Part of the worldwide Transition movement, Transition Whitehorse is a volunteer run group, supported by the City of Whitehorse. Our aim is to build a strong, connected, sustainable and resilient community. To understand the whys and wherefores you can watch this TED talk by the founder of the Transition movement. Transition Whitehorse became an official “Transition Town” in November 2011.
Our History
Transition Whitehorse (TW) commenced on 16th October 2010 as an initiative of the City of Whitehorse. The launch and workshop was MC-ed by Gilbert Rochecouste of Village Well with guest speakers Andrew Lucas of Transition Bell and Razia Ross of Transition Boroondara. Topics covered were:
• What is Transition Communities?
• Place Making – The new environmentalism
• Transition Examples – Bell (Nth Geelong) & Boroondara
• Local Solutions to Climate Change & Peak Oil – Using Open Space
From this 11 people signed up to commence the TW Steering Group. Initially meetings were help monthly and now fortnightly with attendance fluctuating between 8 to 19. On the 16th & 19th June, 23 people attended the Training for Transition Workshop at the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary Visitors center. The trainers were Jacinta Walsh and Gen who provided more detail on the Transition movement; information on Peak Oil and Climate Change (PO & CC); lead us on a series of exercises to help us in awareness raising and re-skilling, with the objective of building Resilience and Relocalization of economies. With new tools and more energy, the group began working on four key areas being:
• Living Together Launch
• Connecting with other groups
• Organising events for awareness raising
• Creating a physical presence
In the time since we have:
• established coffee ground composting programs at a number of local cafes
• produced and distributed a brochure outlining alternatives to hard rubbish collection as a means of disposing of unwanted goods
• run an Edible Weeds walk with a series of followup workshops to commence soon
• promoted the need for and inspired some local food growing through a screening of “Magic Harvest“
• raised awareness of the realities of Climate Change by way of a presentation by an expert speaker
• highlighted the need and opportunities for reducing waste at Christmas (and beyond) with a workshop including a screening of “The Story of Stuff“
• participated in the Whitehorse Spring Festival
• explored possibilities for a community garden in Mitcham
• formed partnerships with other local groups like Sustainability Streets, Whitehorse Urban Harvest and Lighter Footprints
Together we can do it…
For more information, please take a look at our Transition Whitehorse Brochure. If you are interested in participating in TW then please email us for details of our meetings. To keep up to date with our progress, please bookmark our web address: www.transitionwhitehorse.wordpress.com
Transition Town Whitehorse is an initiative that was launched on 16.10.2010. Our website www.ttwhitehorse.wordpress.comhas just been launched. We hope to see this grow into a tool to keep Whitehorse residents up to date with what we are doing, events, discussions and also as an Information Portal to help move us all in the direction of local sustainable communities.Presently we are having fortnightly meetings with a group fluctuating between 8 and 12. We are endeavouring to pave a way to put Transition Town Whitehorse (TTW) on the map. A task, that for me is about reconnecting people to encourage local resilience.Our last meeting saw us continuing on a Visioning exercise using a ‘board game’ approach set out in the Transition Handbook. This is attempting to capture everyone’s input to a major project for the unleashing/official launch of TTW. This has really helped each person identify what they are passionate about in terms of Transitioning, and how this may be achieved. We are hoping that from this a process to get to this official launch will be created. Tasks will be identified and selected by members so that a co-ordinated effort can be commenced to achieve our goal.Our last meeting was also filled with sharing of Claire’s new batch of ginger beer and Jean’s homemade cake.If you would like to know more about TTW or be kept up to date then please email us on [email protected].