Bathurst Community Climate Action Network

Welcome to Tracy's "Book" of her weekly articles appearing in our local paper the Western Advocate each week in 2010. To find Tracy's articles from previous years, click one of the links below:
2008
Jan-Mar 2009
April-June 2009
July-September 2009
October-December 2009

Greetings from my cabin on the banks of the Yukon River. I thought you might be interested to know that around Dawson City there is an active market gardening scene, with a Farmer's Market every Saturday - in the summer. The local grocery store buys local produce and labels such as local with an orange sticker, "Yukon". It's probably not so much a food miles greenie thing more an effort to promote local produce. But the outcome is the same. On my last visit to the shop, I noticed cabbage, red cabbage, carrots, lettuce and more labelled "Yukon". The alternative products come from as far away as California. If the grocery store in Dawson can buy and label local produce, why can't Bathurst stores do the same? But I doubt Woolworths, Coles or Aldi would support such a move. A starting point though might be to get the sellers at the monthly Farmer's Market to identify produce grown locally. Gardening here offers different gardening opportunities and challenges. The growing season is short, Late May to Early September at best, but because of the long hours of sunlight plants grow quickly. The soil can be very fertile, but the permafrost is only a few feet below the surface. Lots of water. No fruit trees, vegetables only. Klondike Rob

I am thinking of building a  new home with straw bales. Does anyone know of anyone else building or has built with this material in the Bathurst region or how I might go about finding out more about the whole process.

I don't live far from work and I sometimes work, but I was thinking of getting a bike so that I might ride and also use it to do some light shopping.
Can anyone recommend a suitable bike and what gear I might need to make it enjoyable and also useful for commuting to work and shopping.

I am a fibre and meat producer, but have some good land that I think could lend itself to some sort of horticulture.
Where should I start with meeting up with other local producers and recommendations of horticultural practices and marketing to get me started?

I currently have a hot water system which uses electricity and in winter utilises heat from our slow combustion stove.
I would like to add a solar booster to assist and to help cut down our electricity bills which are likely to increase in the near future.
Any advice on best models suited for the central west and local suppliers/installers would be gratefully received.

The wonderful news of a kitchen garden grant of $36,600 has just been has just been received. This was a joint submission from the School of Teacher (SOTE) Education at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, BCCAN and Rahamin and was an outcome of the Sustainability Conference hosted by SOTE at the end of October last year.
I have just finished uploading the news to the BCCAN web site, so perhaps this double entry is a bit redundant but is a link to this weeks blog about my dream.
The web team who make an effort to make this web site relevant to the issues around climate change and relevant to this community are trying very hard to increase this utility.
My particular dream is that it becomes a vital centre of conversation to the community in which it serves.
At present we have a series of emails for BCCAN members which circulate to those members. To my mind a lot of the issues raised in those email will have a lot of interest to members of the community who may not be members of BCCAN but may be visitors to the web site. Those who don't yet visit the web site, may do so it they were to find information, discussions there which ignited their interest and to which they might feel prompted to join at some time.
Let me paint a couple of scenarios.
I am interested in installing solar panels on my house, where do I start?
What we are hoping is that the hypothetical citizen my first opt to try BCCAN out and visit out Community Forum and see if anyone has posted a similar question before. (Currently there are forums based loosely on BCCAN's Action Planning Teams - Building, Energy, Food, Gardening, Water, Awareness) and in this case Energy would be an obvious first point of call.
If a similar question has been posted it you can click on that posting and read not only that posting, but all the subsequent replies to that question and in all that the answer to your question may be found.
If not - you may then post your own response to the original questioner or any of the replyees or may post your own question featuring those aspects not answered in the original "thread". ("Thread" indicates a question or topic and the whole series of responses it generates.
If this can be true for solar panels it can also be true for gardening ("What are the best tomato varieties to grow in Bathurst), water ("How can I recycle my grey water?") , awareness ("What are the pros and cons of the Government Emissions Trading Scheme and the oppositions counter to the climate change problem?"), building ("I have built a straw bale house and don't know whether to plaster with mud or cement - any ideas?") or food ("I am new to Bathurst and want to buy local food, where can I go?").
There are many different routes our hypothetical citizen may follow - go online and use any of many search engines to gradually narrow down that search and no doubt find many of the answers they were looking for, but the local search is often the best strategy as you may be able to be put in touch with someone locally who can give advice on local suppliers, installers and have local knowledge on getting the best out of your installation.
There are plenty of examples of web sites out there which service a particular community and which have enthusiastic participants going  by the number of  participants on their forums ( I was always taught "fora" was the plural of "forum" but "forums" seems more used these days).
Another reason the web team is trying to make the web site more user friendly and relevant is that we believe there are many people in this community who may not want to be involved in BCCAN itself or can't for a variety of reasons, but my like to visit the web site and make use of what it has to offer and may even become an enthusiastic participant on forums, may even like to contribute their own regular blog article on a particular aspect.  A keen gardener, with lots of local knowledge, a person building a sustainable house or living in one, are two examples which come to mind.
For some this might be  a big hurdle to approach. With this in mind the web team has produced a couple of guides to how you might get started in some of these activities - How to log onto the BCCAN web site, How to Join a Forum Discussion, How to post a Question on a Forum, How to Start  a Blog.
Of course all this will take time. A web sit is only useful if that web site has lots of content. A web site will only have lots of content if a community takes it on board and makes contributions.
We invite you all to join in and make a difference.
Note:  To start this off, the web team and friends have generated some starting questions and responses so there will be some content there for new visitors to the site.

 
Jan Page, School of Teacher Educat ion, Bathurst has  just received notification that the CSU/BCCAN/Rahamim Bathurst Schools Kitchen Garden project has been approved with advice that the  full $36,623 grant has been made available, without any conditions. 
This is a very exciting development as a schools project with young people learning to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs has such an important payback to both children who participate, their teachers, the parents of the children and ultimately the whole community.
As developments unfold as to who this grant will be implemented will be you will be informed through the web site and other channels.
 
 
 

Postal address: PO Box 1339, Bathurst NSW 2795