Volunteers: Ann

Ann retired to Hervey Bay nearly 10 years ago and lives at Burrum Heads.

It has always been my intent to ‘tread lightly on the earth’ and try to live sustainably. With more time in retirement, I am able to fulfill my dream.

Ann generates more electric power than she uses through photo voltaic cells on her roof to get a rebate of about $125 on each quarterly power bill, and has a solar powered water heater. She harvests rain water and has a 54,000 litre in-ground storage tank. When the house was built, a waste water treatment plant was also installed to treat grey and black waste water, recycling the clean water back onto the garden, which is supplemented by a dam on the property. Ann grows her own fruit & veggies and makes her own compost.

By living sustainably myself, I hope to provide an example and thus encourage and increase the number of people who live more sustainably. My daughter runs our chooks nearby and I have always cycled until prohibited by a slight stroke 7 years ago.

In September 2009 Ann organised the Sustainable House Day in conjunction with Transition Towns Hervey Bay, with her house being one of the three open to the public.

Volunteers: Bev

Bev has been a registered Homoeopath for 30 years and runs a successful clinic in Torquay. Prior to that Bev lived in Sydney doing the same thing, only more so.

Bev is motivated to participate in Transition Town Hervey Bay through environmental concerns, ETS, carbon reduction, sustainability, connecting with like minded people and wanting to make a difference.

Read a feature article about Bev’s sustainable house here.

Volunteers: Cecile

Cecile is a translator and French language trainer based in Maryborough, where she is the owner of Eco Queenslander, an historic and sustainable holiday house and bed & breakfast. Guests are encouraged to be conscious of the environment. Click here for more information about Eco Queenslander.

Motivated to join Transition Town Hervey Bay because she is passionate about sustainable living, Cecile is willing to learn more and to help encourage the public to become responsible citizens of the planet.

Volunteers: Christel

Christel got her love of gardening and growing things from her German parents, who had a “fruit salad” soldier settlers’ block in the Riverland of SA.

Continuing on with studies and a career encompassing agriculture, horticulture, weed control, natural resource management and adult education and training throughout Australia, Christel has returned to Hervey Bay and joined like-minded people in Transition Town Hervey Bay, Transition Town Gardeners, Friends of the Vine Forest and the River Heads Reserve Community Group.

I think that doing what you believe in and acting locally is really important and can influence the bigger issues we all face. So recycling, composting, and growing a bit of our own food means a lot to me.

Christel has been strongly influenced by James Lovelock (Gaia Hypothesis), Peter Cundall, Esther Dean (No Dig Garden) and Peter Andrews (Natural Sequence Farming) but struggles to see the importance of weeds in all environments! Old books by John Seymour, Stirling Macaboy, Richard St Barbe Baker, Jackie French, and even Don Burke line her bookshelves, though nowadays Christel prefers to borrow heavily and recommends the Transition Town resource shelf at the Hervey Bay public library.

There’s a little green book published last year called The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Kukuoka, which provides an interesting insight into not only Japanese agriculture on the scale of our own suburban backyards, but also ideas and principles that link in with permaculture and natural sequence farming. Interestingly enough, this work was first published in 1975!

Volunteers: Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a sustainability consultant by day (www.tonycharters.com) and a Latin dance instructor by night (www.dancefix.net). She moved to Hervey Bay two years ago for a sea change and is keen to do what she can to help promote sustainability in the region she now calls home.

Liz has a doctorate in sustainability and has worked as a lecturer at Griffith University in Environmental Science and Planning; in the Cities for Climate Protection Program in Local Government; and as a sustainable tourism advisor for state government. For the last five years she has been Director of Consulting for a small company that focuses on all aspects of sustainable tourism.

Aside from being a ‘professional greenie’ I’ve been running my own latin dance studio for over 10 years – which is much more fun ? – and have been busily retrofitting my little shack with solar hot water, water tanks, insulation, native gardens and energy efficient lighting and appliances.

Aside from this, I try to keep my carbon footprint pretty small by working from home, walking a lot, carpooling and buying local where possible….and I’m a vego. There’s always more to do of course and the veggie garden and some chooks are next on the list…..

Jennifer

Jennifer has been dabbling in horticulture since the age of four. She managed a nursery in Brisbane with her husband for four years, studied horticulture and is still addicted to propagating and growing edibles.

In June 2009, I set up the Hervey Bay Seed Savers and am presently editor for the Fraser Coast sub-tropical fruit club. I’m also an artist, specialising in portraits of pets and people in my family. We live on ¼ acre at Urangan which has been planted up with over 40 fruit trees. Our family consists of five children who are all grown up and now living out and four grandchildren.

What drives me is that I have an intense desire to teach as many people as possible to grow their own food. I also want to populate our Bay with as many edible plants as possible, hence the ongoing propagating. I think it’s incredibly important in our unstable times to have security as far as food and water goes.

At home we are in the process of installing solar power this year, as well as a second rain water tank. Our eventual goal is to have a hybrid car and run it from the solar power. We have chooks, a native bee hive and a huge vegetable garden plus the fruit trees.

Volunteers: John

For some time now retiree John Parsons has been concerned that the world has not been going into the right direction environmentally. He believes that everybody’s small contribution can make a difference.

Living in a low set home in Urraween, with wife Trudy and their little friend Ashley (the Chihuahua), John has modified his house with the following environmental contributions:

• Installed solar hot water, together with 1kw solar grid (first year’s saving was $700 on power), had the roof insulated with cellulose fibre, installed a whirly bird in the roof, and changed all light bulbs to the CFLS. Lifestyle modifications have included using a front load washing machine and cooking with a bench top oven.
• The garden and veggie patch is self sustaining with many plants requiring minimal watering and a small water tank harvests rain water for the garden.

In September 2009, John and Trudy participated in the Sustainable House Day and opened their house for interested people to take a look.

One of my motivations was to be within a group of similar minded people such as Transition Town Hervey Bay, and as a group I felt we could offer advice and show examples of how the community can improve and change to better their ideas concerning the environment.

Volunteers: Judi

Judi has been a Homeopath for 25 years, working in a Sydney clinic prior to making a lifestyle change by moving to Hervey Bay in 2000 and starting a clinic here.

A desire to meet like minded people and to learn new skills in becoming more self sufficient promoted Judi to join Transition Town Hervey Bay.

We built a self-sufficient house with solar hot water, solar panels for electricity, rain water tanks, and we grow a lot of own fruit and vegetables, as well as composting and recycling.

You can find out more about Judi’s sustainable house here.

Volunteers: Linda

Linda is a minimalist, believing that material things have no value, so she has chosen to live in a small, north-facing, one-bedroom house in Scarness. Making the house sustainable has seen her install solar power, solar hot water and rain water tanks.

After first hearing about permaculture in Adelaide, Linda has been practicing it since the 70’s. She enjoys connecting with like minded people who can see that we are destroying the earth and wants to make other people aware of the problem so that we can turn the trend around.

I am heavily into recycling, and often check out skips when passing on my moped – my knees and cycling don’t agree anymore, so the moped is the next best way to get around Hervey Bay.

Now in her 60’s, Linda had a nursing career covering neonatal intensive care, aged care, and palliative care, from an eye theatre in London to remote area nursing in the Kimberleys. She has a son and daughter and 2 granddaughters.

Volunteer: Maggie

Maggie works part time and is happily married with two teenage children. She lives only 6 km from her work and occasionally cycles in, but has great intentions of cycling more often! ^_^

In 2008, Maggie founded Transition Town Hervey Bay (TTHB).

The Transition Town initiative gives us a pathway to take huge problems that are so daunting that even Governments are having difficulty dealing with them, and to translate the problem into small, local actions that everyone can help with. You focus on your town in the knowledge that there are Transition groups in towns all over the world doing exactly the same thing. In this way, eventually every town, and ultimately the planet will become greener.

During the second half of 2010, Maggie will step back from TTHB and aims to start formalising the knowledge that she has with the Diploma of Sustainability and possibly further study in 2011. This will enable her to assist her workplace with sustainability progress.

Photo: Maggie with Senior Research Scientist, Lukas Van Zwieten at Wollongbar Agricultural Institute, the NSW Department of Primary Industries Centre of Excellence for the Environment. He explained the work that he was doing on biochar and gave Maggie a tour.

Volunteers: Matt

Matt is a Sustainable Industries consultant and organic entrepreneur living in Point Vernon for the last two years, calling Kingaroy, Brisbane and Gladstone home previously.

Matt sees that Hervey Bay has the opportunity to learn from South East Queensland issues, and sees Transition Town Hervey Bay as leading the way

My passion for everything organic, the benefits of organic (environmental AND our health!) and how this applies locally, sharing my expertise and experience with the TTHB team and wanting to make a difference has seen me participate in Transition Town Hervey Bay activities such as the Energy Descent Action Plan, the Pigeon Pea gift, and the community garden.

I have become a green thumb, am now an organic raw vegan, and ride the pushy to work! Next steps are selling the car, and making some changes around the house for lowering our energy use!

Volunteers: Sara

Sara is a passionate permaculture teacher and this year hopes to complete her Diploma from the Permaculture Institute. She is also a trained vet nurse, aromatherapist, herbalist and advanced flower essence therapist.

Sara runs her own business called Permagaia which incorporates pet care services, massage therapy and the sale of ethical pet and new age products.

And if Sara looks a little bit familiar, cast your mind back to Dr Chris Brown and the Channel 10’s 2009 Bondi Vet show – you might just have seen her there!

Read a feature article about Sara’s Permaculture courses here.