Transition Bellingen publishes a monthly email newsletter.
To get your event listed, send details to amydenshire@gmail.com by the 20th of the month prior. We only send one newsletter per month (we do not send supplementary newsletters for news that arrives after the newsletter has been sent).
November 2014 Newsletter
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October 2014 Newsletter 2nd edition
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October 2014 Newsletter
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September 2014 Newsletter
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August 2014 Newsletter
This newsletter is sent out around the middle of the month. Items of interest can become available any time during the month and these will be included on our Blog and Facebook, as soon as they arise. Please keep an eye on these internet resources, details in right hand column.
Transition Bellingen Activities
Sunday 7 September
FREEMARKET will be held at the Bellingen Showgrounds 2-3pm
In addition to all the wonderful things to pick up, there is now a Food Table (mostly fruit ). Come and talk to David Pepper about his ideas on "Share Gardening and Harvesting" or ring him on 6655 0949
Saturday 13 September
Bellingen Seed Savers are preparing for the Bellingen Plant Fair on 13 September and packed more than 200 seed envelopes at a recent working bee. More will be done to ensure that locally acclimatised seeds can be distributed to the community on that day.
Save Some, Plant Some, Share Some. Heritage seeds for future health and survival.
Bellopy Markets have moved. Keep an eye on their Facebook for breaking news https://www.facebook.com/BellopyMarkets
October - Native Bee Workshop – under discussion, watch Blog and Facebook for details as they arise.
Other Groups Activities
Saturday 30 August -
FESTIVAL for our FUTURE at North Bank Community Gardens
This is an initiative of Bellingen youth. They created the idea during the YOUth LEADing the World (YLTW) Congress in Bellingen.
They invite the Bellingen community to join them in creating a FAIR FUTURE. The Festival will feature local FOOD, FUN and FOLKS from local sustainability organisations.
OzGREEN and the Northbank Community Garden are teaming up to support the young people who are driving the festival.
YLTW is an OzGREEN program that brings youth together to tackle wicked problems & create positive change. www.ozgreen.org
https://www.facebook.com/events/1395092400715626/?ref=22
From the Centre for Ecological Learning
Sunday 14 September -
"Create Your Own Permaculture Garden"
at Bellingen High School Community Gardens
You are invited to come along and get your hands dirty next month with our own local Permaculture consultant and expert, Charlie Brennan.
- Discover the practical skills of soil preparation and planting by creating a garden bed
- Learn how to make compost
- Learn about the people who inspired Permaculture
- Identify, use and cultivate useful plants for the garden
- Find out about different planting styles - backyard garden, market garden, food forest etc
When: Sunday, 14 September, 9am - 4pm
Where: Bellingen Highschool Community Garden
Cost: $60, morning tea included
Charlie has long-term experience in the design, teaching, research and implementation of Landscape, Permaculture, Edible Streetscapes and conservation projects. http://www.charliebrennan.info
For more information or to book for the workshop, please respond to this email
or contact Zoe on 0400 665 810.
Bower House –Reuse Centre
Hopefully you have already heard about the opening of the Bellingen Shire Council’s Bower House – a new reuse centre at Raleigh.
It has the most amazing “found object” sculpture created by Nick Warfield see photograph below.
Transition Network Newsletter for August 2014
Basically they have gone on holiday, but there is an interesting article on "celebration"
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/rob-hopkins/2014-07/transitioners-digest-july
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July 2014 Newsletter
Workshops
Renowned natural therapist, teacher and author
Pat Collins will share her wealth of experience
and vast knowledge , presenting
two workshops on 26 and 27 July
FREE Market
The July Free Market was held at the Bellingen Showgrounds
on Sunday 6 July and attended by nearly 60 people.
See photos on our blog http://transitionbellingen.blogspot.com
Transition Network News July 2014
for interesting stories
click on
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2014-06-09/june-2014-round-what-s-happening-out-world-transition
click on
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2014-06-09/june-2014-round-what-s-happening-out-world-transition
Bellingen North Bank Community Gardens
For details on renewing membership or supporting this amazing venture, have a look at our blog
http://transitionbellingen.blogspot.com.au/2014_07_10_archive.html
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June 2014 Newsletter
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May 2014 Newsletters
We need Transition now more than ever...what part will you take?
Come join us at our next PLANNING MEETING - NEXT THURSDAY, 29 MAY from 7:00-9:00 pm at the Bellingen Youth Hub (William St, Bellingen). We will be learning more about Transition Culture (see below) and also doing some hands-on Project Planning. This meeting is a follow on from last week's meeting, at which 12 enthusiastic people (some new, some old) shared and learned and planned together.
How is Transition like a cake?
(From www. transitionnetwork.org/
L et's be clear; there is no right way to do Transition.
Every initiative does it differently, and that’s part of the fun of the whole thing. Think of it like cooking. There are all kinds of amazing ingredients we can assemble in order to make, say, a cake, and the creation of every cook will be unique, reflecting his or her abilities and culture, and the local resources available.
At the same time, there are certain time-proven stages to successful cake baking. You can’t just put the flour in a bowl, throw in some butter, put it in the oven and expect a cake to emerge. That wouldn’t work at all.
Similarly, with Transition there are distinct stages the process goes through, from meeting equally enthused people and deciding to give Transition a go (‘Starting out’), to finding that you are now becoming a viable, vibrant project (‘Deepening’), then trying to broaden your engagement with the local community (‘Connecting’) and scaling up what you are doing in order to make localisation a reality on the ground (‘Building’). Lastly, there is a visionary, speculative stage of looking forward to how things might be if this happened everywhere (‘Daring to Dream’). That’s where things get really interesting.
Things are already interesting in Transition Bellingen....we are definitely in the "Building" phase. Come build with us! See you Thursday.
WHAT: You are invited to an important Transition Bellingen gathering this coming Thursday, 15 May - from 7:00-9:00 pm at the Bellingen Youth Hub (William St, Bellingen).
From 7:00-8:00 the focus will be on "Transition Culture" - who is Transition and how and why does it work? From 8:00-9:00 we will move into active planning mode.
WHY: Transition Bellingen has been going strong since 2009. And that is because there have been a lot of people putting the hard yards in. Right now, inspired by our latest workshops and all the ideas and projects that have come up because of them, Transition Bellingen is in need of people who are keen to take on some useful tasks - publicity, meeting facilitation, project planning, all that good stuff! If you are looking to do some good work with some great people for a meaningful purpose....COME ALONG to the gathering. If you can't make it but would still like to put your hand up for a task/job/project - contact us ontransitionbellingen@gmail.com.
And furthermore..
At the recent Economics of Happiness workshops, a small group of writers/editors was formed to create regular 'Strengthening Local Communities' articles for our local newspaper. The aim is to profile successful localisation initiatives and ideas from around globe and explore how they might be relevant to the Bellingen Shire. The next steps for this group are to work up some sample articles and approach the newspaper with the idea. Anyone interested in writing and/or editing for this group can contact Melissa via transitionbellingen@gmail.com.
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April 2014 Newsletter
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March 2014 Newsletter
Localisation: Coming soon to a town near you.
Thousands of people have protested over the past few days against what is happening in our country - and about too many issues to list here. It is so important that this outcry happened.....and now what?
The theory behind the film "The Economics of Happiness " is that the current global economic system is actually at the roots of our current social, environmental, and political crises: "Economic globalisation has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment" (from theeconomicsofhappiness.org)
But there is a hopeful solution. Helena Norberg-Hodge defines localization as "a systemic, far-reaching alternative to corporate capitalism.... .It’s simply about creating more accountable and more sustainable economies by producing what we need closer to home....at the deepest level, localization is about connection. It’s about reestablishing our sense of interdependence with others and with the natural world." (from the Economics of Happiness "study guide")
The Bellingen Shire is not new to the idea of localisation. Our radio station, 2BBB, has been around for years. We have an amazing array of local food initiatives. Localising energy, education, waste, commerce - all are topics that are getting a serious look at these days by a variety of groups and individuals.
TRANSITION BELLINGEN WANTS TO HELP TAKE THESE ACTIONS AND CONVERSATIONS FURTHER. Please come along to one of the "Economics of Happiness" workshops which will be taking place on Friday, 11 April, and Saturday, 12 April. Helena Norberg-Hodge will be our guest for the workshops, and they will include integrated discussion, experiential exercises, and a community forum that will help us all to create a clearer vision of how to move forward with the localisation of the Bellingen Shire. Email us at transitionbellingen@gmail.com to register for one of the workshops. Looking forward to seeing you there.
February 2014 Newsletter
Welcome to 2014 in Transition Bellingen!
“Economics of Happiness” made Bellingen happy!
It’s been two weeks since more than 250 people gathered at the Memorial Hall to view the film “The Economics of Happiness” and participate in the forum. But the ripples have yet to die down....We heard the event being discussed for days afterwards at coffee shops, birthday parties, the local swimming pool, and on 2BBB!
SO.... we have decided to “follow the passion” and have invited Helena Norberg-Hodge to return to Bellingen to run some “Economics of Happiness” workshops: two 2-day workshops – one on Thurs/Fri, 10-11 April, the second on Sat/Sun, 12-13 April. They would be based on the “knowledge into action” model – and would weave academic with experiential. Helena requested some feedback in regard to interest......so can you please EMAIL US ATtransitionbellingen@gmail.com IF YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING ONE OF THE 2 DAY WORKSHOPS?
What else is happening in 2014?
MONTHLY TB EVENTS: We will be continuing with a Transition Event on the last weekend of every month. The March event will be a Picnic (stay tuned for details!) - WHO WANTS TO PLAN THE APRIL EVENT or any month after that? It could be a Forum, a Film Night, a World Cafe, or whatever. We will support you with whatever idea you have - if you have a great idea but no time for planning, share the idea with us anyway!
TB PROJECTS: The following projects have some energy and people behind them already (some are new, some are continuing....) Contact the facilitator directly if you would like to be involved.
Bellingen “Lovingkindness” Picnic Day – Jaki (nevernever00@gmail.com)
Freemarket – Nina Hogel (transitionbellingen@gmail.com)
Divestment from Fossil Fuels Campaign – Miriam (miria-s@hotmail.com
Community Car Sharing – Linda (lindacdalton@gmail.com)
People Skills Training – Frances (amaroux@me.com)
Bellingen Community Enterprises - Gull (gulljh@gmail.com)
Cooperative EcoVillage – Alon (alonzi_66@hotmail.com)
Transition Bellingen Forums – Transition Bellingen MOB (Management of Business) group (transitionbellingen@gmail.com
The following ideas got a lot of support, but no one put their hand up at the meeting to lead them......if YOU would like to facilitate, knowing you already have lots of support, contact us!
Gifts/skills trading website using asset register.
Hovercrafts
“2030 The Musical”
Music festival
Revisioning 2020-2030
Working bees around town
Reskilling workshops
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November/December 2013 Newsletter
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October 2013 Newsletter
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August 2013 Newsletter
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July 2013 Newsletter
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June 2013 Newsletter
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May 2013 Autumn Newsletter
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February 2013 Newsletter
Hello People
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Gifts/skills trading website using asset register.
Hovercrafts
“2030 The Musical”
Music festival
Revisioning 2020-2030
Working bees around town
Reskilling workshops
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November/December 2013 Newsletter
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October 2013 Newsletter
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August 2013 Newsletter
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July 2013 Newsletter
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June 2013 Newsletter
View it in your browser.
Transition Bellingen News for June 2013
To repeat ourselves from last month ....we are now trialing a periodic newsletter, comprised of news about Transition Bellingen's activities, projects, and affiliates, plus some other interesting and thought-provoking items that are related to our most beloved of topics - how to Transition our community (and country and planet) towards a sustainable, resilient, and planet-loving way of life.Let us know what you think! We love positive feedback and constructive criticism - that is how we learn and grow. And please share this with anyone and everyone - the more people along for the ride, the better.
TRANSitionFORUM on 30 June: What's up with our waste?
Last month we held our first TRANSitionFORUM....and it was great. There were about 30 people attending, many of them new faces to Transition, and lots of friendly familiar faces as well. The screening of the new film "In Transition" (about the international Transition movement) was well received and paved the way for an interesting discussion about where Transition Bellingen is today, six years after it began. We also got updates about our current Transition Bellingen projects from the people who are running them - it was a great sharing.
Towards the end of the event, the discussion turned towards planning... YES - everyone agreed that we should continue with the Forum format, YES - everyone thought Sunday afternoons were good, and that monthly is appropriate, and it should be on the LAST SUNDAY of each month for ease of remembering. And YES it would good to introduce different topics......and then quite quickly, we decided on WASTE for the next topic.
SO.......come on down NEXT SUNDAY, 30 JUNE, from 3:00-5:00 pm at the Uniting Church Hall, to hear about Waste in the Bellingen Shire. This will include:
* Panel on the "Wonderful World of Waste" with Councillor Dom King, Wayne Wadsworth from "Waste to Wealth", and Daan Schiebaan, who works as the Manager for Sustainability and Natural Resources at BSC.
* Open Space discussion and sharing of ideas on the topic.
* Afternoon tea - contributions of baked goods welcomed!
* Child minding available - just let us know if you want to use this service
Other Transition Initiatives are "doing waste" too......
According to the Transition Network website (transitionnetwork.org), other Transition initiatives around the world have some interesting projects going on the topic of "Waste". Closest to home, Kyneton Transition Hub (in Victoria) has just run a successful biochar workshop (kynetontransitionhub.com). In the UK, Transition Honiton has set up a dedicated "Transtion Waste Group" to research the topic in their town. Transiton Hythe has a monthly beach cleaning initiative. And Transition Brighton has just started a "Repair Cafe" where everyone gets together to fix stuff (brightonrepaircafe.wordpress.com). Transition in Holland really loves the idea of "Repair Cafes" too - it seems to be quite the cultural phenomenon - check out their website (repaircafe.nl).....although the English translation is sometimes a bit rough, you can still get the idea!
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May 2013 Autumn Newsletter
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February 2013 Newsletter
Hello People
Apologies for there being no Newsletter from us this Friday. David's computer is in hospital!
Hopefully
it will be cured by next week, but in the meanwhile here are a few of
the main events we have been asked to tell you about
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Eco Centro
”Biochar may represent the single most important initiative for
humanity’s environmental future”
Tim Flannery
Do We Have
What It Takes to Make it Work Here?
Last
winter Wayne ‘Wadzy’ Wadsworth proposed ‘Eco Centro’ for Bellingen as the basis
of his Mayoral campaign. Subsequent
conversations have indicated a growing interest in what he is proposing… so
we are holding a public meeting on
Wednesday
20th February
at No. 5 Church St
to discuss what it would take to make it
work here
Our Shire Councillors along with Council Managers and
Officers have been invited (please add your encouragement to inspire them to
attend). The project is consistent with the aims of the Community Strategic
Plan.
This
project has not been done anywhere in Australia in it’s entirety, though
Ballina Shire is now converting to a ‘waste-to-energy’ biochar system.
Government and private funding may be available. The biggest piece of the picture
would be to turn the Sewage Treatment Plant into a green electricity generator,
which would turn the waste into energy using a gas turbine (similar to what is
done with Sydney water). The treated water at the STP would be used to feed a
bamboo/hemp plantation, which, along with Bellingen’s green waste, could be
used to make biochar and green energy. The c50 acres of land surrounding the
STP could provide the space for production of all of the energy that our town
needs via Solar, Biogas and the making of biochar*. [*As the bamboo/hemp grows,
it takes up carbon and through pyrolysis (baking, not burning) this carbon is
made stable (sequestered)and can be used to enhance the soil, effectively
removing it from the atmosphere]
Wed 20th February
at No. 5 Church St -- 7:15 pm meeting start
Come early for dinner
please
RSVP by 14 Feb
to register for the $18pp Vegetarian Buffet option
**Email vparkes@westnet.com.au to RSVP
or ring Vicki on 6655-9715 and leave a message**
Bellingen Environment Centre’s AGM
on Tuesday 12th Feb at 5.30pm
Bellingen Showground Luncheon Pavilion
"Supporting Sustainable Industry"
Presenting speakers from 'Hemp Creative'
Sonya Kumar and Steve Henderson
Refreshments
0409 996423
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‘BELLOBAMBOO’ FUTURE
Thursday 14th February
No 5 Church Street
5 – 6pm
FREE Info session – for bamboo grove owners and bamboo
enthusiasts – talking about bamboo trends, presentation of great examples
happening in the world. Q & A about how to deal with running bamboo and
maintaining clumping groves and what’s coming up (courses, initiatives,
projects)
and, if you haven't seen this already...
A petition re Bridgeless Brierfield at -
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Have a good week!
All the best,
Fiona
(for Transition Bellingen)