Described as an ‘icon of the Australian conservation movement’, long time resident of Waterworks Community, Geoff Law, has been made an Order of Australia.
Anybody who knows Geoff accepts his natural leadership talents and superlative communications skills… and also his decades of commitment to the protection of natural areas.
In his other life Geoff is a well liked local identity who walks to school with the walking bus and entertains folks with his skillful racounteuring, only matched by son, Elliot.
This community is made up of a range of diverse personality types possessing many different skills, interests and occupations. And each person has a story to tell.
One of our valued community members is composer / musician Cary Lewincamp and there’s a nice story about Carey (and how he and his family accidentally fell into Waterworks Community) in the latest edition of RAC news. The story is about Cary himself, but it is also about the value of community.
Every year the Resource Work Coop (otherwise known as the Hobart Tip Shop) puts on a wonderful exhibition of artworks made from junk.
If you’re ever feeling arty, or just like to have a go at something new, why not exhibit a piece of your work?
The item at top left is a dog (named ‘canine control’), made by local resident Michael Harries and his friend Haki George for a previous Art-from-Trash exhibition. Other community members have also previously exhibited.
Art From Trash 2012, will be Saturday May 5 – May 20 at the Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre.(Deadline for new exhibits now closed.)
Peak Oil, Local Resilience and The Financial Crisis
A Public Lecture with Nicole Foss, co-editor of The Automatic Earth was hosted by UTAS Sustainability Unit 13 March at the Stanley Burbury Lecture Theatre.
[If you missed this event you may wish to listen to Nicole on local radio by clicking this link. A summary of her talk is HERE.]
Here’s an event that may inspire you.Visiting British activist, Adrian Porter, is to give a talk about how his home town of Totnes became the world’s first Transition Town.
7pm, Wed 8th February
Twin Ovals Function Centre,
Lightwood Dr (off Kingston View Dr),
Kingston
You’ll hear about the background of the Transition movement and also about the new Transition Streets Project.
Local Waterworks resident and long-term forest campaigner Geoff Law returned recently from an overseas working journey, visiting forests in other parts of the world.
For an interesting insight his essay The Tale of Two Forests makes a good read. Geoff is an able raconteur and writer.
(The essay is courtesy of the blog site of Miranda Gibson who climbed a rope to a platform on the top of the tree in the heart of the Southern Forests on December 14 and has vowed to stay until the forest is protected. Community members are urged to support her brave efforts.)
Waterworks Community produced this popular bumper sticker for Tasmania-wide distribution in 2009 and since then 2,000 of them have been distributed.
We’ve just had 2,000 more printed. We provide them at cost (35 cents each) and have no problem with them being sold in outlets for whatever price (normally $2).
So… if you know any ethical enterprise who would like to obtain some please let us know. The message seems to be very timely.
The ever popular Sustainable Living Expo is on again in November.
This year the show will feature a novel set of Q&A style discussions to explore opportunities and challenges for creating sustainable lifestyles and livelihoods in our Island State.
• What will Tasmania look like in 25 years?
• Our economy, community, and land use?
• How will we move around?
• How will we power our cities?
• What will we eat?
What question would you like to see put to the line up of prominant Tasmanians as they explore these questions and more? You can submit your question HERE.
Consider these facts:
The Great Wall of China was 9,000 kilometres long. Impressive? The total length of backyard fences in Australia = 750,000 kilometres. Average distance to the moon = 384,000 kilometres.
That’s enough fencing to go to the moon and back – and that’s an awful lot of timber and steel. Wooden ones age and have to be replaced every 25 years or so – and that’s an awful lot of trees that have to be cut down, year in and year out.
Is there a better way?
Well, imagine if just some of these unproductive fence lines were put to good use. Imagine if they could provide us with healthy food.
On Saturday Blake Newton went out for his daily walk and got lost.
Residents up and down the valley had got to know Blake, a gentle man who derived great pleasure from walking along the local tracks both here and on Mount Nelson.
As a dementia sufferer, communing with nature was Blake’s great pleasure in life. In his private world he related to plants, animals and children with obvious joy, and so it was that members of the community were saddened by his passing away on June 18.
Anybody who knows Geoff accepts his natural leadership talents and superlative communications skills… and also his decades of commitment to the protection of natural areas.
