Sustainability in Action at the Yara Balba Art Studio

Well I’m pleased to announce that today’s Sustainability in Action event went off with a bang. The weather Gods smiled on us, and in contrast to Friday’s blitzkreig and Saturday’s cruel and unusual winds, we had a sunny day. This is obviously what you want when you’re organising a community event, particularly one where for at least part of the time people have got to be outdoors. We had about fifty people in attendance, probably largely as a result of coverage in The Newcastle Herald and the Lakes Mail, and a nice, chilled out vibe.

If there had been rain, this picture would have looked very different!

We had short presentations from property owner Margrete Erling, Greg Piper MP, Tony Voller from the Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Managment Authority, Joy Edmonds from Morisset Sustainable Neighbourhood Group and Rosmairi Okeno, Morisset’s Town Centre coordinator (Southlake Business Chamber and Community Alliance).

Raised vegetable garden beds.

After the presentations, which all happened in the Yara Balba Art Studio, we all went for a tour of the property to look at a variety of green living features. We admired massive solar panels, passive solar architecture, huge water tanks, some natty vegetable gardens and the Taj Mahal of chicken runs. In the distance, horses looked picturesque, dams sparkled and every so often the dogs, who had been put inside for the event, let out a disappointed yelp.

Enjoying the sunshine.

Sophie ran around in the long grass, pretending to be a leopard, while Margrete’s daughter good naturedly kept an eye on her. All the children seemed to enjoy themselves, there was much spirited dashing about, and more or less contained pandamonium. A metal sculpture with bells proved too good to resist, particularly during the speeches, and an old horse trough, complete with rubber duck, was also a winner.

Horse trough: with duck

One of the things I love about this property is the way sustainability and creativity seem to go hand in hand. The landscape is dotted with pieces of sculpture, all made from things that were once used for a completely different purpose. It’s this fresh way of looking at objects, and seeing their innate potential, that I admire. Very little is thrown away, there’s always consideration of what other use something could have. And from a purely aesthetic point of view, this is kind of wonderful.

An old piece of jetty construction equipment becomes sculpture.

Concrete ball sculpture.

Thanks to everyone for coming along today and making it such a nice day.