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Welcome
Welcome to the 2005 Winter edition of 'The Eco', the newsletter
for all Friends of the Port Phillip EcoCentre. Our aim is to provide
an informative and entertaining snapshot of the activities, achievements
and interests of all the wonderful people who contribute towards
the goals of the EcoCentre, inspiring us to take
'local ACTION global FUTURE'.
Do you have some news for The Eco? Contributions are always welcome.
Email info@ecocentre.com
with your contribution and contact details.
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CHANNEL DEEPENING ON HOLD
BUT TRIAL DREDGE STARTS IN AUGUST!
by Neil Blake, Jo Samuel-King
and Kylie MacFarland.
The proposal to deepen the Port Phillip Bay shipping channels has alarmed recreational anglers, the commercial fishery, ecotour operators, and community environment groups. The project involves dredging over 40 million cubic metres of rock, sands, mud and silt. The spoil, including an estimated 3 million cubic metres of contaminated mud from the Yarra, is to be dumped in the Bay.
Respected scientists have voiced concerns that the propoposal poses significant risks to the ecosystems, seagrasses, biodiversity and fish (and the National Parks) around the Heads. Earthcare St Kilda have flagged that the probable disruption to the marine foodchain could decimate the St Kilda penguin colony.
As a regional community organisation with a mission to protect biodiversity and support local environment initiatives, the EcoCentre has been called upon to help raise community awareness of the proposal. On January 7, 2005 the EcoCentre hosted a meeting of 56 concerned citizens from organisations and locations around the Bay under the Blue Wedges Coalition.
Subsequently, the EcoCentre has been a hive of activity surrounding the dredging issue,
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including: counting and collating petitions, the production of flyers and banners and the restoration of the magical 10 metre 'Weedy' the sea dragon puppet, hosting of public meetings, forums and displays.
EcoCentre Coordinator Neil Blake says “The Channel Deepening proposal has drawn people to the EcoCentre. Coastal community residents see their lifestyle and cultural values as directly linked to the Bay environment. The EcoCentre is committed to support community participation in the planning process. Ultimately, this translates as a better outcome for the whole community.”
The recent Independent Panel Hearing report on the Port of Melbourne Corporation’s $12 million Environmental Effects Statement identified more than 130 matters that required further work to eliminate environmental risks. As a result the State Government have ordered a Supplementary Environment Effects Statement which may take up to a year to complete.
While the decision not to approve the project until the environmental risks are resolved has been hailed by community environmentalists, the Planning Panel’s recommendation to conduct trial dredging to monitor and assess the impacts is a serious concern. This is particularly because the Panel gave no direction as to how much dredging should be undertaken in the trial, or exactly where and when it should occur.
There are concerns that ‘trial’ dredging of the Rip is channel deepening by stealth. Irreversible damage may result even though the overall dredging proposal has not been proven to be economically and environmentally viable. The trial dredging has commence in August. The Blue wedges coalition, along with our affiliate Earthcare St Kilda have been working hard to protect the Bay from the damage this may cause. Financial and human resource assistance is urgently needed. For more information or to make a donation go to www.bluewedges.org.au.
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New Environmental Directions (NED) Update
By Vicki Black.
Front; Tabitha, Jacquie , Christina.
Middle; Neil, Vicki, Stephanie , Gina, Kirsty, Geoffrey, David.
Back; Mary, Terry, Chris, David, James.
As we approach the first birthday of the N.E.D. program, it is timely to share the achievements and where the planning is heading for the inclusion of people with a disability into EcoCentre programs.
In December, a community lunch was organised where the 8 regular weekly participants received certificates of participation for their environmental work achieved in 2004. The superb lunch and recognition of achievement was a highlight for all concerned with this project.
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The participants have continued with the collection of data on rubbish washed up onto the St.Kilda foreshore. Data collected will assist with waste management strategies for the region. Other ongoing programs are the balcony garden project, propagation and replanting, growing vegetables and cooking lunches. Yoga classes are occasionally organised for the group to experience.
This year EcoCentre staff, Geoff Barry and Neil Blake together with Kirsty Morphett and Central Bayside Adult Community Options staff have met to discuss expanding this project to embrace other people with disabilities into Eco programs. We also need to encourage volunteers to become involved with supporting individuals and sharing their time and expertise.
Community lunches are now offered every second Monday for a small fee. Anyone interested is welcome to come along and assist with the preparation or simply enjoy the healthy lunch and social opportunity this provides. Further participation enqiries or questions can be discussed
Volunteers with an interest in disability and assisting the environmental cause can contact Geoff Barry or Neil Blake at the EcoCentre on—9534-0670. No previous experience is required.
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B'nai B'rith Environment Group affiliates with the Jewish Ecological Coalition inc (JECO).
By Michael Adler
One of our early sponsors and current affiliate, the B'nai B'rith Environment Group (BBEG), has recently also affiliated with the newly formed Jewish Ecological Coalition inc. (JECO).
JECO was founded by BBEG & the Leo Baeck Centre late in 2003 and has since recruited several other Jewish organisations committed to the aims & objectives of JECO of raising awareness about the state of the world and encouraging and empowering people to do something about it. JECO seeks to do this by changing unsustainable habits, buying and consumption patterns, and by seeking to modify
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local community and government decision-making in favour of greater environmental concern and sustainability.
With the support of the Australian office of the Jewish National Fund, which claims to be the world's oldest environmental organisation and in co-operation with Sholem Aleichem College (SAC), JECO held its second Eco Festival at the SAC in Elsternwick on Sunday the 17th April.
The festival included: Specialist speakers covering climate change (Dr Graeme Pearman, former Chief of the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research now Monash University and a leading expert on climate change, who was our keynote speaker). The Festival committee also invited a panel of politicians to discuss: " Kyoto, or else?". Numerous displays and hands on demonstrations, a student's debate "That today's youth show more environmental responsibility than their parents", awarding prizes to the winners of the Youth Eco-Competition, Arts and Crafts activities for kids, food stalls, Israeli dancing and musical entertainment.
Visit www.jeco.org.au for further details.
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Veg Out St Kilda Farmers' Market
At Farmers' Markets you'll find organic and low impact vegetables, herbs, juices, cheeses, honey, wine, smoked meat and fish, free range eggs and more - all sold directly by the grower/producer. Get the best of Victoria's seasonal fresh produce right on St Kilda's doorstep.
It's certainly not your average shopping expedition. Farmers and producers roll up from across the state. There's an abundance of fresh, seasonal and organic fruit and vegies, and also free range chooks and eggs, organic and sourdough breads, pate, cheeses, sauces, chutneys, jams, wine and honey... and that's just the beginning!
Whether you're up with the birds or strolling down mid-morning, there's also breakfast and brunch to suit all tastes - toasted free range egg and bacon sandwiches, organic pork sausages, vegetarian pizzas, toasted bagels and buttery corn. Wash it down with a cup of hot chai or fresh fruit juice.
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Unlike anything else in Melbourne, Farmers' Markets bring a slice of rural life to the city and provide a Saturday morning food gathering experience like no other.
All goods are grown and made by those who sell them and the quality of produce is of the utmost importance.
The market is plastic bag free, so bring your own baskets, bags and trolleys.
 When
Fourth Saturday of every month, between 8am and 12.30pm
Where
Peanut Farm Reserve, (right behind Veg Out, and also behind Acland Street)
Chaucer Street, St Kilda
More information
farmersmarket@vegout.asn.au
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The EcoGarden.
By David Giles.
In contrast to last year, this years tomato crop is much more impressive, I think due to the greater number of pollinating insects around.
We’ve been using our compost, which has resulted in the proliferation of tomatoes and water melon plants! If they're not causing a problem we’ve allowed them to remain.
We’ve noticed that some seeds have failed to germinate and suspect they may have become “roasted” whilst stored in the shed over the
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Summer months, a discontinued practice. Another problem has been the cabbage white caterpillar, which has devastated most of the cabbage seedlings despite our efforts at removing them, a net has been put over this bed in an attempt to keep the butterflies out and allow the plants to recover, which seems to be working.
In a successful attempt to prevent the possums from consuming the pumpkins, milk crates wrapped in chicken wire have been placed over individual pumpkins.
A new group has formed to maintain and expand the herb garden.
The gardening group meet each Saturday, from around 10:30 to early afternoon, new volunteers are welcome, to find out more contact myself on 9534 0670 at the EcoCentre or email info@ecocentre.com.
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St Kilda Organic Food Co-operative (SKOF)
By Sonia Osborne & Michelle Ruskin.
Sample of veggies and fruit at SKOF
SKOF is currently operating out of the EcoCentre every Saturday morning, from 10.30 am to noon. SKOF is a not-for-profit community co-operative whose core objectives are to:
Provide affordable organic and bio-dynamic food
Promote organic and environmentally sustainable living
Encourage recycling of packaging
Educate the community on the value of chemical free food and environmentally sustainable agriculture
Promote community involvement, aiming to visit some bio-dynamic farms
Despite the benefits of organic foods and environmentally friendly products, current retail costs and availability make them restrictive. In order to address this problem, SKOF provides a community service by purchasing goods direct from select distributors and making these goods available to members (who are mostly local residents) on a non-profit basis.
Like the EcoCentre, SKOF provides a strong value set to the local Community and promotes environmentally sustainable living practices. These are outlined as follows:
Economic.
SKOF is a not-for-profit organisation, therefore enabling organic produce to be sold at a reduced price to members. As many members are families, this is of great assistance to them financially and enables them to fill a large proportion of their grocery basket with organic produce. In turn, the flow on effect from SKOF sales contributes to making the organic farming industry viable.
Erosion Minimised.
Composting is a natural border to protect soil and crops from the effects of wind, mainly erosion. Organic farming uses composting to reduce the impact of erosion. Soil erosion and salinity are major problems facing Australian farmers, and have been estimated to cost the Australian economy $2.4b annually (CRC for Soil and Land Management 1999). We share a commitment to the promotion of farming methods that are more suited to the Australian ecological landscape.
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Community Health.
Organic food is grown without chemicals and is better for the health of the community. Organic food is more nutritious because it has been grown on living soil and has been found to be significantly higher in vitamins and minerals.
Recycling of packaging.
All dry and shelf stable goods are bought in bulk by SKOF. This enables members to bring in their own bottles and containers from home to refill and reuse. Less packaging means that less waste is sent to landfill. In turn, less energy is used to recycle, and therefore green house gas emission and pollution is reduced.
Community Involvement.
SKOF provides a unique forum where people can feel a part of something special and worthwhile. Members of SKOF are truly passionate about their co-operative and are equally motivated to share this passion with others. It is not only a cause that they sincerely believe in, but it is a place of friendships. On Saturdays, members come along to collect their weekly requirements and stay for a while to have a cup of tea and a chat with the other members.
Every Saturday, rostered SKOF members put together $20 boxes of seasonal fruit and veggies for those who have pre-ordered and paid. The more members ordering a box gives us the option of a more varied range of contents from our supplier. (This happens from 9 - 10.30am). There are also other organic goods available, including dry goods, personal products (soap, shampoo etc), and cleaning products. More stock will be made available when local storage space has been secured.
SKOF is totally managed and made operational by the members who volunteer their time. Membership costs range from $15 to $30, depending on your personal situation. All members are strongly encouraged to volunteer a minimal amount of time, about one shift a month, (however, more members will decrease the frequency of your shift or the length of it) which is the core of SKOF's success.
Joe Herbst, age 77 has been a local St Kilda identity since 1951 and SKOF member for 1 and a half years.
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EcoCentre Education Unit
By Noel Gilcrist.
EcoCentre, SKINC and Westgate education units collaborate at the Middle Park primary school. From left: Richard, Karen, Francis, Rosie, Annie, Pyrou, Julia, George and Noel.
Welcome to Pyrou Chung our new Education Officer. A Master of Ecology and Bachelor of Environmental Science, Pyrou is well qualified to develop and deliver environmental programs to the community. Pyrou is employed at the EcoCentre three days a week and at Bicycle Victoria for the rest of the week.
Pyrou’s professional approach has already had positive outcomes for the EcoCentre. Working with the staff of Christian Brothers College, the education unit has developed a multi-curricula program designed to involve students in the current water harvesting and wetland development projects. This program can also be used with other schools as they become involved in water harvesting.
The Education Unit, with members of SKINC and Friends Westgate Park recently delivered a PowerPoint presentation on Westgate Park. to students at Middle Park Primary School. This was followed by practical workshops to help the
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students design environmentally sustainable gardens within the school grounds. More than 100 students were involved in this program, which was very successful.
Activities such as these help raise community awareness of the EcoCentre and affiliate groups and we hope to repeat these programs and involve more of our groups in the future. If you would like to participate in any of our programs please contact Pyrou at the EcoCentre.
This year the education unit supported the City of Port Phillip Sustainable Living at Home seminars by preparing activities for Primary School age students. We would like to thank the Alternative Technologies Association for their assistance in resourcing these activities.
Rosey Haas, working with Middle Park primary students, helping identify native plants.
At present we are investigating the possibility of cooperating with the SCPI on a Port Phillip air monitoring program for schools. We are also looking forward to working with Earthcare to design and implement the EcoHouse Education Project.
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Saving $$$ speaks all languages!
By Kerry Wise.
For women whose role is still firmly in the home, juggling the family finances is often a matter of great pride. Armed with a selection of the easiest, cheapest energy-saving tips detailed in the Moreland Energy News, Khadiga Hamed and Kerry Wise from Moreland Energy Foundation Ltd (MEFL) and environment officer Bec Brown from Hume have been talking to Arabic and Turkish-speaking women’s groups in both Moreland and Hume municipalities about ways to cut down on energy bills by saving energy. During the talks, ideas expressed in English are translated into Arabic or Turkish.
Some women had already made energy-saving changes to their homes as a result of talks last year, replacing light globes with compact fluoros, recycling water from their washing machines and in one case installing ‘double-glazing’ film on windows to slow down heat loss and gain.
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The project hopes to continue talks and tours into next year, and is hoping to link into the business community with some $500 grants available to help with energy-saving changes.
Talks are followed up with a site visit to either the Origin Energy EcoHouse at CERES or the Port Phillip EcoCentre in the St Kilda Botanical Gardens where energy-saving ideas can be seen at first hand. The women also enjoy comparing notes on herbs in the veggie gardens, and learning about water conservation.
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New Technology at the EcoCentre
By David Giles.
Over the past year the EcoCentre has gradually been upgrading its technology, becoming a more efficient organisation, providing modern facilities for our affiliates, members and clients.
A TV, video, DVD player and a high quality data projector are available to aid presentations in the meeting room.
All PCs at the EcoCentre now networked, allowing the sharing of printers, files, CD/DVD reader/burners and access to the internet via a broadband connection, a wireless router is available for visitors with wireless capable laptops.
Energy efficient liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors have replaced our cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors. They consume around 35 watts, as opposed to 100 watts for CRTs, being flicker free they cause less eye strain and also less space on the desk top.
Three computers are available for use by members and affiliates in the resource room: an AMD Sempron (1.7 GHz); an Intel P4 (2.5 GHz) both capable of demanding tasks; and an older Intel P3 450 MHz.
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The Microsoft Windows operating system (OS) and office suite of applications (Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint and Publisher) has been adopted, after a trial with Linux, which unfortunately proved too unwieldy and our earlier hardware too underpowered to run its applications effectively. However we may make one of our newer machines dual bootable for the Linux enthusiasts around and to reassess its viability. Mozilla Firefox has been set as the default browser because of its useful tabbed browsing and zoom features, we also have the OpenOffice suite (a free alternative to MS office).
A new colour copier/printer/scanner has replaced the black and white copier. After considering tenders from 2 rival manufactures, the quality of this machine proved superior, producing professional looking documents. It’s capable of 35 A4 black & white and 22 colour copies/prints a minute, processing paper sizes up to A3. Although speed is not of primary concern the ability to produce colour prints will bring us into the modern era. We encourage its use by members, affiliates and outside organisations, see the advertisement in this issue for further details and printing prices.
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SUPERB FAIRY-WREN COASTAL SURVEY
By Neil Blake. The Port Phillip EcoCentre is a community-managed ‘umbrella’ group based in St Kilda Botanical Gardens. The EcoCentre provides support for other community environment groups in the region and conducts its own projects. One such project is the Superb Fairy-Wrens Coastal Survey which aims to map SFW coastal populations between Altona and Black Rock.
These coastal reserves are popular recreational spaces for people and are managed and maintained for this purpose in addition to being bird habitat. Within the City of Port Phillip, as with the rest of Melbourne urban development has fragmented the general population into smaller localized populations.
 Non-breeding male with typical brown plumage, black beak and blue tail.
Blue wrens feed on a broad range of small animal life, mainly insects and other invertebrates. They have been recorded eating seeds to a much lesser extent. They build a spherical nest with a side entry consisting of grass stems, moss, rootlets, twigs, spiders web, and lined with feathers well hidden in tussocks, low shrubs, or occasionally in dense foliage up to 6 metres.
This study aims to examine the behaviour and local habitat preferences to inform future management plans and ensure that competing uses do not eliminate the Wrens and other
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native bird species. The blue wrens, which stay all year round within a local territory, are an important indicator species for other bird species, which inhabit or visit these territories at different times of the year.
 Breeding male Superb Fairy-wren overlooking his territory at Elwood Foreshore.
In addition to individual reserve surveys, at least 2 designated ‘regional survey’ days (autumn and spring) are planned each year. We hope to recruit sufficient numbers to simultaneously have survey teams in all of the reserves where wrens occur. This will allow conclusions to be drawn as to whether any movements occur between populations. This information will build on past surveys conducted in Bayside and be published on the EcoCentre website www.ecocentre.com.
 Female wren looking for insects and marine crustaceans.
All enquiries are welcome, please call Neil Blake 9534 0413.
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New Design for EcoCentre Website
by Robert Rowe.
The EcoCentre website has been redesigned. Content has been updated and new content written. Visit www.ecocentre.com to explore the new site.
The site has a completely new look and a new navigational menu has been introduced. The menu appears site-wide, providing consistent navigation from anywhere within the site.
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Colour printing and copying.
Now available at the EcoCentre
- Print Images, Posters, Photographs, Flyers, Banners or Presentation Transparencies
- Automatic booklet creation
- 22 colour, 35 B & W copies/minute
- Email your documents for printing
- Commercial enquiries welcome
Prices :
B & W copies/prints A4-$0.30, A3-$0.40
Colour copies/prints A4-$2.00, A3-$3.00
Substantial discounts maybe available for non profit/charitable organisations, EcoCentre endorsed projects or volume printing, please contact the EcoCentre for details.
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