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Cut your electricity bills by up to 90% and help save the planet while you’re at it! A community solution to the energy crisis – together, we all benefit. Energy prices have gone up again and people are frustrated with big energy companies. Most homeowners are interested in battery storage, and we’re working as a community to provide easy to understand information and to unlock people-powered group buy discounts from high quality providers. Together, we can switch to solar and battery power, take control of our energy future, and replace big energy with community solar.

Geelong Sustainability Group and Dan Cowdell (pictured here) is committed to boosting the uptake of renewable energy in the Geelong/Surf Coast region and have been researching ways to assist local residents to better understand options and to enable informed decisions.

We want to:

1. Replace big energy with community solar, so that together we all benefit.
2. Simplify the process of getting solar and batteries
3. Give people a range of options, solar, batteries, solar + batteries, plus all different purchasing and finance options.
4. Bring the benefits of community group buying power to reduce prices
5. Give the community a trusted source for solar advice.

Continue reading “Community Solar, Dan” →

Do we have anything like this in Geelong? If so, we need to do a story on them.

Humans In Melbourne  April 12 at 5:27pm · Repost

This is the story of a little soup shop in Melbourne that makes a lot of lives better every day. But you’ve probably never heard of it…

In Centre Place, about half way down, you will come across “The Soup Place”. Out the front, you’ll see the big black kettles full of tasty soup. You will also see lots of post-it notes and that’s where the story really starts.

George, the manager, saw a pizza place in New York that allowed patrons to buy slices for the homeless. They would write their name and a little message on the note and then homeless people could come in and have a slice for free. George decided to bring this idea to Melbourne and now OVER 6,000 bowls of soup have been served to the less fortunate. People pay $3.50 for a bowl of soup that usually costs $7.50. They write on a post-it note, sometimes it’s just their name, other times it’s words of kindness like “Be safe tonight, you are important”. Everyday those that can’t afford a meal come and get a bowl of soup and some bread and when they do, a post-it note goes from the fridge to the bowls on top of the fridge to show how many people have been fed. Brilliant. 

Today I saw 3 gentleman John, Dave and Tony digging into their soups.
“How is it gents?”
“Bloody delicious” Dave smiled.
I asked Tony how it felt to know that people care.
“You have no idea mate. It means the world.”

Imagine being given the opportunity to play the sport you love, after years of thinking it would never be possible. Well, our local disability organisation genU Karingal St Laurence is working hard to raise funds to purchase a revolutionary new golf machine that will give people with disability in our region the chance to ‘stand up and play’. You could help out by attending their ‘Stand up and Play’ charity golf day. This event is kindly sponsored by the TAC.

The ParaGolfer is a machine that raises the player to a standing position, allowing for a more conventional swing.  It was discovered by James Gribble, who was searching for a way to get back into sports after an accident in 2008 left him a quadriplegic. Having formed the charity Empower Golf, James has now pioneered the use of ParaGolfers in Australia.

“I recently had an individual, who had been wheelchair-bound for over 20 years, in tears after his first session in the ParaGolfer. Not only was he standing upright again after all that time, but returning to his favourite sport, one he thought he had lost forever.”

Continue reading “ParaGolfer” →

‘’Song Contest – The Almost Eurovision Experience!’ We’re going, are you? It’s a unique, loving tribute and hilarious parody to the Eurovision Song Contest. It’s as close to the real thing as you can get in Geelong with all the quirkiness that’s both utterly hilarious and makes you cringe at the same time. All audience voting is authentic and live via smartphone, making it more of an event than your traditional musical, with the potential for a different winner every night.’ We caught up its young, talented Director and Choreographer, Kai Mann-Robertson, at rehearsals.

‘This show is something new to Geelong. Be transported to Minsk, Belarus and settle in with your outrageous hosts. It is full of unique songs and unique genres from contemporary pop rock to Bavarian Folk music to opera. All with very tongue in cheek characters.

Continue reading “Song Contest – the almost Eurovision Experience!” →

The documentary about Geelong’s own Peter Roberts, makes its debut. Peter is Australia’s only Music Thanatologist. For the past 20 years he has been giving to others by playing the harp to premature babies, the ill and those at the end of life. Read his amazing story here: https://humansingeelong.com/2016/12/16/harpist-peter-roberts/ The documentary was filmed by award winning Farshid Akhlaghi.

You can find out more and watch the trailer here http://frommusicintosilence.com/

Photo: Peter Roberts in Istanbul

Geelong After Dark returns next Friday 4 May from 6pm to transform the laneways and spaces within Central Geelong in unexpected and inspiring ways. Immerse yourself by interacting with art of all stripes, from spoken word, to live music, illuminations and provocative work that will challenge your perspective of what art is (and what you want it to be).

Now in its fifth year, this free event will feature a strong line-up of local, national and internationally renowned artists, inspired by this year’s theme, Earth, to create work that will surprise, challenge and delight.

Wander the laneways, stroll past street corners, linger in front of lit buildings, enjoy the parks and public spaces, transformed for one night only, by art in every conceivable form.

Continue reading “Geelong After Dark 2018” →

Extracts from the 1916-17 diary of Alexander Joseph Bennett (Sept 28^th 1892 – June 21 1969).

Wed July 5^th 1916 – Left Wareham and marched to Swanage (UK). Trying march via Corfe Castle. Very hot, arrived at Swanage 12 o’clock. Went down to Swanage to tea with Billy Keen and a walk along sands to a beautiful place, hilly and lovely view of sea and vessels from hut. No letter from Lou since last Sat. Lovely air going and would like to take Lou around these hills.

Tues July 11^th – 2pm our vessel ‘Nestor’ set sail. Grand send off by all vessels sirens and waving hands via Plymouth.

Thurs Dec 14^th 1916 – Up at 2am march still south west, then up the west bank of river. (Tigris?) We are now, after continued marching, required to dig tranches, advance again and dig trenches again, south of Cut, Samara.

Continue reading “ANZAC Day 2018” →

Humans of the World Unite! #humansingeelong were thrilled to recently catch up with Humans of Singapore @humansofsg and @Humans of Bournemouth, UK. It was an opportunity to connect and share amazing ideas. Unfortunately, I just missed catching up with Cathy of @Humans of London who had a work commitment but we are corresponding via email. Each of these inspirational groups aim to create a better world by featuring heart-warming and inspirational stories on the locals of their cities.

Pictured here are Eun and Sidd from Humans of Singapore. Sidd took over running the project from a friend and Eun, who has just moved to Singapore, is keen to help. She had a brilliant idea – ‘it’d be great to get all the Humans of/in from all around the world together for a conference where we could learn from each other.’ Let us know if you’d like to sponsor that one!

Continue reading “Humans of the World Unite” →

‘As an artist I see the importance and the beauty of the mangroves. I feel connected to nature, with a sense of responsibility to protect them by producing art highlighting their beauty and importance.  I’m very much aware that mangrove forests contain some of the highest carbon eating stocks of any forest type (http://go.nature.com/2D2DRJ3). Also, that the forests cover around 2 per cent of the 2,000 kilometres of Victorian coastline (http://mangrovewatch.org.au/regions/australia/victoria/).  Mangroves are important; the trees and the associated sea grasses are very effective in reducing carbon from the air and providing us with oxygen in our age of global warming.’ We hear from Artist Zahidah Zeytoun Millie.

‘My family and I have been living in Geelong since last July having moved from the UAE.  I have started kayaking on the Barwon River; in Geelong, Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads; and also upon Swan Bay.  I have also visited the mangroves of Corio Bay.  I’m in search of the mangroves in order to sketch them using water colours. Interestingly, I find myself having to pick up plastic bags, just as I used to in the mangroves of the UAE.

Continue reading “Mangroves from the Water, Zahidah” →

It’s National Youth Week. ‘The message I wanted to get out there, is that stereotyping and discrimination is wrong. Everyone is different in their own way and it’s ok to be different.’ We hear from Brooke Blaney (pictured here) who wrote the children’s book ‘The One that was Different’. ‘My lead character April has orange hair. Some of the other kids tease her but everything is turned around when April discovers that so many of the kids are different. You just don’t always see it.

‘I knew what I wanted to Inquire into for our Grade 6 Exhibition at Highton Primary. I wanted to find out more about stereotyping. We also had to choose a way to take action. Initially, I thought I could write an article for the popular UK magazine MC1R which is all about Red Heads. MC1R is known as the red hair gene. But then that’s not the group of people that need convincing, so I went with a children’s book to pass on the message that stereotyping and discrimination shouldn’t happen.

‘I came up with the idea of using fingerprints for my characters because they are all different, they express individuality and uniqueness. The text is a mixture of story and speech bubbles.

Continue reading “The One that was Different, Brooke” →