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Playing Scarecrow / SomerVille Sunday 7 May Requests Newspaper for the School Farm Hello all Jörg is putting out a request for newspaper to use as sheet mulch for the school farm. So the next time you head up to SomerVille if you have any old newspapers (no glossy Mags) please bring them along. The newspapers should be either bundled up or in a cardboard box (otherwise it gets too messy) and they can be left in the farm school tool shed. Any contributions will be much appreciated. Newsletter Team The Newsletter team is putting out a request for articles, points of interest etc, have your say, share your knowledge. If you are interested in making a contribution, or have any queries about the structure or content please visit www.somervilleecovillage.com.au/newsletters and read the Newsletter Structure, Content and Submission Guidelines, then send any newsletter contributions to newsletter@sev.net.au If you are interested in sending in an article but not sure what to write about you may like to write a short article for the section My Story, that is an article explaining who you are and how you become involved in SomerVille . Trade Accounts for Discounts We are looking into setting up some trade account with a number of business in order to obtain discounts, these trade accounts will not only be used for purchasing items for the SomerVille Ecovillage™ , but could also be used by yourself to purchase items that you require at a discount. So to begin with we are requesting as much information that you can give us in relation to contacts you may have or suppliers you can recommend that offer trade accounts and discounts. They can be for construction materials, office supplies, car maintenance, computers, furniture etc... Anything
So please email any information, contact
details, recommended suppliers etc... to
info@sev.net.au. Environment / Place Update provided by Dave Moore The rezoning process is now with the WAPC/DPI. We have developed a lobbying strategy which will be implemented this month. The key aim here is to expedite rezoning and ensure that we recover permissibilities in our village centre relating to a village shop/retail. The next stages of approval involve the submission of a final LSIP (Local Subdivision and Infrastructure Plan) which requires approval at the Shire level. This was officially lodged with the Shire on 19th May. The submission of a formal Subdivision Application directly to the WAPC will follow. This stage will require full details of the design and layout of the village. The overall project timeline continues to be refined and has been valuable for helping us to set priorities. Lot selection is buzzing along with 23 lots having been selected by mid May. Christophe and Neil are to be thanked for coordinating this and supporting it with web and info updates. We’re in the final stages of designing the roads and main paths throughout the village. This was based on a hierarchy of movement which predicts the various levels of movement throughout the village from large commercial vehicles through to pedestrian traffic. It’s from this point that the components which create the shape and feel of the village will then begin to be defined. This is a key component which will allow the strategic layout of the village infrastructure to advance past concept stage. We’ve decided against having a competition to identify a project architect. Instead, selected architects will be invited to submit a tender based upon a project brief that is being compiled. This will relate to the community house and other village buildings and projects. The carpark plan has had to be re-submitted to the shire, and we’ll take the opportunity to move the building envelope a little further south to keep it safely clear of Cluster 10. The Building Guidelines group have reached agreement with consultants EcoSmart for them to assist with developing our building guidelines and building evaluation procedures. Groundwater Consulting Services (GCS) have assisted with further investigation of our potential water supply system. It has become evident that whilst we have sufficient good quality water for our needs, there are issues in relation to being able to access it during the drier months of the year. We’ll need to develop significant on-site storage in which excess water harvested during the winter months can be stored for use in the drier summer months. A water management group has now been formed to develop a comprehensive and coordinated water management strategy. This will include all inflows and outflows and how we manage the water resource. The key will be ensuring that we are able to satisfy our water requirements without excessive or unnecessary infrastructure or costs.
Update provided by Paul Antonelli Work continues to unfold in all areas as the Enterprise Champions begin to work through the development of plans for their enterprises. We now have 10 Enterprise Champions in progress:
On Saturday the 20th May an Enterprise and Economic Planning Day was held in the Yellow Shed which involved Members from the Core Enterprise Group and the Enterprise Champions. This was an energising day in which all the Champions had the opportunity to share information about their vision and enterprise. It provided a higher level of understanding for all as to where the Enterprise process is currently at and what is planned ahead. There was information sharing on 11 Enterprise which are at various stages of creation. Just from these 11 enterprises, which will be based at SomerVille , it is estimated that there will result in an annual combined business turnover of over $3 million dollars per year. It was also estimated that from these enterprises there will be the creation of approximately 50 full time equivalent employment opportunities and jobs. The outcome of the day was that we are well on track to create the level of enterprise activity and employment opportunities that we have identified within our plan and is fundamental to the success of SomerVille . The information will be analysed with key findings being integrated into the strategic plan. An information booklet for other potential enterprise champions is currently being finalised. An advert to be run in various newspapers in order to potentially attract additional enterprise champions to our project will take place at the end of this month.
Morning Tea Socialising / SomerVille Sunday 7 May Social / Cultural Update provided by Robyn Antonelli As the grass turns green and the sun still continues to shine, it has been a glorious time to be out an about on the land recently. The lot selection process has seen many camp over’s, picnics, walks, and impromptu social gatherings out here bringing a real buzz and hive of activity. The last SomerVille Sunday was another great day- beautiful weather, great food and company, and LOTS of people. We estimated about seventy people in all, keeping Robert, Sarah, and that magnificent woodstove well and truly busy. There were many new faces, including young people and families. The project team and core groups provided informative updates, with a wealth of exciting progress being made on all fronts. The lot selection process proved to be a hot topic, as more and more names are marked down on the maps. Ian Higginbottom was visiting from Cascade Cohousing in Tasmania. He provided an interesting presentation about their successes and struggles over the past years. Ian’s insights included house design, community meals, the car free zone, conflict resolution and ultimately the evolution into a well functioning community which is a great place to live. Thanks for sharing Ian. After lunch Linley Morris from Opening Doors headed up a dynamic team of people who were available to answer questions about finance options and planning ahead for lot purchase and housing loans. A number of group discussions developed, providing time for people to seek out and further explore a variety of topics. Everyone then came back together at the end of the day to connect and sum up. Grace and Andrew did an excellent job yet again facilitating the whole process and are actively taking on board comments and suggestions to keep making our community day the success it is. Grace is keen to hear from anyone who is interested in helping out with facilitation in the future and is exploring the possibility of doing some training. If you are interested in helping out with facilitation please contact Grace via email grace@innovationpartners.com.au . Gina has been working hard to develop a children’s program on SomerVille Sunday, establishing a meeting place and a rhythm to the day so that the kids will know what is happening each time and newcomers can be easily included. At this time they are meeting at the tepee at 10.00am, starting with a circle, and then moving into some activities. A roster is now being put together to run this with two or three adults/teens needed each time. If you are interested in putting down for a day please contact Gina via email ginaprice@optusnet.com.au . A new community communication board has been set up in the yellow shed which is a place for your thoughts and ideas. The “village visions” collage has been resurrected so please bring along any photos, pictures, or etchings of the type of things you would like to see around SomerVille . As they say, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’. Let’s get visual and inspire each other! The clipboards can now also be found on the board. In general the social core group is starting to identify areas of focus and will continue to think about the important issues in the social realm. Let us know if we can help you in any way.
Calendar of events
Please note that events in
this calendar are tentative. We will try to adhere to advertised
dates but they may change depending upon circumstances. We will
email you in advance of events if we have your email address,
alternatively please check the calendar located at:
Sunday 4th June 2006
Sunday 2nd July 2006
Sunday 6th August 2006
Sunday 10th September 2006
Sunday 1st October 2006
Sunday 5th November 2006
Sunday 31st December 2006
Note: Chidlow Markets occur on the last Saturday of every month For the latest list of all the coming events please visit http://www.greenedge.org/calendar_of_events.htm. Articles Unfortunately there are no articles this month.
My Story
Chris Ixaka and Angela Our SomerVille Story Angela Williamson It’s a strange feeling to sit down and try and describe our journey to SomerVille as it is so much just the story of our life together. That’s now a 12 year story so let’s see if we can cut it down to the highlights. Chris and I met at the end of July 1992. We got married three months later at the end of October and spent the next year travelling around the world. Part of that trip was about finding the place we wanted to settle and call home. We got pretty clear about what kind of life we wanted to live together and how we might want to raise our children and it definitely wasn’t about both of us working insane hours and never seeing each other just to pay the mortgage on a house somewhere in the suburbs of South East England – and so started the search. After much consideration we decided that we wanted to live in New Zealand but as we didn’t have enough points to be accepted as migrants thought Oz wasn’t a bad second choice!!!! We also knew that once we became citizens here we could go and live and work in NZ anyway – in through the back door so to speak! So we wandered the country for a while – a year in Sydney, a year in central Queensland, back to Sydney again for a couple of years then our first real time living in Perth – all the time looking for the perfect combination of 5 acre block by the beach in a lovely community that was less that an hour from a city centre so Angela could work and which we could afford with only one salary (Talk about searching for Shangri La!!) Chris had always been into the idea of sustainability, he’d grown up on a farm and had run a landscape gardening business and knew a fair bit about companion planting, organics and a bit about perm culture through his own study. Angela had spent a bit of time at Findhorn and comes from a very large, close and extended family and had worked in community development for many years so had a strong sense of community and the strength that comes from belonging to something really solid. It was about 2000/01 when we met Serena and Jamie Abblett who were very early pioneers of SomerVille with the Antonelli’s. The first word we knew of it was when Chris called Serena to ask them round for tea and she said that they were meeting with the Antonelli’s to develop a plan for this Ecovillage idea that they had. We had already had a look at Greenacre down at Rockingham so were intrigued by the idea of the development and asked her to keep us in the loop. (It was also around this time Ixaka arrived and joined us on the journey!) Before anything substantial actually happened we had decided to head off to New Zealand - partly because we were still searching and partly just to check if it was somewhere we really wanted to be. While in Auckland we looked seriously at three Ecovillage developments. One on Waihiki Island, one a couple of hours North of Auckland in a rural area and one which was an urban development in suburban Auckland ( more like a co-housing development) None of these were the right fit for us. One of them was so disapproving of what Angela did for a job that we were clear we wouldn’t actually be accepted – it was a very off putting and strange experience. All this time Chris had been keeping a quiet eye on the development at SomerVille and we began to think that maybe WA was home after all. We came back in October 2003 and very quickly organised to meet Paul and get the low down on the development and were immediately sure that this was what we had been looking for. Some of the things that were really important to use was that the community was built around developing shared commitments and ways of making life work rather than absolute positions which didn’t allow the community to grow and develop and people joined. We also really liked that there was a degree of intelligence and reality around managing the money. We’d both been around organisations and communities who thought that somehow ‘everything would all just work out – somehow” There was a great balance between passion, commitment and community involvement and just good business sense in getting decisions made and getting things done. In the past couple of years we as well as everyone else in the community have had to try to “keep the faith” around this balance. One of the challenges of being part of community is dealing with no having things go your way sometimes and having the grace to accept that. I hope we are learning well!!
So what’s next – well Angela has never in her
life lived in the same house for more than two years - so having
declared that I’m home – what’s next? The adventure of creating
and building something that will really make a difference to the
planet and play and important and dynamic contribution in
showing people that they can live well and be satisfied to their
souls only when other are equally well nurtured.
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