Transition Steering Group Update

The Transition Steering group has been meeting regularly and discussing the
process and making plans for the next few months. The group has met with
LMCC’s Sustainable Neighbourhoods Program and deliberated upon their
program and possibilities.
A movie ‘In Transition’ was purchased and reviewed and the logistics of having a
community viewing are being worked upon.
The group went to the Sensible Transport Forum held in Newcastle recently and
learnt that CSIRO projects petrol to be $8/L within the decade, Australia’s oil
production peaked in 2000-01 and since then it has been getting more expensive
to extract the oil, with only 40% of our oil currently supplied domestically.
Some other interesting bits of information were the uncertainty of the OPEC Oil
reserves as they have been overinflated to allow for increased production, OPEC
providing 40% of the world’s oil supply, and 60 of the 90 oil producing countries
already having peaked in their oil production.
The forum highlighted the impact increased oil costs will have on out-lying
suburbs that don’t have adequate public transport infrastructure or pedestrian
options, with the proposition that car travel will become the realm of the
exclusive and air travel very expensive once again.
One of the exciting options for the future was to revise the way we view roads,
not just as car places but also people spaces, where all modes of mobility are
accepted and accommodated, making it safer to ride bikes.
Another speaker provided a perspective on Council operations and how some
Councils have already started planning for oil depletion as an imminent threat, as
‘leaving oil before it leaves us will maximize resilience and liveability’. The
cost of service provision will affect the whole community, especially waste
services. Garbage trucks are big, heavy and do a lot of start and stopping which
uses a lot of fuel.
An option that could be easily adopted even here at Coal Point is to put your bin
out next to your neighbours. If your bins are next to each other the truck doesn’t
have to stop/start so much. It might seem like a small thing but it all adds up.
If your interested in thinking about how a community adapts to a changing world
and what it would have to do the Transition Steering Group meets monthly, 3rd 
Monday of the month. We are meeting in group member’s homes, the next
meeting is at 23 Whitelock St, 19th October 4pm-6pm. All are welcome. If you
can’t make a meeting but would like to follow the discussion there is an online
discussion group. Send an email to coalpointprogress@gmail.com and the details
can be forwarded.