Art & Craft Show...One week to go

There will be plenty of art, an abundance of craft and a congregation of community folk who you haven’t

seen for a while but will definitely enjoy catching up with.

The Opening Night of the Art & Craft Show is a great community event, it’s one week away on Friday 29^thJune from 7:30pm.

To ease congestion at the front door and assist with catering it would be very helpful if you could purchase your tickets before hand from Eventbrite  or let Barbara (m: 0409 839 428) know. Of course you’ll be able to pay at the door on the night as well. 

The Opening Night $10 entry fee gives you the chance to leisurely peruse the art works on display with a free wine and canapés to assist in exploring the artistic merit. Many artists will also be present to discuss their work, which is all for sale. You'll also receive a ticket for the lucky door prize, a watercolour by the award winning local artist, Hugh Cross.

The Art & Craft show will be the last event to wrap up the Threatened Species project, it was also the first event in 2012 when the project was officially launched. A hall full of entries have been received and a dozen pieces entered for the $700 threatened species prize.  

The program for Opening Night 

7:30    Drinks, canapés, perusal and purchase of Art & Craft...continues throughout the evening
8:00-8:30

• Welcome, Acknowledgement of country, thanks to sponsors- Suzanne Pritchard
• Official Opening - Greg Piper MP for Lake Macquarie
• Awarding of Threatened Species Art Prize Mark Kempton - Wetlands Centre & Liz Crane
• TSLS Project wrap up & thankyou to community

8:30    Lucky Door Prize - Watercolour by Hugh Cross
10:00  Last Drinks announcement
10:30  Good night and thank you for attending our community celebration

The Art and Craft Show Weekend

A gold coin donation will get you into the Art & Craft Show on Saturday and Sunday where the CPPA café will be in full swing with hot beverages and homemade treats to make the Art & Craft outing rather special.

Along with the Art & Craft there will be demonstrations by local artists

Saturday & Sunday :  Stephen Cassettari : Chinese Painting and bespoke cards
Saturday Noon :  Geoff Davis : Leather Belt making demonstration  
Sunday 10 till noon :   Hugh Cross :  Watercolour Demonstrations
Sunday 12:30 till 2pm :  Helene Ruma :  Wangi Artist Portraits in Pencil

Sunday 2pm 

• Awarding of the The People's Choice Award
• Drawing of the Raffle 

All weekend will be the Awesome Art & Craft Raffle

1st Prize

Bed & Breakfast at The Bronte (4 star- Hotel Morpeth) and Dinner
Donated by Toronto First National Real Estate ($430)

2nd Prize
Newcastle Harbour Cruise Luncheon
Donated by Nova Harbour Cruises ($108)

3rd Prize
Hughzies Lakeside Brasserie $50 voucher

Donated by Hughzies and
Bunnings $50 voucher 

Donated by Bunnings

Thankyou to our sponsors

Toronto First National Real Estate

Bronte House raffle prize & printing 

Carey Bay Cellars

The wine for Opening Night

Nova Harbour Cruises

Harbour cruise for raffle prize

Hugh Cross

Watercolour for Lucky Door Prize

Hughzies Lakeside Brasserie

Voucher for raffle prize

Coles Toronto

Voucher for catering

Bunnings

Voucher for raffle prize

CPPA Art & Craft Show

Entries due Friday 8th June

The paint is drying and the craft glue setting as entries are rolling in for the 2018 Art & Craft show being held on the 29th June-1st July.

The celebration of community artistic talent and environmental endeavours will see Progress Hall brimming with biodiversity as the $700 Threatened Species prize aims to lure artwork depicting the

Crafted Squirrel Glider by Chris Marcar awaits The Show

local flora and fauna. 

All art and craft entries need to be lodged by the 8th June to allow time for coordinating the display. Entry forms and information are available on the CPPA website. http://coalpointprogress.blogspot.com/p/art-and-craft-show.html

Opening Night 29th June

If you’re looking to add to your art collection or acquire a uniquely crafted gift, Opening Night on the 29th June is when the majority of sales take place. 

The happy hive of activity that creates the buzz of excitement as artists and community mingle is both socially and creatively satisfying. This local community event is a happy time at the Hall and fulfils the intent of the building as a community space for local gatherings. Opening night tickets can be purchased online via Eventbrite or booked and paid for on the night by sending an email to artandcraftcppa@gmail.com or ring Barbara 0409 839 428 .

Volunteers Needed

Whilst the volunteer Arts and Craft committee have been beavering away for months, to make the event a success more volunteers will be needed leading up to and during the event. 

Volunteers will be needed to assist with setting up the hall, decorating the hall, hanging the artwork, running the café, assisting with sales, keeping a watchful eye on items, meeting and greeting, selling raffle tickets and a few jobs as yet unthought of. 

If you would like to volunteer any time from Wednesday 27th June to Sunday 1st July please contact Barbara with your details and we’ll circulate a roster.

World Environment Day... So much to celebrate

On World Environment Day 2012 the CPPA was advised it had successfully applied for a $250,000 Environmental Trust grant. Six years later the project is in its final month and there is still a flurry of activity. 

National Tree Day it was super

The community National Tree Day planting at the Hampton St Link site had 700 plants added to the biodiverse corridor that links Laycock and Hampton Streets. The vision splendid is that one day it will be a lovely shady walk to the shops with the birds a-chirping and the butterflies fluttering by during the day, and at night the Squirrel Gliders will scamper through the canopy hiding from the Powerful Owls cruising overhead. 

The amazing landcare crew and community volunteers have put in over 200 hours preparing the site. This involved dealing with the extremely invasive Guinea Grass that seems to be increasing in every reserve and roadside verge. The planting required digging hundreds of holes into some rather unforgiving substrate, moving a mountain of mulch and watering well the newly planted tube stock. 

World Environment Day 2018

On Tuesday 5th June 2018, there’ll be several low-key community activities on offer for willing participants who’d like to celebrate World Environment Day in our local environment.

Guided Walks on the West Ridge

At 7-8am and 5-6pm there will be guided walks along West Ridge, meeting at the crest of Whitelocke Street. We will wander and wonder at the completed Mega-Mural on the water reservoir, experience the morning glory or go roaming in the gloaming. No matter what part of the day it’s a beautiful walk and a great way to get to know your bigger bushland backyard. Wear walking shoes.

Plotting a path at Hampton St Link

8:30-11:30am Lend a hand with the landcare crew plotting an informal path from Hampton Street to Laycock Street and plant the final 40 plants. Medium activity level. Wear sturdy shoes. Meet near the Carey Bay Cellars, look out for the Landcare banner.

Join the Ploggers to beat plastic pollution

Anyone can join the Coal Point Ploggers, an anonymous group of individuals you may see picking up plastic as they jog, walk and shuffle around the peninsula. There are even dog-ploggers out there. If you do happen to pick up your dog’s bog as you plog, please don’t throw it and the bag in the next bit of bush you see. The plastic bag keeps it fresh for many months and bag and bog don’t seem to breakdown. All ploggers enjoy the sense of satisfaction that you have made the world a better place when you place the proceeds of your plogging in the right bin.

Wikipedia describes Plogging as a combination of jogging with picking up litter (Swedish: plocka upp). It started as an organised activity in Sweden around 2016 and spread to other countries in 2018, following increased concern about plastic pollution. As a workout, it provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting and stretching to the main action of running

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Toronto Foreshore Protection Group

Concern over LMCC’s plans to put a 4-6 level tourist-residential development on the Toronto foreshore at Bath St has motivated over 2000 people to sign a petition calling for all of the council owned land on the Toronto foreshore to be zoned for community land. 

Removal of Foreshore seating by LMCC

The newly named Toronto Foreshore Protection Group (TFPG) recently held a meeting with Cr Wendy Harrison, the only Councillor who opposed the proposal, to better understand the council process and explore the community’s concerns. 

The TFPG found out that a rescission motion was not possible, as council has already started to act on their decision. Locals have reported seeing surveyors out on site in the 1st week of May, the community seating near the sewer pump station on the foreshore, installed at a time when the vision for the area was that is was for public recreation, was demolished on 23rd May by Council. 

The TFPG believes that the community at large perceives the Toronto foreshore as public land and the lack of consultation with the community over council’s plans needs to be addressed. The Toronto foreshore masterplan that is to be developed over the next 12 months does not include the Bath St site, event though this land forms part of the continuous foreshore corridor.

The history of the Bath St site was that Council purchased the Greive’s family property in 1985 for $157,500 with the future purpose to be determined once the acquisition was completed. Council’s maintenance to date in the foreshore land between the Amateur Sailing club and the RMYC has been minimal, leading to the deterioration of what was once an attractive asset.

According to the Dept. of Planning’s LEP Practice notes, the Tourist Zoning -SP3 at the Bath St site can include such development as ‘tourist and visitor accommodation,’ ‘function centres,’ ‘information and education facilities,’ ‘recreation facilities,’ ‘food and drink premises’ and other ancillary and compatible land uses. The TFPG believes that council can still meet the Tourist zoning intentions by providing recreational facilities and food and drink premises that will encourage visitors and the community to enjoy the Toronto Foreshore.

The CPPA considers the Bath St site is an opportune location for council to compensate the Toronto community for their inaction on the Hirecraft marina site, land which they were offered to purchase that could have expanded the well used foreshore park and now is subject to 3-4 story residential development adjacent to the children’s playground. The CPPA is supportive of the TFPG efforts to preserve Toronto’s public foreshore land as community parkland for a growing population.

Have you signed the petition? Have you let the councillors know your thoughts?

It is extremely important that council is made aware that this is a community-wide issue and the interests of the greater Toronto community need to be considered and consulted.

The petition and more information can be found on the CPPA website.

Does Solar Cost? by Richard Turner

The Coal Point Energy Community Inc. is a group of residents of Coal Point who are exploring ways to make our electricity supply cheaper and more reliable. At the same time aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and establishing ways for the community to have more direct control over our local energy source.

Have you considered installing solar panels (PV) to your home? Even if you installed solar some time ago it is now time to revisit the issue as the solar landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years.

Solar panel and related management technology efficiency has improved significantly, to the extent that, even without subsidies or guaranteed high feed in tariffs, it is still worthwhile committing to installing solar.

Recommended independent information: www.solarquotes.com.au

The solar review process involves an energy consultant viewing your property and assessing its suitability for the installation of solar panels and, with access to your power bill, designing a system which optimizes the return on your investment (ROI). That is, a system which gives you the shortest “payback time” for your investment.

However, depending on your circumstances and your property, that may not necessarily be the best economic outcome.

Consider the scenario where the optimum system for ROI takes up only a small portion of your available roof space. You could potentially produce more solar electricity than the optimum “pay back time” so a different assessment methodology needs to be applied to the extra capacity. Assuming a feed in tariff of around 12c/kWh one then needs to calculate the cost of production of 1 kWh to determine the feasibility of the investment.

Most quality solar installations come with at least a 20 year “performance” warranty so it would follow that you use up to 20 years as your pay back time on your extra capacity. If you buy Telstra shares today your payback time is 10 years, for CBA its currently 12 years and BHP 15 years.

Assuming a pay back time of 10 years (conservative) and an interest rate of 5% (generous) the cost of production of 1kwH is around 4c and you can sell it to the grid for around 12c. That generates a ROI of around 5%. And the cost of electricity is only going to increase over time.

Saving on your power bill by producing your own is only a relatively minor benefit when you consider the bigger picture benefit of a solar system including:

1. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, solar generated electricity is a totally renewable source of energy 
2. Improving energy security by local generation which reduces demand on the national grid and reduces the likelihood of overload and 
3. Enabling individuals and the community to take greater control of their energy environment. 

If you would like to explore local energy options

• come along to our meeting at Progress Hall, 197 Skye Point Rd on Tuesday June 26th at 7pm  
• email a message to changecoalpointelectricity@gmail.com 
• join the discussion on the Nabo social media site.

Row Row Row your boat

Would you like to have a fun outing with your family and friends on Lake Mac? The Lake Macquarie Classic Boat Association (LMCBA) has built a St Ayles skiff and it is available for the community to use.

The 6-person, 22ft skiff, oars and life jackets can be taken out for a row. 

A member of the LMCBA will provide all operation instructions prior to launching. Contact Peter Ingrey 0417 432 922 for availability and more information.

More dead magpies discovered

In late April at least four more dead magpies were discovered around Rofe St. and reported to the EPA (ph 131 555).

If you discover any dead birds they can be taken to the Toronto vet who will store them until the EPA can pick them up for an autopsy.

If you have pets in the Rofe St. area, especially ones that like to interact with dead animals, please be aware that they could be at risk of poisoning if the dead birds are ingested.

Repair Café Report

Tool repair at the Repair cafe

The May Repair Café at The Hub, Toronto was a great success. The venue was well suited, the tool sharpening was very busy and very successful. Afternoon tea brought people together and was enjoyed by all. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing, were busy and engaging and shared their skills. The event created a great atmosphere with curious and interested visitors and happy customers.

The next repair café to show how much fun repairing things can be will be held on Saturday 16th June – 10.30am-1.30pm at The Willows at Warners Bay.

This project is a collaboration between The Toronto Sustainable Neighbourhood Group, the Warners Bay Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group, The Women’s Shed on the Lake and Upcycle Newcastle.
For more information:Follow the event on Facebook or email our team at warnersbaysng@gmail.com

DA UpDAte

Please consult  Lake Macquarie City Council’s Application Tracking system
for details and a complete listing.

DA's in Play

9 Lorron Close: One (1) Into Two (2) Lot Subdivision: Awaiting Information Requested

20 Laycock St (22 units)

An extension for submission of an amended application has been granted until the 27th July. The intention of the developer “is to continue to seek approval for the development in modified form that meets the expectations of Council and the community”. Issues that are still being addressed include tree retention and protection, fire hydrants, non-discriminatory accessibility and noise during construction.

Pamper Care Project

All over the world and including Australia, people are doing it tough. West Lake Macquarie is no exception. There is the “hidden” population of homeless and disadvantaged people - men, women and children.

Most people don’t choose to be homeless or disadvantaged. For many, this happens because of domestic violence, marriage/ relationship breakdown, loss or change of employment, illness or accidents, family breakdown.

The Five Bays Sustainable Neighbourhood Group is helping the homeless in our local area, working with Woodrising Neighbourhood Centre to give a little bit of pampering with personal care products to those who need it the most.

Donations of all kinds of personal care products are welcome, including soap, body lotion, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, tampons and pads, toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouth wash and more.

Drop your donation at either:

• the Blackalls Park Pie and Cake Shop, shop 11a Blackalls Park Shopping Village; or 
• Woodrising Neighbourhood Centre, 80 Hayden Brook Road, Woodrising 

Pamper Care packs are currently distributed to people in need through the Woodrising Neighbourhood Centre.

More information: http://www.sustainableneighbourhoods.org.au/pamper-care-project.html