Hi everyone,

Just a quick reminder that there’ll be a potluck lunch in the front yard of [address now deleted], Coburg, this Sunday 3 February, from 12pm-2pmish. After or during the meal we should find time to talk about Transition projects for the year ahead and hopefully (for those interested) build a raised garden bed for our kind hosts, Ilana and Anton. The day will be weather dependent as it will be taking place outside, so if its raining, we’ll have to have a rain-check. Hope to see some of you on Sunday.

Also, there’re lots of ‘community engagement’ meetings organised by Moreland Council in coming weeks and months. The details are at the link below for those interested and able to attend: http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/about-moreland/community-plan-2025/participate-community-plan.html

Finally, late last year we posted about Local Organics, which is a supplier of local, organic food to Coburg and some surrounding suburbs. (Anna from Transition Coburg has independently sampled their vege-boxes and reports that they are fresh and good value). Local Organics have sent the following information which outlines their great service:

Hi folks,

As mentioned in the last post, we’ve been organising a get together and now have the details. On Sunday the 3rd of February there’ll be potluck lunch in the front yard of 9 McPherson Street, Coburg (off Reynard Street), between 12pm and 2pm-ish. It will be casual affair. Bring a plate if you can, but if you can’t get organised enough, come anyway. No problem, there’ll be enough to share. Thanks to Ilana and Anton for hosting!

This afternoon of 3 Feb will give us an opportunity to discuss some projects for the year ahead, and hopefully meet and greet some new faces. As always, everyone’s welcome. After the meal, we plan to build a tidy, raised bed, and if there is time get our hands dirty in the garden elsewhere. Coburgablitz #2! If you’re not into building garden beds, just come for the meal and conversation.

Finally, Moreland Council is currently consulting the public about nature strip gardening. Please let your voice heard, by filling out this 1 minute survey here. On that link there is also info about a Moreland Council Community Meeting on 29th January for anyone interested.

I think that’s all for now. Hope to see some of you soon,

Cheers

Sam

Hi everyone, wishing a happy new year to you all. There’s been talk of catching up soon for a meal and a ‘visioning session’ for 2013, but the details are still being sorted out. More on that in a few days.

With Transition Coburg now one year old, the beginning of this New Year seems like a good time to take a moment to reflect on our achievements to date. We had our first formal meeting (which wasn’t particularly formal) just over 12 months ago, and were delighted when Rob Hopkins sent us a personal message of support. We did lots of brainstorming in the first meeting and it’s fantastic to have seen so many of those ideas come to fruition.

Here are the highlights:

Best of all, we’ve been the driving force behind establishing a Coburg Farmers Market, which is expected to get underway in February this year.

We’ve located and promoted a suppler of local, organic food, called “Local Organics.”

We got together for a Coburgablitz – here’s hoping there’s many more backyard (and front yard) revolutions year.

Some of our members are actively involved in our local Community Solar Project.

There’s been a submission made to the City of Moreland advocating more gardening in nature strips, and there’s even been some Guerrilla Gardening.

We’ve begun asset mapping Coburg.

We’ve shared inspiring stories and we showed “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil” at Coburg library, and later showed the film “Transition 2.0”.

We participated in the Greening Moreland Forum.

We promoted and some of us attended David Holmgren’s talk “Retrofitting the Suburbs” (a similar talk is available online here and his essay on the subject is freely available here).

We shared information on how to live more simply and use less energy and resources: The Simpler Way: A Practical Action Plan.

We held a visioning Day and Potluck Lunch.

We connected with Peppertree Place community garden, and had a Transition Coburg stall at Peppertree Place Annual Garden Fiesta, where Sallyrose gave a great talk about the Community Solar Project.

We offered a free tree Pruning and Compost Workshop.

We offered one answer to the question: “What is a Transition Town?”

We helped out with a Community Garden and Food Forest Working Bee

We organised for Adam Grubb, founder of the Energy Bulletin, to give a permaculture talk at Peppertree Place.

We helped promote and attended Mellow Music in the Park.

We’ve handed flyers out at several markets or festivals in Coburg, and mail dropped a couple of thousands flyers too.

We’ve also created a Facebook page and twitter account so that we can keep in touch online when we can’t make it to events.

Finally, we’ve collaborated with the Robinson’s Reserve Neighbourhood House in starting a “Makers and Menders” sewing class. More on this soon.

Most of these activities might seem small in isolation, but if we keep building on these types of things, and more people continue to get involved, then overtime we should be able to build a flourishing, inclusive, post-carbon economy from the grassroots up. Best of all, we can have a good time doing it! It will not always be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.

Thanks to everyone who has made Transition Coburg’s first year so successful.

Greetings all,

As the year comes to an end I am delighted to spread the unofficial news (uncovered by Wikileaks) that Transition Coburg has been the driving force behind establishing a Farmers’ Market in North Coburg! Rumour has it the first one is to take place in February 2013. More details will be provided as soon as they are available, but the long and short of it is that local food (to supplement our gardens) will soon be just around the corner.

Nat the Amazing deserves full credit for coordinating this extraordinary achievement. Go Nat!

Plans are forming for a January get together where we can begin planning to build on the fine and fun achievements of Transition Coburg’s first year (I’ll draft a “Year in Review” post shortly). Thanks everyone for your continuing support of Transition Coburg.

Happy and safe holidays,

Sam

Hi folks, just a quick note to bring to your attention a new way to get local, organic food – from a venture called “Local Organics.” I came across this food supplier on a poster while biking along the Upfield  bike path, and it looks great. (Just to be clear, I have no connection, financial or otherwise, with this business). Although based in Brunswick, they deliver to Coburg for a small fee (depending on where you are), or you can pick up your order from a ‘hub’ in Pascoe Vale South (no extra fee). For more information, see their website here and their contact information is here.

Globalised, industrial food production today is very carbon and pesticide intensive. If we are to transition to a post-carbon future, buying or producing local, organic food is one important piece in that complex puzzle. For those who cannot produce their own vegetables / fruit, Local Organics looks like a great supplier that deserves support.

So, if you have been looking for a supplier of local, organic food, check out Local Organics (and if you do order with them, please leave a comment below and tell us of your experience).

Finally, welcome to the new Transition Coburg subscribers who signed up at the Peppertree Place ‘Garden Fiesta’. And thanks to Ross and Claire for organising such an amazing and inspiring day.

More soon no doubt…
Sam

Hi everyone, just a quick reminder that Peppertree Place (512 Sydney Road) is holding its annual ‘Garden Fiesta’ this coming Saturday 10 November, from 10am – 4pm. They have kindly invited Transition Coburg to have a tent space, so if you are free on Saturday, please drop by and say hello. This is a great opportunity to support Coburg’s most beautiful community garden space.

Nothing formal is planned for Transition Coburg – we’ll just be handing out flyers, talking about our projects past, present, and future, and continuing to network with other local people. Hope to see some of you down there! Below I’ve posted a bit more information about the Garden Fiesta, including a list of some of the formal activities that have been organised.

Hi everyone,

It was very nice to see some of you down at Robinson’s Reserve on Sunday for a fantastic afternoon of mellow tunes. Great to see a community come together in this way. Many thanks to Greg for organising such a wonderful event. I’ve posted some photos below (courtesy of Ines – thanks Ines!). Thanks also to those who helped hand out flyers.

Next event: Peppertree Place is holding their Annual Garden Fiesta on 10th November and they’ve invited Transition Coburg to have a tent / stall on the day. Initial thoughts are to provide general information on Transition as well as provide snap shots of projects we have underway or intend to undertake in coming months. Would love to from people interested in being involved or helping plan the day.

If you would like to be involved in email discussions about planning this event, please send an email to samuelalexander42 at gmail dot com (changing ‘at’ to ‘@’ and ‘dot’ to ‘.’).

(We have created a “google group” which should make online discussions easier but I need to speak to Mel regarding how to send out invitations… I’ll look into this and advise on situation shortly). Cheers, Sam.

Greetings all,

Transition Coburg has been dropping ‘flyers’ in local letterboxes this week, trying to get the word out about our initiatives. Thanks to all those who have helped out – there may be more opportunities in the future. We’ve also been helping distribute flyers for the following event, which is taking place this Sunday 14 October.

The Robinson Reserve Neighbourhood House is putting together a free music event this Sunday afternoon (1pm-4pm) in Robinson’s Reserve, on the corner of Reynard Street and McPherson St, Coburg. There will be local musicians to entertain you with relaxing tunes. What better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon in Spring? Bring along a chair, tea, or picnic basket. The forecast is looking good.

Might see some of you down there!

Cheers,

Sam

P.S. We are encouraging folk to walk, ride a bike  or catch PT to the event. If you need to bring a car, please consider dropping people at the park and leaving the car a short walk away (we want to avoid clogged streets around the Robinson Reserve if we can).

Greetings all,

Hope this beautiful Spring weather is treating you all well. I’ve booked the Robinson’s Reserve Neighbourhood House this Sunday from 3pm-4.30pm for a catch up and planning session. Nat will be able to give us an update regarding progress on the farmer’s market, and perhaps we can have a chat about organising another Coburgablitz. If you have new ideas, bring ‘em to the table.

Also, we’ve got a few thousand flyers being printed which we hope to distribute over the next few weeks. If we could get 20 people to distribute 200 each, that should cover almost half of Coburgian households. At the meeting on Sunday we can work out a plan to avoid overlap in distribution. I’m guessing 200 flyers will only take a couple of hours to distribute, which shouldn’t be a chore on these Spring evenings. If you’re on the mailing list for Transition Coburg but haven’t come along to an event yet, this Sunday might be a great opportunity to get involved. As always, everyone’s welcome.

Hope to see some of you on Sunday at 3pm,

Robinson’s Reserve Neighbourhood House, 104a Reynard St, Coburg

Sam

Hi everyone,

Sunday’s first Coburgablitz was a resounding success! Thanks a million to everyone who came along. Trevor and Sallyrose, in particular, are incredibly grateful for all the hard work the team put in. Trevor writes: “I feel like in one day all the plans that Sallyrose and I had for the garden were fulfilled. Thank you so much guys and gals!!! We look forward to being involved in the other 999 blitzes!” That’s the spirit!

As the photos below show, there was a great transformation. We put in four new, no-dig beds – including one on the nature strip – and cleared several of the existing beds, preparing them for food production. The wood for the beds was recycled, having been sourced from the local salvage yard. With spring approaching fast, the potential of local food production has been greatly enhanced – and the entire process was a delight.

This, my friends, is what Transition Coburg is all about. Friendly folks coming together as a community and relocalising our economy for the good of all. All great journey’s begin with small steps.

Onwards!

Sam