Bundanoon's Winterfest was awarded a 2009 Business Awards trophy in the section 'Excellence in an Event' at the 2009 Business Awards for Excellence dinner held in Mitttagong on Friday 30 October.

Clearly Bronwyn Shead and Graeme Whisker were happy to receive the award on behalf of the BCA, the organising team and the many Winterfest volunteers and participants from the presenter Allison Hyland of Annesley Bowral.

Photo: Roy Truscott, Southern Highland News

Choosing to gift a future to our grandchildren

Bundanoon Footprint - Start of a conversation

This essay is written to encourage a conversation on the bigger picture for Bundanoon. It is hoped that the conversation will continue. Feedback welcome.

A whole village looking at its environmental footprint

Bundanoon people have come together on a couple of significant environmental projects. The first is the attempt to stop the mining of water in the town for the bottled water market and secondly banning of commercial still bottled water, called the Bundy on Tap project. Though the projects are very small steps in the context total environmental impact and climate change, the cultural significance of a small community coming together to make those changes is huge.

The Town meeting that decided to ban bottle water became an enormous worldwide media event. Something happened, something clicked around the world - what was that? Maybe it was the power of a small town taking control of its future that gave a sense of hope to people in a world where they feel powerless about their ability to affect environmental events. So they cheered. Do we now have an obligation to follow through, leading by example building on our collective hope? What a marvelous gift we can give to ourselves and the world.

The gift could be exploring how a whole village could go about reducing its environmental footprint then sharing that information so that others may benefit from it.

So we say 'let's get serious about this'. It really means looking at the environmental footprint of the whole village and how we can come together to change that for the better. We can poke around the edges and do a few 'feel good projects', but do they achieve anything of substance. If we don't know what the whole villages impact is and can measure it, we won't know about the impact of anything that we improve and we won't know what the most important things are to strive for.

Three critical components

It is important to acknowledge what maybe three critical aspects for such a concept to be viable :-

1. Social - Human and Village behavior change (see a marvelous resource in this week's New Scientist,22/8/09 and on the web www.newscientist.com with links to APA report on psychology and climate change)
2. Technical issues - science, social and economic analysis, engineering
3. Leadership - planning process and management

Although the technical areas have a lot of attraction and media exposure ( wind turbines, electric cars, geothermal energy etc) it is the social issues that are critical to sustaining comprehensive action to address climate change. It is our everyday consumption and choices of goods and services that consume energy and resources. As a society we have reached great technological heights, with satellites, computers, robot manufacturing and so on, but we still have not developed the social systems and individual behaviors that create and sustain the behavioral changes needed to confront the full range of our environmental impacts including climate change. This is the challenge that faces Bundanoon in changing its footprint-The ownership and commitment to changing the behaviors that lead to the destruction of our environment. It is in a sense ownership of having some control over the survival of the human species. This leads to the importance of the leadership issues involved. Wise and effective change management that can engage with all levels of our community is critical to success. This does not mean that all will engage but that all have the opportunity and are encouraged to be engaged. A minimum would be to see that a truly representative slice of the community be engaged, and where this can't be done to clearly understand the issues for any section of the community that does not wish to engage. The enemies of this are individual power plays and us and them ideologies. We have the skills available to us to undertake this community change process, but it must be given space to happen. Opportunistic and ill considered ventures will turn the community against a more reasoned and inclusive approach. Perceptions of what is happening are highly important from the start. High publicity by what is seen as one section of the community holding high moral ground telling the rest what to do is doomed to failure. There is room for many different groups with a variety of views in this process, but it must not be seen to be dominated by anyone group. It must be seen by the community as truly inclusive and respectful of all. A process that is seen as actively engaging all in a conversation around this idea is necessary.

Components for success

1. Village Impact: Measuring the villages total environmental and resource impact. Total energy and related consumptions and the climate change and other sustainable implications of that. This requires a lot of technical work and would require the assistance of academic institutions and some resources.

2. Understanding the village: Looking at the sorts of people that make up our village - age, skills, incomes, jobs, education, family units etc. Mostly available from the census but needs analyzing and reporting. The other aspect is the views, opinions and aspirations of our people. This would need some survey or focus group research.

3. Lowering Impact - An analysis and strategy: Once we have a measure of our impact and an effective conversation going with our community we can start exploring all the ways in which the community could modify the ways they do things to decrease the village impact. This would involve some research and technical input to look at all the possibilities, then discussion with the community about what they think is a feasible way forward. Strategies and action plans could then be drawn up for implementation. This would be a whole new phase of implementation and monitoring.

4. Leadership and Management: It is important to have a skilled group of people involved early on. It would be most desirable that the project be sponsored and under the umbrella of the Bundanoon Community Association, a long established and respected group in the town with four hundred members. It already sponsors a number of significant activities in the arts and environment.

5. Expert Advisory Panel: It is important that such a concept have available a number of skilled people from academic institutions, industry and government to help advise the project and to help link the work with relevant academic, industry and government programmes.

6. Community Engagement: An open and transparent relation with the community is important from the outset. A commitment needs to be made early on to effective communication and involvement with the community. Too often not enough time, though and resources are given to this , which results in tokenistic consultation processes, which alienate the community.

7. Communication Strategy: To fit with the goal above we need to think about using a modern and effective communication strategy that is resource efficient. One possibility here is to use the internet. We first need to find out how many people have access to the internet and invite them to participate by submitting their email addresses. We could assist people to get internet access. There are non profits that recycle computers for community use for $250. We could invite internet users to adopt a number of non internet households to pass on in printed form relevant communications and responses. All progress could be reported on a Wiki style platform (and community notice board) and also by electronic newsletter, that, where necessary this could be printed for non internet households. This has the potential to create a real time communication community. This would need some careful thought so that it did not descend into chaos and confusion.

Development Stages

1. Circulate discussion papers and invite feedback

2. Hold initial informal discussions with interested parties

3. Seek to define a project for adoption by a village wide coalition

4. Create resources required for project initiation, from academic, industry and government sources

About the writer: Paddy Murray is an economist, psychotherapist, Buddhist Chaplain and has been a project manager of a number of large community projects. He admires the work of the post war economist and Buddhist, Ernest Schumacher who wrote 'Small is Beautiful' a best seller in its day. His fundamental concept was one of - Stewardship, by which he meant that we each could attempt to leave the planet better than we found it. Bundanoon Footprint would be such an attempt.

Either leave a comment below or discuss this article in the forum.

While disappointed at the Land and Environment Court decision, Bundanoon residents say their long campaign against Norlex has avoided a worse outcome.

Senior Commissioner Tim Moore has approved a development application by Norlex Holdings to extract groundwater from Governors Street, Bundanoon and ship out a maximum of two tanker loads a day on weekdays.

"When the Don't Bore Bundanoon committee was formed in 2006 we were told that Norlex had approval for five truckloads a day and there was nothing we could do about it," the president of the Bundanoon Community Association, Ralph Clark, said.

"Now, after four development applications and five court cases, Norlex has been expressly limited to two truckloads a day*, with smaller trucks, and the court has imposed a number of conditions to preserve the landscape, protect trees and reduce the impact on neighbouring properties."

It was a Pyrrhic victory for Norlex in some ways, Mr Clark said. "The people of Bundanoon have drawn attention around the world to the toxic nature of the bottled water industry through the Bundy on Tap initiative. Other towns, and indeed governments, are already following our lead.
"Given the public interest that has been generated by Don't Bore Bundanoon and Bundy on Tap any so-called ‘spring water' marketed by Norlex will be commercial poison."

Commissioner Moore has imposed conditions on the development in an effort to retain the natural landscape of Governors Street. Previous applications would have meant "the removal of the entirety of the vegetation" along Governors Street which is a popular bushwalking track.

The intersection with Church Street has been re-designed and moved to save trees and special measures have been ordered to protect the root systems of large trees when upgrading the road. The impact of vibration from trucks on heritage-listed Jackmans Cottage will be monitored.
Structures on the Norlex site will be much smaller than those originally proposed and the court has ordered they be screened by extensive landscaping.

Commissioner Moore agreed with objectors that the development would pose a risk to pupils of Bundanoon Public School and adversely impact on the amenity of residents of Governors Street and bushwalkers but found that these issues were not sufficient to warrant refusing the application.

The matter is listed for mention in court again on September 7 to finalise the wording of conditions to be imposed on the development. The Don't Bore Bundanoon committee and other residents will be closely monitoring work to ensure that all conditions of approval are strictly observed.

*Commissioner Moore says in his judgement: "I make it expressly clear that my conclusion...is confined to two tanker movements per weekday (excluding public holidays) to and from the site. Should, at some later time, an increase in the number of tanker movements to and from the site be sought, a fresh assessment would be necessary."

25 August 2009
Contact: Ralph Clark 4883 6174 0418 265 529

Bundanoon has taken up the exciting community initiative of becoming Australia's First Bottled Water Free Town.

This article explains what that all means.

Who is Bundanoon?

Bundanoon is a country village of approximately 2,500 people, with a strong sense of community. There are well over 65 businesses in Bundanoon, 50 of which have commercial premises, ranging from a butcher to several nurseries, from health retreats to cafes and restaurants. From service stations to bicycle hire. Ten of these businesses have offered bottled water for sale.

Bundanoon has retained its village atmosphere with a streetscape that reflects its heritage as a bustling resources centre (timber, stone and coal) and tourist location in the early part of last century. These days the town plays host to Australia's largest Scottish gathering with the annual Brigadoon festival. It also attracts over 1,500 mountain bike enthusiasts for the Highland Fling bike races. As well as seasonal events like the Garden Ramble and Winterfest. Tourism is the mainstay of the town

Bundanoon takes its name from a term used by the local aborigines to describe the spectacular deep gullies that drop from the sandstone escarpments of the wild Morton National Park, whose boundary gate is just 15 minutes walk from Post Office. The natural beauty of Bundanoon environs continues to attract people a century on from its hey day when 68 guest houses graced the town.

Where is Bundanoon?

Bundanoon is located in the Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia, roughly half way between the cities of Sydney and Canberra. It is just 15 minutes off the highway that connects the two cities. Immediately to the southeast of the village is NSW’s fourth largest public precinct in Morton National Park. To the north are lush rolling hills of rural countryside. At 672 metres above sea level Bundanoon experiences all four seasons, complete with occasional snow.

What does the Bundanoon community mean by the term "Bottled Water"?

It refers to mass marketed still and flavoured still water offered for commercial sale in sealed ‘single use' plastic bottles. This type of beverage has been targeted because it is already efficiently provided through municipally plumbed drinking water systems. In the Bundanoon context "bottled water" does not refer to ‘sparkling' water, fruit juices, sports drinks, etc.

What's the Big Deal about Bottled Water?

Australia's annual consumption of bottled water is about 540 million litres. To sell this much bottled water the industry uses approximately 1 billion litres of water each year. In environmental terms the production and distribution of this volume of bottled water created more than 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the emissions 13,000 cars generate in one year.

The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change estimates that 200ml of oil is used to produce, package, transport and refrigerate each litre bottle of bottled water. As a result, at least 50 million litres of oil is used in the manufacture and distribution of bottled water in Australia every year. As a result, bottled water has a higher carbon footprint that is more than 300 times greater per litre than tap water.

A comprehensive American study found the total energy required for bottled water production was as much as 2,000 times the energy cost of producing tapwater. Much of that energy, in the form of plastic created from limited oil reserves, is squandered as up to 65% of single use bottles used for commercial bottled water are not recycled, finding their way into landfill or waterways.

Yet bottled water costs 500 times more that the water readily available from municipally provided taps. In many cases, it is, in fact, the same water. Many millions of litres of bottled water sold in Australia is sourced from municipal water. Nor is bottled water necessarily any more safe. In Australia bacteria, chemical disinfectants and aluminium have been found in bottled water samples. In blind taste tests around the world drinkers cannot accurately identify bottled water from tap water.

In summary, bottled water is an outrageously expensive beverage, that provides no health benefits over tap water, yet it greatly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, precious water resource extraction and creates a huge solid waste problem.

Further notes are available on bottled water information and research sources.

How did this Bottled Water Free Town idea come about?

For some years now the Bundanoon community, through the Don't Bore Bundanoon committee have been actively opposing the application by a non-resident business entity, Norlex, to commercially extract water from a bore within the Bundanoon village precinct. The environmental, social, heritage and financial impacts of this proposed development has brought the myriad issues of bottled water into clearer focus for many townsfolk, not the least being the removal of water from aquifers for commercial gain, during one of Australia's longest droughts.

Local businessman, Huw Kingston arrived at the notion that if the community were against extraction of water for use in commercial bottled water, then perhaps it should step up to the plate, and oppose the end result of such developments - bottled water itself. (Huw had, 17 years previous, developed a positive retail program where a national retailer made a donation to environmental groups when customers declined shopping bags.). In an open letter in the community magazine - Jordan's Crossing Gazette - Huw Kingston proposed that the village could consider becoming Bottle Water Free. Community and media interest was immediate and supportive. A working group quickly formed to investigate how feasible such a proposal might be. In throwing around ideas for a name for the group, the town's affectionate nickname was invoked, and Bundy On Tap (BOT) was established.

In its research the BOT Working Group could not find any other town that had undertaken such an initiative. It did however take inspiration from the small Tasmanian town of Coles Bay that had gone Plastic Bag Free in 2003. It was decided to seek advice from, the Jon Dee, founder of Planet Ark, who had assisted Coles Bay go plastic bag free. Jon Dee, was now heading up the Do Something organisation, which had as one of its projects, the Bottled Water Alliance. Jon generously attended a meeting organised by the BOT working group, and on experiencing the community spirit for the project offered to assist with business and media liaison.

The Bundy On Tap group then set about checking that business owners were on side. They were, and a community meeting was subsequently organised for 8 July 2009.

How will the initiative be implemented on the ground?

• Bundanoon retail businesses that previously sold single-use, bottled still water will no longer stock this product in their drinks fridges.
• With the assistance of Do Something, Street Furniture Australia and Culligan Water are kindly sponsoring 3 filtered water ‘bubblers' or water stations. Two for the town and another for the village primary school.
• Wingecarribee Council have been approached about providing appropriate plumbing of town water to these water stations.
• The water stations will be prominently sign-posted, and will also incorporate taps that can be used for refilling bottles.
• Bundanoon retail stores will make available for sale affordable, reusable, refillable water bottles.
• Bundanoon retail stores are considering the option of installing in-store chilled water filters so customers can access cold water for their reusable, refillable water bottles.
• Signage will be developed to indicate to retail customers where they can obtain refillable water bottles and/or chilled and filtered municipal water.

It is anticipated that most of these endeavours will be realised by October 2009, making Bundanoon Australia's first Bottled Water Free Town.

How do we know the community supports the initiative?

All feedback to members of the Bundy On Tap working group regarding the initiative, has to date, been overwhelmingly positive and supportive. The businesses who will be financially at risk of the action have also indicated their support. However a community meeting has been called for 8 July 2009 to provide an opportunity for village residents to learn more about the project, ask questions and express their views.

How do we know local businesses support the initiative?

In addition to one-on-one discussions with businesses selling still bottled water, an informal meeting of the major business enterprises in town was held 23 June 2009. There were 19 people present, which is thought to be the biggest ever turnout of Bundanoon business in memory. It was overwhelmingly agreed at this meeting that the Bundanoon business community would support the initiative for the village to become Australia's First Bottled Water Free Town. The local newsagency proprietor, Peter Stewart, who attended this meeting, has agreed to represent local businesses as one of the media contacts for Bundy on Tap.

Are there any similar initiatives elsewhere?

The Bundy On Tap working group and Do Something are unaware of any other community in Australia (or for that matter in the world), deciding of its own accord to phase out the sale and distribution of bottled still water.

There have been inspirational initiatives by municipal councils, particularly in Canada and the western United States to ban the sale of bottled water from council events and buildings. In Australia, the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change has banned the sale of bottled water in their offices. A number of Councils across Australia have also banned bottled water in their facilities and at council run events. However, Bundy On Tap has found no other grass-roots, community led effort to effect the same change across a whole town.

Small community environmental actions have been successful in the past. One stand out example is the town of Coles Bay in Tasmania that became Australia's first town to ban disposable plastic shopping bags. An initiative that many other towns have since adopted, both in Australia and internationally. In May 2009 South Australia became the first Australian government to implement a state wide ban on plastic bags.

What other community initiatives is the Bundanoon village involved in?

The Bundanoon community is very proactive in a diverse range of activities which are seen to be of benefit to the village as a whole. The Bundanoon Community Association acts as an umbrella organisation for many of these projects. There is a volunteer group, known as the Green Team, who undertake projects such as weed eradication, foot track maintenance, mowing, planting, mulching, as well as preparing a map of walks in the area. The team's work is supported by proceeds raised from another initiative, the Garden Ramble.

The Bundanoon History Group manages an extensive collection of photographic, written and oral history material. Winterfest is a two week long arts festival. The community also produce and distribute free-of-charge a not-for-profit publication known as the Jordan's Crossing Gazette, (referencing the village's earlier name). There is a vibrant Arts group putting on numerous productions and Bundanoon is recognised as a cycling ‘hub'.

There are many other volunteer community groups in the town, but of relevance from a sustainability aspect are Transition Bundanoon, which seeks to help the village become resilient in the face of challenges like climate change and peak oil. As well as the aforementioned Don't Bore Bundanoon committee, who are actively opposing the push by a non-Bundanoon business, Norlex, to commercially extract water from a bore within the village.

Who are the stakeholders involved?

I have further questions. Who can I contact?