Posts Tagged ‘Melbourne’
Tanya Ha: Melbourne Sustainability Drinks
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on November 1st, 2011
| 2 November , 2011 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
Our next Sustainability Drinks event is on this Wednesday 2nd November 2011, 6 – 8pm.
Our speaker will be Tanya Ha, an award-winning Australian environmentalist, best-selling author, science journalist and sustainable living advocate.
Due to the ever increasing popularity of the event, we are sometimes unable to accommodate people who do not RSVP. Please RSVP here.
Slate Bar & Restaurant
Mezzanine, 9 Goldsbrough Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
—
Go Wading to Help Melbourne’s Freshwater Turtles
Posted in Events, Seeking by earthwatch on October 25th, 2011
| 17 November , 2011 | ||
| 8:30 am | to | 5:00 pm |
| 19 November , 2011 | ||
| 8:30 am | to | 5:00 pm |
Volunteer to protect Melbourne’s freshwater turtles – 17 & 19 Nov
Very little is known about Melbourne’s freshwater turtles and the impact that this growing city is having on their health. As one of the top predators in the food chain, a healthy turtle population points to a healthy ecosystem, and globally, freshwater turtles are in decline.
With special waterproof clothing, you’ll wade through the city’s freshwater lakes and creeks to capture turtles, assess their health and review the condition of their habitat.
Join a Turtles on the Move team
• Help scientists understand how urbanisation is affecting Melbourne’s turtles
• Discover the city’s hidden wetlands
• Do your bit for the environment
To join a one-day team for $69, call 03 9682 6828 or email earth@earthwatch.org.au or visit Earthwatch.org.au
Team info
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Starts 8:30am and finishes 5pm.
Costs include lunch and transporttation to locations as well as pickup/.drop off to rendezvous location in Melbourne University
Location: each expedition visits two wetland sites in the greater Melbourne region
*Funds will go towards continuing this valuable research
—
Camp Out and Help Melbourne’s Microbats
Posted in Events, Seeking by earthwatch on October 21st, 2011
| 4 November , 2011 6:30 pm | to | 5 November , 2011 9:00 am |
| 12 November , 2011 6:30 pm | to | 13 November , 2011 9:00 am |
Dusk till dawn – an overnight eco adventure with Melbourne’s Microbats.
This year Melbourne Microbats research teams will be treated to a complete dusk till dawn experience sleeping overnight inside the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne – something usually unavailable for the general public – while also being able to enjoy the Ford Fiesta Moonlight Cinema in the gardens while waiting for the microbats to come out. Working directly with researchers Dr Rodney van der Ree and PhD students, you will survey bats using harp traps and record ultrasonic bat calls with hand-held bat detectors and GPS equipment. You and your team will also investigate the diet of urban bats by using light traps to sample nocturnal insect fauna.
We have a number of Family Teams that are open to parents with children aged 10-17 (these run on Saturday nights only).
Costs: $89 per adult and $59 per child (includes snacks, refreshments, accommodation and breakfast)
Times: 6:30pm-9am
All funds go towards keeping this valuable research alive.
To make a booking call Earthwatch on 03 9682 6828 or email earth@earthwatch.org.au
Dates 2011
Fri 4th Nov
Sat 12th Nov (family team)
Fri 18th Nov
Sat 26th Nov (family team)
Fri 2nd Dec
Dates 2012
Feb 3rd Feb
Sat 11th Feb (family team)
Fri 17th Feb
Sat 25th Feb (family team)
Sat 3rd March (family team)
Sat 3rd Feb (family team)
More information and bookings can also be made via the website http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/vanderree_short.html
—
2011 Bioregional Permaculture Conference in Melbourne: Registration Closes Today
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on September 23rd, 2011
| 30 September , 2011 | ||
| 12:00 am | to | 11:00 pm |
| 1 October , 2011 | ||
| 2 October , 2011 | ||
Workshops, speakers, site tours, party, film screening, a marketplace of ideas
The conference and its associated events will bring people together to share stories and discuss where we’re going as a movement. Presentations will be given by a wide range of local activists from local group leaders to gardeners, educators, writers, designers, foresters and more. Site visits will be happening to local gardens and community sites and a market place will take place. Evenings will be social time – Friday will be a large party with food, music and dancing, Saturday evening will be a screening of the new film Anima Mundi and a talk with the director. Both evening events will be suitable functions for bringing partners and friends. A marketplace area is available for ideas and produce – for stalls, posters and displays so please make use of this opportunity to tell your story and to let others know what you and your community are doing.
Friday 30th September – Sunday 2nd October
Venue: South Melbourne Commons, corner Bank & Montague Sts, South Melbourne.
Visit the Permaculture Melbourne site for more information – registration closes September 23.
Green Your Laneway: City of Melbourne Guide
Posted in Models, Visions by Kate Archdeacon on September 14th, 2011
Source: City of Melbourne
Photo by Tokyo Green Space
Green Your Laneway
Do you live or work off a laneway? Are you interested in laneway greening? Anyone can improve their laneway for the benefit of everyone. Many people in the central city don’t have traditional gardens but that doesn’t mean you can’t have any plants. There are many opportunities to green your home or business; you just need to know where to start. Green Your Laneway is a guide to inform laneway communities on greening using planter boxes, wall creepers and green roofs and walls within their properties.
The article includes links and further information:
- What can I green?
- What can I plant in my laneway garden?
- includes a link to the CoM suggested list of species for use in Melbourne’s laneways
- Have you considered maintenance?
- Do I need permission for greening?
- Have you considered access and safety?
- Are you seeking funding? (!!!)
Check out the page on the CoM website for more information, and check out Tokyo Green Space for more inspiration.
Photo by Tokyo Green Space
Photo by Tokyo Green Space
—
A Tax Won’t Fix Climate Change: Wheeler Centre Debate
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on September 13th, 2011
| 15 September , 2011 | ||
| 6:30 pm | to | 8:30 pm |
It’s a debate with a decidedly apocalyptic ring: stand by while the dynamics of life on earth change irrevocably, or try to take action that may slow or halt the process – and in so doing possibly compromise our way of life. It’s a debate that challenges fundamental assumptions about evidence, responsibility and governance. And it’s a debate coming soon to the Melbourne Town Hall. Few issues of recent times have divided Australia as much as how we should respond to climate change. The Gillard government’s proposed carbon tax is the most controversial policy proposal in at least a decade. Proponents struggle to convince the public of the link between a new, broad-based tax and climate change mitigation, while opponents recite their mantra: “A tax won’t fix climate change”.
This September, the carbon tax debate comes home to roost. The next Intelligence Squared debate will tackle the scaremongering, dispel the fictions and, one can only hope, end the confusion. Come and hear panelists from both sides of the divide: politicians, scientists, academics and stakeholders make their case and plead their cause.
6:30PM – 8:30PM, Thursday 15 September
Melbourne Town Hall
>>Event bookings
>>More information
—
RiderLog App: Vote with your wheels
Posted in Movements, Research by Kate Archdeacon on August 31st, 2011
RiderLog Australian Capital City Screenshots (1 Jan – 10 May, 2011)
RiderLog is a free app that turns every bike ride into a vote for better bicycle facilities. Download it to your iphone now.
Your RiderLog app records basic details of your trips and anonymously uploads them to the Bicycle Network. All the travel logs are then aggregated to show when, where and why we are riding. This information is used to improve the planning of bike infrastructure and convince authorities to invest more in the locations where people ride. Click here to check out a map of aggregated rides. The Bicycle Network is an outreach activity of Bicycle Victoria in Australia, one of the worlds biggest bike rider organisations, with the purpose of More People Cycling More Often.
To Use: Start the app, choose transport or recreation, press the silver Sleep/Wake button and put the phone in your pocket, bag or bike mount to use as a bike computer. At the end of your trip, wake up your phone and save your ride details. The app will log your ride in your phone, including elapsed time and average speed. Press Map to see your route. The phone tracks your cumulative distance and time over the week and month, providing a record of your activity. More details.
Privacy Policy: You decide how much information about you and your riding gets uploaded. The data is anonymous. Unless you change the Settings no personal details are provided. If you are a member or friend of Bicycle Victoria, you can enter your rider number. If you would like to get to know us, you can choose to tag your data with your email.
http://www.bv.com.au/general/ride-to-work/91481/
—
Bike Futures 2011
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 24th, 2011
| 12 October , 2011 9:00 am | to | 14 October , 2011 5:00 pm |
With the transport crisis a long-term reality for Australian cities, there has never been a better time to improve livability by embracing the benefits of bicycling. Bikes bring back the human scale of public spaces, changing streets from places to avoid into places to congregate. Delegates will hear how bicycling plays a key role in transforming cities into liveable spaces at Bike Futures 2011 from 12 – 14 October.
Now in its third year Bike Futures has become the key annual professional development for national and local leaders, planners, designers and builders to use bike transport and recreation to advance their communities. Bike riders have emerged as a critical indicator species of livability. In towns and cities around the world business and civic leaders, questing for the secret to attracting talent and innovation, are reaching for the Bike Plan.
Bike Futures 2011 will discuss how to take the next steps from providing bike infrastructure – essential for mobility – to changing the ways cities work. When Bike Plans are done well, we know we will find a healthy social and economic ecology. There is little doubt that bikes subtly but powerfully transform the street, calming it, warming it, making it magnetic to people and their conversation and commerce. Bike Futures 2011 will bring together world leading experts as well as some of Australia’s leading practitioners on how to best respond to the issues confronting communities as they embrace the bicycle revolution.
Keynote speakers:
- Gil Penalosa is an internationally renowned liveable city advisor and is passionate about creating cities for people. He is Executive Director of the Canadian non-profit organization 8-80 Cities and also works as Senior Consultant for the renowned Danish firm Gehl Architects.
- Gordon Price is the Director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. Gordon has served many terms as a City Councillor in Vancouver, BC. As the Vancouver Sun declared when Price stepped down from the City Council, “‘Councillor Bikeways’ has done more than any other elected official to shape the city and the way we use it”.
The three-day conference is presented by the Bicycle Network and hosted by Bicycle Victoria.
Wed 12 – Fri 14 October 2011
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne
http://bikefutures.conferenceworks.net.au/
—
Toaster Rescue: Repair Workshops in Review
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on August 15th, 2011
Source: InDesign Live
From “State of Good Repair” by Alice Blackwood :
There was a sense of excitement, and perhaps just a hint of exhaustion, at the launch and auctioning off of the many re-found and re-purposed treasures created during The Repair Workshops last week [end of July]. Held as part of the State of Design Festival, The Repair Workshops saw 3 tonnes of salvaged rubbish – bike frames, broken televisions, bed frames, soft toys, instruments and more – brought down into the long yellow-lit corridors of the basement at Donkey Wheel House. For 3 days (and probably nights!) a team of ingenious designers, artists, scientists and amazingly inventive creatives worked away, hobbling together everything from vegetable colanders to record player parts, fashioning real, live working objects: lights, talking television sets, motorbike helmet speaker systems, rejuvenated dining room chairs, cutlery sets… the list goes on. The auction event went off without a hitch, with enthusiastic participants vying for their own unique piece of trash-turned-treasure.
“We raised over $2,000 for Environment Victoria and saved hundreds of dollars in landfill fees for the Brotherhood and Vinnies,” reports Co-Organiser Leyla Acaroglu. Of the pieces hard won: “I bid fiercely for 2 restored chairs and I won! They are now sitting proudly at my dining table – a testament to repair and creativity!”
It was overall, a huge project, with the workshops opening to the public over the weekend just passed. “The response from the public was amazing!” says Leyla. “We had over 500 people come through and did over 75 repairs. “People would come in and tell us about their umbrella/hair straighter/ toaster/play station control/iPod/stereo, and how they didn’t want to have to throw it out.” In most cases they would leave with a fully repaired item. “Many people just came along to visit and asked if we would be there every week as they wanted to come back. In short, the project as both a new and educative venture was “a raving success”. “We engaged lots of people with repair and value in products and we saved lots of things from landfill.”
Check out all the photos online at The Repair Workshops blog and Facebook page.
Read the full article by Alice Blackwood on In Design Live
—
The Housing We’d Choose: Grattan Report
Posted in Movements, Research by Kate Archdeacon on July 6th, 2011
The Housing We’d Choose explores the relationship between the housing we want, and the housing we have. The report presents original research on the housing preferences of Australians. A representative sample of over 700 residents in Sydney and Melbourne was asked to make real-world housing choices, limited by their budgets. The housing they chose was a much more varied mix than either city currently provides. In particular, the research suggests significant shortfalls of semi-detached housing and apartments in the middle and outer areas of both cities.
The second part of the report examines recent construction trends and argues that there are barriers to delivering more of the housing people say they want. These disincentives include the cost of materials and labour for buildings over four storeys, land assembly and preparation, and the risk and uncertainty of our planning systems, especially in Victoria.
A subsequent Grattan report will recommend changes to the design of the housing market in order to provide people with more of the homes they say they want. Download a Copy of the Main Report
—