A new social initiative was launched in Bega last weekend to create the first Transition Towns project for the South East region.
The Transition Town model is a loose set of realworld principles and practices that have been built up over time though experimentation and observation of communities as they drive forward to build local resilience to the coming period of Peak Oil and energy descent.
There are four Transition Towns now operating in Australia, the Sunshine Coast, Bell (Vic), Armidale (NSW) and Bega (South East NSW) with over active 80 groups and 600 interested groups around the world.
The local meeting, initiated by permaculturalist John Champagne and facilitiated by Peter Hughes from South East Area Consultative Committee (SEACC), explored key Transition Town concepts such as food security, transport, communication and leadership.
John Champagne said, "As the world moves into the period without fossil fuels we can plan to live sustainably within our local communities. It does not have to be a crisis situation."
"We have enough talent and social coherence to successfully negotiate the next decade or two, which will be a challenge for the whole of society. Transition Towns is a process of successful re-development of our communities from the ground up allowing everyone to lead in their own special way."
"The meeting in Bega agreed to form a steering committee which would assist in the formation of localised groups throughout the South East and then disband" he said.
Members of local communities attended the meeting including people from Eden, Narooma, Bermagui, Bega, Cobargo, Tathra and surrounding localities such as Brogo.
"The Transition Towns initiative will use the regional not-for-profit community website network and Sustain Magazine as conduits for communication and project management alongside newspaper, radio and other media. The local Transition Town website for the South East is at transitiontown.org.au
We are clearly entering the period of energy descent, and while our elected leaders act like seagulls about 5 cents on the price of petrol, here in the real world we can each do something simple like feed our 'working families' from locally grown produce and share car trips into town. These are the first positive steps of the new era.
The model uses 12 basic steps which include setting up a steering group and designing it's demise from the outset, raising awareness, forming subgroups, re-skilling, honouring elders and building bridges to local government to name a few.
The Transition Towns journey is further enhanced by the knowledge of many groups around the world most notably Totnes in the United Kingdom which was the precursor of many Transition Towns worldwide. transitiontowns.org is a world wide wiki (shared website) on the Transition Towns methods and success stories.
For more information and to join the Transition Towns process throughout the South East - see the local website at transitiontown.org.au or contact John Champagne on 6492 7306.
