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Posts by Transition Gawler

Sep 9

Towards Sustainable Planning in South Australia

Towards a Sustainable Planning System

A one-day seminar to facilitate community input into the current review of South Australia’s planning system.

South Australia’s planning system is undergoing a comprehensive review and the community is invited to have a say. Our speakers will critically analyse key aspects of the system including how decisions are made, who makes decisions and community engagement. Participants will also have the opportunity to explore ideas for reform in facilitated small group discussions.


Speakers include Rob Fowler, Adjunct Professor, UniSA, Mark Parnell, SA Greens MLC, Paul Leadbeter, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide, Matthew Loader, Planning Improvement Project, Kathryn Walker, Partner, Lynch Meyer, Wil Van Deur, Lecturer, UniSA School of Natural and Built Environs and Melissa Ballantyne, Solicitor, Environmental Defenders Office.

 

Thursday 26th September 8.30am – 5.00pm

Flinders University City Campus – Room 1, Level 1, 182 Victoria Square, Adelaide

Registrations now open – $50 full price, $25 concession + 30c booking fee 

This seminar is supported by a grant from the Law Foundation SA. A full program will be in future e-Bulletins, on our website and Facebook page. If you can’t attend but would like to contribute ideas for reform please feel free to call our office on 8410 3833 (Freecall from country areas 1800 337 566) or email us your thoughts at edosa@edo.org.au This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sep 5

Sustainable House Day – Sunday 8th September 2013

If you are interested in finding out more about how to make your house more sustainable, take this oportunity to  look inside houses that have been designed, built or fitted out with sustainability in mind, and talk to owners, receiving unbiased advice.

Sustainable homes are opened for free, providing a fantastic opportunity for people seeking to make their homes or rental properties greener.

To find a participating house near you check out the list of open houses in South Australia here.

What is Sustainable House day all about? Here’s what the organisers have to say on their About us page:

Sustainable House Day started in 2001 as an initiative of the Australian Solar Council.

Over 200 homes opened their doors to over 40,000 people on Sunday 9 September 2012 as millions of Australians continue to embrace renewable energy, recycling and other practices designed to lessen our impact on the environment.

Homes opened for free, providing a fantastic opportunity for people seeking to make their own homes or rental properties greener.

Sustainable House Day gives people the chance to get a real-life look inside houses that have been designed, built or fitted out with sustainability in mind, as well as the opportunity to talk to owners, receiving unbiased advice.

As event organisers we’re seeing greater investment in harvesting water and solar energy as communities realise our resources are finite and likely to become more expensive. By becoming energy efficient today, you’ll be on the front foot to save on energy bills and help the environment now and into the future.

Each year the average Australian household contributes 13 tonnes of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere—enough to fill more than 700 balloons every day, while each household also draws an average of 73,000 buckets of water a year – enough for around 12 baths a day.  Do your bit to reduce this by getting involved with Sustainable House Day.

Once again local community groups across Australia will assist in the management of their area’s open houses and ancillary events.

Without the generous support of our national sponsors, EnviroShop, Yingli Solar and Apricus, Sustainable House Day would not be possible. Their invovlement enables the event to reach all states in Australia.

This year Sustainable House Day is managed by Adelaide based eveSolutions. eveSolutions  is owned and managed by Pia Vogrin, a Sustainable House owner and volunteer at previous Sustainable House Days.  As someone who is passionate about Sustainable Living, Pia is more than happy to answer any questions you might have – even before the day.  Pia’s contact details are below.

The aim of Sustainable House Day is to provide an enjoyable, informative day that contributes to local community awareness of sustainable living.

If you are interested in getting involved in Sustainable House Day 2013 we would love to hear from you.

Pia Vogrin  pia@evesolutions.com.au This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  0419 853 614

Jun 30

Great turnout for the first Gawler Garden and Produce Share

Saturday morning was such an uplifting and socialable gathering for the first Gawler Garden and Produce Share. I spent the moring roaming the garden for excess produce that was ready for picking, in the hope that I would swap it for something else that I’m not currently growing.

After bundling my produce together the kids and I jumped on our bikes and headed down to Apex Park on Julian Terrace and met up with other backyard growers for a lovely chat and food swap.

Well done to Heather Brown, Vanessa Henly and Jill Young for getting this great initiative up and running.

I managed to swap my rocket, parsley, oranges and chillie sauce for some duck eggs, quince jelly, spinach and kale and a jar of honey. Score!!

I’m really looking forward to next share in a months time (the last Saturday of every month in winter). If anyone has rhubarb I’ll be looking for some. In fact Vanessa and Heather have started using the Transition Gawler facebook chat page as a place to list what you have to share or what you might be looking for. It was all so easy, friendly and no maney changing hands.

For details on when the next one is happening check HERE!

Jun 25

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Gawler Garden and Produce Share

Food swapIt’s  time to start sharing what excess produce you have. Spread the word about the Gawer Garden and Produce Share.

For details on when the next one is happening check HERE!

Jun 4

Be part of a new Gawler recycling trial!

The Northern Adelaide Waste Management Authority (NAWMA) and VISY Industries are working to devise a program which will remove soft plastics from the waste stream. The program will look at how soft plastics can be placed in the yellow lid recycling bin in a separate, clearly marked plastic bag. This special bag will allow sorters at the recycling facility to remove the bags and their contents for recycling. The strength of the bags needs to be tested to ensure breakages will not occur before and during travel to the facility.

This trial will also allow VISY and NAWMA staff to fine-tune the system and start to measure how much soft plastic could be diverted from landfill.

Some dates are yet to be confirmed, however, the trial will involve you collecting your soft plastics starting now, put them in special bags that will be available around late June, for the 1 day trial mid-July.

Want to get involved?

If you live in the Gawler region and want to get involved in this initial trial please contact Paul Koch -Town of Gawler Councillor, by a text on 0431 866 586 or e-mail written@tpg.com.au or Emily Griffiths, NRC Coordinator at emily.griffiths@sa.gov.au

May 19

In Transition 2.0 film night

Thank you to everyone who came along to see ‘In Transition 2.0’. The night was a combination of film and presentations about how Transition Galwer had progressed over the last couple of months since our first film night.

Those present were asked to nominate the projects Transition Gawler were planning for the year that they would like to get involved in. Thanks to all those who niminated themselves and we will be in touch soon to get things moving.

For those who could not be present we will send out the form to nominate your interest to also help with the projects in 2013, and we will put our presentation up as well.

Look out for the monthly newsletter and other notices of event coming up soon.

Presentation by KW

Apr 13

Steering Committee Strategic Planning

Transition Gawler’s last Committee Meeting was focused on strategic planning for the activities that need to occur over the next 12 months.

We were glad to welcome some guests to the meeting and tap into their ideas and enthusiasm for transition to help with the planning process. Thank you to Suzie, Susan, Mark and Rory. Your input was very valuable. We also thank Chris Thornton from Uni SA who has proposed incorporating Transition Gawler into his PhD research about what gets people involved in ‘transition’ movements. This is an exciting research project that you will be able to find out more about over the coming months as we post further information about it.

The night was focused around three main topics ‘Raising Awareness’, ‘Projects’ and ‘Organising a great Unleashing event’. (This will see us become an offical ‘Transition Initiative’).

In progressing with ‘Raising Awareness’ we planned how to continue to get the Climate Change and Peak oil discussion out into the Gawler community. We looked at the long list of suggested projects from the first film night and found three projects under each of the themes (food, transport, energy etc…) and started to plan a timetable of events. We also spent time dreaming up what a great Unleashing event might look like and when to hold the event. You will be able to hear more about all this in the discussion to be held at the movie night planned for 30th April.

Finally we thank Mignon and staff at Conversations Cafe for hosting the night. We really enjoyed the atmosphere and hospitality of the evening.

Mar 2

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In Transition 1.0 film night success

A big thank you to those who came along to Transition Gawler’s first event, the showing of ‘In Transition 1.0’ the movie and participated in the visioning exercise afterwards. We have recorded all your ideas and visions and are in the process of setting up a poll to see which of the many great ideas are the most popular for us to get started on.

The Steering Committee had a great time organising and participating in the event and the feedback since has been great, so thanks! We are now starting the organisation of the next film and interactive night, so if you would like to assist contact us.

Here is a link to all the great ideas you posted on the walls under each of the themes on the night.

Visioning

Feb 20

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Grow your own chook forage

Article taken from “Australian Organic Gardening Recource Guide”

It is to your advantage to grow some food for the chooks as this will reduce feed bills & also provide the chickens with a healthy, varied diet. The chickens will be happier provided with both shade and entertainment.

Combine poultry forages with your orchard by simply placing extra plants for chicken forage in amongst the fruit trees. the orchard will need to be well established before the chooks are allowed to free range to prevent damage to youung trees.

A continuous ground cover should always be present, if the ground is being completely bared, then you have too many chooks for the area. In urban areas where space is limited then plant your chook forages in the chicken run, but give protection from the chooks and their continuous scratching.

Scattering logs, concrete pavers or rocks across the top of the  root zones will help prevent the roots being damaged by constant scratching. Alternatively you can fence off part of the run to allow time for plants to establish, A chook system with multiple runs will allow you to cycle crops of greens for the chickens, in rotation.

www.greenharvest.com.au

Dec 15

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Journey of a coffee bean

Like many of you, I require a regular supply of coffee to contribute meaningfully to society. As I discovered after I had my first child (now a strapping 9 year old lad) cups of tea with teabags where much harder to make onehanded while balancing a grizzly child on the other hip. In the bleary mornings of early parenthood, instant coffee was quicker and easier to make, and has remained on my kitchen bench ever since. In my quest to eat more locally, changing habits one step at a time, I read the back of my coffee jar, it was imported to Australia from the Netherlands, and was made from ‘imported’ beans.

Whoa there nellie!! So I think this means coffee beans were imported to the Netherlands, (from where?), and then the instant coffee was sent to Australia from the Netherlands a whopping distance of 15,870 km (and that’s if you travel in a straight line!) That seems to be a ridiculous journey for a cup of coffee. There has to be a better source of my morning beverage.

I am now on a mission to find a supply of coffee with less frequent flyer points than me. On one hand fairtrade coffee beans are available, with these at least easily located. I also bought a hand powered coffee grinder, with an attached air-tight storage canister, and now not only am I saving power, but am also building up a powerful arm muscles, when I don’t dump the grinder in visitors laps, telling them to earn their keep!

A quick internet search found coffee growers in the northern NSW region, most of whom seen to grow, process and package their own beans. This reduces the distance travelled to around 2000 km but doesn’t exactly pass the ‘local’ test! Maybe I will have to move to Byron Bay instead?

I will keep you posted on my coffee quest, but if anybody out there has more information, I would love to hear from you.

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