Essay: Money vs Fossil Energy; Course: Advanced Permaculture Principles and Planning Tools

A couple of items from Holmgren Design Services (HDS), who since the very beginning have supported and sponsored the work of the Hepburn Relocalisation Network. Thanks HDS!

1. David Holmgren has written a new essay which brings fresh insights for empowering environmental and social activism in an age of climate change, peak oil and economic crisis, entitled "Money vs Fossil Energy: the battle for control of the world."

"This essay provides a framework for understanding the ideological roots of the current global crisis that I believe is more useful than the now tired Left Right political spectrum. I use this framework to provide a commentary on current political machinations around Climate Change and Peak Oil. Building from the same energetic literacy that informs Permaculture and Future Scenarios, it challenges much of the strategic logic behind current mainstream climate change activism.  Like the Future Scenarios work, this essay is intended to help environmental and social activists better avoid the obstacles to effective action in a chaotic age."

David Holmgren  Winter Solstice 2010

Download the essay from the Writings page of the HDS website.

2. It'd be great to have a bunch of local HRN folk along for the upcoming 4 day residential Advanced Permaculture Principles and Planning Tools course with David Holmgren. It will be held at the Hepburn Primary School from the 18th to the 21st September. See more info on the HDS website, email info@holmgren.com.au or phone 5348 3636.

"This course is targeted at permaculture practitioners, designers, activists and teachers, Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) holders and other suitably experienced people, who are looking to deepen their understanding of permaculture and improve their conceptual skills and tool kit for design and action."

A reasonable background of knowledge and experience in the area of sustainability may also be appropriate for those who are interested in coming along, but don't necessarily have extensive experience with permaculture specifically... It should be a very interesting course!

Robert Newman - film at the Town Hall

Daylesford Town Hall
8pm August 27th
$8pp includes supper.

Bookings: 5348 3636 or hrn@internode.on.net

Bring a friend! It's a gas!

And just in case you were thinking of coming down to the Savoia tonight to see Food Inc, we have postponed it.

This wild weather has left some of us with lots of work to do. And Words in Winter has a grand programme this week.

We will let you know when the film is showing.

Hepburn Energy Descent Action Plan

Dinner & discussion with Councillors May, Klein & Barrell

                      on    Thursday 28th Jan at 7pm at Conti

Unique opportunity to influence this exciting move by your shire councillors to create an energy descent action plan for the Hepburn Shire.

The decision by council to take this step can be seen in part as the culmination of years of education and advocacy by HRN to get an open, positive and planned approach to the massive changes we face in the near future from the climate, energy and financial crisis. But this has also come as a surprise opportunity for all of us already acting along these lines. What exactly does the council mean by an Energy Descent Action Plan? We are not sure but we understand this is different from most council planning processes that are driven by State government legislation, regulations. This is a genuine initiative of our council and the councillors taking the lead in this process have all agreed to meet the Hepburn Relocalisation Network to explain their thoughts, answer questions and receive our input.

Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to what may  be the most positive and far sighted action by Hepburn Shire for our community’s future.

Check out the HRN blog for a brief discussion paper by David Holmgren on the background and options for a Hepburn Energy Descent Action Plan.

Please book by tomorrow (Wednesday) 8pm

About Us

The Hepburn Relocalisation Network is a loosely formed community group based in the Central Victoria regions of Hepburn and Daylesford, on beautiful Djaara Country.

The Network has been screening films that show local initiatives strengthening communities and building local resilience, and other films that are relevant to the issues of Peak Oil, Global Warming or the concept of Relocalisation, with an attempt to find films that inspire.

The group recognises the urgent realities of Peak Oil and Climate Change and is responding by;

• Raising awareness of how peak oil and global climate change affect our community, and then
• Looking at how we can respond to these realities with a plan for the future.

Our local responses will vary from other communities’ responses, as local needs differ from place to place. The specific situations of each community can only be addressed by a relocalisation strategy i.e. a return to looking at the local situation and looking for a local response.

A couple of years ago our group was inspired by the work of permaculture students at the Kinsale Further Education College, who under the mentorship of Rob Hopkins in 2005 produced a very important report outlining how their small town of West Cork, plans to move from a high energy consumption town to a low energy one.

This town, similar in size to Daylesford/Hepburn seemed like a mirror town of our own. We then set out to begin on a process of articulating, in our own way, to also develop a plan for our town, which will help us to move to a low energy future. Our plan may be a story, a written vision, of how we see our future unfold during the next few years, decades and over the century of decreasing ‘cheap’ fossil fuels.

This year HRN has hosted an international guest speaker from Cuba, Roberto Perez (who featured in the film The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil), at the Daylesford Town Hall for an extremely successful event that brought together people and groups interested in sustainability from all over Central Victoria.

We are continuing to show films and plan to keep building networks within our community, our neighbouring towns, as well as the larger cities of Ballarat, Bendigo and Melbourne.