Winter Warmer Cook Up!

We've been a bit sluggish since the Easter Carnival seed spree. Perhaps the chill and welcome rains of winter have sent us into hibernation. Now we have passed winter's longest day and it feels like time to re-energise, re-connect and cook up some plans for the coming Spring.

To that end, you are all invited to a

WINTER WARMER COOK UP
Sunday September 5
Blackwood Special School Camp,
Main Road - Martin Street Blackwood
from 4pm until 7.30pm

Bring yourself, a dish to share that contains a local ingredient and 5 copies of the recipe to swap.

We will be updating everybody about Transition Blackwood, opening the floor to ideas and then breaking into shared interest groups to move the ideas along toward action.

Other news: I have written an article about Transition Blackwood that you will see in the upcoming Blackwood News. It is an introduction to the concept of Transition Towns and some information about what the Blackwood initiative has done so far, as well as an invitation to get involved.

The news article makes reference to another article in the August issue of Gardening Australia - about a couple, who in response to concern for their family and future in the face of Peak Oil and climate change, have created a self sufficient lifestyle on a farm. The article has a section called 'What is Peak Oil' on page 34 - so clearly the concept is finally hitting the mainstream media.

With federal and state elections coming up there is no better time to be lobbying your local politicians to start taking the sustainable future of our communities more seriously. So far the government response to dwindling resources and the risk of a 'domino effect' with large co-dependent systems based around oil, has been underwhelming. Lets let them know we want them to support locally led projects and strong local economies!

Hope your winter so far has been filled with the warmth of hearth, heart and health.

Happy Transitioning,
Heather

Easter Carnival Seed Spree

On Easter Saturday Transition Town Blackwood had a stall at the Easter Carnival and Woodchop. The purpose for the day was to distribute 200 packets of free, locally collected seed and to chat to people in our community about the transition project.
Despite a somewhat wild and woolly start to the day, Blackwood turned on some great weather. Katie and I gave away almost all our seed, as well as some advice on planting and managing seed collection in a forest setting (making sure your fruit and flower seed don't spread into the bush).

We had some really great conversations both from people who wanted to contribute their skills and participate and with folks who offered criticism and advice. We felt that all of the conversations that day were really useful - its good to hear from people who have been around in the community what has worked and not worked in the past.

One of the real boons of the day was that 35 people signed up to either participate by sharing their skills and ideas or to be kept in the loop of what Transition Blackwood is doing. Many of the skills people listed to share are the kind of activities that could be great for workshops in the future, such as seed saving, permaculture, patchwork quilting, building surveying, learning other languages, beer making, dough making and cooking, natural therapies, and illustration.

Another bonus of the day was talking with some of the people involved in the establishment of Trenthams' community bank and with members of Blackwoods Chamber of Commerce. The lovely thing about Transition Initiatives is that they can work with all of the existing groups and interests to support them. We are looking forward to exploring how we can work with these local initiatives to strengthen them and our community.

All of you who stopped for some seeds and a natter. Many many thanks.

Happy Transitioning,
Heather

Sorry for the gap in news- we have been busy though!

My internet has been down due to a debacle with changing ISP's - many apologies for the lack of updates from our group.
Despite the absence of news there has been a lot happening with our Transition Group.
We have approached a not for profit company to enquire about being auspiced so that we can apply for some funding for upcoming projects which include:

* starting a farmers market! Fay, one of our local gems has agreed to the use of her beautiful site on the main street in town. It is a block with a venerable oak tree that shades almost the whole area. I am investigating how Trentham got their market started and making enquiries with local stall holders.

* having a stall at the Easter Carnival. We will be giving out free seed packets and sharing with people what the whole transition initiative is about. There will be opportunities for people to sign up and indicate their interest, whether it be food, transport, education, housing energy or something we haven't even thought of yet.

* Our bulb change project was a small success with 20 houses participating to receive free low-energy light bulbs. The providers would only come to a remote area like ours if it was more than 10 houses signing up at once, so Transition Blackwood facilitated signing people up and getting their appointments booked.

We are all busy people, but are feeling quite excited that some actions have been taken and the idea is now starting to snowball.

Happy Transitioning,
Heather

Time for Action

Hello All,

Last night we had our second leadership meeting of Transition Blackwood.
A fair bit has happened since the first meeting - I have spoken at Moorafest about Transition Towns, have met with our local MP, Don Nardella (or at least his representative) and have made contact with Mike, the leader from Transition Anakie, who is hosting network breakfasts for all the local Transition leaders. Also we have our great logo and motto which has made a difference in getting the word out. (see above)
The really exciting news on the local front, though, is that our leadership group really got into action last night.
We had five attending including myself, which was fantastic. Our group came up with some ways to really get some positive and visible things happening on the ground between now and our next meeting. They are (in no particular order):

1) Jane is going to contact a woman she knows who converts cooking oil to run her car. She has apparently been doing it for over a decade and may come to speak to us to show us how.
2) Michael is going to call the woman from Moorabool Council who heads up community planning to let her know what we are doing and to include us in any community planning meetings (actually he already completed on this this morning!)
3) Katie is researching getting calico bags screenprinted with our logo and details (thanks Trentham Sustainability group for the idea). The hope is to sell them at the Fiddlers festival as both awareness raising and a way of generating some revenue. This is going to happen in tandem with the launch of our seed saving group who will give out free seeds.
4) Heather (me) is going to ask someone from either Trentham or Ballan who knows about the Farmers Market process to come and speak to us at the next meeting. We are all really keen on a farmers market. I am also printing some sign up sheets for Lerdies, the post office and the general store for people to have a visit from Green Saver- a company who will replace all of our regular light bulbs for energy saving ones FOR FREE!
5) We have also decided to research to see what it will take to get us INCORPORATED! We decided that this was a good option because it meant we could apply for grants. I'm going to ask the other Transition Initiatives if we can borrow their constitution to modify to use as ours.

Aside from the getting into action we also discussed some ideas for the future which included hosting 're-skilling events' at our town hall such as community cook off days (jam making, baking etc), how to use a chainsaw (the ladies especially liked this idea), how to make your own cheap and natural cleaning and beauty products, and herbal remedies. If anyone has other ideas, please feel free to message them through to the blog.

Everyone who attended agreed that it was a really wonderful meeting- very lively and with plenty of action and very little getting off track, which was great. Then we all shared a bottle of wine and had a chin wag before heading home.

Our next meeting is 7.30pm, Thursday the 28th of January at Jane Howat's place.

To the leadership team, THANKS! and to everyone we wish you a beautiful festive season full of love and laughter.

See you all next year and remember.. live local and love your town!

Happy Transitioning,
Heather

and We're Off!

The first meeting of Transition Town Blackwood, held the evening after the Melbourne Cup holiday, was an absolute cracker.
It was hosted by the General Store - big thanks to Donna and Dennis- their back deck with a wood stove warming the chilly (November!) night provided a cosy space for the eleven of us to gather.
We were: Donna from the General Store, Nick, a local furniture maker and musician, Dusan, a sculptor and ex Olympic athlete, Brenda, who is also in chamber of commerce, Katie, a local gardener, mum and teacher, Bill, who also teaches and is an Australian baseball guru, Michael, our local holistic vet, Jane, a local who works from home and is also a keen gardener, Peter, an artist who has only recently moved to town, Tim, my husband who somehow manages to be a dad, welder, bicycle maker and criminal lawyer all at once and myself.

The evening was fairly simple, but structured. I led the beginning of the event - giving some background and more information about the problems of Peak Oil, Climate Change and the model for towns to 'transition' toward being better resourced and resilient locally.
We then broke into two groups to come up with ways in which Blackwood specifically would be affected. The ideas back from the group about the areas Blackwood was vulnerable were:
- Food : if food prices rise as well as petrol we will be hard hit having to drive out of town for groceries.
- Transport: some residents work in the city. School children, teenagers and the elderly are reliant on someone to drive them to where they need to be.
- Water: it was unclear exactly how this might be an issue but there was some concern given that a new sewerage scheme is proposed that will have the town reliant on outside infrastructure. Also it was felt that our dam is too small.
- Local Culture: both a need to raise awareness in the local culture and also a need for more local cultural activities.

After that we were going to do an exercise to brainstorm possible solutions, but everybody was way ahead of my plan- they had already done it as a natural response to the first task.
Some of the proposed ideas were:
- Local food co-op and/or a farmers market and food swap.
- Car pooling
- Re-establishing a local kinder
- Re-establishing some local control of forestry for heating and fire control
- A scheme for locals to get water tanks

There were many more ideas which we will follow up over the coming months.
The gathering concluded with a call for four people other than me to join the steering group and plan for how long we would lead it (The Transition Model suggests planning to hand over leadership at some point to keep the energy, share the load and give opportunities to new members).
I am pleased to announce that the lead team for Transition Town Blackwood for the next 12 months are: Nick Dear, Katie Hadwen-Beck, Michael Bascombe, Jane Howat and myself. Bill Wilson has offered to be a 'back up' leader should we need him and his 80 years of expertise.

Many many thanks to everyone who came along, told people about it, talked to me about it and supported us thus far.

Happy Transitioning,
Heather

1st Meeting Tomorrow Night!

After reading, learning, emailing and speaking with so many about a Transition Initiative in Blackwood we are finally having our first meeting.
The location (after a bit of to'ing and fro'ing) is now set at:

Blackwood General Store
Martin Street, Blackwood
7.30pm.
We'll have one hour of focused talk followed by food to share (so bring a plate) and conversation.

Look forward to seeing you all there!

Happy Transitioning,
Heather

Local Economy and Spreading the Word..

Last night I joined our local Chamber of Commerce group to share about Transition Blackwood, hear their initiatives and to look for ways to work together.
Listening to the talk around the group, I realised that we are experiencing a really burgeoning in Blackwood- so many exciting things are happening within our own town and with our neighbours in Trentham and Ballan.
First there was some discussion of a return of the Fiddlers Convention, which was relocated at the 11th hour to Blackwood last year and was a huge success. The natural beauty of Blackwood is one of the assets we shouldn't overlook when considering our local economy - marrying it with good music, with food and with a local welcome goes a long way to attracting visitors (and their dollars) to our town.
I wanted also to talk to the Chamber of Commerce about Trentham's community bank- but someone had already beaten me to the punch - they will be presenting to the Chamber of Commerce at their next meeting.
To top off a fantastic couple of days of Transitioning, I participated today as a marshal on the Special Schools Super Ride. This is an annual Blackwood event that sees over 100 children with special needs ride mountain bikes through the forest from Blackwood to Trentham.
Any able bodied adult who says they can't get on a bike because they are too old/tired/unfit should see these kids and get some inspiration. Rufus helped me wave them through the last bit of dirt track before heading to the BBQ lunch in town.
As it happened, Ruf fell asleep right before we reached our post and the only spot to park in the shade was on the verge of somebody's property. Country folk will notice a strange car on their lawn and wonder about it, so I popped through the gate and knocked on the door to let them know who I was and what I was about. It turned out the people who lived there are keen gardeners and one conversation led to another inevitably to Transition Towns. They were really interested and became even more so when I told them it had all started in Totnes where they are from. So there you go - we're living in a global economy and everything really IS connected.

Happy Transitioning,
Heather