A successful Swanpool Environmental Film Festival 2023 was presented to a full house on Saturday June 17th, 2023, at Swanpool Cinema.

The festival ran from 1pm until 9.40pm and included afternoon tea and dinner prepared and served by the Swanpool Catering Team and volunteers. 

The first two of our guest speakers have provided their presentations in pdf format to be made available on the BSFG website.  Full details about the Festival Programme.

Sue Lebish, Chief Executive Officer, Winton Wetlands titled her presentation ‘Winton Wetlands: A Story of Hope and Renewal’.  Download Sue's presentation.  The film screened in the first session was The Rights of Nature, A Global Movement.  Watch the film.

Professor David Karoly, Hon. Prof. University of Melbourne, Climate Council Australia titled his presentation ‘Update on Climate Change Science, Impacts and Solutions for Victoria.  Download David's presentation.  The film screened in the second session was Greenhouse by Joost.

Our final session was introduced by Landcare Facilitator Claire Birch, https://www.landcarevictoria.org.au/donate.  After describing the work of Landcare, Claire introduced Bertram Lobert from the Save our Strathbogie Forest Group, https://strathbogiesustainableforests.wordpress.com/. With support from group members Bert presented recent actions which have resulted in the cessation of logging in the Strathbogie Forest.  Video supported the groups presentation.

The final film screened was the Bob Brown film The Giants, https://www.thegiantsfilm.com/.

The 2023 Festival was the 10th anniversary of the Swanpool Environmental Film Festival.  Professor David Karoly spoke at our first festival in 2013.

Thank you to the ongoing contributions from our supporters in enabling another successful Swanpool Environmental Film Festival in 2023.  The $30 entry to the festival covers the cost of afternoon tea and dinner.

The Benalla Food Co-op is in its 12th year of operation and currently has 65 members with over forty households shopping regularly.

The Co-op Committee remains unchanged, and it’s been a relatively quiet year. Our main business has been general housekeeping and running issues, with our aging vacuum causing the most trouble.

This year we’re trialling earlier opening hours on Monday afternoons during winter due to shorter daylight hours and colder weather. This will commence in June.

There’s a fluctuation in members’ shopping habits that result in some days being quieter than others. Just when we decided Thursdays were our quietest day, they became busy again.

Our product list remains unchanged with 118 products. Members pay for their shopping via Square or cash. A majority of members use Square.

Product procurement has an element of pot luck and sometimes what I order is not what you receive, and sometimes items are out-of-stock.

Our efforts to remain vermin and pest free has been mostly successful with minimal stock losses. Ongoing monitoring and hygiene are required to avoid the problems we faced in 2021-22.

Our ability to improve storage is hampered by space, however it’s been decided to purchase one extra cupboard.

Thank you Christine for continuing to coordinate the shop roster, and Peter for ongoing management of the day-to-day accounts as well as the biannual stock take.

In 2021 Christine was recognised for her 10 years of coordinator service and given a life membership.

Thank you Wendy Baker for the rest of our accounting matters. Wendy reports a surplus for this financial year of $3,073.25. This is an improvement from the previous year despite our markup remaining at 20%.

Thank you Graeme Greed for ongoing equipment maintenance, and Rhona who keeps members informed with news via her weekly email updates.

Thank you Maren for ordering and packaging the herbs and to Sonia for allowing her front porch to be used for deliveries from suppliers.

Thank you Kay Blore and Karen Nankervis who are improving our recycling efforts.

Thank you to our 11 duty managers and 13 computer operators who take on extra shift responsibilities.

Thank you to Louisa for developing a series of Co-op promotional templates for use on Facebook and to Beverly Lee and Peter Maddock for maintaining our Facebook and BSFG website presence and for tolerating my questioning as I attempt to get my head around the benefits of social media.

Thank you to my husband Richard who unloads the pallet of produce each month and helps me store it. In closing,

I would like to recognise all of you. Together we’re the Benalla Food Co-op community. The Coop is run by you, it’s a great team effort and you are the key component that keeps us operational.

Co-op Committee: Susanne (coordinator), Christine (rosters), Peter (finance), Rhona (weekly up-dates), Karen (recycling), Tanya and Rosalie (Community Garden), Judy (BSFG secretary), Sonia (porch for deliveries) and Julie McPherson.

Duty managers: Graham, Sonia, Tanya, Rosalie, Christine, Rhona, Joy, Robyn, Jack, Eleanor and Susanne.

Computer Operators: Graham, Peter, Karen, Glenys, Simon, Stacy, Deanne, Jenny, Julienne, Maren, Marlies, Sally and Robert.

Enquiries and feedback welcome via the BSFG website or our business email [email protected]

Susanne Bennett
​May 2023