama Council on 4232 0465.

Related posts:

1. Kiama Council Composting Workshop

• Date: Saturday 22 November 2008
• Time: 10:00am – 3:00pm

Learn how you can keep happy, healthy chooks in your backyard. The workshop is run by Jill Cockram, a chook and organic gardening expert. To register please call the Sustainable Illawarra Hotline on 4227 7453.

NOTE: Sadly this workshop is now full, but there will be more run next year. Keep an eye on this site and/or the Sustainable Illawarra site for details. It’s great to see so much interest in chicken-keeping out there!

Related posts:

1. Opportunities
2. First Post!
3. Glengarry Cottage Gala Day

Even if there isn’t, I’d like to get a good idea about how much a solar system will cost to install and run. Maybe it’s economical to get one even without considering our existing system.

Anyway, details for the information night:

• Venue: Gerringong Town Hall (click to view map)
• Date: Friday 21 November 2008
• Time: 5:30pm – 8:00pm

There will be displays from suppliers, experts will be on hand to dispense technical advice, and some suppliers will be providing special offers to attendees.

Suppliers attending include:

• FX Larkin
• Quantum Apollo Heat Pump
• Endless Solar
• Ecosmart
• Illawarra Hot Water
• Earth Utility
• Rinnai
• Solarhart

There will also be finger food served from 6:00pm – 7:00pm, followed by an information session from 7:00pm – 7:30pm presented by Jamberoo FutureCare.

If you’re going to attend, phone Pip on 4232 0419 so they can organise catering. Pip can also provide you with more information if you need it.

Follow-up: The information night was a big success – you can read my write-up here.

Related posts:

1. Baseline Water and Electricity Usage
2. Reducing Electricity Consumption
3. Sydney Water “Love Your Garden” Review