Dates for Doing - March 2026

Visit the Calendar for details of events and hall activities

https://coalpointprogress.blogspot.com/p/calendar.html

Progress Hall OPEN DAY & AGM

Saturday 14 March 
10-12 Open Day
12:30-1pm AGM

Progress Hall, 197 Skye Pt Rd
Details of the Open Day
Details of the AGM

TASNG Meeting

Wed,11 Mar

4:30-6pm, The Hub,

97 The Boulevarde.

Locals Landcaring

Tools & training provided

Morning tea at 10am

12/3 Hampton St Link - Hampton St end

19/3 West Ridge

26/3 Gurranba

2/4 Burnage

9/4 Stansfield

16/4 Puntie Creek Reserve

23/4 Threlkeld

30/4 Yarul

7/5 Hampton St link - Laycock St end

14/5 West Ridge

Ponte Point (TASNG)

1st &3rd Wed

8:30-10am. Meet under the Fennel Bay bridge

Want to join us?

To receive weekly updates email Ros

cppalandcare@gmail.com

Ideas in the Morning. AGM after lunch.

The CPPA Open Day is an opportunity for the community to connect, contribute and help shape the year ahead. It’s a chance to share ideas with the Progress Committee, explore new initiatives and celebrate what makes our community such a special place to live.

From 10am to 12pm, on Saturday 14th March, Progress Hall will be buzzing.

The Landcare team will host a Grow Me Instead weed display along with local native plants available for sale and to order. 

Conversation tables will invite your input on projects we are proposing, events we hope to host and initiatives we are exploring. Committee members will be available for a chat. Memberships can be renewed. A rolling morning tea will keep the conversations flowing. All the details are here.

At midday, we will pause, share a simple lunch together and reset for the formal business part of the day, because while the Open Day is about ideas and imagination, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) is about governance and accountability.

The AGM will be held from 12.30 to 1pm. It is where we formally receive reports, review the Treasurer’s Report and Financial Statements, and elect the Committee for the coming year. Transparent governance ensures the Association continues to operate responsibly and in the best interests of the community.

This year’s AGM will be efficient. The Achievements Report will be shared, the Treasurer’s Report and Financial Statements are already available on our website, along with the formal Notice of Meeting and Agenda. 

The current Committee has nominated to return with enthusiasm. That said, there is always room for new voices. If you are interested in joining the Committee, please get in touch. There is no pressure, just opportunity.

We warmly invite the whole community to attend both the Open Day and the AGM.

5 Community Conversations at one Open Day

Saturday 14 March 10am-noon
Progress Hall. 197 Skye Point Rd
(Parking at Gurranba Reserve)

1. Grow Me Instead Display - Protecting Coal Point’s Living Web

An important Open Day conversation centres on something slowly disappearing all around us, our biodiversity. Globally, species are disappearing at unprecedented rates. Habitat is shrinking. Ecosystems are under pressure.

And yet here on the Coal Point peninsula, we are in a rare and precious window of time. We still have extraordinary diversity in our yards, reserves and verges. Bushes, shrubs, trees, groundcovers, grasses, insects, birds, possums, fungi and flying foxes, all the intricate threads that form the web of life.

Some of it is obvious. Some lies hidden in dormant seed banks beneath lawns, but it is still here. Given the chance, it returns. Our local landscape has strong regenerative capacity. Birds move through the canopy spreading seed and maintaining genetic diversity. Life is ready. The question is, will we make room for it?

The garden escape problem

At the Open Day a Grow Me Instead display will highlight common weeds across the peninsula.

Some are already established in bushland. Others remain mostly in gardens but have the potential to escape.

Once certain species move beyond the fence line, they outcompete local natives, alter soil conditions, suppress regeneration and reduce habitat complexity for wildlife.

That’s why we need local heroes. Native species that provide nectar, pollen, fruit and shelter. Plants adapted to our soils and climate extremes. Species that strengthen the genetic diversity of our isolated peninsula.

What you’ll see at our Landcare team’s display:

• Common environmental weeds

• Garden plants to keep under watch

• Recommended native replacements

Bring a sample or photo of a mystery plant and we’ll help identify it.

Have the conversation about why small decisions matter, the verge planting, the creeper allowed to spread, the clippings dumped in the reserve. Each choice either strengthens or weakens the web of life.

We will also take orders for autumn plantings, where cooler soil and better rainfall makes for strong establishment before summer.

Join the conversation. Let’s strengthen the strands of our living web.

2. Progress Hall Access, Inclusion and the Next Chapter

In 1951, the people of Coal Point built Progress Hall through garden parties, fundraising and working bees. For more than seventy years it has hosted dances, concerts, meetings and celebrations. It is owned by the community, not council.

But expectations have changed. Accessibility standards have strengthened, community understanding of inclusion has grown. What was once acceptable no longer meets contemporary standards.

If the Hall is to serve everyone into the future, we must plan for it now with a strategic approach.

This year, CPPA will develop a detailed Disability and Access Plan, with a staged, strategic framework that assesses the current limitations, identifies best-practice solutions, integrates building and landscape design and positions the CPPA to apply for grant funding to implement the design.

We are seeking expertise from landscape architects, design specialists, surveyors and grant writers.

More than compliance, accessible design benefits everyone; parents with prams, less mobile residents, hall users moving equipment. Good access is good design.

At the Open Day we invite imagination. What could be possible? Seamless pathways, integrated landscape design or flexible outdoor spaces. The Hall was built by the community. Its next chapter will be shaped by the community too. If you can't make it to the open day and are interested in contributing to the discussion, register your interest here

3. Dancing Through the Decades with music, movement and community.

When Progress Hall was built, it was designed for dancing, with a raised stage, sprung timber floor, and plenty of room to roam with razzle and dazzle.

This year we want to bring that intention back to life with Dancing Through the Decades, a celebration of music from the 1950s to the 2020s across eight events.

And who better to provide the soundtrack than our own community? Coal Point is rich with talented musicians. Bands. Duos. Solo artists. Some gig regularly, others may just need the right invitation...you’re invited!

The concept is that each event will include a dance instructor to guide a few moves from the era, nothing formal, just enough to get started, then the floor is yours.

Dancing dissolves age barriers, it builds connection without saying a word and is good for the brain and the body.

If you would like to attend, perform, organise or suggest some songs for a decade, come to the Open Day or get in touch through this Expression of interest form.

Let’s fill the Hall with music and dance again. 

4. From Brighton Avenue to a Nature-Positive Future

Thinking Ahead of the Curve

Some conversations take years. In 2016, a DA for 2 Brighton Avenue/133 Excelsior Pde proposed removal of 215 of 218 trees on the block. Community concern was strong with 133 submissions and the matter progressed to the Land and Environment Court. The amended proposal retained 31 trees in keeping with Council’s recommendation “the applicant should give strong consideration to retaining continuous canopy vegetation to conserve scenic amenity to the Toronto Bay area”

As the implementation of the DA works began with the gruesome grind of the arborist’s arsenal it has again highlighted how confronting canopy loss can be. Biodiversity decline rarely happens in one sweep. It happens incrementally, tree by tree.

Across the Coal Point peninsula, connected canopy corridors allow wildlife to glide, flit and forage between the Spotted Gum Open Forest, remnant rainforest gullies and Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest. When those corridors are thinned or broken, fragmentation compounds and safe movement through the landscape becomes harder with each passing year.

The bigger picture

In February, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released its Business and Biodiversity Assessment.

Its message is clear. Biodiversity loss is not just environmental. It affects economic systems, property values and community resilience. Nature underpins everything. The report calls for shifting financial flows toward protection and regeneration, not simply managing decline.

A local response?

One Open Day conversation will explore the idea of a local Green Investment Fund.

Not an offset scheme or a protest mechanism but a proactive investment model supporting habitat protection and restoration, linking of wildlife corridors and collaborative and sustainable housing

This would require careful design and collaboration. It is not about stopping development. It is about recognising biodiversity as living infrastructure.

The Brighton Avenue story reminds us that decisions today shape canopy cover for decades. How do we move from reacting to shaping? Join the conversation or register you interest in the project here.

5. Fortify Your Foreshore

Walk the waterfront after a storm and you can see the change. Exposed roots. Slumping banks. Sections of foreshore that are quietly disappearing. The foreshore is under pressure.

This year, CPPA proposes a workshop series titled Fortify Your Foreshore. You can register your interest in the workshops here.

Workshop One – Where and When

Where is the foreshore? It is not a fixed line. It shifts over time with water levels, storm surge, sediment movement and vegetation change.

Experts, historical mapping and current mapping will help demonstrate where the foreshore sits now and where it may move in future.

Workshop Two – What and Why

The foreshore is the transition zone between land and lake. Water meets soil. Roots bind banks. Fish shelter. Birds feed. It is one of the most biologically rich areas in the landscape.

Healthy foreshores absorb wave energy, filter runoff, protect property and safeguard water quality. When degraded, impacts ripple outward.

Workshop Three – Who and How

Responsibility for the foreshore is shared between landholders, Council and State agencies. But practically, one property owner’s actions affect their neighbour.

Hard structures can deflect wave energy. Clearing vegetation can accelerate erosion. We will explore soft engineering approaches such as strategic native planting and appropriate structural responses.

Protecting foreshores is not a single-property issue. It is a whole-of-community project. If you live by the water, walk the shoreline or care about the health of our lake, this conversation is for you.

Complete the Expression of Interest form to keep in touch about the event.

Dates For doing Feb Update

 

 Visit the calendar for updates

https://coalpointprogress.blogspot.com/p/calendar.html

CPPA Monthly Meeting 
Monday 9 Feb, 9 March 

3-4:30 pm Progress Hall, 197 Skye Pt Rd, Coal Point
contact cppasecretary@gmail.com

TASNG Meeting
Wednesday 11 Feb, 11 March 

5-6:30 The Hub,
97 The Boulevarde, Toronto

Progress Hall Open Day
Saturday 14 March

• Grow Me Instead weed display
• Native plants for sale
• Meet the members, join up
• Community conversations
• Cafe-style beverages and bites

Locals Landcaring -
Every Thursday 8am-11ish 

Check the Calendar for locations

Tools & training provided
Morning tea is always at 10am

• 29/1 Burnage
• 5/2 Gurranba
• 12/2 Stansfield- neet behind the hall
• 19/2 Puntei Creek 
• 26/2 Threlkeld
• 5/3 Kilibinbin
• 12/3 Hampton St link- Jabiru Street end
• 19/3 West Ridge
• 26/3 Burnage
• 2/4 Gurranba

Crocodile Point (TASNG)
1st &3rd Wed
8:30-10am. Meet under the Fennel Bay bridge

Want to join Us?
Receive weekly emails about landcaring and what we will be doing, send a request to Ros cppalandcare@gmail.com

80 years of connecting our community

This year marks a significant milestone for the Coal Point Progress Association(CPPA). Formed in 1946, the CPPA is celebrating 80 years of advocating for local services and infrastructure, strengthening community connections, protecting the local environment and representing community concerns to Council.

The anniversary year is a chance to look back and look forward. We’ll be sharing snippets from the archives (first issue of The Chronicle from 1980), reflecting on where we’ve come from, and exploring where we want to head next through a series of Conversation Cafés. Along the way, there will be plenty of opportunities to come together socially at Progress Hall.

Our first anniversary event will be held on Saturday 14 March, starting with an open day from 10.00am to 12.00pm at Progress Hall. The morning will feature the very popular a Grow Me Instead weed display and plant sale, a chance to meet members and the Committee and a Conversation Café, with café-style beverages and light bites, and opportunities to share your ideas on

• How will we celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the CPPA?
• How can people move safely around the Coal Point peninsula without relying on cars?
• What role should the CPPA play in the community over the next few years?
• How can we protect local bushland as housing density increases?

After a break for lunch, we’ll come back together for an efficient Annual General Meeting, where committee positions will be filled and reports presented.

We look forward to celebrating this milestone year with the community that has shaped the CPPA for eight decades.

Time to renew or Join Up

A CPPA membership helps keep our community-owned hall open, our bushland cared for and our community informed. Join or renew today and be part of what keeps our community connected. Here's an online form. Or click on the form below. More information about the CPPA membership is here

 

TIN Turns 20

Trees In Newcastle is celebrating its 20th Anniversary with a combined Open Day with the Newcastle Community Arts Centre from noon till 4pm on Saturday 12th September at 246-252 Parry Street Newcastle West.

On the day there will be a Spring Plant Sale, Botanical illustration classes, children’s bushcraft and stencilling activities, personal portraits by Peter Lewis, games, planting opportunities, tours of 20 years of TIN sites, displays on Native or Weeds, Greywater reed bed filter systems and frog ponds as well as a BBQ. 
At 7pm there’ll be a reunion of past members, supporters and volunteers music by After Three a vintage jazz trio and a magician. Everyone is welcome and an RSVP to 4969 1500 or enquiries@treesinnewcastle.org.au will assist with catering.

Sustainable House Day - Sun 13 Sept 09, 10am-4pm

Sustainable House Day started in 2001 as an initiative of the Australia and New Zealand Solar Energy Society (ANZSES). It is an opportunity to visit sustainable houses in your area.
A local sustainable house at Fassifern is an amazing house that will be open on the day 10am-4pm, address details available from 1st September on the Sustainable House website.

Key Features:

• nine year old double split level - four bedrooms, two living areas, two cellars, three decks, kitchen, garage
• passive solar,
• single skin Hebel, high thermal efficiency 
• not connected to grid, water or sewer
• 1 kilowatt photovoltaic array
• 45,000 litre water storage tank
• dry composting toilets
• greywater diversion system
• solar hot water
• food garden
• access to public transport and cycleway
• net zero annual carbon emissions
• NatHERS 5 Star energy rated -owner designed and owner built

The best thing about this event, is the co-operation of sustainable homeowners who throw open their doors to the general public. In past years, the most positive feedback from visitors has been about the willingness of homeowners to share their stories. Talking about the lessons they’ve learnt – sharing the stories that have worked and the things that didn’t go so well – is just as valuable as looking through the house itself. For more information and to find the details of other houses in our region see:

Landcare Office Mini Muster & Open Day- Saturday 5th September