About Eudlo

Eudlo is located on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. It's a small town with about 850 residents. It used to be a cattle and timber town, but now has a train station, general store, tennis courts, rural fire service, post office, school, town hall and a new coffee shop.

Eudlo is indigenous Australian for 'eels' and we have eels in our dams here. We are located between Mooloolah to the south and Palmwoods to our north. We also have Chenrezig Buddhist Institute here.

Our rainfall averages about 1500mm and climate is subtropical.

Not many people work in Eudlo, most residents have to commute to work although there are many people working from home here too.

Eudlo doesn't have any town water or sewerage, so it is unlikely to be developed in the future.

Eudlo is also the Sunshine Coast's first Transition Town within the Transition Sunshine Coast regional structure.

This year we will be working on community projects and starting work on our Energy Descent Action Plan.

New Transition Handbook!

Available February 25th - how exciting! The newest Transition Handbook is due out and the Sunshine Coast is in it.

Here is a summary from Finch Publishers

Around the world, societies are facing the prospect of a future with dwindling oil reserves, an unstable climate and unpredictable food production. What are the ways we might move away from our dependency on oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and still enjoy a good quality of life?

The Transition Handbook provides accounts of how individuals have responded with their local communities to the twin threats of Peak Oil and Climate Change. This practical book explains how we can ‘transition’ from fossil-fuel based communities to ones that are more self-reliant and generate less carbon emissions. The Transition Handbook shows how such changes will result in a greater development of local food, local economies, local water harvesting and energy generation – and so create more sustainable communities in the longer term.

The Transition Handbook includes detailed accounts of Transition initiatives in the UK (where they now number more than 100) and profiles of Australian and New Zealand initiatives currently underway. This inspiring guide shows the necessary steps to establishing a transition town in a local area and provides an achievable model for people who would like to transform the life of their community.

‘This is a rare book. Not only does it educate and inspire you on the path to sustainability, it also shows you how to get their by being a great “how to do it” manual. It has already had an impact even before it’s release here. Towns from Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of Australia to Nelson on the coast of New Zealand are amongst the many communities already influenced by Rob Hopkins’s work. This local release is sure to inspire many more.’ PAUL KLYMENKO, Planet Ark

‘The Transition Handbook clearly sets out the unprecedented and looming challenges climate change and peak oil pose for our civilization, and makes it clear that a concerted community response is our only option. And yet, the book is a profoundly positive – even joyous – read because it tells us how working together as communities and facing these challenges head-on will give us the capacity not just to survive but to actively build a future that is better than our alienated and oil-fuelled present. ... [It] is your invitation to join a clear-eyed, community-based, worldwide movement of grounded visionaries who choose hope and action over denial and apathy.’ NICK HEAP and DAVID SUZUKI, The David Suzuki Foundation

‘The Transition Towns process is one of the most exciting outcomes of permaculture thinking and action in the world today. ... It promises to be the guide for peak oil and permaculture activists everywhere who are taking action in the their local communities.’ DAVID HOLMGREN, co-originator of the permaculture concept and author of Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability

‘The Transition concept is one of the big ideas of our time ... it is inspirational, harnessing hope instead of guilt, and optimism instead of fear.’ PATRICK HOLDEN, director of the Soil Association

‘This book, by the visionary architect of the Transition movement, is a must-read. Growing numbers with their microscopes trained on peak oil are convinced that we have very little time to engineer resilience into our communities before the last energy crisis descends. This issue should be of urgent concern to every person who cares about their children, and all who hope there is a viable future for human civilization post-petroleum.’ JEREMY LEGGETT, author of The Carbon War and Half Gone

About the Author

Rob Hopkins is a co-founder of the Transition Network. He has been a teacher of Permaculture and natural building for many years – and has a background in creating practical solutions to environmental problems. Having successfully devised an Energy Descent Plan for Kinsale in Ireland (which was later adopted as policy by the town council), Rob initiated Transition Town Totnes, the first UK town to address the issues of life after peak oil. He publishes www.transitionculture.org.

Specifications

MARCH 2009
RRP $34.95
Trade Paperback 288pp
ISBN 9781921462009


If you have any further questions please click here to email us.

What is a Transition Town?

Good question. People ask me that all the time. But I must admit it is hard to define in a neat sentence or two. But here goes.

Transition Towns…

Support community-led responses to both climate change and peak oil. They do this by building community resilience through positive action.

They (a group of committed people who want to do something for a positive future), look at all the vulnerabilities and opportunities pertaining to their particular ‘transition area’ however that is defined.

They look at
how they can reduce their carbon emissions,
how they can reduce their reliance on fossil fuels,
how they can move away from dangerous climate change levels
how they can wean themselves of being so reliant on fossil fuels
and how they will cope after peak oil.

They look at food, water, energy, waste, transport, education, legislation… you get the picture. And then they find ways to build resilience into those production and supply systems.

Transition Towns also trust that a lot of these solutions lie in the community. They facilitate the unleashing of the creative genius in the community.

They understand that the type of thinking that got us into the vulnerable position is NOT the type of thinking that will get us out.

They also acknowledge that we are all in this together. No one gets away from the effects of climate change or peak oil.

So for example, they might decide self-reliance in water is a good starting point and organise a rain water tank bulk buy for their group. They might also arrange a guest speaker to come and talk about using grey water, or reed beds. Or perhaps someone who can talk about waterless toilets.

They might also be interested in local waste management and organise a composting workshop focussing on how householders can be manage putrescible waste (kitchen scraps and the like) on site in their own backyards, keeping it out of methane producing landfill site and instead turning it into useful fertiliser for their gardens.

They might then decide to start a local worm farm, or a compost group at their local school, or whatever best suits their community’s needs.

Looking at how to make their lives more resilient, most groups quickly come to the conclusion that diversity (different ways of getting the same thing – or ‘not putting all your eggs in one basket’) and localisation (having the majority of things that you use and need every day available from within your local area) are the best ways to go. Local goods have a lot less carbon emissions generally because they haven’t travelled so far. Local goods also keep your money in your local economy and support local jobs.

So, Transition Towns support these ideas by creating opportunities for increasing diversity and the localisation of systems.

Let’s take food as an example.

Most people rely on the duopoly of the two major supermarkets for their food supply. They assume that to some degree the shelves will also be full, the choices varied and the doors open.

But – what if a significant climate event shuts your local store. What if it cuts roads to your local store? You can’t get there and neither can the trucks. What if a fuel crisis cuts supplies to your local store? What if fossil fuel depletion dramatically affects the prices of the food at your local store?

What back up plan do you have to feed your family? Relying on the government to do something is out of the question – if these events are affecting your community, chances are they are affecting a lot of other communities and government just won’t have the resources to cope – that is fundamental to Transition Towns – it’s about taking responsibility for yourself and your family and becoming more self-reliant. (Not self-sufficient, this isn’t about creating isolation, its about creating communities).

A Transition Town might build resilience, diversity and localisation in their food systems by; holding organic gardening courses for residents, running working bees and permablitzes (where permaculture people come in and make over your ornamental garden and lawn with edible plants), they might start a community campaign for a farmers’ market, they might start a food bulk-buy, co-operative or food box system.

They might start a community garden, or approach the local school to start a garden the community can use on the weekend.

They might start a program to deliver fresh organic food to people who are struggling financially. They might run cooking classes showing new mums how to prepare healthy food for their families on a budget. They might bring in guest speakers to talk about genetically modified food, they might lobby for food miles taxes to be added to food… you can begin to see how far and wide Transition Towns can reach.

Now all of these ideas are already happening in Transition Towns around the world.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, you just need to tap into what is already there and happening.

Visit www.seac.net.au for more information on Transition Towns.

A slight change of focus

I've revised the ideas on our flier - just to ensure people understand that Transition Towns are not 'gardening' clubs. While there is a focus on food, it's not our only focus and we need to balance it with transport, waste, water, energy, economics and employment.

Transition Town Eudlo

Are you interested in;
• Growing healthy organic food at home
• Reducing your household bills
• Switching to solar or wind energy
• Composting toilets
• Worm farming and recycling
• Local businesses, local employment & LETS
• Transport solutions
• Finding creative ways to live better on less $$
• Seed saving & plant propagation
• Permaculture solutions
• Being part of permaculture working bees
• Bulk-buying food and garden materials
• Setting up a Eudlo Food Co-operative
• Establishing other community collectives
• Working with others on climate change & peak oil
• Local community resilience as a Transition Town

Then why not join us, we meet on the first Sunday of the month at 8.30am at Sweetheart’s Café in Eudlo.

visit: transitioneudlo.blogspot.com
email: raintreeorganics@yahoo.com.au

2009 Plans...

We had our first meeting for 2009 on the first Sunday of February with an excellent turn out of people. New faces from neighbouring towns - Palmwoods, Mooloolah and Keil Mountain.

We've decided to keep Sunday morning get togethers as a social catch up and we'll start a core group of initiators working on projects that will meet separately. That way we can spend time meeting new people, talking to others and still have a formed group who work together to get projects done in the community.

Interest of the group lies in food, energy, water, waste and heart & soul, so that is an excellent foundation for us to start from.

A great starter project is a food co-operative.

Other passions include biodynamics, permaculture and homeopathic remedies for gardens, seed saving, herbs and alternative medicine.

Event ideas include local market and local film nights.

Core group will be meeting February 24th at 7pm at our place to start work on projects and who can do what.