Author Archives: Wendy

Officeworks and Reflex paper: “I have to pay my mortgage and feed my dogs”

Officeworks Lismore: a Bulletin On Saturday I drove 72 kms. round-trip to my local Officeworks store in Lismore, NSW in the vain hope that they might have stopped stocking Reflex paper. I signed the pledge and the petition (with 11,000 others!) months ago and so far my boycott has meant that I have taken my [...]

Silencing Dissent: charity begins at home

Charity begins at home says Wendy, who has experienced being ‘gagged’ in community meetings.

Why bother with community engagement, anyway?

After a hard two weeks being labeled variously as a “mercenary”, “a hired gun of the developers” and a hopelessly naive optimist, Wendy asks why it’s important to engage in community participation. She remembers a man who dedicated his life to environmental causes and who died at 96, still campaigning. That was a life well lived, she concludes, and hopes for such a life herself. This realisation and a call form a sympathetic old friend — himself a developer — makes “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” a little easier to bear.

The original dream for Jarlanbah Permaculture Hamlet

Wendy is mining the Jarlanbah archive and discovering much about the guiding principles that has been lost. There is much to learn here!

(re)visioning Jarlanbah Permaculture Hamlet

Wendy introduces a new blog that will eventually become a dedicated website: about her eco-community, the Jarlanbah Permaculture Hamlet, a brilliant dream of social and ecological harmony that is still to be fully realised. She outlines some of the current problems, some of the founding principles and suggests that there is still much to do to realise the original dream. Confronting bullying is one important step.

Trouble in Paradise: Dual Occupancy at Jarlanbah

Wendy asks how it can be that some of her neighbours in a low-density eco-village want to ban dual occupancy (or accessory dwelling units ADUs) because they think it’ll wear out the infrastructure and turn the place into a slum and a ghetto.

One Sleep ’til the Windows Arrive: The joys of owner building

Wendy bemoans the endless delays (often caused by inesperienc in owner building) in finishing the guest room so that she and Karl and welcome guests to stay in their bush abode.

Natural Disasters and Banks: A Tale of Two Australian Banks

While we have not been as badly hit as many flooded communities in Queensland and New South Wales in recent weeks, things have been messy here. Roof iron blew off the shed roof, the python got in, as well as rats and mice. And many things were damaged. Paper did particularly poorly. Up a ladder [...]

Chocolate Chip Cookies

  I was visiting a city friend recently. We have no oven in our shed in the bush, so the sight of someone preparing to bake was deeply satisfying. “What are you baking?” I asked Bill, as he patted the lumpy, brown blobs. Knowing he was a vegetarian, I was prepared for lentil burgers. “Chocolate [...]

Evaluation: Must the Messenger Always Be Shot?

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to have to write a short piece on evaluation for a consulting report. I reviewed what I had in my library, did a quick Internet search and decided it was time to bone up on the latest. So I took myself off for two blissful days in [...]