Greening the neighbours

Brisbane: a city, apparently, in Transition. I'd not come across the Transition Towns movement until I went to the Sustainable Living festival in Melbourne. But here in Brisbane it's alive and well and about to flourish in the suburb of Tarragindi, where my hostess Valerie lives.

Valerie had gathered her immediate neighbours together to hear talks from three people: one on composting, one on being green generally and one on the Neighbourhood Watch; this over a shared tea party. About a dozen came, and the talks gave us a lot of food for thought. I learned a lot about composting, and realised I can deal with all my food waste in a better way with a small device called a Bohasi Bin, which will enrich my little patch of garden and reduce my landfill waste even further. I could also think about the rather defunct Neighbourhood Watch scheme which we used to have at home. And the whole idea of Transition Towns is something that the Quaker Meeting might consider as well. So there's a lot there to take home, starting with the idea of having your neighbours round, getting to know them and encouraging us all to be green together.

I found it interesting that in Australia the priorities are different. At home, with the huge Kielder reservoir, water is literally the least of our problems, whereas here it's the biggest one. This in spite of much of Queensland being flooded at the moment! They have real problems of water management, and are seeking ways for the surplus to be used more effectively. But they don't have problems of heat waste (they use air conditioning rather than central heating): they do have problems of transport, and it's just assumed that everyone has a car. Different strokes for different folks! But it's good that there is much environmental awareness here, more, I think, than in the UK. We've still a big task ahead to convince folk of the need to care for the planet.