The Nature Conservation Council of NSW is launching their successful Climate Challenge programme in the Illawarra region.

This free programme will give you access to free workshops, you’ll get to meet like-minded people, and you’ll have the chance to win some prizes.

How does it work?

You will receive a passbook, which guides you through all sorts of actions you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. Depending upon the actions you complete, you’ll earn stars (stickers you can put in your passbook). If you earn 35 stars by the final event of the programme, you’ll be named a Climate Champion and will enter the major prize draw.

Interested? You can register online (I just did!), or meet the organisers and register in person at the Wollongong Produce and Creative Traders markets in the Crown Street Mall on Friday 30 March 2012.

This sounds like a great way to get started if you’d like to live more sustainably, but don’t know where to start.

The Climate Challenge has previously been run in 6 different NSW Councils, and one in Victoria.

Go on, pop over and register! You’ve got nothing to lose!

Related posts:

1. Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Launches!
2. Kiamasphere Web Site Launch
3. CSIRO State Of The Climate Report

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzqci6hEteI

Grace entered the prestigious LandLearn NSW public speaking competition at the end of last year and she has been selected as a finalist to compete at the Dubbo Beef Spectacular on March 15.

You can read more about the competition at the NSW Rural Women’s Network site.

What an excellent ambassador for our school and our town!

No related posts.

The FreeCycle Network is made up of almost 5,000 regional groups, with a total of nearly 9 million members. Happily our region is represented, with FreeCycle Illawarra.

The way it works is you first join up to your regional group, and then you’ll start receiving emails. Some will be people wanting things, some will be people offering things. You can only offer things for free (no money can change hands!), and all items must be legal and appropriate for all ages.

A few other local bloggers are active on FreeCycle, including NellyMary and Rich & Ally.

So, here are some of the cool things I’ve been able to pick up…

Lots of firewood. A guy at Gerringong had some trees fall down on his property, so I went down and cut them up with my chainsaw and brought back many trailer loads. I’m still splitting it, but we won’t go cold for a few winters!

A dog kennel.

A stainless steel BBQ plate. It’s very heavy and quite thick, so it’ll go great on a traditional stone-sided wood-fired barbie.

While collecting the above BBQ plate, I noticed the guy had a pile of scrap metal in his front yard waiting for the recycler. He said I could take whatever I wanted. These galvanised flues, and the capped flue below, will be great for building a wood-fired pizza oven like Gavin’s cob oven!

I’ve also given away some stuff on FreeCycle – a microwave and a few other small things.

So how about you – have you used FreeCycle? What did you give away or get?

Related posts:

1. Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Launches!
2. Chicken Sellers In The Illawarra
3. Upcoming Illawarra Seedsavers Meeting

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

We ran the same fundraiser last year, and got excellent feedback about the quality and value of the bulbs. I bought some myself, and they were great! I’ll definitely be buying again this year.

The bulbs come in packs ranging from $5 up to $25, and every order comes with a colour growing guide to make sure you get the best from your bulbs. There’s no delivery charge, since they are delivered in bulk to the club and then we distribute them.

I’ve scanned the catalogue if you’d like to have a browse. A warning to those with bandwidth limits – it’s about 3.1 MB. Here’s the JCG Bulb Order Fundraiser Catalogue.

If you’d like to order something (you don’t need to be a JCG member), please email me your order and we can organise payment. I can arrange to drop orders off anywhere between Jamberoo and Wollongong, or you can come to Jamberoo and pick them up. Orders need to be in by 3rd April 2011, and the bulbs will be delivered well before spring.

Feel free to ask any questions, either in the comments below or by emailing me.

Related posts:

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

I need a tiny bit of help from people in the Kiama and Shoalhaven LGAs. It will take less than a minute.

Some people I’ve met through various sustainability groups and events are setting up a regional food cooperative, named Green Box Regional Food Co-operative Ltd. This is an awesome project, and something our region really needs. Their basic aim is to provide local, sustainable, organic, and minimally packaged food at affordable prices.

Green Box has applied for a grant to assist in the setup of the premises they need for distribution of their products. To secure the grant, they need to demonstrate that they have support within the community.

All you need to do is print out this letter, fill it in, and mail it back to Matt Brown (no stamp required).

Or even easier, you can simply email Matt Brown at kiama@parliament.nsw.gov.au, stating “I wish to register my support for the Green Box Regional Food Co-op project to be funded through the Community Building Partnerships Program.” Make sure you also include your name, address, and phone number in the email so they know it’s genuine.

All replies need to be in by the 1st of November, so please don’t delay!

Thanks so much for helping this worthwhile initiative.

Related posts:

1. Kiama Council Focus Group Workshop – Food
2. Sustaining The Library
3. Playing With Their Food

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

One of the community groups I belong to, Jamberoo FutureCare, recently teamed up with local documentary filmmaker Russell Hawkins to apply for a cultural grant from Kiama Council. Our proposal was to make a documentary about local people trying to live more sustainably.

Lucky for us, Council liked the idea and awarded us funding to produce it.

There’s an article in today’s Kiama Independent (we snagged the front page!) with a little more info.

Over the next few days I’ll post some more information about what we’re trying to do, and how and why. Hopefully sharing details from successful grant applications will help other people to realise similar projects in the future!

Related posts:

1. Kiama Show 2010
2. Kiama FutureCare Update
3. Sustaining The Library

You simply bait the male fruit fly trap and install it in your garden, then wait for them to show up. Once you start to see males being captured, you know the fruit fly are active. You then start weekly spraying of the attractant/insecticide product. This lures the females in and poisons them. It’s all organic, and there is no “withholding period” before you can eat sprayed fruit. It won’t hurt the beneficial insects or animals, either.

In other news, one of our Brahma chickens has been sitting on a small clutch of eggs (about 6 or 7) for three weeks now. When we went to feed the chickens this morning, we discovered a freshly-hatched little chick under her. Very cute! Another one was just starting to break through its shell tonight, and hopefully a few more will hatch over the next day or so.

This is great news for our plans to raise more chickens for meat. The Brahmas are very large chickens, especially when they puff out their feathers on the nest. I reckon we could fit 2 dozen eggs under one! They seem to have an excellent mothering instinct, too. I’ll be watching her carefully to see how well she looks after the chicks over the next few weeks.

A second Brahma has just gone clucky this weekend, so we’re saving up eggs to put under her as well.

Once both of these girls have had the experience of raising a small batch of chicks, we’ll ramp them up to a dozen or so next time. If that goes well, we’ll try even more the following time until we determine the optimum number they can look after.

I’m hoping the hens will be able to raise the chicks happily in the main chicken run, and that the other chooks won’t interfere with the babies. If there are any problems we’ll have to move them into a chicken tractor, but I’d rather avoid that so they can free range and learn to forage properly.

If our plan works out, it’ll be a lot easier than mucking around with incubators, brooder boxes and heat lamps!

Related posts:

1. Hatching Chicks
2. My First Seedsavers Meeting
3. Lyn Bagnall Organic Gardening Book Competition

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!

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!

A little over 60 people attended as the Mayor of Kiama, Sandra McCarthy, spoke about climate change, about what the Council has done and continues to do, and about the role that grass-roots community groups like Jamberoo FutureCare and Kiama FutureCare can play in the challenges ahead. Also in attendance from Council were our Deputy Mayor, Ben van der Wijngaart (who arrived on his new electric motorbike!), and Councillor Monique Dare-Ward.

It was great talking to the 11 eco businesses that had display tables on the night – I especially enjoyed meeting Chrissy and Simon from Eco Manifesto, who I’ve chatted with several times via email but never met in person.

The workshop session ran smoothly, and I think we’ll have a ton of project ideas to consider for the next year (at least!). The Sebel Harbourside was a fantastic location, and they must be thanked for providing us the room free of charge. It’s really gratifying that businesses like that are willing to help out small community groups.

A brief write-up has already been posted on the Topix web site.

Related posts:

1. Kiama FutureCare Update
2. Kiama FutureCare Launch
3. Kiama FutureCare Launch Friday Night!

If you’re interested in being part of the group, we’d love to meet you and get your details.

We know that not everyone has the time to commit to joining every group they’re interested in. That’s OK. But if you can spare the time to come along to this free launch event, we’d love to hear your ideas for projects we might be able to undertake in the local area.

The event will be held in the Sebel Harbourside, Kiama (the old Infants’ School down near Black Beach). Head out the back to the older section, behind the restaurant building.

See you there!

Related posts:

1. Kiama FutureCare Launch
2. Kiama FutureCare Update
3. Jamberoo FutureCare – My First Meeting

We’ve also lined up some local suppliers of environmentally-friendly products and services to provide displays on the night, and rumour has it that a local personality may be bringing his new electric motorbike (a real road bike, not a little scooter!) along for a demo.

I’ve set up a shiny new web site, too: KiamaFutureCare.org

You can read the press release giving more details of the launch event over there.

Related posts:

1. Kiama FutureCare Update
2. Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee – First Meeting
3. Jamberoo FutureCare – My First Meeting

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

The members are all very switched-on people, with a wide variety of knowledge and experience in different aspects of sustainability. It was reallly encouraging and motivating for me to meet people like that so close to home.

We discussed the success of the solar hot water information evening held late last year in Gerringong. The suppliers were extremely happy, signing up dozens of households for quotes, and feedback from the public was very positive. Other groups are now interested in holding similar nights in Wollongong and Shellharbour areas this year, which would be fantastic. That information evening was a big factor in my family choosing to install solar hot water.

A similar style of information evening is now being planned around rooftop grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) solar power systems. Jamberoo FutureCare will be coordinating a bulk purchase scheme through a selected supplier – purchasers will benefit from a group discount of around 10-15% (depending upon final numbers involved), and the supplier will benefit by being able to purchase the components in bulk and have tradespeople spend time in the one area carrying out all the installations. Final cost is expected to be around $3000-$3500 for a standard 1 kW grid-connected solar power system, although participants will be able to tailor the system to their own needs (e.g. higher capacity inverter, more or less panels, different types of panels, etc).

If you’d like to find out more and live anywhere in the Illawarra, download the rooftop PV solar power system expression of interest flyer and contact Jamberoo FutureCare to register your interest. Don’t worry about the dates in the flyer -we are still collecting names! There is no commitment and nothing to pay at this stage, we just want to gauge the level of interest and get some idea of numbers so we can negotiate a good deal. There will probably be two separate bulk purchases made, one before solar rebates change on June 30 (best for those with a household income under $100,000) and one after that date (best for those with a household income over $100,000).

More information on the solar power information evening will be coming soon, and there will be opportunity to join the bulk purchase scheme at that time.

We also discussed topics like planting fruit and nut trees on nature strips, encouraging home vegetable gardening, community gardens, film nights, swapping excess produce, sustainable house tours, and submitting articles to local newspapers for publication.

What I really liked about the Jamberoo FutureCare group is the emphasis on action rather than philosophical debate. Everyone involved in these types of organisations already understands the issues, what is needed is action within the community. The JFC group is getting things done, making changes for the better, and actively encouraging the wider community to think more about sustainability.

If you have a similar community group in your area, I would really encourage you to go along to a meeting. It’s wonderful talking to a group of people who understand where you’re coming from, and who will motivate you to keep going.

Related posts:

1. Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee – First Meeting
2. Solar Hot Water Research
3. Solar Hot Water Information Night – Gerringong

This first meeting was basically for all the committee members to meet each other, to review our Terms Of Reference, to get a brief overview of current sustainability projects in our municipality, and to figure out what we’ll be doing going forward.

There are 9 committee members – three Councillors (Ben van der Wijngaart, Monique Dare-Ward and Neil Reilly), two Council employees, and 4 community representatives (one each from Gerringong-Gerroa-Werri Beach, Kiama-Kiama Heights (me!), Kiama Downs-Minnamurra-Bombo, and Jamberoo).

I was really impressed at the variety of experience amongst the other members of the committee. Most of them have been employed in the areas of environment and sustainability for many years, with post-graduate qualifications and all sorts of project experience. I’ve been reading about sustainability for years and understand most of the issues, but to date I haven’t got much actual experience. Like Steve Pavlina says, one of the best things you can do is to join a group where you just barely qualify for membership. They’ll pull you up to a whole new level.

That said, the purpose of the committee isn’t really to come up with project ideas nor to execute them. Our role will be to:

• provide access to individuals and groups to have input into and participate in the delivery of the Sustainable Kiama Communities (SKC), Sustainable Illawarra (SI), Food and Biodiversity (F&B) projects and other Council approved sustainability initiatives
• provide advice on specific issues and problems related to the projects
• assist in the strategic direction of the projects
• review surveys, resources and information being incorporated into the projects
• provide advice and support to the project staff on project implementation
• review reports related to the projects
• ensure effective community input, collaboration and networking in relation to the projects
• to raise the profile of the SKC, SI and F&B projects in the wider Kiama community

OK, so some of the advising bits might be left more to the experts on the committee, but I think I have something to contribute in many of the other areas. I’ve got an engineering and technology background, and certainly the “raising the profile” bit is something I’ve been trying to do with this web site!

I think we have a really good mix of people with a wide range of skills, and we all share a similar motivation and interest in building a resilient, supportive and sustainable local community.

I’m looking forward to learning more about the projects currently underway and planned for the future. It’s nice to be able to share good news from a local council – especially in this region!

Related posts:

1. I’m On The Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee!
2. First Post!
3. Swap Lightbulbs For CFLs For Free

WARNING: Earth Utility appears to be in trouble (updated 28-04-2010)

I just rang them, and the story is that they need to receive your application forms (downloadable from their web site) no later than Monday the 15th. So if you’re interested, you’ll need to fill them out tonight and Express-Post them tomorrow morning (Friday) to ensure they get there on Monday.

They lodge the application for the government rebates on your behalf, and if you get rejected for some reason they will happily refund your deposit and cancel the order. They won’t start work until your rebate application is processed, just to be sure.

Rebate applications are backlogged at the moment. The government department issuing approvals (the Australian Greenhouse Office) is experiencing around 8-12 week turnarounds on approvals. Earth Utility will then install within a month or so after that, so you’re looking at having your installation completed in around 4 months from now.

I’m filling out my forms now.

Related posts:

1. Solar Hot Water Information Night – Gerringong
2. Guerrilla Solar
3. Solar Hot Water Research

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?

• Illawarra Mercury Classifieds (look under pets, horses and livestock, and for sale categories)
• Other local newspaper classifieds (Kiama Independent, Lake Times, etc)
• The Trading Post
• The Land
• Check notice boards or ask staff at pet shops and animal supply stores (e.g. PetStock Albion Park Rail, Poplar Pet Food and Produce, Jamberoo Country Store, etc) – use the Yellow Pages to find local shops.
• Check notice boards at shopping centers
• Dapto Poultry Club – watch their web site for upcoming sale days.
• Backyard Poultry – Classifieds – search for “Illawarra”, “Wollongong”, “Dapto”, etc or for particular breed names. I’ve dealt with a seller named “Gez” from Dapto on there, and he was great.
• Backyard Poultry – NSW Breeders List
• Wollongong Bantams
• Brian Larkins Poultry, 20 Nattai St, Tahmoor (ph 4681 9722). Brian also visits Illawarra businesses regularly – for example he takes orders in advance and delivers to Jamberoo Country Store once every three months or so.
• Debbie and Jeff from Kembla Grange (ph 4272 1071) – silkies only.
• FarmStock – this is Australia-wide, so you’ll need to search a bit to find something nearby.
• Ask around! If you know someone with chooks, ask where they got them. Or just ask your friends and workmates if they know anyone with chooks, then see if they can find out where they got them.

When searching via Google or within the classifieds sites, search for terms like “pullets”, “hens”, and the particular breed you’re after (if you know) such as “australorp”, “silky”, “leghorn”, etc. Also try geographical terms like “Illawarra”, “Shoalhaven”, “Wollongong”, etc to narrow down the search.

Related posts:

1. Our New Chicken – A Cuckoo Leghorn
2. Chicken Quest
3. Upcoming Illawarra Seedsavers Meeting

I’ll be there!

Related posts:

1. Upcoming Illawarra Seedsavers Meeting

The presentation by Jamberoo FutureCare was excellent. They don’t have any particular axe to grind – they just want to present the facts and help people choose a hot water system that suits them. This made the presentation way more valuable and trustworthy than if the talk had been by any other group (e.g. a supplier, the Council, an electricity or gas company, etc).

The night was also a great opportunity to meet like-minded local people. I met Sarah and Roger from Jamberoo FutureCare, and also met up with a few other friends from around town who I hadn’t seen for a while.

Several of the suppliers I talked to expressed an interest in holding a similar night in Wollongong, so hopefully that goes ahead.

I was hoping to find some kind of retrofit for our off-peak electric hot water system. What I had in mind was a small solar panel that would pre-heat the incoming water for our system. It wouldn’t require a pump or anything complicated, just using mains pressure to get the water to the roof. Heating the water before it enters the system should save all the energy needed to raise cold water to 60 or 70 degrees. From what I can tell, something like this should cost under $1000. Sadly, it appears there is nothing like this available on the market. Perhaps there’s an opportunity there for an entrepreneur?!

So, my options are to retrofit solar to my existing tank, or to buy a complete replacement system.

Retrofitting involves installing the solar panels or evacuated tubes, and then installing a pump near the existing tank to circulate water to the roof and back to keep it hot. So the only saving over a full split system is the cost of the tank. Unfortunately, some of the government rebates are not available if you don’t buy a tank, so doing this actually ends up costing more than a complete replacement! One estimate I got was for about $2500-$3000, when a full system would cost about $2000 from the same supplier.

At the end of the day, it looks like we won’t do anything about our hot water system for now. It seems a waste to completely replace it when there’s nothing physically wrong with the existing system. Although it uses a lot of electricity, it’s off-peak so the running cost is pretty low (perhaps $200/year). I think it’ll be better to wait until it fails to replace it – and now we’ve done the research, we have a pretty good idea about what type of solar system we’d get.

The suppliers that were present claimed that a hot water system like ours has an expected lifespan of 7-10 years. That seems very pessimistic to me. Ours is 10 years old and still in perfect condition – and the system it replaced was 25 years old! I figure we’ve got at least 5 or 10 years’ service left before it dies.

For now, that $2000 could be better used on something else.

Related posts:

1. Solar Hot Water Information Night – Gerringong
2. Baseline Water and Electricity Usage