Transition Town Newcastle

Transition Newcastle is a grass-roots, non-profit organisation creating a positive vision for the future, where we can form close community ties, and network with the myriad of environmental organisations, and work with local Councils and businesses to accelerate the pace of change we must make, in order to effectively tackle the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change.

The global Transition movement sprung from the work of Rob Hopkins, a Permaculture Teacher who became aware of the Peak Oil and Climate Change challenges. He motivated his TAFE students in Kinsale, Ireland, to develop the first Energy Descent Plan for their region, and this has inspired hundreds of global communities to follow his approach.  

OUR JOURNEY SO FAR..... 
Over the past twelve months we‘ve talked to people of different backgrounds, from farmers to artists, architects to engineers, retailers to teachers: people obsessed with bike paths, solar energy and worm farms; people involved in schools, community groups and churches; people of different religions, politics and race. People different in almost every aspect except one: they care about the future of our planet and they want to do something about it.

Transition Towns can harness that passion and connect people in a way that breathes life into communities and creates sustainable, resilient ways of living together. It’s transforming communities overseas and it’s starting to take hold in Australia.

So far we’ve built a strong and inspired working group who‘ve been learning about the model and making connections in the community , gathering resources to encourage the transition. In order to get the word out and to hear from people in our communities, we’ve run film nights, open space discussions, children’s workshops, a fortnightly Ideas Cafe as well as our regular steering meetings. We’ve given a number of formal presentations to councils, government and community organisations and driven people to distraction with conversations about the possibilities for this movement.  

WHY TRANSITION TOWNS?
The Transition Initiative differs from many environmental groups in as far as it is more about celebration than protest. The Transition approach takes the need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as a given. It acknowledges the threat of pending resource depletion through climate change and in particular peak oil, but its strength lies in a positive vision of the future we can create ourselves, if we begin now. Undoubtedly this will demand a paradigm shift in our world view. It’s time for a fundamental rethink about how we live, about what we need and want our future to look like. By finding ways of supporting and empowering each other to move towards the post fossil fuel society, we can create a healthier and happier place.  We are beginning with the end in mind, a positive vision of how we want to be in the future; more respectful of each other; more respectful of the planet that feeds and nurtures us; a future that is sustainable in the best sense of the word.  

Our email: transitionnc@optusnet.com.au