A little taste of Eudlo

A little bit about our town of Eudlo. The picture above is by local artist, Kristen Tiver Cutlack. We bought this card at the local markets which are held every three months in and around the Eudlo Town Hall - next one is on December 13. We have the photo in our profile to the right.

Our town has about 850 people living in and around it. We have a primary school, general store, coffee shop, hairdresser, tennis courts, rural fire service and a train station with a direct line to Brisbane.

We also have the Chenrezig Buddhist Institute just out of town too. The first Tibetan Buddhist Centre in the Western world and still one of the largest. Chenrezig is open to the public for teaching, meditation which has the Big Love cafe too. Visit their website at www.chenrezig.com.au to check schedules and make sure they are open before you visit.



Chenrezig is home to many Buddhist nuns and monks.



Here is a photo of the Gompa.



We also have a local Swiss Cheese Maker - Fromart - in town too.

Most people who live in Eudlo have acreage, while homes in town are average sized blocks.

We are located in the foothills of the Blackall Range half way between Palmwoods and Mooloolah. If you haven't been here before it's worth the drive and you can enjoy a coffee and a meal at Sweethearts Cafe and visit Chenrezig - they are open to the public between Wednesdays and Sundays.

As I said, our next Market Day is on the 13th of December starting at 7am - drop in and say hi!

Cheers,
Sonya
Transition Town Eudlo
Coordinator

In memory of Yukari

Our little community of Eudlo recently lost one of its driving forces and an inspirational leader, my dear friend, Yukari Desjardins (that's her on the right, me on the left in the photo above taken in June this year at our local World Environment Day celebrations). Photo courtesy of our local paper the Sunshine Valley News.

Yukari passed away suddenly late last month in Japan and her death has left a huge gap in many people's lives, most of all her young family and husband.

We had many things planned to do together such as starting the Eudlo food co-operative, running permaculture courses, studying for our Diploma of Permaculture together and much, much more.

She will be greatly missed. But we can take a lesson from how she lived her much too short life.

I thought I'd publish a copy of what was handed out at her memorial service last weekend, which by the way was absolutely packed with people whose lives she had touched and influenced. She was involved in so many things; school gardens, permaculture, transition towns, cooking, healing, health, teaching, dancing, and working within her community to improve things and to more toward a more caring world.

Yukari had had so much to offer the Transition Network. I was particularly interested in how she came to permaculture following the Kobe earthquake in the late 90's. This experience led her to permaculture and then onto Transition Towns - she knew what it was like to wake up one morning and have all services (water, electricity, gas, food) cut off and she also knew how important community was to surviving these events.

Fortunately, her story is recorded in the 2010 Permaculture Diary if you are interested in reading about what she learned.

So here it is - Yukari's guide to the best game of Earth - life.

To create peace, health, prosperity and justice universally on Earth by the year 2012.

1. Speak the truth
2. Acknowledge the truth when others speak it
3. Come from love and respect
4. Leave the trail better than you found it
5. Expect miracles
6. Do what gives you joy and create joy in what you do
7. Be generous with who you are and what you have
8. Be a good friend and teammate
9. Clean up your messes, learn the lessons and move on
10. If you have an idea for how to improve the game, share it!

Forgive
Appreciate
Celebrate
Respect

Thank you for being who you are and LOVE...
Yukari



I hope we can carry on with Yukari's vision for Eudlo and create the type of community she wanted to be part of.

Sonya Wallace
Transition Town Eudlo

What we're up to

Transition Town Eudlo has a few projects underway - and you're welcome to get involved. We'd appreciate your help no matter how much time and energy you can put in - it all helps.

EUDLO SEED SAVERS NETWORK
We have the start of a seed saving group happening in Eudlo. A few people had done the Seed Savers workshop and others are already seed saving. We have registed with the official Australian Seed Saving Network and we'll learn as we go. Now is a bumper time in the vegie garden with lots of plants setting seed, so a great time to start seed saving.

EUDLO BEE KEEPERS COLLECTIVE
A few of locals headed off to Conondale last weekend to learn about bee keeping - so there is a great opportunity to for a Bee Keepers Collective. We can all have our own hives, but share in the major purchases such as an electric honey extractor... discussions are continuing.

EUDLO FOOD CO-OP
The Eudlo Food Co-op is on the backburner at the moment... sadly one of the key people involved in this great idea passed away suddenly and the job of starting the co-op seems a little overwhelming at the moment... more on this later when energies are right.

EUDLO STEAM TEAM
The steam team are still meeting regularly exploring how we might be able to use small-scale decentralised steam engines to provide energy in the future.

We're also working on waste solutions (managing putrecible waste on-site at home rather than it going to landfill), water solutions (best practice waterless composting toilets) and much more.

Our next meeting is on the morning of Sunday October 4 at 8.30am at Sweethearts' Cafe.

See you there,
Sonya Wallace
Transition Town Eudlo
Coordinator