One thought I had on resources - I need my ute - but not often. I have thought about share owning it.  Would have to have levels of trust and rules of management, but thats easy to work through. Any thoughts?

Ian Fletcher at 183

Come to the Sustainable Home Expo…. it’s on 1st week-end of November.

Green technologies, ideas, contacts, interesting talks… or just a place to catch up with friends.

Local ’sustainable commmunities’ have now set up in West Hobart and in the Channel area. We can learn from them as much as they can learn from us. And we can collaborate on some things.

Click HERE to visit West Hobart’s site.

Note that this group has set up three sub-groups: Home Energy / Gardening / Transport. What do people think about us doing similar?

Car pooling is one sustainability activity that is best facilitated via the Internet.

There are fantastic carpooling sites in various places in the world, and Tasmania now has its own — thanks to the energy of Georgi from ‘Off The Grid’.

The online carpooling site offers an easy-to-use search engine that can automatically connect frequent commuters but also caters for transport when special events are on — such as festivals and sporting events.

The ‘Off The Grid’ online service has now started up. Go to their website to join or find out more.

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 In the last month or so we have seen a large number of dead animals on the road. We have tried to keep a record because of our own interest in the wildlife of the valley and to raise awareness of another of the dangers from driving too fast along Waterworks Road. We are fairly certain that the wallaby numbers (5 in one month) are much higher than normal because of the dry conditions. The wallabies hide on the upper slopes of Tolman’s Hill in the daytime and at night cross the road to drink in the creek and get access to the green grass near the creek. We would estimate that there were (before the last killing spree) between 15 and 30 wallabies which come down from Tolman’s Hill every night. The bettongs seem to do the same although they are much less common.We are keen to keep an informal tally of the road kill as a way of monitoring the wildlife population in the valley.The data would also be interesting if we ever get speed humps or other speed reduction devices in the valley.If anyone sees dead animals along the road we would appreciate an email: Simply email Sebastian or Ruth  

Hobart council organised a meeting last week to discuss the traffic calming measures planned for Waterworks Rd. About a dozen Ridgeway residents and two members of the Waterworks Valley community (Steph and Trish) attended; Ald Ron Christie chaired the meeting and Deputy Mayor Eva Ruzika and Ald Elise Archer were also present, as well as Leon Parker, from Hobart Council’s Road Services. 

We attended  mainly to reassure Ridgeway residents that Waterworks Community was not trying to create and ‘us-vs-them’ situation, and that we weren’t blaming the problems we experience with the road on Ridgeway residents. We also wanted to make it clear that our request for traffic calming was driven by concern for the safety of all road users including, of course, those from Ridgeway. Continue reading →