Earthchat 15th January 2021

Aboriginal conservation programs in inland country

This week, Marie Gerrard will join David Clarey on EarthChat, interviewing Peter Worsnop who has been working with Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia on the border with Western Australia and Northern Territory. His role has been to co-ordinate Aboriginal rangers in a conservation program to save the endangered flat-footed Rock Wallabies. The program not only works on environmental conservation, it provides employment to aboriginal members of a remote community. See more about APY here.

Join Marie and David on EarthChat on 103.9 Seymour FM this Friday at 10am and repeated at 8am on Saturday morning before breakfast.

EarthChat 1st January 2021

The big issues for 2021

On EarthChat’s radio program on 1st January, 2021, BEAM committee members talked about their hopes for the coming year including innovative initiatives in the region whose outcomes they look forward to watching develop and grow. The organisations mentioned, plus reference material, is posted so listeners can follow up for further information. Continue reading →

EarthChat 8th January 2021

Community Resilience and the Pandemic

in Surviving the covid-19 pandemic has drawn the role of COMMUNITY into focus more than usual. EarthChat has often talked about the role of community and local change, and this week’s EarthChat revisits community and its strengthened role in bushfires, pandemics and the bigger elephant of Climate Change.

Phil Bourne from CommonGround is well-placed to talk about community and community resilience- this has been his life’s work.  The contrasts between community with independence and individualism couldn’t be more obvious today….. as Capitol Hill in USA is in turmoil…..  Are we different? We hold our glasses half full on EarthChat.

Join Phil with Peter and David on EarthChat on 103.9 Seymour FM this Friday at 10am and repeated at 8am on Saturday morning before breakfast. Community radio, community strength, listen up! You can join the national audience of EarthChat.

BEAM – busy during 2019-2020 and more to come

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A report of the Annual General Meeting on 31st October 2020

The Annual General Meeting was an online meeting with 25 people.  BYO snacks and drinks and meeting from home was not the same as the great food and face-to-face company of previous meetings, but it was the cheapest AGM BEAM has ever had! 

 As the President’s Report shows (below), we have been busy and have a very active committee carrying several campaigns and activities into 2020-2021.  Continue reading →

Mitchell Council Elections – Candidates Questionnaire

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BEAM Mitchell Environment and Mitchell Community Energy sent a questionnaire to all candidates in the 2020 Mitchell Shire Council Elections.  Attached are the candidate’s responses (or lack of responses) received up to Monday 12th October and collated and annotated by Clare Daly and Peter Lockyer.  Just click on the responses you want to see. Continue reading →

No time for incremental steps to renewables

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In the interests of keeping an open mind, I recently listened to the National Press Club address by Andrew Liveris, former CEO of DOW Chemicals and special advisor to the National Covid-19 Commission Advisory Board (NCC). While he is a very successful businessman, I’m not convinced of his advice to the Morrison Government to implement a gas-led recovery. There was a lack of scientific intelligence at the NCC table; in fact, it would appear that a gas-led recovery was a foregone conclusion, which raises the issues of conflict of interest and integrity. Continue reading →

Save the Tallarook Forest – the Campaign in underway!

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Great progress has been made with building momentum to protect the Tallarook State Forest from logging. A new group, Friends of Tallarook Forest, has been formed (allied with BEAM), by a dozen or so neighbours and users of the forest. We have created a change.org petition, opened a facebook page, had articles in the media, contacted politicians, and started surveying the endangered species in the proposed logging coupes.

Photo:  Greater Glider Continue reading →

Community battery webinar now available

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In Australia, there is currently considerable interest in community batteries, and a number of installations are now providing initial results. Community batteries can provide benefits to individual customers and to the network services, and are likely to encourage more solar installations on homes.

Mitchell Community Energy conducted a webinar on 31st August that brought together national experts to explain how community batteries work, where they have been installed or planned, models of ownership and management, and the economic and social benefits and costs of providing and operating them. It was an important webinar for communities across Australia at this time of rapid change in our energy system.

Speakers were:

  Revana Boodhraj,  Senior Business Analyst, Western Power

  Dr Marnie Shaw,  Research Leader, Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program, ANU

  Justin Harding,  Manager, Network Growth, Ausnet Services

  Ben McGowan,  Managing Director, Indigo Power

A recording of the webinar is available here,  Passcode: 1+b$CDv4