Communities

Joining a local community is a powerful way to add resilience to our lives. Tasmania’s growing network of ‘Transition Communities’ is helping to strengthen community links and pool skills, knowledge and resources.

How to get on board.

Jan 022011

By Rachel Roddam

There are lots of reasons to get Transition happening in your street or suburb.

Transition is a great excuse to meet some of our basic needs. Belonging. Contributing. Connecting. Companionship. It’s also a great way to find all those wonderful people who know about growing good food at home, who care about climate change and who are looking to act to create the future we desire – a future with more time for family, less pollution, fewer deadlines, more celebration. Sounds great, doesn’t it, so how do we get started?

A good starting point is to get in touch with some existing Transition groups. You can find someone to talk to at Sustainable Living Tasmania, or look up Transition groups here: Or you might like to start a conversation on the Transition Tasmania social network site.

Now, how would it look if you put word out in your community, and a good number of people turned up to hear about Transition and to jump on board? How would that happen? Some of us kick started by gathering friends to help out, book a venue (your local school? hall?) find a speaker (ask Sustainable Living Tasmania) or choose a movie to show. Power of Community gives a good rundown on Peak Oil, and is very positive. There’s a big list here of relevant flicks.

Be sure to supply hot drinks and some good tucker, preferably something home cooked or from the garden, to demonstrate how great Transition can be.

Put together a website where people can connect. I strongly recommend Wiser Earth as it provides connections to like minded people and resources both locally and globally.

Have pen and paper available so that attendees can sign up, providing their phone and email. Give them a business card with your website, a phone number and email address on it. Be sure to ask if people are interested in driving the group, in attending workshops, sharing produce… allow time for a discussion circle about what people would like to see happen in their patch, and what they are willing to do to make that happen.

There are over 25 Tasmanian Transition groups. Be sure to connect with existing groups for a helping hand. They will be motivated by connecting with you too.

Transition is an organic process, and the shape it takes will be influenced by the passions and resources of those involved.

There are many people out there looking to turn their climate change worries into a positive energy. Many too are looking for some guidance in living a sustainable lifestyle, and to cut their living costs. Transition makes sense, and it is what many of us are longing for.

Remember to imagine how Transition in your patch will look as a success, and go for it.

(Rachel Roddam [Dip. Mech. Eng.] lives in a shed with her three children in the Derwent Valley. She is turning her 6.5 acre patch into food forest and is passionate about the Transition Towns movement. Rachel’s art has been used to promote Transition as far as Denmark and California. Contact: rachel@zaba.me for support in kick starting your Transition initiative.)

Peak oil & Tasmania's Transition Communities

Jan 142010

by Margaret Steadman

I was moving a large pile of garden soil recently and disturbed a large nest of ants in it. The inhabitants went into a panic, rushing hither and yon moving eggs. I thought I’d leave them to rescue eggs while I made a cup of tea.

Of course when I came back they were over their panic and had forgotten the disturbance. Each time I shovelled near them, the ants went into frenzied activity for a while and then quickly settled back into ‘as you were’ mode, until the nest finally disintegrated.

Disturbingly like human behaviour really.

We face a future with drastically reduced oil supplies and increasingly erratic extreme weather events (the double whammy of peak oil and climate change). One of the things that most worries me is that we will not learn in time how to really work together to support fundamental change and build communities that are cohesive and viable in the unpredictable conditions of the future.

The Transition Movement is one hopeful sign that we can pull it off. In the absence of real and serious leadership and planning for peak oil (and climate change) at any level of government, communities are beginning to develop their own responses to reduce their dependence on oil.

The Transition Movement started in the UK and is built around two key concepts – ‘resilience’ and ‘re-localisation’. It sees local community groups working together to help one another learn old skills, grow more of their own food – or buy locally, make their homes energy efficient, create local jobs, tackle transport issues and most importantly be courageous enough to keep peak oil and climate change in the forefront of community and personal planning.

There is now a world-wide network of community groups and over 25 groups in Tasmania that are pursuing local and householder sustainability. Involvement in this work requires persistence and vision as well as the joys of sharing community connection.

The Transition Towns model includes the development of an ‘Energy Descent Action Plan’ for the local community, that looks well into the future. But to date none of us in Tasmania has gone very far beyond the building of community networks and the offering of re-skilling workshops. The challenge is to build on these beginnings and really chart a path to a sustainable future.

References & resources:
See: The Transition Network
See: 12 ingredients for making the transition
Local communities wishing to pursue the transition pathway can obtain plenty of resource materials at Sustainable Living Tasmania, including ‘The Transition Handbook –from oil dependence to local resilience’

(Margaret Steadman has spearheaded many sustainable living initiatives in Tasmania and is a member of West Hobart sustainable community network. She is an active member of the Peak Oil Tasmania working group.)