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Proposed Otway / Surf Coast Eco Arts Community

A group of Geelong and Surf Coast residents who are friends or members of GSG are in the process of exploring and planning a sustainable community of some sort. It's in the early stages and you are welcome to join us. Information will be posted here to keep people updated. For our next get together we are planning a presentation by Perry Mills for early Nov as he's prepared a document exploring many aspects in depth.

Contact "Tabitha Lowdon" <tabitha_inbox@bigpond.com>

14 November 2008

Dear Eco Villagers

We had an excellent meeting last Saturday. The number of attendees was less than we were hoping for (35 people) but the turnout was good when considering the number of other events on that day. We were spoilt with great home made soup, Zeally Bay Sourdough breads, wonderful music by Sirens Bluff and the presentation of truly excellent information by Perry Mills and Mark Chesterfield. Also, thanks to Surf Coast Shire and the Anglesea Community Bendigo Bank for covering hall hire costs. Thank you also to McGain's Nursery for donating the door prize. Attendees came from an area between Anglesea, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. A few people came from Melbourne.

Perry spoke about philosophies and practicalities of ecovillages and highlighted some of the challenges and solutions in setting up and designing ecovillages. Fortunately there has been a lot of progress in establishing processes to set up ecovillages in the last few years. Ecovillages are inherently more complex than standard housing developments and these new processes greatly improve the chance of success. Perry showed us different maps of existing eco-communities, giving us the chance to see what was possible and create ideas. Perry created a draft Strategic Plan for the development of an ecovillage in the Surf Coast Shire. We will be building on this Strategy and the final copy will be used as a template to create a community. Our work to date will complete Perry's Strategy and we will have completed step one in the creation of our community.

Mark is a planner from the City of Greater Bendigo and has focused a lot of his attention to the development of ecovillages and sustainable living. Mark presented us with an excellent synopsis of how planning law limits the location and design of ecovillages. Not only did he show us the constraints of planning law he also showed us many doors and avenues that will make the development of an ecovillage easier. Mark has made his services available to us as we progress through the stages of creating our community. Thanks a lot Mark.

An important feature of both Perry's and Mark's presentations was to follow as established process in setting up an ecovillage. To use Mark's comment, don't set your heart on a particular piece of land and have it shattered when planning law prohibits the creation of your community. Plan ahead. Work with the laws. There is some room for movement within the laws and the laws vary between Shires. Develop the community intent / purpose and then tailor fit it to the land; put the walls up before you build the roof. Another important feature of the talks was that planning law varies between Shires and that some Shires may be more supportive than others. For example, Corangamite Shire has projected population decrease and may be more willing to support a community than the population pressured Surf Coast Shire. Colac-Otway Shire sits somewhere in between.

Setting up ecovillages can take between 2 and 10 years, with these figures being a rough range. Communities are often formed during the early to half way mark of this time period; 3 - 6 years. Perry has worked on his Strategy over the space of four years. Mark has been researching ecovillages for at least three years and has practical experience living in eco-communities. I have made investigations into setting up a community during the last three years and visited a few communities. Other members of the group have committed similar amounts of time to the investigation and actual living in ecovillages and communities of sorts. Members of the core group are all passionate and knowledgeable. Collectively we have enough experience to make this ecovillage happen in record time. The main tasks we have to do now are:

#1
I want to distribute a summary of information gathered from the November 1st meeting at Bellbrae Hall. This summary will be supported with weblinks and information that you can research and gain more ideas on what you want from an ecovillage. A short while after we will send you another weblink to an online survey, as described above.

#2
Build up the base of people interested in living in our community. Get people's details and include them in our newsletters. Send their detals to Tabitha at the email address at the end of this letter. Spread the word (see #4 task below!).

#3
Create an online survey to harness potential ecovillage residents' ideas, wishes and capabilities to both live on an contribute to a community. When the information from the survey is compiled we will be able to create a common vision and then start the process of developing a community. In the meantime;

#4
TALK UP THE COMMUNITY. TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES. SEND THEM THE WEBLINKS YOU RECEIVE FROM US (if they're interested). INVESTIGATE ECOVILLAGES AND COMMUNITIES. SPREAD THE WORD. GOSSIP. VISIT COMMUNITIES. GET AS MANY IDEAS AS YOU CAN AND SPREAD THE WORD AS FAR AS YOU CAN. THE MORE INFORMATION WE GET THE BETTER YOUR COMMUNITY WILL BE - SPREAD THE WORD. GET AND GIVE IDEAS TO AND FROM PEOPLE.

I want to give a big thank you to those members of our core group who helped with the cooking, preparation, clean up and door reception. We are experiencing the early moments and rewards of working as a community. Washing dishes has rarely been so rewarding (though personally I didn't do many).

Tabitha and I are experiencing a high workload at the moment and this is making it difficult to get a summary of the day's proceedings sent to you all. Please be patient. I don't want to miss any important steps. If you can help with typing and transcribing the audio recording of the day please let us know by either calling me on;

0406 050 240 - Justin
or
emailing Tabitha at tabitha_inbox@bigpond.com

Thanks again to attendees, helpers and presenters for a great meeting last Saturday.

Justin and Tabitha.

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