permaculture

[Russ Grayson <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

DISPATCHES from the East Coast... 
...occasional reportage from PacificEdge
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NEWS...

> RESOURCE EFFICIENT APARTMENTS NEAR COMPLETION
Construction of Kogarah's energy and water efficient apartment building is nearing completion. The building will be the first in the municipality to feature passive solar design, treatment of watewater and rooftop photovoltaic arrays that sell electricity to the grid under the Green Power scheme.

The six-level, north (sunward) facing, U-shaped development wraps around a public plaza in which cafes and small businesses will be located. Car parking in in an underground car park owned by Kogarah Council. The existing street will be narrowed to slow and reduce traffic, the footpath widened and bays projected into the street for public seating and seating for cafes. A total of 19 pistachio trees to be established along the street will provide summer shade and allow winter sunlight to enter when they lose their foliage in winter.

The building is being constructed on an old car park sold to the developer by Kogarah Council. The sale came with a development control plan passed by Council which stipulates a minimum 3.5 energy-stars rating for building performance.

The building is not the first resource-efficient building in Sydney. The Stringybark Grove development at Lane Cove was built in the early 1990s and UNSW has an energy efficient structure at its Little Bay campus in the Eastern Suburbs.


> FOOD WASTE TO ENERGY PLANT - Sydney
From Cameron Little, UNSW Ecoliving Centre - ecoliving-permaculture@lists.cat.org.au 

NSW Minister for Energy, Kim Yeadon opened a new food waste-to-energy plant at Camellia, in Sydneys west. Western Sydney food manufacturers, food retailers, restaurants and hotels can now recycle up to 80,000 tonnes pa of waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill, to generate renewable energy. 

When fully operational, the plant will produce enough electricity to power around 3,000 homes. A high-grade organic fertiliser is produced as a by-product for sale. 

This state-of-the-art facility turns the organic matter into gas through a digestion process. The
gas is used to generate green electricity, creating multiple benefits for
the community. 

The facility was built by Earthpower Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Environmental Infrastructure Limited. Other project partners included Babcock and Brown, Country Energy, Westpac and the Australian Greenhouse Office and SEDA. The project received funding through the Renewables Investment Program in June 2000.
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> FISH TO FERTILISER
NSW government partners fish merchants in trial to turn fish waste into
fertiliser: 
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IN THE MAIL...

> PLACES AVAILABLE ON PLANET ORGANIC COURSE -  New Zealand
From Robina McCurdy, Tui Community, New Zealand - robina@win.co.nz

"Dear Friends and Colleagues...
Amidst global security insecurity! Earthcare Education Aotearoa has just
begun its first module of its PLANET Organic programme for 2003: Design for
Local Self Reliance.  

"We have more spaces on the next two modules of the course, each of three months.
They are: Design for Organic Properties (urban and rural) and Design for
Ecovillages and Intentional Communities.

Anyone knowing of funding sources that could support us (we are a charitable
trust), please let us know.

For more information, check out our website on:  www.planetorganic.org
all the very best.

Robina McCurdy, for PLANET Organic".
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THE MEDIA...

> MSF BOOK LAUNCH: Paradox of humanitarian action - Sydney
WHAT: Medecins Sans Frontieres' research director, Dr Fiona Terry, introduces her new book, Condemned to Repeat?: The Paradox of
Humanitarian Action.
WHERE: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Contact Gleebooks for bookings - 02 9660 2333.
WHEN: Thursday 1 May, 6.30pm.
DETAILS: Condemned to Repeat? The paradox of Humanitarian Action: "It is utopian to believe that we can provide aid without causing
any harm" says Dr Fiona Terry. One of Médecins Sans Frontières' foremost researchers, Dr Fiona Terry will be travelling around Australia in late April/early May to speak about the ethical dilemmas that aid workers confront while trying to assist victims of conflict and oppression. In her recently released book "Condemned to Repeat: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action", Fiona addresses the responsibility of
humanitarian actors for the consequences of their actions. She examines the attitudes of aid organisations towards the unintended
consequences of their work in four case-studies of militarised refugee camps, and questions why the paradoxes of humanitarian
action recur and persist in spite of the knowledge that the agencies acquire.
INFORMATION: Sean Healy, Medecins Sans Frontieres, 1300 136061. [email] sean.healy@sydney.msf.org [web address]  
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> ELECTRONIC INFORMATION  FOR SOLOMONS VILLAGES
The most recent addition to the IT highway in Solomon Islands, is the "Farmer Information Center". It's part of Solomon Islands People First Network, set-up last year to help authorities and villagers with weather alerts and cyclone warnings. The P-F Network has now extended its services to include the "Kastom Garden Association" and the recently established "Farmer Information Center". It's located at Silolo village, a remote part of North Malaita.

Presenter/Interviewer: Geraldine Coutts
Speakers: Randall Biliki , Project Manager with PF-Net in Solomon Islands


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> REPORT SAYS SMALL ARMS A THREAT TO PACIFIC STABILITY
A new report on small arms in the Pacific has highlighted the growing numbers of weapons in the region. The report "Small Arms in the Pacific" was launched at the Forum Secretariat in Suva by Forum Secretary General Noel Levi and disarmament activist Adi Ema Tagicakibau. Phil Alpers, one of the report's co-authors, works with the Harvard Injury Control Research Centre at Harvard University, in Boston, USA. He says there is a need for legislation to regulate the large number of weapons in the region.

Presenter/Interviewer: Nic Maclellan
Speakers: Phil Alpers of the School of Public Health at Harvard University
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/pacbeat/stories/s823732.htm
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> RICE GOES ORGANIC IN TASMANIA 
ABC Rural Online


ABC Rural Online has reported that Tasmania's first rice crop of organic wild rice has just been harvested  and that  contracts guarantee growers will receive more than twenty times the price per tonne of rice on the mainland.

Produced by Bellamy Organic Farms, under contract to the United States, on a ten hectare farm in northern Tasmania, farmer David Bellamy claims that yields were almost twice what he anticipated.
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ON AIR, IN PRINT, ONLINE...

>  WHAT: INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES ON RADIO
CHANNEL + PROGRAMME: Life Matters -  ABC Radio National (transcript download + progamme can be heard online after broadcast via streamed radio from Australian Broadcasting Corporation>radio national website).
WHEN: Mondays from May 5th at 10.30am
 Info from ABC:
"There are now hundreds of intentional communities in regional Australia. Places where people unite with a common vision, sharing their land, tools and their lives in pursuit of a better world. Many date from the Aquarius festival in 1973, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in May - but they're not limited to hippie dreaming. 

Over the coming weeks Life Matters will explore our contemporary dreams of fleeing the city and living communally in the bush.  Kath Duncan and Fiona Martin will take us to land-sharing and spiritual communities, eco-villages, and artist colonies across the country. Residents will tell us how their communities work and how they are changing. They'll describe the gap between their vision and their reality, and some of the practical challenges they face with self-governance: negotiating work, ethics and property rights, coping with ageing, isolation, tourists and feral animals. We'll also look at the economics of such alternative lifestyles and how they can change the regional landscape.  And we'll discuss the practicalities of building your own intentional community - the challenges, the pitfalls, and the great joys.

May 5th  This Land is Our Land
Shared ownership of land is at the heart of the social contract on many intentional communities, and in this program we visit three such places. 

May 12th   Making Your Natural Life Spiritual, and Your Spiritual Life Natural
Religion has historically provided the strongest of communal bonds.  In this program we visit  three contemporary spiritual communities, and find out how their interaction with place and the natural environment impacts on the way their community works. 

May 19th
In this program we explore the concept of community design and the permaculture legacy through a journey to several eco villages, each with its own processes for fostering the successful operation and growth of intentional communities - Crystal Waters in SE Queensland, one of Australia's oldest eco-villages and home of the Global Eco-village Network; Jarlanbah, a mature community development on the fringes of Nimbin in NSW, and Rosneath Farm, a new eco-village with shares still for sale, based near Dunsborough in south west WA.

May 26th   A Life of Art
Australia's artist colonies have a fascinating, if ephemeral, history.  In this program we talk to residents of three influential communities. 

June 2nd   Marketing an Alternative
The economics of establishing and maintaining social alternatives is often a topic of debate on communities. In this program we look at the issues which community residents face in establishing businesses, and more widely at the marketing of alternative lifestyles.  

June 9th   DIY community
New intentional communities are springing up all over Australia.  How do you go about this adventure with the maximum chance of creating a happy, functional and stable outcome?  
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>  WHAT: New World Coming
CHANNEL + PROGRAMME: Triple J morning show with Steve Cannane
WHEN: 10-16 May
DETAILS: 
 Profiles of young people who have grown up on, or live on, communities round the country. They talk about what they get out of living communally, what they want to change about their communities, how they think about  'the outside world', and what, if anything, would persuade them to leave.
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CALENDAR... 

>  Region: Sydney
WHAT:  Interface festival of ideas
WHEN: 1:00pm Friday 25 April
WHERE: Venues in Paddington & Darlinghurst  
FEE: 
DETAILS: Interface is a three-day festival of ideas on the future of
Australia's media, democracy & education. Panels, workshops,
film-screenings, exhibitions, gigs & more...
Transport:  Catch the 378 from Central or the 380 from Hyde Park. Get off at the
Victoria Barracks stop on Oxford St & register at the College of Fine Arts.
: Nexus Youth Network, Phone - 04 0242 9314.  
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>  Region: Sydney - eastern suburbs
WHAT: COURSE - Organic gardening 
WHEN: Starts 6 May - goes for four weeks. Four Tuesday night meetings (start 6 May), four practical Saturday afternoon sessions in UNSW Community Permaculture Garden.
WHERE: Eastern Suburbs Evening College, Randwick Girl's High School.                
FEE: $115 - concessions available.
DETAILS:  Contents include: site analysis and designing your garden+improving soils and maintaining soil fertility through the use of mulches, compost making and worm production+soil analysis+plants and their characteristics+integrated pest management+container and balcony gardening. 

This is a practical course involving gardening activity on Saturdays. 

: Eastern Suburbs Evening College 02 9387 7400, www.esec.nsw.edu.au

Applications by 30 April.
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>  Region: Byron Bay, northern NSW
WHAT: Open Garden Scheme weekend - Seed Savers' Network production and edible botanic garden 
WHEN: 3 & 4 May 2003.
WHERE: Seed Savers' Network centre, Byron Bay, NSW.  
FEE: $4.50.
DETAILS: With a focus on plants useful to people, the Seed Savers' Network garden in subtropical Byron Bay displays a biodiversity of unusual and unexpectedly common food and plants. Be inspired and visit the garden as part of the Open Garden Scheme.
: T: 02 6685 6624. info@seedsavers,net.  
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>  Region: Nimbin, NSW 
WHAT: The Aquarius Festival - 30 Years On
WHEN: 10 May to 24 May
WHERE: Nimbin. northern NSW; access - 50 minutes by vehicle/ bus from Lismore.                
FEE: 
DETAILS: The original Nimbin Aquarius Festival of May 12-23, 1973, put on by the Australian Union of Students, stands as a monument to a major cultural shift in Northern NSW,  with repercussions round the nation... it was the convergence of many people in search of a paradigm shift. People from around Australia came to Nimbin to share their ideas, lifestyles, art and passion, hoping to build a kinder, gentler, more sharing world. This journey, 30 years on, is as important now as it was then.

The Nimbin Aquarius Foundation is organising anniversary events between 10 May to 24 May. They would welcome the input of other community members, groups and communities to do the same. they are keen for you to get together, plan an event, exhibition, display, happening, and then get in touch with them so they can help with publicity etc. Get inspired, write a story or poem, create a work of art, make a garden....and celebrate. The loan of any Aquarius memorabilia, posters, film, whatever, would be appreciated.  They could be copied and returned to you, and they would be treated as national treasure. 
:  Benny Zable. Email : bennyzable@hotmail.com Phone:(02) 66891718
Katie Cawcutt. Email: katielovesnimbin@yahoo.com.au    Phone (02)66891938
PO Box 12, Nimbin , NSW, 2480.http://www.30th-nimbin-aquarius-anniversary.netfirms.com/et
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>  Location: Richmond NSW
WHAT: WORKSHOP - Watercare 
WHEN: Saturday May 24; starts 9.30am.
WHERE: Hawkesbury Earthcare Centre, Richmond, NSW.  Train to East Richmond station, 25 mins walk to university
grounds. (pickup can be arranged).        
FEE: Enquire.
DETAILS:  Practical information and demonstration of sewerage treatment and reuse, toilet systems, water tanks, solar water purification and grey water management.
: Jenny Dibley 995 5329 (wk) or 9810 1126 (hm); tomellor79@yahoo.com.au; http://www.eathcare.org.au
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>  Location: Solomon Islands, Choiseul Province.
WHAT: Melanesian Seed Saving Conference 
WHEN: 23 to 27 June 2003.
WHERE: Choiseul Province, northern Solomon Islands.  
FEE: 
DETAILS: A conference for agricultural aid, health NGO workers and villagers working in sustainable subsistence agriculture in the tropical Pacific islands. the conference will focus on seed production and saving, organic gardening and integrated pest management, nutrition and cooking, improved chicken farming. Includes  farmer's experience and knowledge exchange, exchange of seed and planting material, taro diversity fair with opportunity to swap taro varieties and knowledge about taro farming.

Organised by Solomon Island Planting Material Network, Kastom Gaden Association with support from Seed Savers' Network Australia.

: T: 0011 677 39551.  PO Box 972, Honiara, Solomon Islands. tonyj@solomon.com.sb
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>  Location: Byron Bay, northern NSW
WHAT: WORKSHOP - Local seed networks
WHEN: 20 to 22 October 2003.
WHERE: Seed Savers' Network centre, Byron Bay, NSW.  
FEE: Check with Seed Savers' Network.
DETAILS: The Seed Savers' Network supports local seed networks around Australia through which participants grow, process and share seeds of non-hybrid species. This workshop is for community-based individuals and organisations interested in establishing  local seed networks.
: T: 02 6685 6624. info@seedsavers,net.  http://www.seedsavers.net
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>  Location: Byron Bay, northern NSW
WHAT: Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Seed Savers' Network 
WHEN: 25 + 26 October 2003.
WHERE: Seed Savers' Network centre, Byron Bay, NSW.  
FEE: Check with Seed Savers' Network.
DETAILS: The exuberant, annual conference of the Seed Savers' Network is a great opportunity to network, learn and plot together. Don't miss it.
: T: 02 6685 6624. info@seedsavers,net.  http://www.seedsavers.net
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REQUESTS...
Please respond directly to person making request.

> STUDENT REQUEST: INTERVIEWS ON FORESTRY AND PERMACULTURE
Respond to: Moore cbmoore@smcm.edu

"Hi,
I'm an American undergraduate student studying abroad this semester in Australia in a Conservation and Resource Management Program. I am in the begining stages of a month long Independent Study Project. My project is focusing on permaculture and ecoforestry. I plan to interview different individuals involved with these activities about their motivations as well as common obstacles they face.

I have no direct experience in forestry in permaculture. The ultimate goal of this would be to hopefully find ways to make these sustainable practices more widely practiced around the globe. Anyway, an interview or any information or contacts you could provide would be greatly appreciated."

Campbell B. Moore  
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>  PERMACULTURE IN SCHOOLS
Respond to: alexis.anderson@environ.wa.gov.au
G'day there,
I will be conducting a Permaculture and Gardening Workshop for schools in WA
in a couple of weeks.  Does anyone know of any good resources, web or
otherwise that are worth checking out to make the workshop a more rewarding
experience?

Does anyone have information / programs that tie school gardening projects
into broader curriculum goals?  As far as I can see PC is probably the best
cross curricula program a school could run (of course!), but how do
interested teachers convince their principals of this?

Also, has anyone had much experience / luck in  involving local community
(parents, retirees, etc) in helping out in school gardens as a means of
providing teacher support and keeping the project going?
If so, how did you go about getting these people involved?
Did you provide incentives / payment (apart from the love and joy of making
magic happen!)

Are there any other tips on how to make such projects happen, and get them
flowing smoothly?  I'd love to hear from you!

Cheers... Alexis Anderson - alexis.anderson@environ.wa.gov.au
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> ADVICE ON USING FOR BURNED LAND
Respond to:  saowanee and jim - sea.anicca@juno.com
Saowanee and Jim write:

"We were given about 11 acres here in northern thailand to start our project 'The Whispering Seed', a home for orphaned and abused children and a community learning center. Wehave been working on the land for the past month and have been talking about wanting to host a permaculture training course some time around oct, nov, december this year.

Unfortunately, the land was just burned fairly badly... and along with the burned land the neighbors cut a large part of the land thinking that it was theirs  so theycould grow plant more taro. They cut all the bamboo and trees.

Any suggestions what to doto help the land after the burning and any ideas on replanting for the area which was cut would be great. We have about 15 jackfruit trees and an assortment of lemon, tamarind, pineapple, mango, banana which was all burned. Some looks like itwill come back but we are not sure what direction to go with the land at this point. Any suggestions about the landwould be greatly appreciated.

Pray for Peace!!!! ...saowanee and jim, the whispering seed" 

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> FARMERS MARKET DIRECTORY NOW ONLINE
Want to find a farmers' market in your city? Just go to the website of the Organic Federation of Australia (the main organic industry lobby) -  www.ofa.org.au - to find a list published by the recently-formed Australian Farmers Markets Association (AFMA).  

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PacificEdge Media...
pacedge@magna.com.au
Phone/ fax: 02 9588 6931
PO Box 446 Kogarah NSW 2217 Australia