I've just come across the exciting Sydney City Farm project who are trying to create a green sanctuary to showcase an eco-friendly future in the heart of Sydney at Callan Park in Iron Cove, Rozelle.

The Sydney City Farm vision is for a place where we can come together to grow organic food, learn about the latest in water-saving techniques, climate-friendly renewable technologies.

They hope to achieve this by creating a vibrant centre of learning and community participation through the creation and management of an urban permaculture garden, an organic farm and environmental management showcase, modelled on city farm projects in New York, London and Melbourne.

It is envisaged that the Sydney City Farm will become a key centre for connecting the community and generating the shared accomplishments which build long term neighbourliness and community cohesion. It will be a focal point for strong community involvement and education in sustainable living practices as well as developing cultural, creative and recreational activities and events.

They are holding a public meeting this weekend and I encourage anyone with an interest in this to attend to hear about this visionary plan and show your support:

When: Saturday 12 July - 12pm - 1pm
Where: Sydney College of the Arts lecture theatre, Callan Park, Rozelle.
Google Maps: Click Here

I've attached a copy of the plan below. Click here or on the image to see the full size copy.

Last night I became a committee member of the Alternative Technology Association's local branch: Sydney Central.

The ATA have been doing brilliant work with renewable energy for over 25 years and have amassed a great body of knowledge on alternative technology, particularly renewable energy.

I've been gorging myself on their magazines, books, CD's and large back catalogue for sometime now and have been fairly impressed by what I've learnt. I hope that as a committee member of the Sydney Central branch I can make a positive contribution over the next twelve months.

Fencing, lots of it. Not with an epee but with poles, star pickets, pole drivers, wallaby wire and the neighbours big blue tractor. Best part of a kilometre so far. That's what we've been doing lately and we've still got a fair bit to go yet until this section is finished.

As the photo gives away, it's been a little wet even though rainfall has so far been below average for June.

We've bought three alpacas, Penelope, Creampuff and Callisto. Both Creampuff and Callisto are pregnant so I guess that makes five. Penelope will hopefully be mated in late spring / early summer.

Here's a couple of snaps of the fencing:

We've also been busy planting with another dozen plants going in along the creek line, continuing the same two varieties we've already been planting:

- 6 Swamp Gums (Eucalyptus ovata)
- 6 Blackwoods (Acacia melanoxylon)

Taking the total of each to twelve. The wallabies have been enjoying our planting of un-intentional free feed so we've taken some of the tyres we were going to use as walls of the sheep shelter, some stakes and a little chicken wire to keep them at bay. Let's see how this goes
:)

There was a little excitement in the house tonight. We heard the dog, Little, scuffling with something in the boy's bedroom and this is what we found:

After a brief chat with Sydney Wildlife we worked out that he/she was fine and we set them free in the Lilli Pilli tree outside.

What it found attractive in the boy's room is anyones guess :)

There's a crater where one of our paddocks used to be. At least it looks like a crater but it is actually a dam (or small lake?) that we built at the bottom of the water course of two springs that flow from the hillside. It's filling up steadily and soon that lump in the middle will hopefully be the island we envisaged it to be. It's also a whole lot bigger than it appears (you could put a house in there):

Aside from having huge craters made, we've been busy planting. We're re-vegetating the creek line with a variety of shrubs and trees. At this stage we're only planting the trees and we've planted:

- 6 Swamp Gums (Eucalyptus ovata) which grow to about 25M high
- 6 Blackwoods (Acacia melanoxylon) which grow to about 12M high

Although I don't trust those height estimates as the blackwoods already on site are some of the largest trees I've ever seen and easily exceed 12M and Wikipedia has them at up to 45M.

The two tree types are going to form a two layered screen along the creek line, with the Swamp Gums being closest to the creek, in the soil that is the wettest for the longest part of the year and the Blackwoods being the next line.

The Blackwoods were chosen because they are an impressive tree, water tolerant and will make a good screen. The Swamp Gums because they are fast growing, love getting their feet wet and native wildlife (particularly possums) love their leaves.

Here's a recent photo of us at the farm.

I could be biased, seeing one of my favourite bands, Weddings, Parties, Anything at one of my favourite venues, The Gaelic Club in Surry Hills but it was without a doubt, the best show ever.

I mean *ever*.

I've never seen a show like the one they put on. Such great songs in the hands of such great musicians. Thank you Weddoes for going around one last time :)

"Their like we'll never see, again."

Just a short video giving a quick virtual tour of the farm with some panorama shots, the bus, composting loo (closed!) and Kristina doing her "sheep whisperer" thing :)

For those who've been out of the loop (and admittedly we've not been to good at communicating this ourselves) Kristina and I have bought 60 acres in Tassie along the Huon River :)

The first rays of sunshine across the farm, facing north.

Consider it an early "retirement plan", that's probably the best description I can give you. It's a great property with many awesome features (such as four permanent springs). We've a range of plans for this place which I'll detail here as we go along and actually bring them to fruition. In the mean time, here a few happy snaps :)

The view from the top (East).

The tassie car (look familiar? I now have two kombi's in two states, tragic) and the bus we call home at sunrise.

Kristina hand feeding Stompy.

The dog house - I've managed to avoid being sent here, so far!

Sheep, demanding more food.

Mooo?

Sunrise after herding the sheep.

Another sunrise shot (looking North).

and another (looking East? ;)

one more for luck (looking south).

Six weeks after training started I finally made it down to training with the Wolves. I'm going to blame last years hand injury, the election campaigns and work but Garth pointed out that I was puffed after the warm up lap.

It wasn't true of course, I was maximising my oxygen intake...... ;)

Looks like I've got some serious work ahead :)

Those of you who read yesterday's Australian Financial Review would have read the article in which Australia's four local car manufacturers, Holden, Ford, Mitsubishi and Toyota were bleating that they could not possibly begin pursuing green vehicle initiatives without substantial Australian Government handouts (anywhere from $500million to $2 billion, depending on who you speak to).

It's an especially interesting comment from Toyota who's parent company is already producing the Prius hybrid car in the US and China and is struggling to supply demand for the Prius here.

It would be easy now to slide into cynicism and despair over the Australian manufacturers reliance on government handouts and import tarifs to survive, while pondering their lack of ability to compete and innovate in the global economy.

The closest any of these four companies have come to innovation is Holden's two-door Commodore coupe Monaro. It's a nice car but not particularly innovative.

In this environment, it was genuinely heartening to read in the latest ReNew Magazine that there is a manufacturer in Australia building a mass-produced electric vehicle.

Armidale (NSW) based engineering firm Energetique have commenced the Energetique EV project. With funding sourced from Switzerland, USA, China, Korea, Germany, UK, Italy, Australia and Norway they are expecting the first prototype to roll off the shop floor early this year.

The first production run is expected to be about 200,000 two-door commuters with a later run of both a four door commuter and a commercial vehicle.

For the gear-heads, the Energtique EV is expected to have a range of 300km per charge, a top speed of 130km/h, will do 0-100 in about 10 seconds and weigh under 1200kg. ie: it will be a great commuter vehicle.

The Energtique EV will also feature a battery pack of liquid cooled lithium ion, regenerative breaking and a synchronous induction motor.

It's great to see Australians innovating where the larger competitors have failed to deliver. Perhaps Holden, Ford, Mitsubishi and Toyota could learn some lessons here.

I'm looking forward to seeing these on the road in the not too distant future :)