Happy Summer Solistice everyone!
Well, imagine my surprise and delight after checking out the blog (after more than 3 weeks, yikes) and reading the two wonderful and interesting posts from John and Jan. I feel bad that I didn't realise they were there before now, which leads me to expand on the title of this post... Lesson from Life: Remember not to try to start a new project at the end of the year!!! I was happily checking most every day in November, then just got so overwhelmingly busy with the end of the year stuff (being a teacher and a parent and a member of a trillion groups all of whom had to have AGMs before the end of the year!!) that the blog got pushed way down on the list. But no matter, it feels like there is a lot of good will out there about contributing and especially reading a Transition Oz blog - so we will just amble along and see where it gets us. Maybe some of you will have more time over the holidays to jot down a few words or comments on others musings.
My main goal over the holidays is to figure out how to publicise the blog more - and rig it so that whenever there is a post a whole bunch of us get notified that it's there. I think it might be time to call in one of my younger friends.....not that I am a Luddite, I just don't have the patience to work out all the nuances of social networking. I was told that what we should do is set up a Facebook page - the exact words were "blogging is going out, everyone just uses Facebook these days". Any comments or suggestions about that?
I will also send another email out to everyone with this same message......just to remind them to sign up to the blog if they want....
Well, enough of all that for now. Looking forward to growing this project into the new year. Here's to peaceful times for all over this lovely Australian summer.
Cheers
Lisa
Thursday 20 December 2012
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Transition Towns Maroondah
Hi - Transition Towns Maroondah started about 3 years ago. Maroondah is a large municipality in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs, with a population of over 100,000. The opposite problem from Bruny Island! (A place I can just remember from early childhood. Hi Bruny Is people!)
TTM grew out of a climate action group, which was before my time. In November 2009, we held an information night in a hall provided by Council, and had about 70 people turn up, which was great. We've had more success at running awareness-raising events (film nights or speakers) than at attracting people to do stuff, and to be committed, but there is a small body of willing workers - maybe up to 30 people who are involved, at least on and off. We have a core group of 5, with the membership having changed quite a lot in the 3 years, but there are still 2 of us from the original group, which does provide continuity.
We tried having Special Interest Groups, but this did not work well, with the possible exception of the transport group. It makes sense for this group to be Maroondah-wide. (The transport group are not meeting at the moment, but there are rumours of a revival.) We are beginning to find that setting up projects in different suburbs seems to be a more successful way of working.
This year we've had a great partnership with Council, particularly through the WasteLess Household Challenge, which was a series of workshops where households learned how to drastically reduce our waste to landfill. At the end of the workshops, the group overall had reduced their waste by 80%, just be learning the finer points of recycling (so much more can be recycled than is generally known!) and how to avoid packaging, or re-use it and so on. It was a really enjoyable set of workshops, run by a combined team of council workers and TTM volunteers - a very successful venture, barring the fact that it was such a small group. Which is daunting when you think of the size of Maroondah!
The other two significant projects this year have been firstly Ground to Ground - in partnership with Transition Mooky, a neighbouring group. G2G is collecting coffee grounds from cafes to use as fertiliser or in the compost or worm farm, and to keep them out of landfill. This one has caught on and there are about 10 people collecting.
The last one is the Croydon Food Swap, which is attracting about 20 people once a month to swap home grown produce. We meet in the gazebo at a lovely primary school, and people really enjoy coming and chatting - such a great way to build community and resilience. It is also proving a good way to collect email. We have a list now of over 200 people.
We changed our name this year - by adding an S to Town. This reflects better the reality that Maroondah is made up of about 10 different suburbs. We have a Strategic Plan and an Action Plan - which took months to write, but was a worthwhile process and has helped us see better where we are heading. Making the Transition model work in a huge city is an interesting challenge, (and I do mean interesting - I find it quite fascinating) and I hope we will all be able to exchange some helpful ideas on the blog.Thanks Lisa for setting it up. Happy transitioning to all!
Jan
TTM grew out of a climate action group, which was before my time. In November 2009, we held an information night in a hall provided by Council, and had about 70 people turn up, which was great. We've had more success at running awareness-raising events (film nights or speakers) than at attracting people to do stuff, and to be committed, but there is a small body of willing workers - maybe up to 30 people who are involved, at least on and off. We have a core group of 5, with the membership having changed quite a lot in the 3 years, but there are still 2 of us from the original group, which does provide continuity.
We tried having Special Interest Groups, but this did not work well, with the possible exception of the transport group. It makes sense for this group to be Maroondah-wide. (The transport group are not meeting at the moment, but there are rumours of a revival.) We are beginning to find that setting up projects in different suburbs seems to be a more successful way of working.
This year we've had a great partnership with Council, particularly through the WasteLess Household Challenge, which was a series of workshops where households learned how to drastically reduce our waste to landfill. At the end of the workshops, the group overall had reduced their waste by 80%, just be learning the finer points of recycling (so much more can be recycled than is generally known!) and how to avoid packaging, or re-use it and so on. It was a really enjoyable set of workshops, run by a combined team of council workers and TTM volunteers - a very successful venture, barring the fact that it was such a small group. Which is daunting when you think of the size of Maroondah!
The other two significant projects this year have been firstly Ground to Ground - in partnership with Transition Mooky, a neighbouring group. G2G is collecting coffee grounds from cafes to use as fertiliser or in the compost or worm farm, and to keep them out of landfill. This one has caught on and there are about 10 people collecting.
The last one is the Croydon Food Swap, which is attracting about 20 people once a month to swap home grown produce. We meet in the gazebo at a lovely primary school, and people really enjoy coming and chatting - such a great way to build community and resilience. It is also proving a good way to collect email. We have a list now of over 200 people.
We changed our name this year - by adding an S to Town. This reflects better the reality that Maroondah is made up of about 10 different suburbs. We have a Strategic Plan and an Action Plan - which took months to write, but was a worthwhile process and has helped us see better where we are heading. Making the Transition model work in a huge city is an interesting challenge, (and I do mean interesting - I find it quite fascinating) and I hope we will all be able to exchange some helpful ideas on the blog.Thanks Lisa for setting it up. Happy transitioning to all!
Jan
Sunday 25 November 2012
A first attempt - Bruny Island Transition
Dear Transition Oz,
Believe it or not, this is my first attempt ever to post a blog, so I have no idea whether I will succeed in pressing the right buttons, so I'd better make it short in case I'm wasting your time and mine.
Bruny Island Transition
One good thing about islands is the boundaries are easy to define. Bruny Island is southeast of Hobart, accessible by car ferry, about 60 km long. Permanent population about 600 spread out in half a dozen little villages and isolated outposts. Not much of a critical mass. Population is ageing and overcommitted - there are over 60 volunteer organisations on the island. One of these is BIEN, the Bruny Island Environment Network, which a group of us formed 4 years ago to work for the conservation of the island's unique birdlife, marine life and rich biodiversity. BIEN sent me to a weekend workshop aimed at starting Transition Tasmania, which was successful, and a couple of us have pursued our interest in Transition ever since.
Last year, we showed the film 'In Transition', and afterwards I chaired a session in which I shared my impressions of Transition Town Totnes (for another blog) and we discussed whether to join the Network. We eventually did, after cogent arguments for and against, but we are only 'mullers'.
BIEN is doing quite a lot that fits within the Transition ambit - have run workshops on responding to climate change on the island, have got a program on installing solar hot water on Bruny houses up and running, do regular tree planting for habitat, involved in car pooling, food co-ops, and we have run two large Bruny Bird festivals, one of the few regional bird festivals in Australia - they were a great success, but a great deal of work.
Our questions are many. We don't have enough person power to constitute a separate Transion group within BIEN, but this is probably what we need to really kick us off. How do we recruit the next generation since we are all over 60? And so on. Enough for now, let's see if this actually posts to you....
Believe it or not, this is my first attempt ever to post a blog, so I have no idea whether I will succeed in pressing the right buttons, so I'd better make it short in case I'm wasting your time and mine.
Bruny Island Transition
One good thing about islands is the boundaries are easy to define. Bruny Island is southeast of Hobart, accessible by car ferry, about 60 km long. Permanent population about 600 spread out in half a dozen little villages and isolated outposts. Not much of a critical mass. Population is ageing and overcommitted - there are over 60 volunteer organisations on the island. One of these is BIEN, the Bruny Island Environment Network, which a group of us formed 4 years ago to work for the conservation of the island's unique birdlife, marine life and rich biodiversity. BIEN sent me to a weekend workshop aimed at starting Transition Tasmania, which was successful, and a couple of us have pursued our interest in Transition ever since.
Last year, we showed the film 'In Transition', and afterwards I chaired a session in which I shared my impressions of Transition Town Totnes (for another blog) and we discussed whether to join the Network. We eventually did, after cogent arguments for and against, but we are only 'mullers'.
BIEN is doing quite a lot that fits within the Transition ambit - have run workshops on responding to climate change on the island, have got a program on installing solar hot water on Bruny houses up and running, do regular tree planting for habitat, involved in car pooling, food co-ops, and we have run two large Bruny Bird festivals, one of the few regional bird festivals in Australia - they were a great success, but a great deal of work.
Our questions are many. We don't have enough person power to constitute a separate Transion group within BIEN, but this is probably what we need to really kick us off. How do we recruit the next generation since we are all over 60? And so on. Enough for now, let's see if this actually posts to you....
Monday 19 November 2012
hey and hello from Transition Bellingen
Transition
Bellingen…..hmmm. Where to begin? Oh, I’ll use the questions I have suggested
that everyone else use J
Who are we/what is our “country”….. Bellingen is a small town on the Mid North Coast of NSW,
just south and a bit inland from Coffs Harbour. A tiny bit of paradise really;
15 minutes from gorgeous white beaches, 10 minutes from crystal clear swimming
holes, 30 minutes from World Heritage listed rainforest. It is Gumbaynggirr
country, and is overlooked by “Nungaali –
Wednesday 14 November 2012
New Film - Passive House: A Building Revolution
Community Solutions, who produced the award winning film "The Power of
Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" has just launched a Kickstarter
Campaign to raise finishing funds for its new documentary "Passive House: a
Building Revolution". The film shows how houses can be designed and built
to use 80-90% less energy than conventional houses.
For details, go to http://tinyurl.com/bgockyp
Less than 30 days are left to find funds.
Transition Town Riddell has pledged $100 and it would be great if other
TTs could donate according to their means to help get this important film
out.
Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" has just launched a Kickstarter
Campaign to raise finishing funds for its new documentary "Passive House: a
Building Revolution". The film shows how houses can be designed and built
to use 80-90% less energy than conventional houses.
For details, go to http://tinyurl.com/bgockyp
Less than 30 days are left to find funds.
Transition Town Riddell has pledged $100 and it would be great if other
TTs could donate according to their means to help get this important film
out.
Tuesday 13 November 2012
Who are we?
I would like to suggest that our first theme be
“Who are we?”
It would be
great to share a couple of lines, or paragraphs, or pages, about ourselves
and/or our Transition groups. At the risk of sounding like a school assignment,
some questions that might get you started are:
Ø
Where
are you from? Your “country” – your environment – your surroundings, both physical
and cultural….
Ø
How
did your group get started? What ignited the flame – how others got involved –
how long have you been around….
Ø
What
are you up to now? Your passions – your projects – your goals…..
Welcome to the Transition Oz blog!
Welcome to the Transition Oz blog! Lisa from Transition Bellingen (NSW) here. First up, a little background:
What is a Transition initiative? It's a grassroots process that helps that community
become more resilient, more sustainable, more diverse, stronger, and happier.
It's
happening in over a thousand communities across the world - from towns in
Australia to neighbourhoods in Portugal, from cities in Brazil to rural
communities in Slovenia, from urban locations in Britain to islands off the
coast of Canada. These communities have started up projects in areas of food,
transport, energy, biodiversity, education, housing, waste, arts, etc. as
small-scale local responses to the global challenges of climate
change, economic hardship, biodiversity loss and shrinking supplies
of cheap energy. Together, these small-scale responses make up something much
bigger, and help show the way forward for governments, business and the rest of
us. Check out the Transition Network website www.transitionnetwork.org to learn
more (and with thanks to that website for the above description….)
And what is an Australian Transition
initiative? Well, that is what we
are about to discover….
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