An Intentional Urban village that is both environmentally and socially sustainable.
A village that promotes and supports a community composed of the young, the elderly and those inbetween.
Garry and Stina Kerans are the initiators of this fantastic forward thinking housing concept.
Regular evening talks/workshops at No.3 Young Street Queanbeyan will introduce the principles of an Intentional Urban Village – using Sun Village Queanbeyan as an example.
Stina is hoping you may be able to join in on one of three evenings, and bring any friends or family who may be interested. If you are getting on in years and considering your options for the future, this will be way better than any retirement village – come and find out why!
TIME: 5 pm on 24th,25th and 26th May 2011
The Aspect development (http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-nsw-queanbeyan-107227169) is the first buildings you come to when you cross the NSW/ACT border from Fyshwick. After the H.M.A.S. HARMAN traffic lights veer left onto Norse Road (the alternative route to Queanbeyan) You then have to enter the development via Young Street – the first street on the left.
If you come at around 5pm you can have a tour of the nearly completed 2nd stage, and the completed first stage of the development.
Please bring a plate to share.
Just like 40 percent, 350 parts per million is not just an important target, it’s an important opportunity. An opportunity for creativity, for equity and for community. On Sunday the 10th of October little sparks of a possible future will light up the globe as scores of ordinary people join together in over 6174 separate events in 184 countries for the 350.org global work party to celebrate climate solutions. Here in Canberra our recently announced 40% emissions reduction target gives us all the more reason to celebrate.
Running through the Inner North of Canberra lies Sullivans Creek. What was once a vibrant living waterway has been turned into an ugly concrete drain. But a series of planned wetlands along the creek are changing this well known eyesore into a dynamic green space which will improve water quality, provide habitats for a wonderful diversity of birds and create a friendlier and more inviting atmosphere for residents. Join us on a gentle bicycle tour of three of these new wetlands followed by a working bee at O’Connor community gardens. The abundance of green spaces in Canberra has always been one of the distinctive features of our city. Improving and upgrading these much loved spaces will be just one of the great opportunities that our 40 percent target presents. It was community action by ordinary Canberrans that led to these new wetlands and it will only be through community action that green spaces around Canberra will continue to be upgraded.
The tour will be leaving Lyneham shops at 10 minutes past 10 on Sunday 10/10/2010. We will be arriving at O’Connor Community Gardens (at the back of the Uniting Church on the corner of Jarrah and Brigalow St) around Noon. You are more than welcome to come for just the bike tour and skip the working bee or vice versa.
But wait, there’s more. Our friends at Climate Action Canberra are also hosting a forum on the topic Coal and climate change at 6.30-8.00pm on Monday the 11th of October in the Manning Clark Theatre at the Australian National University. With a host of interesting speakers this promises to be a cracker of a night.
Things are changing in this town of ours. It is up to all of us to seize the opportunities presented by the 40 percent target to make sure that we build on what we already love about our city.
From our friends at A Chorus of Women:
Call for singers for Floriade performances to change the climate
Rehearsals will recommence on Sunday 18 July (at the end of school holidays) for an extraordinary production which voices the deep concern in the Canberra community about the crisis of climate change.
We seek your help in filling The Museum of Australian Democracy in Old Parliament House with the sound of a big Chorus of Citizens.
We are preparing three performances during Floriade of ‘The Gifts of the Furies’, a dramatic story-song by local composer Glenda Cloughley about relations between people and Earth. Performances are on Saturdays 11th, 18th and 25th of September.
All voices are welcome. Basses and tenors are especially encouraged.
Please visit our website for details and background information. A commitment to rehearsals from 18 July would be needed – ask us for a rehearsal schedule. Experienced choristers who cannot commit to all rehearsals are encouraged to ring Johanna McBride (0402 050 885) to discuss their involvement.
Anyone interested is asked to make contact as soon as possible.
Email: chorusofwomen@incanberra.com.au
While we might have been a bit quiet of late, there’s been lots of action behind the scenes as a rising tide of proud local Canberrans get on board with our campaign. First up is the Southside community forum that will be held tomorrow, Tuesday the 13th of July at 7pm at St James Church, 40 Gillies St, Curtin. At the forum you will be able to put your questions and concerns directly to the environment minister, Simon Corbell, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Shane Rattenbury, as well as Caroline Le Couteur MLA and Amanda Bresnan MLA. The night will be hosted by See-Change and, if the Northside forum is anything to go by, will be a night not to be missed.
And if that wasn’t enough for you we have the grand finale in our series of forums coming up on the 29th of July which will be held in the Legislative Assembly. This will be hosted by Sarina Locke of 666 ABC local radio fame and will, for the first time, be attended by the climate spokespeople of all three major parties, Zed Seselja (Liberal), Simon Corbell (ALP) and Shane Rattenbury (Greens). The forum will go from midday to 2pm and will be an event not to be missed, so go put it in your diary now.
As well as making waves in our own community we’ve been making them nationally as well. We were approached last week by the National Library of Australia for permission to archive the love40percent website as a historically significant document. Further more, they will include any publications we now create in the National Bibliographic Database, a database of catalogue records shared by over 5,200 Australian libraries. This is yet another clear indication of just how important our shared campaign is.
Finally, our next organising meeting will be held on Monday 19 July, 6.30pm, ANU Crisp Building, Room G015. Please come along to share your ideas and enthusiasm.
Thursday night’s Northside community forum was a great success with a wonderful turnout from across the community. Meredith Hunter MLA and Mary Porter MLA were both clearly committed to serious action on climate change and gave genuine, thoughtful responses to the many and varied questions raised by the community. The night was opened with a speech by Tony Kevin which outlined why action at the local level is so important. For those who missed it, a copy of his speech can be found here.
Building on the momentum of the Northside forum, Southside Seechange will be hosting a second community forum on Tuesday the 13th of July at 7pm at St James Church, 40 Gillies St, Curtin. Several Southside MLAs will be on hand to answer all your questions so please do make a mark of it in your diaries and come along to what looks to be another great night.
Finally a big congratulations to SEE-Change for all the work they put into the Northside forum and all the work they are putting into the upcoming Southside one.
We’re finally officially off and running! And doesn’t it feel good? The media launch was a huge success with a wonderful group of young kids sending a strong message to our elected representatives that we need to act now to secure their future. We got coverage in the Canberra Times, Canberra City Weekly, The Chronicle, 666, 2CH and Canberra FM.
Building on this success we will be holding the first of our community forums (co-hosted with SeeChange) this coming Thursday (24th of June) at the Holy Covenant Church in Cook. Meredith Hunter MLA and Mary Porter MLA will be there to answer your questions so please come along and give your concerns a public voice. The forum will begin at 7:30pm and should finish up somewhere between 9pm and 9:30pm. The address is 89 Dexter Street Cook.
The Inner North Community Fair is happening tomorrow (sorry about the late notice…) and several ♥ 40% aligned groups will have stalls there. The fair goes from 11am to 3pm and will be held at Hawdon St Oval, Dickson. So come and find out more about the campaign (as well as the proposed wetlands for Dickson and Lyneham) while sampling scrumptious, local and organic food and wine, and indulging yourself in the work of local designers and artisans.
In other news, a huge congratulations needs to go out to the climate whistleblowers whose postcards from the future campaign got into the Canberra Times. Also, there is now a ♥ 40% e-petition and a facebook group, so please add your voice to those.
Today the Climate Whistleblowers delivered hundreds of individually signed postcards to the Legislative Assembly letting the MLAs there know that Canberrans believe that putting 40% less CO2 into our atmosphere by 2010 is achievable.
The best quote of the day came from a staffer of one of the MLAs:
We already have a big pile of them. They are sitting on my desk with a postit note on top saying ‘what do we do with these?’
More information and some great photos at the Whistleblower’s blog.
This week was the Australia Youth Climate Coalition’s (AYCC) climate reality week. The week was focused on combating the rise of climate change denialism in Australia, and bringing public debate back on track to the true scientific consensus on our climate. AYCC visited schools throughout Canberra to discuss the issue with local students. They also organised the following wonderful aerial photos:
Kicking off our campaign, the ANU Climate Whistleblowers dressed in attention grabbing retro-futuristic clothes and took to ANU union court to take our message to young people who will be the most effected by climate change. They printed two clever postcards reflecting the future of Canberra in a changed climate. On the back was printed information about climate change and Canberra, as well as the push for 40% reductions. These have been successfully promoted around ANU, with hundreds of students and others signing their postcards.
This coming Monday (the 10th of May) at 10:30am they will be dressing up in their iconic future postman costumes and delivering the signed postcards to the Legislative Assembly. Please come along and help make this a memorable day.
40%
