Beechworth Urban Landcare and Sustainability

Beechworth Landcare and Beechworth Sustainability have merged to become Beechworth Urban Landcare and Sustainability (BULS if you like acronyms!).

This merger came about as a result of the survey and planning meeting we had late last year. In a nutshell, the general consensus was that people would like to see a more structured group, there was little appetite for another committee or separate formal structure. Beechworth Landcare already auspice Beechworth Sustainability, providing insurance for our events as well as other support. As a result the decision was made to formalise the relationship that already existed between Beechworth Sustainability and Beechworth Landcare. New committee members Gabrielle Prior and Charlie Showers, from the wider Beechworth Sustainability group, have a strong interest in driving the sustainability message, and we welcome them to the committee of our new organisation.

The new organisation will reflect the aims and values of both groups, and hopefully will have wider appeal for Beechworth’s urban and semi-rural population. It will provide a range of activities and events relating to both sustainability and environmental issues. The merger provides a great opportunity for the development of both Landcare and Sustainability in our town, with a  renewed family and community focus.

We encourage everyone interested in Sustainability, Landcare, or both to join the new group. The membership fee is $20 for singles and families, (Concession $15). Our group receives no funding, so this small fee allows us to covers the cost of insurance so we can continue to run events. Members have free entry to all our events.

You can read more about the history of both groups here. Over the next few months the website will be updated to reflect our new, expanded group. If you have any ideas for things you would like to see on the site please email us

Below is a list of ideas for events Beeechworth Sustainability could run in 2011. To help share the workload amongst members we woudl liek some volunteers to co-ordinate and event (or more than one if you are very keen! Hopefully lead to a wider variety of events being run due to the diversity of interestwithin our group. Anyone who volunteers to co-ordinate an even will of course have the suport of the committee for publicity / organising / booking halls etc. Co-ordinating an event doesn’t mean you have to provide money to run it  – we just need some of your time and enthusiasm!

• Tie-in events with the Farmer’s Market  eg seed-swap, plant swap
• Plan for some events in the community kitchen at the neighbourhood centre once it’s finished in 2011 eg preserving, seasonal cooking etc
• Create a display area in the old Rectory (now rented by the Neighbourhood Centre) [Editors Note: Judy Lazarus positive about this idea]
• Tie in a sustainability “expo” with the Montessori Sustainable House Tour – focusing on house/housing related issues eg solar panels, building techniques  – this idea has been raised before but need to avoid a clash/duplication with Valhalla Wine’s sustainability expo
• Rabbit management issues and techniques, as well as killing and dressing rabbits (and some nice recipes)
• Charlie and Faye R are planning a series of seasonal workshops at their property looking at the different garden / fruit & veg production tasks in each season
• Charlie R also considering a cider making workshop
• Movie night – Seeds of Hope / The Age of Stupid / other filmd
• Solar panels information session – invite local people who have installed panels to talk about their experiences, what they learned, any pitfalls or unexpected bonuses along the way. Suggested that we try and tie this in with announcement of the Solar Hubs project details
• Building a 9 star house
• Solar oven building competition (involve schools)
• Also need ideas for family friendly or child oriented events – ideas anyone?
• Conducting a survey on the interest for a car-pooling scheme or mini-bus to Albury for workers

As yet we have not put dates to any events, pending volunteer co-ordinators.

If  you would liek to volunteer to co-ordinate one of these activities, or you have an idea for a Sustainabilty event you would like to co-ordinate please contact Gabrielle .

The Beechworth Sustainability planning meeting for 2011 was held on December 9th at the Beechworth Neighbourhood Centre. In spite of the small attendance (8 people, plus 3 apologies received) we had some good conversations and ideas about how to move the group forward,  and the events we might have in 2011.

During the meeting:

• Charlie R talked about the evolution of the Sustainability Group, and the formation of the Shire’s Environmental Advisory Group, which is now covering many of the areas that our original 4 groups were looking at
• Gabrielle gave a run down of the 2010 events, plus a short presentation on the key themes of the survey results
• Joy spoke about the relationship between Beechworth Landcare and Beechworth Sustainability (they are our auspicing body and therefore provide important insurance cover for our events), and about the new funding arrangements for Landcare (less money) and the implications for the future
• We had a general brainstorming session about the kinds of events that we might have in 2011

There was also a discussion about how to provide more structure to the group in 2011. Our original idea was to form an informal “events” committee to help spread the workload of organising and publicising events. Unfortunately given the small turn out this wasn’t feasible. However, Joy indicated there were 2 spare committee places on the Landcare committee, and that perhaps one or 2 people would like to serve on the Landcare committee as “Sustainability Representatives” – Charlie S and Gabrielle volunteered, and this will be taken to the next Landcare meeting for approval. Charlie R is already on the Landcare committee so will be an additional  “Sustainability Representative”

Thank you everyone for your patience – the survey report is finally ready! Firstly a big thank you to everyone that took the time to complete the survey and provide useful feedback and some great ideas. Overall we had 30 completed surveys – as our mailing list is just over 100 and includes people from outside our region this is a very pleasing response.

Regarding the group, most people think that there is room to improve in the way that the group is running, and most (79%) think that Beechworth Sustainability should become a more formal group.

There is no consensus of opinion on merging the group with landcare, with 46% against and 54% in favour. There were some strong opinions expressed about this idea (see report). These results indicate that it is probaly time for a meeting to discuss our options more fully and see what kind of formal group structure will work best to increase participation and keep the group moving. There does not seem to be an appetite for another formal committee structure, although many respondents feel that some more structure in the group would alllow us to build a good events calendar and promote the group and events more effectively, rather than relying on the spare time of just a few volunteers to organise everything. There were several good suggestions from respondents including

• issue-based working groups for more specific time-limited projects
• a spokesperson and a more informal ‘steering group’
• more regular meetings to discuss ideas
• meeting to discuss the direction given the work of the Shire’s Environmental Advisory Committee and sub-groups

When it comes to topics we have a broad range of interests. It’s great to see so  many are interested in growing fruit and veg, and building sustainable communities!

People are most interested in “hands on” style events, house/garden tours and hearing from other locals that have made sustainability-related changes.

Thanks to those that provided some feedback on the website – I’m looking at incorporating as many of your suggestions as possible. I have already added a weather module to the site to provide weather information. A quarterly newsletter is a great idea, but we would need volunteers to provide content.

Download the pdf of the report for the full responses to the survey.

If you have any questions about the survey or the report please email us .

The Beechworth Sustainability website was officially launched on Thursday 23rd of April, and the Beechworth Neighbourhood Centre.

About 25 members got together to enjoy some hearty soups – featuring home grown pumpkin and tomato -  and some local wine, as well as to discuss the development of the website as a community tool and resource.

Thanks to the generous support of local Beechworth store Dalcheri, we also had a fabulous hamper of eco-goodies to give away in a raffle.

The hamper was won by Charlie Robinson – seen here attempting to model part of the prize!

We brainstormed a lot of good ideas for developing the website, so watch out for new features, including the opinion corner – where a member will present an opinion, or introduce a topic for discussion, and then throw the cyber-floor open for comments.

If you weren’t able to attend the meeting, but have an idea, comment, or suggestion for the site, please click here to email us.

Current Activity

• We’ve had several meetings in the interim period resulting in the first two fact sheets on ‘solar hot water’ and ‘heat pump hot water’ prepared by Klaus Baumgartel
• Our view is that solar hot water is a must on all new buildings and should be mandated by Indigo Shire. The higher cost of solar is fairly minor compared to the overall spend in a new house
• Retrofitting less greenhouse intensive hot water systems on existing houses is less definite. Heat pump hot waters are  relatively cheap and generally easy with current Victorian subsidies, and can reduce greenhouse by up to 60%

• These first two fact sheets can be included in the ‘folder for first homebuyers’ under design by the communications group (see the hot watersub section
• We were planning four more fact sheets as follows: ‘home heating’, ‘solar photovoltaic electricity’, ‘energy makeovers on existing housing’ and ‘design of new housing’. However the effort of researching and writing seems to fall to the core group and busy people are reluctant to sit around talking at meetings. So we are suggesting some new modes of operation for 2009.

Future Issues

• As noted above, the effort of clarification and distillation on ‘energy machines’ required to help the normal home owner is substantial and does not make sure that wise decisions are made.
• The ideal recipe for low-energy lifestyles can very quickly be undermined by short term ‘cheapest’ decisions, partisan advice from trades persons, and ineffective policies and decisions at local and state government levels.
• Given this, we feel that in 2009 the efforts of the ‘energy machines’ group could be best spent helping organize five night time lectures and information sessions for the Beechworth Community at large. These five sessions might form part of say nine lectures (one each month February to November) that Beechworth Sustainability would host in a ‘same day, time and venue’ sense to ensure a decent roll up from the town
• Our five lectures would be ‘best hot water’, ‘best PV electricity’, ‘best home heating’, ‘energy retrofits of existing houses’ and ‘design standards for all new houses’
• The energy machine group would then possibly move onto research into a town sized biomass-fuelled electricity generator that would consume town waste and forestry residues.

The inaugural meeting was attended by 59 people at the Beechworth Neighbourhood Centre. The central activity was within the four discussion groups who were each asked to highlight three foci for activity over the next two years. Somewhat unstated were the core aims of Beechworth Sustainability but they are broadly:

• Substantially reduce energy use and greenhouse emissions for the town and shire
• Focus firstly on households, secondly on institutions, thirdly on business and industry
• Implement things that have a real effect i.e. “walk the walk” NOT “talk the talk”

Legislation

• Concentrate on improving the design and implementation of local building regulations
• Prepare a targeted platform for the forthcoming local government elections and have an open forum where potential councillors can present their sustainability wares ( ‘Policies in the Pub’)
• Work with Indigo Council to make energy and greenhouse response more accessible and to foster a spirit of positive change

Energy Audits

• Ongoing series of energy saving tips in the local media along with a phone number for a free home audit
• Train local volunteers to do energy audits, perhaps focusing on the older housing stock and households who might need relief from high energy bills
• Set some audit targets (e.g. 100 houses in Beechworth in the first year) and from them develop a town-wide more strategic picture or a 20 year plan

Sustainable Food and Water

• Develop a food community and knowledge repository where the “things that work” can be fluently exchanged i.e. so each new person in the Shire does not have to learn everything from first principles
• Use the Neighbourhood Centre as a focus for sustainable food and water issues
• Develop a skills bank which lists people as a “first port of call” for practical issues e.g. watering systems, compost, best species to grow etc.

Energy Machines

• Work in the first year on private households and perhaps in second year branch out to larger scale issues e.g. local bio-electricity generator, small windfarm, sustainability fair.
• Fill the ongoing knowledge gap in household energy machines by evaluating options in a local Beechworth context (functionality, greenhouse saving, installed cost, local skills etc.) Start first with home hot water and develop our first fact sheet.
• Seek to rapidly improve the knowledge and skills of local tradespersons and home designers so that homeowners are not met with the traditional “never heard of that” response.

Cross Cutting Issues

By splitting into focused groups, the spaces between our silos of interest become equally important. How we deal with integration and cross cutting issues will be important so that we move forward in the same direction (lowering our greenhouse impact) without the cracks being bigger than the paving stones. First discussions highlighted some areas for the executive group to deal with as follows:

• A knowledge chasm exists on just about every issue and Beechworth Sustainability needs to provide good sound advice on greenhouse solutions. How to provide the advice is open but first off 1-2 page fact sheets on key issues are preferred.
• The legislation and energy machines group have a very strong overlap in the need to mandate and promote appropriate design standards with a limited set of functional machines
• Beechworth Sustainability needs a person and a phone number who is the first point of contact. In time we may need a venue and drop-in centre form which to promote our activities.

The Executive

From the floor, it was suggested and agreed that each action group would put forward two of its members to form an executive group to provide overall guidance and integration between the groups. Our executive group with contact emails is listed below. This group will develop the shape and activities of Beechworth Sustainability from now on. For those not able to attend the meeting last Wednesday night, an email to a group representative will get you in touch with future activities and meetings for your particular interest.

The current executive is:

• Legislation group: Luc Plowman, Seamus Foley
• Audit group: Robert Harrison, Sheree White
• Sustainabile Food and Water: Donna Page, Charlie Robinson
• Energy machines group: Analie Tibbits, Klaus Baumgartel

Fifteen people came and fifteen people spoke – lots of discussion, lots of ideas, and many opinions. For those who couldn’t make it, you missed a good one – these notes are for you. For those who were there, this is an attempt to capture the essence: four summaries, five main issues and five ideas for new directions next year.

What happened in 2008? What plans for 2009? Energy Machines Group

Since the last Roundtable, the group has met twice and developed the first two of a planned series of fact sheets for distribution and comment. Planning is also underway for a lecture series next year to further educate the group and reach the wider community. Preliminary work has started to entrepreneur broad-scale, low carbon electricity production for Indigo Shire in order to reduce emissions by 80%.

Audit Group

Free energy audits were offered to members of Beechworth Sustainability but so far there has been no response. Therefore the audit group is changing its strategy. Within the next month Robert Harris, a professional auditor, is will be running a training evening for the first six volunteers. This will be happening at Pheona Donaldson’s house where Pheona and Seamus are planning extensive renovations to reduce emissions. This group will then make a plan for further action.

Food and Water Group

The group has met several times and held two successful public events: the seed swap, at the Beechworth neighbourhood Centre in September, and a visit to Charlie and Faye Robinson’s sustainable patch in October. The group is planning a ‘knowledge bank’ for 2009 as well as more events.

Regulations Group

The group met twice and produced a draft of ‘guidelines for new homeowners in Beechworth’, designed to be distributed through local real estate agents. A question was sent to all candidates for the Shire Council elections and answers distributed to Beechworth Sustainability. The group plans to work with local council officers and become more closely acquainted with local and state laws concerning sustainability.

 

The five main topics of discussion

 

1. Is the structure and function of Beechworth Sustainability working?

Most people agreed that, with minor adjustments, the model is working okay. The lack of a formal structure is worth pursuing and we need to be patient with ourselves: ‘you have to walk before you can run’. There was a discussion about whether we should be Beechworth Sustainability Project, rather than Group which ended up in agreement that were neither. With a view to bringing the whole town along, we will be simply Beechworth Sustainability. There was a strong view that we need to think of ways to reach more people.

2. Do we need some communication protocols?

There was a concern expressed that some people would like to know more about what is going on in other groups, besides their own. There is also a lot of information that arrives on our collective doorstep that does not get spread around. Discussion circled around a ‘shopfront’ (maybe, one day; needs a big commitment), a corner of the BNC second-hand bookshop (to be explored) or a newsletter (see below). It was agreed that we need at least one backup to the main email list. Also agreed was that all messages to small groups will go to the big group as well and people can make a choice. Nobody needs to be locked in one group.

3. Do we want some social functions?

People agreed that it would be good to have some occasions just to enjoy each other’s company. Alan and Joan Baudinette have volunteered to kick off the year with a BYO barbeque at their place early next year. Setting the date for this led to a discussion about planning for the whole year (see below).

4. Where does political activism fit with Beechworth Sustainability?

We discussed the urgency of the need to reduce emissions and whether we should be more politically active. There seemed to be a range answers to this question. Yes we should, and there are many ways to do this as a private citizen (see below – links to Getup and others) Yes we are, in that members of Beechworth Sustainability have their voices heard in various influential forums at a local, state and national level (see below, advisory groups). But, for various reasons, not many people were keen on direct action in a political sense – marching, petitions or protest.

5. Are we staying true to main goals?

We revisited the main aim of Beechworth Sustainability, which is to reduce carbon emissions by 80% as soon as we can. Many voices from both the national and international scientific community agree that all else is secondary to this – all the energy expended on the chat, the bike riding, food swapping, newsletter writing and so on should be focussed on this main aim. It’s too easy to get caught up in peripherals.

 

The five ideas for new directions next year 1. Beechworth Sustainability (monthly, on-line) Newsletter

First issue is planned for February 2009. The newsletter will bring a lot of things together: news, events, links etc. There will be an editorial team, led by Roberta Baker, with representatives from each of the four activity groups.

2. One main goal for each group

Each activity group will work towards one major goal for the year, related to the main aim of reducing carbon emissions in Indigo Shire. These will ready for full-group discussion at the first Roundtable next year (probably in February).

3. More inter-group happenings

There are several projects already that are crossing group boundaries – such as the folder of fact sheets for new home-owners/builders in Beechworth. We will be looking for more like this. Reaching out to the town, we will organise a series of well-publicised lectures with wide public appeal. On the social side we will organise more byo get-togethers.

4. More political clout

The newsletter will alert members to political action happening around the country and provide links to relevant web-sites. At least six members of Beechworth Sustainability members will take their places on the newly formed Indigo Shire Environmental Advisory Committee and one member (Joan Simms) is representing Indigo Shire on the Upper Hume Sustainability Forum.

5. A calendar

To bring all this together, a strategic planning meeting will be held in January to draw up a calendar of events for 2009. Anyone interested in being part of this planning please keep a watch on your email over the summer break.

Although it’s a bit early, Beechworth Sustainability hopes we all enjoy the festive season and hope we all put people and good times before more unnecessary stuff. We’ll get going again next February so we’ see you then … and thanks everyone for a very good year.

Ali