Wanted - Financial assistance to seed a permaculture village

[ho-hum]

Mark,

Something to be considered..

http://www.rosneath.com.au/news.html

floot

[ecodharmamark]

G'day floot

"Greedy Buggers" - yep, they exist at all levels of society. Thanks for the pointer to the latest news at Rosneath.

Hooroo, Mark.

[russellberry]

Paul Antonelli (cofounder of Somerville Ecovillage (http://www.somervilleecovillage.com.au/) is setting up a public fund specifically for funding ecovillage projects.

A well-planned permaculture village development may well attract his attention... you can contact Paul or other members of the Green Edge team at this address: http://www.greenedge.org/contact_us.htm.

good luck...
Russell.

[ecodharmamark]

G'day Russell

Thank you very much for the links to both Somerville and Greenedge. Both websites have proved to contain a mountain of information that is extremely valuable to us.

Cheerio, Mark.

[ecodharmamark]

G'day All

Thought it was about time I gave you an update:

Have almost completed the 2nd year at La Trobe (probably going to do five years now, and leave with an MA):

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/planning/

Been working in local government for about 14-months now:

http://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/Page/page ... Id=110&h=0

Volunteering with Landcare, our local Community Planning Action Group, and the Bendigo Sustainability Group, all combine to keep me busy when I'm not at uni or work:

http://www.bendigosustainability.org.au/

The above three allow me the opportunity to meet with hundreds of likeminded (not to mention, thousands of un-likeminded) individuals; all good when it comes to expanding my own thoughts and dreams...

Still working at retrofitting .4 ha here in dry and dusty Bendigo town. Hard work, but we are making some good inroads towards creating a decent (sustainabilty-orientated) place for someone to take over when the time comes to move on to the next BIG project (see: below).

Still working at expanding the original idea. Have decided to forego the MC2 website as a means of communicating, and instead we are working as a group of dedicated individuals at the local level.

Scoping a local (urban) site; lots of preliminary issues - heritage constraints and ground contamination are the two biggies, but hoping to be able to spend a bit more time on this project to expand on the opportunities that the site presents - walkability, amenity, public transport at the 'gate' (yes, it has a beautiful old red brick wall along one boundary).

Still have very little money, but looking at a range of funding options at present. Could even go down the path of creating a PPP...

Given that Peak Oil, Climate Change, and the 'False' (Wall Street) Economy are all practically MSM articles these days, it will only be a matter of time before some enterprising philanthropist comes our way (nudge, nudge, wink, wink to all you 'rich' people out there).

Personally, I get tired (16-hour days tend to do that). But every now and then I jump on a bus/train (and/or hitch) to urban locals throughout Australia to scope out ideas from other urban-orientated, eco-communities - thus giving me the opportunity to relax and recharge at the same time.

I trust that you are all well and as happy as you can be in your respective endeavours.

Cheerio, maintain the dream, Mark.

[ozneil]

As per Russell's post earlier, the fund has been launched. A prospectus was lodged with ASIC this month and we are aiming to raise a minimum of $8 million before November 14th so that Greenedge Ethical Investments Limited can be floated on the ASX.

This has been a marathon effort and a number of years in the making.

In order for the float to succeed, we need some grass roots investors to step up! The minimum investment is $2000 and you can find out more on the web site at http://www.greenedgeethical.com.au.

The fund will invest in ecovillages such as the SomerVille Ecovillage project and other sustainable developments.

Neil Robertson
Greenedge Projects

[ecodharmamark]

G'day Neil

Thanks for the post.

Greenedge (in its many facets) is something that we are very keen to explore further. My intitial reading leads me to believe that Prof. Peter Newman has a seat on the Greenedge Ethical Investment (GEI) board. This is great news! I have followed Prof. Newman's path for some time, and believe him to be a person of great character.

We are carefully weighing up our options (given the current economic climate) before exploring further an investment in the ASX.

I'm personally in the process of reading the GEI prospectus, and will probably not make the closing offer deadline.

So much to do, so little time...

Regards, Mark.

[ecodharmamark]

G'day All

Time flies when you are having fun. Hard to believe it has been nearly 12-months since I gave this ol's baby a 'bump'.

Time for an update:

Work: I am no longer employed with the City. After a marathon 2-years of juggling that position, along with a full-time study load, and together with all the other commitments that one acrues in one's life, I have decided it is time to give one of my fellow students a go 'at the coal face'. It was fun, often frustrating, but in the end I learnt so much. All the better for working with the system when the time comes to hang out my own shingle.

Study: Getting to the pointy end of the third year. Bloody tired of learning about how grim things appear, and have resorted to allowing myself a few brief daydreams of living in utopia, just to get me through the days...

Subjects covered thus far:

Year One

Introduction to Planning and Design
Reading the Australian Landscape
Introduction to Sociology and Politics 101
Principles of Sustainable Development
Introduction to Statutory Planning
Globalisation: The Rise of the Modern World
Introduction to Sociology and Politics 102
Society, People and Place

Year Two

Planning Practice A
Local and Regional Economic Development
Rural and Regional Communities
Asian and Pacific Cities
Landscape and Humanworld
Electives

Year Three

Planning Practice B
Australian Cities and Regions
Climate Futures – Water Land Use and Development
Electives

And next year... (final year as an undergrad, or first year of the Master's, depending on which way I hold my tongue...)

Year Four

Negotiation, Mediation and Community Consultation
Principles of Strategic Planning
Research Methods for Planners
Statutory and Environmental Planning
Project Management and Professional Ethics
Elective

Homefront: Not a great deal of progress with regards to the retrofit, although I have put a lot of work into developing permeable, yet robust 'universal access' surfaces in and around Zone One in preparation for mobility aides -one family member is starting to get a bit 'wobbly'. Oh, and have spread close to 30 sqaure cubic metres of mulch on the companion gardens and onto a new 15x3x1.5 mt bushfire/flood berm, the inspiration for which came when the local 'roadies' decided to clean out the spoon drains in the street, and I just could'nt bring myself to see all that silt/humus get dumped as useless fill somewhere (a carton of VB is all 5 truckloads 'cost') .

I've been lending a lot of support these past 12-months to quite a few individuals/collectives with regards to their own projects - everything from doing a few simple designs for chooksheds and mandalas, right through to consulting with a couple of groups who are in the process of implementing eco-village plans. All this has meant that our own plans for developing a village have not progressed very far, although we have decided that location wise, an urban/peri-urban layout will be for the best given that peak oil and CC make it extremely difficult to continue and justify the development of an isolated village, far from essentials such as uni, public transport, schools, hospital, etc.

On top of reams of papers/journals, and about 20-plus text books, I have been reading a lot from the Collected Works of Murrary Bookchin. I can no longer myself work/study 16-hours plus per day, but I still like to read at least 2-hours of Bookchin per night - and at this rate, I plan to have read his entire life's work by the end of the year.

After 2-plus-years at the helm of our local Landcare Group, I have reluctantly let go of the tiller and we now have a couple of new and (energetic) individuals heading up that team. I haven't been able to get to the Sustainablity Group for a while, but they are pluggin' along just fine.

Well, that's enough banter from me. And, just to keep on topic, if there is a wealthy person/organisation out there somewhere who is feeling a little guilty about where their capital may have been 'extracted' from, and they would like to 'put a little back' in order to assuage that guilt, well our urban eco-village group would be only too happy to give you a $5 million 'tax offset' - saw a great site today, would make an excellent village...

Night all, pleasant dreams, may all of your permaculture endeavours come true, Mark.

[purplepear]

Very interesting Mark - I will read the whole post when I have time but consider the posibilities of converting existing ownership into an eco village. Zoning aside, what would it take to turn Purple Pear into an integrated farm- education-village :?:

[ecodharmamark]

Very interesting Mark - I will read the whole post when I have time but consider the posibilities of converting existing ownership into an eco village. Zoning aside, what would it take to turn Purple Pear into an integrated farm- education-village :?:

G'day Mark (PP)

All statutory planning issues aside, just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to build a village. Gather together enough like-minded individuals, then plan, design and build your village. You can't raise a child overnight, likewise it takes time to find enough community members in order to begin the process of building a village. I've been working at the latter for over 10-years now, and slowly (but very surely) I'm building a network of people committed to the vision - to build a village where I can die in peace, and a village where children can grow in peace - cradle to cradle - learning from the distant past, working toward the distant future, living in the moment in peace and harmony.

Peace, Mark.