Sustainable Living Festival comes to Castlemaine

 

Here's a chance to get involved in The Sustainable Living Festival without taking a trip to Melbourne.

Local groups have banded together to present an exciting program of events across the weekend.

“When representatives of the Sustainable Living Festival came to town earlier in the year – hoping to bring a more regional touch to the Melbourne-based event, we were delighted to be approached,” said Lucy Young from Castlemaine Community House’s Growing Abundance project.

“There are so many exciting initiatives happening right here, we jumped at the chance to showcase some of them.”

The weekend will get off to a juicy start for those that want to get on board with a backyard harvest of seasonal fruit on Saturday morning– most likely peaches and nectarines.

Sas Allardice of the Harvest program said: “It’s a chance to experience what we do as well as meet new folk and take home some juicy fruit”.

Harvesters will meet at 9.30am in the big IGA carpark and be encouraged to either cycle or car pool to the destination.

At 10am, while folks are out harvesting, there will be a gathering of many of Castlemaine’s active groups showcasing their stuff at the Ray Bradfield rooms.

If you want to hear the latest from the Community Wind project, come along and have a chat. There will also be a great display images from a recent trip to Europe, images that tell a story about how other towns have managed to meet their energy needs.

Mount Alexander Sustainability Group will also be on hand to chat about what else they are up to, as always, with many inspiring projects on the go, it’s a good chance to check them out.

Connecting Country will be on hand, linking people into their exciting program of events to help us connect to the local natural environment. Trust for Nature will be available to talk about their program that works with private land owners about how to protect local wildlife and plant life.

Sustainable Regional Australia will also be in attendance.

For those with a bent towards more active participation, grab a taste of the season to come on Sunday between 1 and 4 pm with a demonstration of a community apple press. Join in juicing fruits of the season with Growing Abundance at the fabulous Hub Plot.

The afternoon will include a short talk on cider making with a local backyard expert, Elaine Bayes. Participation is by donation, BYO bottles to take juice home.

If you want to know more about what’s on, call Lucy at Castlemaine Community House on 54724842 or check out: www.cch.org.au