The BSFG Review Action Group 'Widespread adoption of Sustainable farming systems' was established following the 2022 review, with the following directions the outcome of the workshop program reported on by facilitator Cath Botta: 

Initiatives/Actions

• Develop a series of forums and on-farm demonstrations to explain the changes necessary for carbon capture and storage on farm
• Engage Charles Massey to talk to local farmers

Connect and work with other like-minded groups on common goals

• Meet with other like minded groups to determine common goals
• Create a list of groups already formed and what they are doing in this space.

Peer Support Program for Regenerative Farmers

• Develop a 'Regen' farmer peer support group with field days and guest speakers
• Faciliitate DIY ecological monitoring on farms
• Find and enable local farmers who are interested in belonging to such a group/developing ecological monitoring and other regenerative farming skills

Partnerships and Links

• Explore links with Bulk Food Co-Op and local producers eg the Strathbogie Local in Euroa​​

Sandy Campbell and John Paul Murphy are the drivers of this action group, which has synchronicity with another potential action group highlighted in the review 'Ecosystem Restoration'.

​The initial task of the 'Widespread adoption of sustainable farming systems' action group reported on by Sandy at the July 28 BSFG General Meeting, involved making contact with Charles Massy to engage him to speak to local farmers.   

​Many BSFG members will have heard Charles speak at the 2018 Swanpool Environmental Film Festival, his topic 'Can Regenerative Agriculture Help Save the World', and/or read his groundbreaking work 'Call of the Reed Warbler'.

​So, it's 'Back to the Drawing Board' for Sandy and John Paul!   Fortunately there are lots of other avenues to pursue and we look forward to hearing more from Sandy in future months..

Bev Lee and Peter Maddock
​Web Team

Ecologically Sustainable Development may be a consideration in Planning Developments, however it appears not be a major factor in Planning Subdivisions.  We see this by the absence of passive orientation in Subdivisions. 

Our group has yet to have a formal meeting however we have had email contact regarding goals and actions.  One of our members with planning experience is away now and we hope to meet on his return.  Another member has alerted us to the Sustainable Subdivisions Framework which is an initiative of the Council Alliance for a Sustainable Built Environment (CASBE), https://www.casbe.org.au/what-we-do/sustainable-subdivisions/.

At the Council Office on Wednesday July 27, I met Bronwyn Chapman and the Environmental Sustainability Officer Nathan Gasperoni.  We discussed the new BSFG Review groups.  As for our group Bronwyn thought the current Planning Scheme enabled developers to consider and incorporate passive design in new subdivisions.  She also felt there may be an opportunity to have a Briefing for Developers about sustainable subdivisions.  This could be a joint briefing with BSFG and with Council funding.  We also briefly discussed Retrofits and Council may have looked at retrofitting buildings and have a tool, Combat which might be of interest to us. The Benalla Planning Scheme is available at
https://planning-schemes.app.planning.vic.gov.au/Benalla/ordinance
​
I mentioned my interest in Council emissions following the BSFG Climate Emergency Petition presentation to Council on Wednesday September 29th, 2021.  At the meeting Council was to have available an emissions report ready for the review of the Climate Adaptation Strategy which is now due.  I recently found that Council have been involved in evaluating Emissions Assessment tools with Strathbogie, Indigo and Towong Shire Councils, https://www.gmca.org.au/carbon-crunching-councils.html.  Bronwyn suggested I write to the Council asking for a Council emissions report.

Bronwyn suggested a way for BSFG to work with Council could be to have regular meetings with her and Nathan.  Council funding could also be available for BSFG projects however these could only be considered for the 2023 Council Budget.  There are also the annual Community Grants and the monthly Sponsorship Grants to support BSFG activities, https://www.benalla.vic.gov.au/Your-Community/Annual-Grants-Program.
​
Bronwyn also suggested BSFG report to Council regularly about BSFG activities, such as the recent well attended Landlords Solar Forum.
​
Peter Maddock

'100% renewable and community owned energy'
Renewable Energy Benalla (REB)
 
REB had a meeting in early July to try to identify potential community organisations which might benefit from solar installations with similar loan/repayment schemes to that already in place for the 2 kindergartens.

Benalla Men’s Shed was one possible organisation, so a meeting was held on Wednesday 27th July at the Men’s Shed, in order to try to ascertain their power usage (and pattern of power usage) and determine the feasibility of a project there.

The reality is that they operate 3 days per week with not a large amount of power consumption (there is no heating/cooling or hot water system in the building), so the payback period for the loan based on quarterly savings would be far too long to make this a feasible project for us under our current donation-based model for the rotating fund. They also have issues to sort out related to the metering of power on the site in Waller St, as the Lions and Rotary Clubs also have sheds there (both with very minimal power usage).

We may need to broaden our enquiries to look at commercial enterprises, but that has some potential risks around the long-term viability of a business.

Peter Maddock has come across an investigative tool called "Sunulator" which evaluates power use in relation to solar system size and can assess the appropriate size for the situation under consideration. The ATA has developed the Sunulator, and it has been used by the Geelong Sustainability Group to coordinate community renewable energy projects in Geelong (eg 149 kW solar installation at the Multicultural Aged Care building).

Interestingly, GSG uses a community solar investment model.

​
Peter Holmes

Greening Benalla Focus Group (GBFG)
 
Arising out of the 2022 BSFG Review, our group consists of Karen Nankervis, Judy Schwarzman, Sue Campbell, Kate Holmes and Christine Holmes.
 
At our first meeting on Tuesday 12th July, we decided on a name - Greening Benalla Focus Group BSFG.
 
We discussed our interest and purpose as follows –

• Greening of the Benalla landscape by preserving existing vegetation and creating new green spaces and corridors.
• Our focus is health and wellbeing of the community and environment through involvement and education.

 
At this meeting Kate brought the BRC Health and Wellbeing Annual Action Plan 2022-2023 to our attention.  We felt we could make a contribution to many of the intended actions and outcomes contained within the document.

• We read through the document and from our notes Christine wrote a submission to the Plan, sent on 13th July.

• Of the ten Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing priorities, tackling climate change, increasing healthy and active living were specific areas of interest to our group.
• We have not had feedback or acknowledgement from the BRC Health and Wellbeing Steering committee.

 
Our second meeting, on the 26th July, was called abruptly as we found out through the Ensign funding was available for councils and community groups to apply for grants from The Living Local fund, to improve public spaces and streetscapes, due by 14th August.
​
We made the following decisions as an action plan in preparation to apply for funding.

• Identify potential spaces for greening. We came up with two potential spaces, both in Goodwin St. Benalla. We visited those spaces.
• Contact the appropriate people from BRC to determine who is responsible for those spaces.  (Judy sent an email 28th July)
• We intend to make an appointment to discuss our ideas with the BRC Planning/ Landscaping staff as well as Councillor Gail O'Brien in the coming week, as soon as we have above information.  

 
Christine Holmes, on behalf of the group.

The new 'Connecting and engaging the community' action group's purpose is to connect and engage the Benalla and surrounding communities through facilitating sustainability and connection skills workshops. The workshops will run in partnership with local groups. For example, building home food share boxes with the Men's shed, crocheting reusable/washable dish clothes with the knitting group, propagating seeds with the Permaculture group, nature bathing with wellbeing groups.
 
Building sustainability skills supports our community to be strong and independent, and prepare for the impacts of climate change, like bushfires and floods impacting our food on farms, and the flow on impacts, stress, rising cost of living, feeding families, mental health.
 
Growing connection skills are vital for our community to enable the sharing of skills (repairing, building, growing, sewing), tools, knowledge and great memories. Connecting with our community also helps to reduce loneliness, isolation, and depression and brings our diverse communities together.
 
Proposed Workshops: 

WORKSHOP 1 - Build a food share box for your home and community (PROPOSED)
Do you have excess zucchinis & cucumbers in summer, heaps of lemons and too many pumpkins for the winter? A food share box out front of your house is a great way to share food and give back to your community.
​
In this proposed workshop, participants will be welcome to come build their own food share box!  
 
When: TBC
Who: Local men's shed
Where: TBC
 
WORKSHOP 2 -  Empathy cafe
An empathy café is an active listening process in which everyone takes turns to speak, listen, and offer reflections, in a small group with others, in response to a prompting question. The prompting question can be in relation to climate change, an issue within the community or anything that serves the purpose of the group. Empathy cafes can be particularly supportive when there are two groups with different opinions or perspectives on an issue. 
 
Who is it for? 
An Empathy café is suited to adults who want to transform their ways of relating with others. People who are generally curious and willing to try new things, as well as practice reflective listening. 

How do you do it?
At the start of the event, we will introduce the Empathy café concept and how to do it and then we will break into small groups of 4 or 5 and practice taking turns responding to a prompting question. Each person has 4 or 5 minutes to speak, and one person reflects what they are saying. The others listen. Each group has a facilitator that keeps the time and participates in the group as well. The facilitator offers gentle prompts and reminders to participants to support the active listening and reflection process. We end the session with a chance for people to reflect and share how the experience was for them.
​
We will share a meal at the end of the session and people may choose to contribute something to dinner.

​When: TBC
Who: Local community groups
Where: TBC
 
Contact: 
Rachel DeSumma
0417 720 984
Forest Immersion walks facilitator
forestwalks.com.au
https://www.facebook.com/Forest-Immersion-Walks-Victoria-220277508724668/

​We invite BSFG members, supporters and workshop attendees during the recent review process  to attend our BSFG General Meeting at 7:30pm on Thursday 28th July at the Benalla Uniting Church meeting room.

The film shown will be 'Together We Grow' from Happen Films. 'Common Unity' is the organisation featured in the film which runs for 39 minutes. Jordan and Antoinette, who are Happen Films, attended the SEFF in 2018 for the screening of their feature film Living the Change.

At this meeting, we may have some updates from the new action groups from our review. Brief information about the new action groups can be found in the BSFG Newsletter article,  https://www.bsfg.org.au/bsfg-review-2022.html

A light supper will be served at the conclusion of the evening.

Please RSVP your attendance to bsfginc@gmail.com

We hope to see you there,

Judy Schwarzman
Secretary, BSFG

In March/April/May this year, BSFG reviewed its past achievements, opportunities for the future and plans for the next 5 - 10 years.  New action groups have been formed and are keen to take on new members!  Please consider participating in one of these groups.  
​
1. Widespread Adoption of Sustainable Farming Systems
2. Connected and Engaged Community
3. 100% Renewable and Community Owned Energy
4. Ecological, Sustainable Planning and Development and Retro fits
5. Greening and Cooling for Our Urban Spaces - 'Greening Benalla'

​For all of us concerned about the future for our descendants, we need to be strong, viable and active!

Benalla Rural City Council's waste services policy is up for public consultation.  

BSFG members and supporters are encouraged to have a say on this policy, considering the importance of waste management towards a zero waste society, to help our community progress towards zero waste.

You can put in a submission by clicking on the link below.  Submissions close on July 21st 2022.

https://haveyoursay.benalla.vic.gov.au/draft-waste-services-policy

Adding the FB post  'for the record' in August - however the date for this wonderful event, 18 June 2022!

In the last couple of turbulent years, there haven't been many uplifting events to raise our hopes that any governments in Australia were seriously prepared to tackle climate change. The wheel may just have finally turned, as Australians have finally voted for candidates espousing much stronger action, and this gives me hope that, despite the rhetoric, the Labor Party might just need to raise their emission reduction target for 2030 beyond their policy level.

For BSFG, the review sessions held in March and April, and so well facilitated by Cath Botta, have given our organisation a new burst of enthusiasm, and new ideas to move forward and engage with the community and local government, in addition to continuing the successes of the Food Coop and REB's community energy project. Each of the focus groups established during the review sessions have already had preliminary meetings to establish their plans of action.

Also, on a very positive note, from the review sessions, was the interest shown by younger people in the work of BSFG, and this, together with ongoing contact with student leaders at Benalla College gives me encouragement that we can continue to enhance our engagement with the wider community on these vitally important issues. Some of this year's student leaders have registered for the Youth Climate Action Group sponsored by the City of Shepparton.

Just last week, we conducted a successful forum for landlords in Benalla on the topics of installing solar systems on their rental properties, along with potential energy efficiency measures to take to improve the houses. The forum was addressed by Brad Foletta from Solargain, and the audience of around 30 people were quite engaged in the discussion. A forum for renters will be held next week, and largely concentrate on the energy efficiency theme. Thankyou to Peter Maddock and Kevin Smith for leading last week's forum in my absence.

BSFG members also contributed some regular articles to the Benalla Ensign over the past twelve months - these were related to issues around the use of plastics and waste management.

I want to acknowledge the incredible amount of thought and energy that has gone into enabling the Food Coop to continue functioning throughout the pandemic. Congratulations to firstly Christine, and then Susanne, and the coop committee for developing strategies and procedures to safeguard the health of members during this time.

Congratulations also to REB for securing the funding for a second solar on kindergarten project, and now that the revolving fund is beginning to build, they can look forward to auspicing further projects very soon.

After a hiatus of 2 years, we are excited to have the Swanpool Environmental Film Festival returning next weekend. This festival has become a highlight of the annual cinema program, with the range of internationally and nationally recognised experts who have accepted the invitation to speak, and the fantastic selection of films that have informed, challenged and encouraged us over the years. Thanks and congratulations to Ian Herbert and the festival committee for providing us with yet another great program, and of course to the Swanpool catering team for their efforts in providing the physical nourishment required to see us through the 8 or 9 hour program!
 
Amongst all the positive achievements of BSFG during the past 12 months, unfortunately there was one large disappointment - our petition of 600 residents and submission to Benalla Rural City Council to declare a Climate Emergency and develop plans to reach net zero emissions by 2030 was rejected. We will endeavour to work closely with Council to make sure that steps are taken to reduce emissions, to help Benalla avert the worst consequences of climate change. The most obvious of these steps are the rapid uptake of renewables, the reduction in energy usage from all sectors of our community, the transition to electric vehicles, and the future-proofing against climate shock through greening and cooling our urban environment. We want to see targets and timelines developed that will ensure a safer and healthier future for all generations of the Benalla community.

In conclusion, I want to again thank everyone who has helped keep BSFG ticking - especially the committee members, David (vice President), Wendy (Treasurer), Judy (Secretary), Kevin (NERSA rep), Kay and Wendy, the website coordinators Peter and Bev, and our newsletter editor Ian. We will be welcoming new committee members this year, and as part of a longer term transition plan, we hope to coopt a few other members to join the committee as the year progresses. As Wendy Sherlock is retiring from the committee this year, I wish to acknowledge her extremely valuable insights over a number of years with her depth of knowledge in environmental management.

Finally, the whole BSFG community wishes John Lloyd and Freida Andrews a happy and successful relocation to Bendigo. John's outstanding contribution to the establishment of BSFG, and his leadership of BSFG and REB over the past approximately 14 years have previously been recognised by the conferring of a "life membership", and we feel certain that both he and Freida will soon find a cause to support in Bendigo which will add to their efforts in the Benalla community.


Peter Holmes 

It's is now only ten days away to the SEFF:  Saturday 18th June from 1 pm to 9.40 pm.

For this, our eighth SEFF, we have two excellent Guest Speakers, three full length feature films:
​
Session One: Assoc. Prof. Michael-Shawn Fletcher, feature film ‘River’
Session Two: Dr Kerryn Higgs, feature film ‘GrowthBusters’
Session Three: Short Enviro Film Fest, feature film ‘Once You Know'
.
The film 'River' should be impressive on the big screen with full orchestral backing.  We also have live music with local band  'Handle With Care'playing during the dinner break.

There will also be a selection of short films, some of them local.

Download Festival Programme.
Download Festival Flyer.

You can buy tickets direct now on Trybooking:
https://www.trybooking.com/BYVCL

Or you can book via the Swanpool Cinema website:
https://www.swanpoolcinema.com.au/specialevents
Scroll down and click on the ‘Buy Tickets’ icon.

The event is fully catered including sweet or savoury scones for afternoon tea.  When you enter Trybooking to buy your tickets you are asked if you want vegetarian or not.  That's because there is a choice between Slow Cooked Beef with coleslaw and scalloped potatoes or Vegetarian Spiral Tart for the main course.  Vegetable soup comes with both.  Dessert may be a more difficult choice on the night - Lemon Cheese Cake with Cream or Apple and Sultana slice with Custard.

Bookings will be limited to 150 this year to avoid over-crowding.  We won’t be selling tickets at the door so please book now).

Ian Herbert
Swanpool Cinema Newsdesk

Benalla Sustainable Future Group (BSFG) has organised a forum for renters from 7-8pm on Tuesday 14th June, in order to examine the possibility of installing solar systems on your rented property, and energy efficiency measures for your home.

VENUE - Benalla Uniting Church, Meeting Room  (opposite Coles supermarket).

Solar Victoria has solar information for renters at www.solar.vic.gov.au/informationforrenters.

Click to Download Flyer with details of the forum, and contact details for RSVP.

Update:  This session did not go ahead due to lack of numbers; the organisers are reconsidering marketing approach/venues/timeslots etc to better target people who may be interested. 

​We invite you to attend our Annual General Meeting: 7.30 pm Thursday 9th June 2022 at the Benalla Uniting Church Fellowship Room

Our Guest Speaker, Dr Lisa Rasmussen, is a Mercy Health clinician and holder of an Environmental Master’s degree. Lisa’s work in reducing the carbon foot print of Mercy Health has resulted in “Caring for People and Planet, Mercy Health’s Strategic Response to Laudato Si” - see the article on page five of our May newsletter, ‘Helen Haines Meeting on Net Zero Agriculture’ where Lisa reminded the audience that achieving Net Zero will also require us to consider the Scope 3 emissions embodied in the goods and services we purchase.

Lisa has titled her talk, “How might we truly reduce our carbon emissions, leading to a fair and just society.  Laudato Si’ and Mercy Health’s approach to reducing its carbon footprint”.

​Supper will be served at the conclusion of the evening.

Judy Schwarzman Secretary

As our AGM is approaching on June 9th, we invite you to consider renewing your support for BSFG for 2022-23.

Members need to be financial to vote or nominate for positions. More information to follow about our AGM and guest speaker.
 
Your membership fees help to provide the necessary finance to run Benalla Sustainable Future Group so that BSFG can continue to provide a valuable role in the community.

Membership fees are used to provide insurance cover for financial members at BSFG activities, to pay for venue hire and guest speakers, to produce a quarterly newsletter and to meet other running expenses. 
 
One-year membership of Benalla Sustainable Future Group (BSFG) is $25 per household or $20 if already a member of the Food Co-operative. $5 membership for students 18 years and under, or unemployed. A three-year membership is $60.
 
A Membership Renewal Notice is attached below with payment information.   

​
Judy Schwartzman
​Secretary, BSFG

Session One: Assoc. Prof. Michael-Shawn Fletcher, feature film ‘River’
Session Two: Dr Kerryn Higgs, feature film ‘GrowthBusters’
Session Three: Short Enviro Film Fest, feature film ‘Once You Know’
​
See Swanpool Cinema website for programme details.
Download Festival Programme.
Download Festival Flyer.

Tickets $30.
Booking essential on www.trybooking.com/BYVCL. 
Bookings will open May 21st.
Phone 0498 007 988 for enquiries.

Afternoon tea and dinner included. Catering by Swanpool Catering Team.

​Ian Herbert