Transition Corner Inlet District

Transition Corner Inlet District Minutes & Notices

2010-09-06T08:26:00.005+10:00

Here are the minutes from the latest transition meeting (Thursday 26th August 2010):

Minutes 26082010

Our next transition meeting will take place on Thursday 23rd September at the Foster Community Health Centre at 7:30pm.

Some upcoming events

2010-08-08T21:47:00.004+10:00

* Work day on site for preparation and cleanup at the Station Gardens, Foster this Monday, August 9th 1.30 - 3.00

* Transition training workshop at Wonthaggi 21 / 22 August http://transitionphillipisland.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/trantision-towns-training_bass-coast_august.pdf
To register email Adrian: ajspace_4 [you know what goes here] hotmail.com

Who would like to be in a local Permablitz network? http://www.permablitz.net/what-is-a-permablitz Contact Rob to register interest at ecowizard [you know what goes here] live.com.au

Transition Corner Inlet District Minutes & Notices

2010-07-23T23:32:00.008+10:00

Here are the minutes from the latest transition meeting (Thursday 22nd July 2010):

Minutes 22072010

Our next meeting is currently expected to be at 7.30pm on Thursday 26th August at the Foster Community Health Centre. An agenda will be published here closer to the date.

Please note an amendment to the date for the Toora Pear Orchard grafting day given in the above minutes:

TOORA PEAR ORCHARD GRAFTING DAY
SATURDAY AUGUST 14TH
10.30am BYO lunch

This is the first time it has been on a Saturday.

Next meeting Thursday 22nd July 7:30pm

2010-07-12T12:25:00.004+10:00

The next meeting of Transition Corner Inlet District Inc. will be on Thursday 22nd July 7:30pm at the Foster Community Health Centre.

Items for discussion include, but are not limited to -

Community gardens and station update

Insurance for this and other projects

Do we need to amend our constitution?

Transition Corner Inlet District Minutes and Notices

2010-06-28T10:59:00.013+10:00

Here are the minutes from the latest transition meeting (Thursday 24th June 2010):

Minutes 24062010

AGM Minutes 24062010

Upcoming events or issues of note:

Green grants application information meeting 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm on Wednesday 30th June at Traralgon: anyone interested in going please contact Rob Windt at ecowizard(you know what goes here)live.com.au to share the ride.

Foster Station site: Juneen Schulz, Rob Windt, Jeff Montague, Peter Burgess & Ernie Cayzer have been working on a proposal for a community garden and orchard. Invitations are open for members to join this group. Contact Rob Windt at ecowizard(you know what goes here)live.com.au

Next meeting Thursday 24th June 7:30pm

2010-06-11T11:20:00.001+10:00

The next meeting of Transition Corner Inlet District will be on Thursday 24th June 7:30pm at the Foster Community health centre. This meeting will be our first annual general meeting with an election of office bearers.

Transition Corner Inlet District Minutes and Notices

2010-06-10T22:03:00.008+10:00

Here are the minutes from the latest transition meeting (Thursday 27th May 2010):

Minutes 27052010

As well as other useful and/or important notices of upcoming events:

Sustainable Living Festival

Energy Innovation Co-op Activity Day (Sat 12th June)

Soil Carbon Workshop

Our next meeting is Thursday 29th April

2010-04-21T14:57:00.003+10:00

Our next meeting is Thursday 29th April at the Community Health Centre in Foster starting 7:30pm. We'll discuss of the results of the "Zing" session we held last year to establish what ideas we had for the group, Lloyd will report on the meeting he attended for the formation of the Mirboo North transition group and also his and Rhonda Storm's visit to Gil & Meredith Freeman's to find out about their local food box idea, Grow Lightly.

Our next meeting is this Thursday

2010-03-15T13:07:00.002+11:00

Our next meeting is this Thursday at the Community Health Centre in Foster starting 7:00pm. We'll have a film, "The Age of Stupid" followed by a discussion of the results of the "Zing" session we had last year to establish what ideas we had for the group.

We had a stand at the Sustainability Festival held at Coal Creek, Korumburra yesterday which went quite well. It was a perfect day weather-wise and we got to meet lots of interesting folk. Ross & Fiona brought along their donkeys which certainly drew a good crowd!

Here's notice of upcoming events:

Wonthaggi Energy Innovation Festival: Friday March 19th - Saturday March 20th

More details here…

Korumburra, Victoria: 19 Apr 2010 – Growers and eaters’ forum
SLOW Food Melbourne, in association with Cultivating Community and Grow Lightly South Gippsland, invite you to attend the second Growers and Eaters’ forum to discuss the connection between farming and eating and what this means for the vitality of our communities.

More details here…

Hope to see you Thursday evening!

Pre-Christmas get-together

2009-12-07T13:43:00.000+11:00

You're invited to a dinner at Manna Garden in Court St Foster for this Friday evening at 6.30pm.

BYO food - must be on theme of 'From your pantry' or 'Sown and grown' ie. you can't go out & buy ingredients specially to make whatever you are bringing - it has to be created form what you already have at home.

Fiona wants to know if anyone is interested in joining her to write letters to South Gippsland Shire to use Foster as a location for a pilot project of having recycling bins next to rubbish bins in the town shopping area.

Discussion is also needed for who and what we can use for a display at Foster Show on Feb 27th (They have said we can have a free spot). Also the 2 sustainability festivals in March at Wonthaggi & Coal Creek that we are invited to attend & 'do something'.

Please BYO chair, crockery, cutlery etc.

If it is wet, Ross West will let us dine inside at the SES admin building, which is in Pioneer St Foster next to the Council depot.

Gold coin donation always welcome!

The Community Harvest project

2009-11-29T14:52:00.002+11:00

Another promising looking link forwarded by Bryan Watterson which we've added to our list. The Community Harvest project is "Feeding Our Hearts, Communities and Environment, as We Feed Ourselves". Lots of stuff on their site.

Another local initiative

2009-11-18T23:56:00.005+11:00

There's another group operating in Wonthaggi — the Energy Innovation Co-op - towards a carbon neutral future.

This notice is posted on their site…

Time: November 28, 2009 from 4pm to 6pm
Location: Mitchell House Community Centre Street
Street: 6 Murray Street
City/Town: Wonthaggi
Phone: (03) 5951 3329

We are proposing to get together and discuss the initiatives of Transition Towns groups setting up in South Gippsland and Bass Coast.

We would love for you to come along and share stories of how your group (if involved in one) is evolving and any ideas, contacts or initiatives underway.

Please pass this on to anyone who you think may be interested, this could be a great opportunity find out what else is going on and to inspire and support each other.

Looking forward to seeing you there on the day!!

Cheers

Lisa Wangman

Urban Landcare Project Officer
Phillip Island Landcare Group
Mobile: 0409 366 914
Ph: (03) 5951 3329 Fax: (03) 5951 3312
P.O. Box 272 Cowes, 3922

Local Food Map Website

2009-11-11T07:20:00.003+11:00

Gordon Rouse has emailed us with his map of locally grown produce. It looks like a great idea. I'll quote from his email…

I wanted to let you know that my wife and I have launched our food map at http://www.localfoodmap.net.
The idea of the online map is to have locally grown produce easy to find wherever you are. You can search by keywords on your location, and registered producers will come up as icons on a map.

I am hoping as many food-producers from small vege growers to farms will put their farmgate presence on this map so that we can all find what is growing in abundance in our local area.
The system also allows users to subscribe to farms, which means growers can send out emails to their subscribers to let them know if there is a fresh harvest, or a large animal is being butchered.

I believe that this website could be an invaluable tool in meeting the aims of the Transition Town organisation, in promoting direct farmgate sales and food networks. I hope you can consider registering yourself as both producers and alertees, and maybe even letting your local members know about this through your contacts.

At this stage, there are only a few outlets in Victoria, so if you wish to see a demonstration of this working, I suggest you use "Melbourne Victoria" as your locality.

We've added the map to our Links section.

Next meeting of Transition Corner Inlet

2009-11-06T07:01:00.004+11:00

We're meeting again at 7:30 pm Thursday 19th at the Community Health Centre in Foster. This will be a working meeting where we will decide what actions we are going to take and how we'll prioritise them. We'll be using the Shire's Zing computer system which allows this sort of thing to happen quickly and which also lets the quiet types get a bit more input. Gold coin donation to help us with the costs please!

We'll be providing a supper, kindly funded by the Shire! It's important we get started on time because we'll have a fair bit to cover on the night so don't be late if you can help it. Also bring anyone you think might be interested/able to contribute.

What sort of stuff are we after? We're facing changes in our situation due to the decline in fossil fuels and the financial crisis whether we like it our not. We have to take steps to safeguard ourselves and our community, so it's both personal and our leadership roles we need to be thinking about. Here's the list we made last meeting, which will be the basis of our discussion but to which we'll add, subtract and prioritise at the meeting…we need to talk more about this stuff but we also need to start doing things!

Energy
Renewable
Decentralised
Bulk purchase
Community projects
Leadership example for other communities
Self-sufficiency
Showcase
Efficiency & design

Education/information
Encourage others to join
Spread awareness & understanding
Film Festival
Environmental issues
Basic energy knowledge for home or community
Using local libraries to stock relevant books/periodicals
Climate change & energy resource issues education

Local economy
Tourism eco/transition
Bartering/alternative currencies
Bulk buying & co-operatives
Small-scale local economy
Resilience
Practical crafts and handy skills
Multi use of facilities (halls, community gardens)

Food production
Producing basic food groups
Preserving/value adding
Survival food
Food security
Sustainable practices
Community gardens across all communities

Technology
Explore & trial ideas
Alternative fuels
Alternative modes
Getting networks in place
Safety for cycling
Hand tools use and manufacture
Practical recycling of resources
Animal use & management

Health
Growing medicinal herbs
Preventative health

Social
Values (modest scale/frugality/generosity)
Survival/confidence
Sharing with youth
Maintaining social connections at a distance
Older people & physical demands
Employment conditions/availability
Welcoming incomers
Toxic politics/polarisation of views/community division
Starting with simple steps before tackling bigger things
Using/maintaining community halls as social centres more effectively
Personal growth through social involvement
Helping communities help themselves/encouraging community self-reliance
Setting targets/measuring outcomes
Process driven from bottom up
Using the Net & other technology to connect to others
Using non-threatening messages to promote change
Dealing with anxiety, stress, grieving
Co-operation and sharing skills
Network expertise
Developing, maintaining and sharing contacts

Transition, sustainability, green economy and more on Bush Telegraph

2009-11-05T22:48:00.005+11:00

ABC Radio online - if you can't hear it broadcast - Bush Telegraph program has some good stories to listen to about sustainability and related topics.

Regards Fiona

Momentum building with Corner Inlet Transition

2009-11-05T22:34:00.002+11:00

OUR October activity at Foster attracted 17 people drawn from Welshpool through to Walkerville plus 3 South Gippsland Shire Council staff.

The film How Cuba Survived Peak Oil was very interesting and made me rather keen to have a holiday in Cuba when it’s a South Gippy winter & to go dancing to their music…:

Ahem! The film illustrated aspects of change to Cuban society when a number of factors relating to world politics contributed to a scarce oil supply.
Positives that arose from the situation were:
• The ability of people to find solutions to problems, often starting in small ways and taking small steps before building to bigger things.
• Although technology could be used to advantage, human relationships were the most valuable input in making successful adjustments to change.
• Simple technology could often be applied cheaply and effectively.
• Basic health, fitness and nutrition improved.
• Good design for new uses of old spaces could bring multiple benefits at a low cost.
• Greater decentralization of education, employment and health facilities and of planning, economic and political power occurred.
• People became actively connected with others in their community.
• A greatly increased use of organic and permaculture agricultural methods had positive benefits for the environment.

Negative outcomes – which tended to be glossed over in the film - included health casualties among those who were most vulnerable – such as babies, the aged and people with chronic health conditions.

There was clearly significant discomfort, social dislocation and economic turmoil.
Disbelief and lack of preparation caused the situation to become a national crisis that took several years before relative stability was again reached.

Going by the number of babies in the film, it also looked like the population consoled and entertained themselves with acts of procreation, coupled {!} with a lack of electricity for TV, lack of medicines including contraceptives, and a lack of condoms which are after all made of plastic …which needs oil to make it…which was scarce…plus all that music and dancing they’re into….you get my drift and if not well never mind.

After a discussion of issues raised by the film, the budding Corner Inlet Transition group then took turns to individually list relevant interests /skills and to briefly outline aspirations for transition in the area.

Five pages of butchers’ paper were filled while recording a précis of each person’s ideas.
The ideas covered a wide range of concepts with a number overlapping what someone else had said.

Blog team Lloyd & Fiona collated the ideas into related categories ready for the NEXT STEP…., I.E. attendees and others interested in a process of transition for Corner Inlet will be invited to attend a further meeting in November to brainstorm priorities and decide on achievable actions that people can take responsibility to follow up.

South Gippsland Hospital was thanked for allowing the fledgling group to meet at the Community Health Centre for a one-off free of charge occasion.

The Shire staff were helpful in commenting on ways in which they could help out & were pleased to meet & chat with those who attended. Mutual benefits likely all round by such cooperation.

After the meeting, many people commented that they felt empowered and optimistic about working together on transition issues.

Thanks to Rhonda M, several copies of the film have been burned onto CD.
If you’re after one, please contact Fiona Mottram [me] and ask for one.
Don’t know how to contact me? Come along to Foster’s Community Health Centre in Station Road Foster [at the front of the hospital grounds] next Thursday night Nov 19 at 7.30pm or earlier as we will be starting on time!!!!!!!!!!!

Options for transport (donkey packing/riding/harness driving), food (quince blossoms suggest a good crop in 2010) and energy (peat) for CI?

2009-10-13T21:37:00.008+11:00

GreenHome sessions

2009-10-12T21:19:00.000+11:00

Hi again,

South Gippy residents are invited to attend free sessions that are part of the GreenHome program which the Australian Conservation Foundation is running with funding from the Dept. of Sustainability and Environment.

The sessions are unfortunately located at Traralgon but South Gippy Shire are supposed to support us with community transport or car pooling. I am not yet quite sure if that means organising, paying for fuel or what exactly.

You can attend any or all of the sessions [from 6.30pm to 9.15pm] which are:
Tuesday 10 November – Saving energy at home
Tuesday 17 November – Saving water at home
Tuesday 24 November – Smart ways to shop and reduce waste
Tuesday 1 December – Eating your way to a healthy environment (food and gardening).

Part of me wonders from the session titles if it will all be a bit basic.
But the other part says [besides 'you might learn something useful'] that we need to prove to the Shire that we are serious and interested in both them and us doing things about sustainability.
A group of us from Corner Inlet going to these sessions would be an easy way to start showing that to the Council.

It is also likely that the program attendance may lead into the Sustainability Champions Program in early 2010 which is about giving people skills to lead discussions and have sufficient background in sustainability knowledge to train others in their community and spread the word.

I also reckon we can have some good conversation while travelling to and from the sessions if a few of us go together.

There are limited places for the sessions, so although bookings theoretically close on Nov 6, it would be best to book asap. Book by calling the ACF on 1800 223 669.

I am planning to sacrifice some time I spend in the vegie garden in daylight saving hours after work in order to go - is anyone else interested from around Corner Inlet? Please let me know if you are!

Transition towns, sustainability, good environmental practices, minimising footprints, being fit, healthy & connected to others, saving money, consuming less - to me it's all the same thing pretty much when viewed from a practical, hands-on position.
I know that this Transition thing has re-kindled my energy in these directions....

See you, Fiona

Film night next week

2009-10-12T20:54:00.001+11:00

Hallo Corner Inlet Transitioners,

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil will be screened next week at Foster Community Health Centre on Thursday October 22 starting at 7.00pm.

View Larger Map
The film will be an ideal springboard for discussing how Corner Inlet community and individuals could make their own transition in tough circumstances - or at the very least it will encourage you to have holidays in the district including picnics at Manna Garden instead of creating heaps of carbon emissions jet-setting off the warm & balmy Cuba...

The film takes an hour - plus allow for the chat, late stragglers, technical hitches & dropping crumbs on the community health centre's carpet from the shared supper that you'll naturally all bring - so all up the evening should be finished in two hours so we can all get home in time to look our pre-transition best the next morning!

Please also bring...a gold coin donation & preferably at least one friend who enjoys food gardening...

Regards, Fiona Mottram who is also part of the CIT blog team & who accidentally joined Lloyd as a follower of his own group while trying to figure out this blog set up caper. [He wasn't being desperate for blog attention at all].

Welcome everyone!

2009-10-08T15:19:00.000+11:00

Welcome to Corner Inlet Transition blog! We'll use this to keep everyone informed about what's happening. Stay tuned!