What is a Transition initiative? It's a grassroots process that helps a community become more resilient, more sustainable, more diverse, stronger, and happier.
Global Transition initiatives have created projects around food, energy, biodiversity, education, housing, waste, arts, and more - local responses to the global challenges of climate change, food sovereignty, biodiversity loss, economic hardship, etc. These small, local responses help show the way forward for governments, big business, and the rest of us.
And what is an Australian Transition initiative? Well, that is what we are about to discover....
Transition Oz is a blog for, by, and about those idealistic and passionate souls who are working to transition Australia to a brighter, more resilient, more sustainable future. It is mainly about sharing our stories, with the hope that together we can create a new "planetary story" for our communities, this unique land, and the planet.

Sunday 25 November 2012

A first attempt - Bruny Island Transition

Dear Transition Oz,

Believe it or not, this is my first attempt ever to post a blog, so I have no idea whether I will succeed in pressing the right buttons, so I'd better make it short in case I'm wasting your time and mine.

Bruny Island Transition
One good thing about islands is the boundaries are easy to define.  Bruny Island is southeast of Hobart, accessible by car ferry, about 60 km long.  Permanent population about 600 spread out in half a dozen little villages and isolated outposts.  Not much of a critical mass.  Population is ageing and overcommitted - there are over 60 volunteer organisations on the island.  One of these is BIEN, the Bruny Island Environment Network, which a group of us formed 4 years ago to work for the conservation of the island's unique birdlife, marine life and rich biodiversity.  BIEN sent me to a weekend workshop aimed at starting Transition Tasmania, which was successful, and a couple of us have pursued our interest in Transition ever since.

Last year, we showed the film 'In Transition', and afterwards I chaired a session in which I shared my impressions of Transition Town Totnes (for another blog) and we discussed whether to join the Network.  We eventually did, after cogent arguments for and against, but we are only 'mullers'.

BIEN is doing quite a lot that fits within the Transition ambit - have run workshops on responding to climate change on the island, have got a program on installing solar hot water on Bruny houses up and running, do regular tree planting for habitat, involved in car pooling, food co-ops, and we have run two large Bruny Bird festivals, one of the few regional bird festivals in Australia - they were a great success, but a great deal of work.

Our questions are many.  We don't have enough person power to constitute a separate Transion group within BIEN, but this is probably what we need to really kick us off.  How do we recruit the next generation since we are all over 60?  And so on.  Enough for now, let's see if this actually posts to you....
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