Energy prices are due to rocket within 5 years and this will place immense hardships on not only the Tasmanian economy, but on communities and individuals. Simply put: We Are Not Ready!

With this in mind, Waterworks community members are invited to a stimulating workshop to explore this theme – with people from other sustainable communities.

Please do join us. Download flyer HERE for details and how to register. And please do pass on to others who may be interested.

Problem is that our urban car culture is so strong that most of us are used to jumping into cars without thinking – and are not in tune with our own bus services.

To make it easier, make these two links ‘favourites’ in your browser.

Huon Rd Timetable
Dynnyrne Timetable

Conveniently, when you go to these links the very next bus going along that route will be highlighted.

(For those who don’t use computers much, you can print out each route on an A4 page and pin it up in a convenient location.)

Grand broccili: Since the floppy fence was installed the night time raids have almost stopped – or maybe it’s just that the perky onion and garlic sprouts don’t appeal!

Floppy fence

Here’s the onions getting Jonah’s special mix from a special pixie:

The compost made in mid winter is ready for turning.

The horse poo, goat poo, and vegetation cake - just asking for a mix up.

With digging and watering the soil has come a long way in many of the beds – from huge hard clods to pretty friable soil.

Cloddy bed

This time last year the digging was mercilessly heavy but now in the dry dry dry, the sprinkler has been working well to soften the ground a little before digging.

Fairly friable bed

If we are to take up the  kind offer of transferring mature blackcurrant bushes to the community garden, holes need to be dug along the north-eastern boundary, and the plants pruned and dug up for transfer.

So if anyone feels like some exercise in the next week or two please feel free to pitch fork the compost, or dig holes for currants.

The next big planting job – Nicola potatoes – will be in mid October. We’ll let you know which weekend.  There is often someone at the garden on Saturday mid afternoons and Mondays middle of the day (and any other time it takes your fancy).

Chris & Carol's splendid Wom Bok et al

Jonah watering in the fertilizer

Thank you to everyone who turned up to make the Sunday afternoon Street wall painting a wonderful and fun event. We counted 20 adults, 7 younger and 7 small children taking part throughout the day. We had a great time.

Have a look at the wall. It’s very colorful and inspirational. Many cars passed by and slowed down to find out what was going on. It’s all about raising awareness to look out for each other on the road, share the space and make it safer for everyone to use. (Click continue reading for more pictures.)

Hopefully this can be an ongoing event ( I will keep you posted). There are so many stretches of wall potentially to cover.

It’s all about keeping it changing so people notice it. That is the beauty of chalk.

At one stage we can also consider a permanent painting. For now I think it’s fun to meet as community and fill the streets with life. Changing art work or any other display in front of houses will raise awareness to perceive the street as a shared space (tables, chairs, sculptures, plants).

Hope to see some new faces next time or grab some chalk and be creative on the way to school. Or organize your own creative afternoon with friends on the weekend. Don’t forget to knock on our door too. love Dorka and family

One important footnote about safety for future events:

Please do not draw on the road because, although we are trying to make the street a safer space it actually is a dangerous place and drawing on the road can send the wrong message to children.

Dorka @101

We are compiling a list of such resources. Meanwhile try the following (South Hobart area):

Andrew Doube
Home assessment, retrofit planning and installations.
Ph 0429 015 371

Myles Griffiths
Smithy’s Handyman Service
Ph: 6224 3357
Mob: 0439 882 357

Patric Collin
Mob: 0408 236 935

Daniel Tardy & Cathryn Wynn-Edwards
Small weatherproofing / landscaping jobs etc
Mob: 0415 696 323

When: Tuesday evening July 27th at 8pm
Where: at Dave and Jo’s place, 152 Waterworks Rd.

Little do most people know how much energy is lost from them and how easy it is to cut back on those totally unnecessary losses.

So…. how much heat is being lost? Download our information summary HERE.

When: 25th of July (last Sunday of this month), 1.30pm.
Where: In front of Dorka’s house, 101 Waterworks Road
What: Turn the wall into a colorful space around the theme “the street is there for everyone to share”

Bring your whole family, friends, children…chalk will be provided for a gold coin donation or alternatively bring your own.

No artistic skills required. Just come along, have some fun and get to know your neighbours!

If you are more ambitious and have a design in mind, sketch it on paper and put a grid over it (using rectangles 2cm by 4 cm) as the wall provides a natural grid with the bricks being 20cm by 40cm each. That way it is pretty easy to transfer a design to the wall.

We can start with the wall in front of our house and depending on how many enthusiastic hands turn up we can expand to the huge stretch of wall along Waterworks 109 walking towards the WW Reserve.

What’s the idea?

The inspiration for a street wall painting day came from a book I read, from David Engwicht “street reclaiming, creating livable and vibrant communities” .

He describes how once the street used to be more of a shared space to meet, to play and to celebrate. It was used by people, children, bikes, horses, cars alike. Nowadays streets are considered to be a space for cars only and a dangerous place for everyone else including animals. Climate change being the main challenge of our times, many people aim to reduce their use of cars, walk more, bike more and focus more on local community life. The street is becoming more of a shared space again.

A shift in our awareness needs to happen, to make the street a safer, more inviting space for everyone again, where we consider others and where we meet, play and experience community. In his book he calls this process “psychological reclaiming of the street”. The book is worth reading, available at the state library and full of great, fun ideas. Painting the walls can be one little step to build that awareness as well as building community.

Please don’t feel you have to share the above views to come along. Just wanting to have some fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon is all that is needed. Hope to see many faces (new and old).

Dorka @ 101

And that leaves just the walls. And we don’t know what to do!

That’s because walls are hard to get at.

Now Waterworks Community has produced a ‘How to insulate the walls of your home’ guide for those who are keen to have a go. You can download it HERE.

If you haven’t undertaken this household survey yet then you can still do it.

This is part of our Climate Connect project (understanding the barriers to taking action on climate change) and is now being undertaken statewide.

We’ve had tremendous feedback from this exercise, many people find it very very beneficial for themselves.

Click here to take the survey. It takes about 20 minutes to complete.