Eat the Suburbs: Gardening for the End of the Oil Age A film by Tanya Curnow, 2006. EAT THE SUBURBS takes the oil debate from the bowser to the backyard and follows Melbourne’s “permablitzers” as they prepare for the end of the oil age… one garden at a time. Made 2006 but online for the [...]

The Transition Towns project (now Transition Initiatives) is the embodiment of community driven holistic regional planning.  A new book The Transition Handbook: From oil dependency to local resilience helps community activists make it happen.

The Transition Towns concept is one of the world’s most important movements — systemic, broad reaching relocalisation schemes which seek to address both peak oil and climate change whilst creating lively and livable towns and suburbs. Community activists in the Sunshine Coast led by permaculturists Sonya Wallace and Janet Millington have been working towards these [...]

Lou Smith of Breakdown Press recently email-interviewed Asha Bee about permablitzes & backyard food production for a zine she's helping put together in response to the coming G20 conference in Melbourne…. What are permablitzes all about? How did they begin? A permablitz is basically a permaculture-inspired backyard makeover where people come together to share knowledge [...]

 This from the August 22 edition of the South Gippsland Sentinel Times: Community lunch questions future How to plan to live better and more economically, high levels of consumerism, and questions of future energy use, were just several of the topics covered at a fascinating community lunch, held at Mitchell Community House in Wonthaggi last [...]

This was a post about upcoming screenings, but I've edited it into a short report back.   The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is absolutely must-see doco on Cuba's transition into a lower energy society. Richard Heinberg, peak oil guru and recent visitor to these shores, said: "Everyone who is concerned about [...]

This is a short video interview of Megan Quinn, Outreach Director of The Community Solution, inteviewed by Davie Philip of Sustainable Ireland. The interview took place at the Local Solutions to the Energy Dilemma conference in New York on April 27-29 2006. Sustainable Ireland will be launching a 'Powerdown Project' in the near future in [...]

This came in the mail from the wonderful Sustainability Street project of Vox Bandicoot – a concept which started in Darebin and is spreading around the world!:  Calling all Westgarth residents … Let's make Westgarth's streets Sustainability Streets! Would you like to have friends round the corner, grow your own vegies, or have fun learning [...]