Terania Times #106 Mar/Apr 2023

Editorial Your magazine

is isa communitymagazinesowewant ittobe lledwitharticles frommembers ofour local community!

We welcome your articles,photographs, stories and other contributions. It’s always a good idea to have someone else read it to see if it makes sense.Please keep articles to under 800 words,letters under 300 words and include a phone number in case we need to contact you. All letters are,as far as practicable,left in their original form.Some stylistic or formatting alterations may be made to t layout requirements but the spelling, grammar,punctuation,expression,opinions and information they contain are all their authors’own work.

Executive contributors

Editor,Advertising Enquires&Layout

Ray Flanagan

Accounts Steve Cooke

Cover photographs- e Channon Tavern on re-opening day & Erin Dee and Jayz pulling beers for the crowd - by Terri Nicholson

T.T.#106 contributors

Bob Keane

Jason Gough

Cath Lewis

Rupert Reid

Samuel Alexander

TCCC committee

Robyn Kelly

Dale Paget

Maggie Ritchie

Keith Gasteen

Lina Svensson

Terri Nicholson

Nan Nicholson

Helena NorbergHodge

Hugh Nicholson

Jeremy Stewart

Martha Beasley

David Smith

Annie Kia

Vanessa Eden

Hendrik de Vries

Rena Woolbank

Darcy Brown

March/April 2023

Issue 106

AsI write it is the anniversary of the catastrophic ood of February 2022. e changes that have occurred in the landscape, the built environment,local businesses and people’s lives have been monumental.Will the area recover from the disaster? at remains to be seen.One thing is certain - e Channon community has rallied with several initiatives aimed at easing the pain and building infrastructure to hopefully lessen the impact of future catastrophes.

is edition features articles on the Radio Network (page 6) by Martha and David,Flood Observations by Annie (page 10) and e Channon Resilience Group by Terri (page 18).

ere is a Solomon Island story I penned following a recent trip there and an interesting article by Jeremy Stewart about some experiments on Forest Flood Mitigation carried out by two young high school students (page 5).

A huge thanks to Betty for her many years taking care of the accounts.Betty has retired from the position and Steve has kindly stepped up to take on the role.

I was delighted to see,on my return home,that e Channon Butterfactory Tavern had reopened. ere is an update on e Tavern (page 9) with a few pics from the opening.

e Channon Open Mic will have reconvened at e Tavern on February 26 and the next one will be March 26,starting from 3pm.

I recently noticed that some of the back copies of TT had disappeared from the 'issuu.com' website. I hope you were not inconvenienced as a result.I have uploaded the missing ones again.Please let us know if you can't nd any of the copies in future,so I can investigate.

I took time out from my 'studies' to put this edition together.Yes, studies! I need to obtain my Owner Builder's Licence in order to run a new building project on our community.

ere are 5 units covering OHS, plan reading,cost estimating,work organisation and workplace communication.If the rst unit is any indication,the content is rather 'dry' and boring - I invariably nod off as I tackle what seems to be mostly irrelevant waffle.Having previously built two houses and numerous other buildings I feel adequately equipped to take on this latest project - that is except for studying and passing the Owner Builder's Certi cate.As if there isn't enough 'red tape' to navigate one's way through when dealing with the Council Planning Department!

Ray Flanagan

Terania Times

Letters to the Editor

Somehow I got hold of the last number of the Teranian Times and read with great interest the article on the above topic ( is Civilisation is Finished).Rupert Reid seems as concerned about ‘climate change’as I am. e issue is enormous,but probably unstoppable at this stage.

It would require a total overhaul of our economic system,as even ‘Blind Freddy’can see that inde nite continuous growth is unsustainable. e quick decisions that should be carried out at once can perhaps only be instituted by a single world leader with dictatorial powers,a benign dictator. at experiment was tried about 400 BC in southern Italy, with the Greek philosopher Plato in charge of a city-state,and failed; so the chances of a similar experiment on a world scale succeeding is nihil.

We muddle along until despair overwhelms us,and it takes only one Vladimir Putin to endanger our ‘civilisation’.Rupert and I may be very pessimistic,but the end of ‘this civilisation’does not necessarily mean the end of Homo sapiens.A new civilisation may develop,without the natural surroundings of the one we have known.

How would we fare?

I have put my views into a couple of rhymes,comments on social issues in modern day life; in my opinion,as a cultural anthropologist,discussions with the use of emotionally charged but not clearly de ned terms,like racism, anti-semitism,climate change, create more heat than light,and basic issues are often overlooked. I have attached some of my views on these topics,in the hope of provoking thought and discussion.

Hendrik de Vries,Nimbin

Climatechange

I saw a man on the TV, Brazilian he was, Cutting down an Amazon tree. e reporter asked for him to pause.

“What you are doing is not right, We must protect and save each single tree! e world can barely sleep at night, e earth is heating up,you see.

Climate change is feared by masses, And this is one solution here:

ese trees will take the greenhouse gases Out of earth’s atmosphere!

We try to limit our emission

To zero,by 2050,if we can. For cutting trees you need permission! Said the reporter to the man.

e man said:“Hunger makes us very thrifty! While I agree with what you say, I can not wait till twenty- fty: My family must eat today!

All over earth,this story is repeated: Too many people battling for insufficient food; And soon the world’s supplies will be depleted, en inequality creates an ugly mood.

Our practices and wants to changes lead, at cause the ice to melt,the seas to rise. Of course,those signals we must heed, We shall be doomed if otherwise. It’s human nature always to want more. If we don’t get it,we’re calling it ‘stagnation’; Entitlement and greed come to the fore, We’ll need an outlet for our primitive frustration. As animals,we don’t shun blood and gore; Civility is only thin veneer:

If too frustrated,we shall even go to war! at situation is now coming dangerously near….. is must be our advice to each and every nation: To combat climate change,reduce your population!!

Hendrik de Vries

Greetings from Lilli Pili,Lismore Older Persons Mental Health Unit.At the time of writing this I nd myself surrounded by a wonderful collection of people from all walks of life,both staff and patients.

I’m here for a repeat visit two years almost to the day,since my last [4 day] stint,following the death of my beloved friend Uncle Kevin Torrens and my diagnosis of neck and throat cancer. e doctor gave it a big name which boils down to stress overload.

is time I was mourning my mate Father Malcolm,who you met in last month’s episode.Plus Covid plus the stress of a bush re scare back in November,plus the stress of replacing our old kitchen with a new one that Andrea had been sweating on for the past twelve months.

It’s all very civilized here at a supercial level,but when you look more deeply you nd that the Health System has been so decimated by Covid and NSW Health,that it is barely functional.NSW Health has been defunded at the same time it has sought to save money by automating telephone services to the extent that you cannot reach many sections of the hospital by phone,and it is literally easier to make a trip to town to talk to a human.And when you do get onto someone,you get false or misleading information about something as simple as cataract surgery at Ballina Day Surgery. Because the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing.

It's no wonder the nurses have been out on strike for better conditions: we should be supporting them much more than we are at present.And the same for our teachers – in fact everyone in the caring professions.

But despite the carnage,I see much here that cheers my heart. e other evening a lovely 53 year old nurse (average age of a nurse in NSW) was mentoring two young student nurses,both aged 19,both grew up here.Both went to local government schools and met each

The Evening Nibble

Keith Gasteen regales us with his eclectic stories

other by chance when they enrolled at SCU.And just to seal the deal,both their fathers are posties.My rst job between HSC and University was a 3-month stint as a postie in Brisbane,where I dodged predatory priests in a Retreat overlooking the river,and a bulldog whose bark was worse than its bite.A fact demonstrated to me by Pastor Don Brady,one of the giants of the Aboriginal freedom movement of the 1960s.

Australian Foundation Documentsand aVoicetoParliament

e Museum of Australian Democracy is housed in the Old Parliament House Canberra.But if you look in the New Parliament House,you will nd a glass case housing Australia’s ree Foundation Documents.

e rst of these is a facsimile copy of the Magna Carta dated 1215,which is a covenant (or deal) made out between the English King and the richest (and therefore most important) Noblemen in his Kingdom. ings we take for granted like no arbitrary arrest,no taxation without representation and so on.Basically, the foundation of our common law.It’s loose: as the great English constitutionalist Walter Bagehot wrote at the end of the 19th Century,the genius of the English Constitution is that it is unwritten.It is based on precedent.You’ve only got to cast an eye over the constitutional shenanigans entailed in amending ours, or the US or Chile was it,to see the wisdom of his proposition.

e second artifact is what are known as e Bark Petitions from Yirrkala,dated 1963. ese are “the rst documents bridging Commonwealth law as it then stood,and the indigenous laws of the land. ese petitions from the Yolngu people of Yirrkala were the rst traditional documents recognised by the Commonwealth Parliament and are thus the documentary recognition of indigenous people in Australian.”

ey are two typed foolscap sheets of paper with 12 signatures,pasted on two sheets of stringy bark on which are

painted a border of traditional Yolngu artwork signalling their ownership of the territory. e artists included Wandjuk Marika (my Yolngu father) and his father Mawalan,both recognised as higher men with an understanding of the two laws: their own and the Christian “ballanda” ways.Over a thirty-year period of legal re nement,we eventually got to Mabo (No2) in 1992,which overthrew “terra nullius”.But in many respects,mainstream Australia is still running on the old assumption i.e.,that we (white fellas) have a superior material culture because we produce more stuff and live in houses. e third is a copy of the Australian Constitution Act of 1901,an act of the British Parliament,setting up the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia. is act provides a set of rules for the conduct of government here but is very sketchy on many important areas.And it’s hard to change.You have a referendum (like on the marriage equality question) but it has to pass in a majority of states and have an overall majority of voters supporting a proposition.And when you do get a change,the Commonwealth Government then passes laws to give effect to these changes.

So it gives me a lot of grief to see young Aboriginal “spokespersons”(often the nieces of great leaders I have worked with) running around screaming “We’ve got to have treaty rst”or whatever.

Take a chill pill,stop disrespecting our and your elders,and learn your (our) law.

You will be doing a much greater service to these lands if you get traditional land management practices adopted by white landholders and traditional childrearing and education practices adopted in our mainstream schools.

Clancy and Banjo,fourteen year old students at e Living School and Trinity in Lismore,applied their hobby terrarium building skills to exploring ood mitigation and demonstrating this at the recent Green Living Festival.

ey sourced local mosses,rocks and clay to make example landscapes. ey found materials from the ood debris such as wheelie bins,pallets and drink containers and patched them together to mimic rainfall events and slopes,and give the experiment some controls.

e young men applied simple scienti c methods to test how each catchment landscape model performed under simulations of various rainfall events,and observe which landscapes performed best for sediment removal and carbon capture.

Five simpli ed landscapes were constructed.One with no pinch points.One with pinch points (narrowing of the river channel by the surrounding landforms). One with pinch points and forests (in this case a dollop of moss inserted in the space).One of a oodplain as we see them mostly today with scattered trees, mostly grass (ground peppermint tea) and a river.And one with a oodplain as they once were – with a full cover of forest (in this case various mosses and baby palms).

A series of tests were performed and recorded (with measurements and video) for peer review.

eBigWaterEventsTest1:

e rst set of tests (with different volume rainfall events) timed how long water took to go from the top of the model landscape to the bottom (the distance was a wheelie bin length,the landscape in miniature).

e results in these experiments showed that whilst pinch points slowed water through the landscape,‘forested’ pinch points slowed water at 3-9 times the rate of the unforested pinch points.

(Now just imagine the possibilities of a 14.4m 24hr ood in Lismore now being a 9.4m 72 hr ood -below both the South and North Lismore Levee Heights,and well below the building

standard of 1974 of 12.1m)

ey also showed that a richly vegetated oodplain was the landscape which slowed water even without pinch points.

e oodplain with complete forest released the water extremely slowly, dripping for up to 30 times longer than a oodplain with sparse vegetation. Not only a good result for ooding but an excellent one to keep in mind for water security during dry times (Underscored for Rous Water strategists).

eErodible HillTest

e second set of tests used a cup of soil,sand and metal dust at the top of the model landscape,whilst pouring a consistent amount of ‘rain’on the ‘erodible’hill.

e water and sediment were screened with cloth as it escaped the system,and then caught in a tub to rank dissolved sediment (turbidity).

is experiment showed that the landscapes that were best at ltering sediment out of the water were the catchment with forested pinch points, followed closely by the oodplain with complete forest.In both these,soil from the erodible hill was stilled quickly and remained high in the system.Dissolved sediment was also observed less in the ood water from these landscapes.

ese landscapes reduce the volume of big water events by removing more of the sediment quicker.

eWoodyDebrisTest

e third set of tests looked at which

model landscapes captured more woody debris higher in the system.

In this test a simple cup of woody debris (sawdust,crushed leaves,broken twigs) was placed underneath the rain event to see what would happen.

Woody debris is also known as carbon.Soils with increased carbon absorb and retain more water and which moder-

ates ows in wet and dry events.

Woody debris is also like mulch,part of the building blocks of the worldwide food web and adds fertility to soils.

e volume of woody debris kept high in the system means more chance for its bene ts to be upcycled for free by natural means.

e landscapes which performed the best on the carbon capture were the oodplain with complete forest,and the catchment with forested pinch points.

Flood LandscapeWinners

rough a series of simple

(continued on page 6)

THE CHANNON RADIO NETWORK

Coming up to the one year anniversary from when our community was devastated by ood,land slips and a massive failure of our phone and internet providers,the community has continued to grow e Channon Radio Network to provide a safety net for our whole community using CB radios. e Channon Base recently has had another upgrade of equipment to gain a stronger and clearer signal through the valleys of Terania, Tuntable,Keerong as well as Wallace Rd, Koonorigan and surrounding areas.Our next objective is to start regular radio checks on the third Monday of each month,starting on the 20th of February at 6.00 pm.

I look forward to the radio test on the 20th to see individual reports on signal strengths and clarity from our network of radio operators.

Please phone if you would like to do an individual radio check at any other time if not available on the 20th.Martha 0401514641.

is will ensure everyone is more comfortable with communicating by CB radios.

We are getting some phonetic alphabet stickers made up to hand out to assist newer operators to understand the language of radio.

David Smith also has recently gained his quali cation to operate an Amateur Radio Station from e Channon to use radio equipment to communicate outside of our area.If anyone would like to discuss setting up or upgrading their

MARTHA BEASLEY & DAVID SMITH

radio equipment,David is only too happy to discuss and assist where needed.

Until the 3rd Monday of each month,Good Communicating.Martha & David

LOCAL SEASONED TIMBER

*SILKYOAK-Planks

*BLACKWOOD-Slabs&boards

*BLUEQUANDONG-Boards

*CAMPHORLAUREL-Slabs

*HARDWOOD-Slabs

*ALSOBAMBOOTIPI&FLAGPOLES

CALL MICHAEL - 66886359

murphy02@bigpond.com

(continued from page 5)

experiments,our young scientists have demonstrated that amongst ve simpli ed landscapes,the best landscapes for big water control,sediment removal and carbon capturing in the soil were:

A catchment with FORESTED PINCH POINTS and/or A FLOODPLAIN WITH COMPLETE FOREST.

Which landscapes do we see around us though? Not these winners….

Stay close young ones,remind us our path.

Since moving from the city to Tuntable Creek,I’ve relied heavily on the kindness of strangers to teach me the ropes.

But as valuable as my neighbours/new mates are, I’ve been cheating on them. Often.

My secret companion helping me navigate this strange new life in the rainforest is that ‘ol digital chestnut,YouTube.

I spend so much time on YouTube it feels like I’ve enrolled in some kind of university.Let’s call it YouTube Uni.

Rarely a day passes when I don’t go searching for something in the massive online DIY library. I’ve used it to remove a tick and a leech.I’ve learned how to plant and sow potatoes and when to harvest turmeric.Back in the city I would kill basil on my balcony in days.Now I have a big veggie patch and my learning curve has been as steep as the ridge top land that I now call home.

During my turmeric search I found one of my favourite YouTubers.Mark Valencia is a retired Army veteran up on the Sunshine Coast with a website devoted to self-sufficient gardening.He has close to two million students in his “class”and about that many watched his turmeric video.

ink about it. at’s a very,very big classroom. One of our local YouTube professors is e Weedy

Garden with 149,000 in his classroom.

After sharpening my gardening skills I turned my hand to attending the construction classes at YouTube Uni.I wanted to build a deck. is was a hugely ambitious project as my previous effort with a hammer and saw had been building a pencil box in high-school.I recall being pretty chuffed with my 56% pass mark.

At YouTube Uni I found scores of deck designs ranging from the simple to the ash.Over a period of days I must have watched twenty videos and by the end of it had absorbed enough basics from all "my teachers" to devise my own plan using materials I had at hand.

After the success of the deck I added a roof and created a caravan shelter.All courtesy of tips and tricks shared by my professors at YouTube Uni. I wouldn’t run a slide rule over it or check the joints too closely but they’ve survived a beating lately from mother nature.

I’ve since built a dining table,a butcher’s block, a tool shelf,an outdoor shower,pathways and stairs.

But the most challenging project so far was an A frame hut.YouTube Uni had me covered with plenty of DIY videos and timelapses.

I spent two weeks building a simple one

YouTube University

room triangle home and looking at the nished iron-roofed Toblerone I feel as much pride in constructing this by hand than anything else I’ve produced in my life (except my three kids of course :)) At each stage of the construction I worked new parts of my brain and body. Along the way I learned I never want to be a roofer.At the end of the project,I felt a great deal of satisfaction and if YouTube Uni was real I’m pretty sure my degree would be in the mail.

P.S.Wherever possible I’m using recycled materials from another new friend called the RevolveTip Shop in Lismore. is temptress has become my newest and most dangerous obsession…but that’s a whole other story.

Dale Paget is a writer, director andTV producer who lives inTuntable Creek. Find out more on Instagram @therainforestfarm

DALE PAGET

Garlic

Every year I mark St Patrick’s Day in my diary.March 17th is the time I plant snow peas and garlic.Garlic grows well in our area over the cooler months,and it is one of those edibles that makes money sense to grow.

Varieties

1) Softnecks or Non-bolting. is form of garlic is the one you see in the supermarket as they are more productive,easier to harvest and store well. is type of garlic is best suited for our conditions.

2) Hardnecks or top-setting garlic. is garlic grows a ‘scape’in spring,a thick shoot out of the top. From the top of the scape an umbril develops that contains ower buds and bulbils –small garlic cloves that can be eaten or planted next year. After planting the bulbil (best

Greencath Gardening with

in a pot as very small),it will form a round that will grow into a normal garlic bulb with cloves when planted out the following season.

It is an efficient way to increase your stock,and often resulting in a more vigorous plant.

e ower will set seed if the bulbils are removed from the umbril and cross-pollination from another umbril can occur.Due to centuries of cultivation most seeds are infertile.A bit like the banana. Gardeners often remove the scape so more energy goes into the underground bulb.

3) Russian garlic (or Elephant garlic) Allium ampeloprasum is not a garlic but a close relative of the leek, with a mild,sweet avour. is plant produces rounds that can be planted the next season to produce a bulb with cloves.

Wheretobuy

Most of the supermarket garlic is imported and hideous chemicals applied,often resulting in failure to sprout. us garlic is best bought from the local markets or through on-line nurseries that are aware of your local conditions. ere are about 1000 different garlic cultivars in the world to choose from.

Soilpreparation and planting

Choose a sunny position.Free draining soil with added organic matter a few weeks before planting is ideal,

with a soil pH of 5.5-7 (acidic to neutral).Avoid planting in the same bed as last year.Pull apart the corm (bulb),and keep the paper membrane on each clove.Preferably use the cloves on the outside of the corm.

Plant the garlic with the pointy end up,about 3 cm deep,in rows 10cm apart. Finally,mulch with straw to a depth of 10-20cm. e rule of thumb is 12-16 plants per person.

Plantingin apot

Fill a 40cm diameter pot with potting mix and dynamic lifter.Plant the cloves about 10cm apart.Water regularly and feed a couple of times in the winter with plant fertiliser and weekly when the spring warmth arrives.

Care

Keep the soil moist for the rst couple of weeks. After that,water in dry spells. Too much water will rot the bulbs.Reducing the water as bulbs near maturity will improve the avour of garlic.

Sprinkle blood and bone lightly through the growing season,but not too much as this nitrogen-rich fertilisers will decrease the garlic avour.(see the NPK Ratio at the end).

Keep the garlic bed weed free by weeding and reapplying regularly.Spray with garlic spray (!) if attacked by aphids.Spray away onion thrips with a sharp stream of water.

Harvest

Around late spring the

leaves begin to brown.Use a trowel and a gentle pull to lift the garlic out.

Sometimes a “round” develops,rather than separate cloves. e round is usually formed when conditions are not right,too hot or cold or wet,or if the garlic was planted too late. e round can be eaten or replanted the following year.

Storage

Shake off excess soil,but do not remove the paper membrane.Hang to dry on a rack or mesh bag for a few weeks.You can plait the stems while they are still bendable just after harvesting.Bulbs store better when they are whole,and stored in a cool, dry place. ey should last for 8 months.Peeled cloves can be put into the freezer in a sealed container,or placed in vinegar in the frig.Cloves placed in oil is not recommended as garlic is a low acid vegetable that can support

(continued on page 9)

CathLewisshares somehandytipsto helpyougetmore fromyourvegie

Garlic (Alliumsativa)

Awonderful welcome back to Preschool to all our families and staff.It has been so lovely to see the children’s happy smiling faces all ready to play,learn and have fun together! Making connections with their peers and Educators.

Developing a sense of belonging helps children feel connected with and contribute to their world.Building a Preschool community where children feel safe,secure and supported is very important to a child’s sense of identity. is is what a new preschool family had to say about their rst experience with our centre.

“ e friendly guides at e Channon Children’s Centre welcomed our family to their nurturing,warm abode this term and our hearts are very content.Our little Avery Forest felt instantly grounded and secure in his new environment,his soft, angelic and kind nature and spirit shone brightly as he explored the intentional layout of the space and I was greeted every afternoon with the most giant smile and many stories of the consciously planned activities and joyful interactions that lled his day.Having never had care before,we feel beyond blessed to have been guided to this treasure on the hill where Alvey can feel supported and safe as he learns and plays alongside new friends and wise carers.” Kate.

One of our preschool children,Rufus had this to say about how he feels about his Preschool.“I feel good,I like to do the puzzles.I’m happy to see Alvey,yes Alvey, that’s his name.”said with a big smile too.

(continued from page 8)

the growth of botulism,and thus become poisonous.

If you really want to delve into garlic in greater detail,I recommend Penny Woodward’s book “Garlic,an organic guide to knowing,growing and using garlic”, 2014 Hyland House Publishing Pty Ltd, Melbourne.

So wonderful that children and families have such a strong sense of belonging.

We are in the process of planning a native ower garden in our back garden area to encourage,butter ies,bees and birds to visit. is is where we will be relocating our worm farm and hanging a bird bath in this space.Our frog hotel will be getting an upgrade also. ese are all ways to encourage children’s connection and contribution to their environment,and show care and respect for all living creatures.

We will be having a visit from the Healthy Harold team this month where they will focus on healthy eating,healthy bodies and provide an interactive session for the children.

ank you again for the communities ongoing support of the preschool roadside stall.We always welcome donations of fresh fruit and vegetables but we ask that NO furniture or bric a brac be left there!

We currently have spaces on a Tuesday/Wednesday/ ursday.Our hours are 9am-3pm and extended hours are available from 8.30am-3.30pm.We are running a playgroup on Wednesday mornings from 9am-10.15am,it’s a gold coin donation and please bring a hat and snack for your child.Immunisation is a requirement.If you have a child that you would like to enrol please call e Channon Preschool on 66886330 to organise a time to visit with your child. ank you.

Warmest wishes from the staff at e Channon Preschool,Lisa,Sheree,Marie and Allison.

N:P:K Ratios(nitrogen,phosphorus, potassium)

Dynamic Lifter- 3.5: 1.1: 1.6

Blood and Bone – 8: 1.6: 1.5

Dynamic lifter is a more balanced fertiliser than blood and bone.B & B is good for green growth (high N), Dynamic Lifter is good for fruiting and owering plants.

The Channon Tavern Reopens!

The devastating ood of Feb 2022 went right through the pub,and it has been closed since. e community has been keenly waiting for this gathering place to come back to life.

Firstly,thank you to Natalie Quinn and your family and crew for running the pub for many years before the big ood.All the best,and thankyou.

And,welcome to the new pub owners,Darcy,Will and Laurie! e community is stoked to have you.

Even though there were many things left to be 'ready',the new crew heard the community's enthusiasm for having theTavern space back,and so on the 13th Jan (almost a year since the oods) it opened its doors.With the bar of cold drinks,a food truck outside and cranking live music,the feeling in the air was one of celebration,reconnection and new beginnings.About 300 (could be closer to 500) people came from all around to the opening.

"Huge thankyou to the community for putting on the working bee days and helping us get the doors open! It was a heart melting couple of weeks leading up to the opening,and having people coming up to us giving us hugs with tears in their eyes on the opening night really blew us away", says Darcy.

"It is our vision to keep eTavern 'as is' with some minor improvements, particularly for the outdoor seating/ event areas.We will be replacing the

pokies with live music and want to make the best use of the space by offering park yoga,veggie gardens, information sessions/workshops. We want this to be a warm and welcoming gathering place for the community,and visitors who come through our beautiful area".

"We would love your feedback so please let us know by emailing us at admin@thechannontavern.com.au".

Here are some things the new team would love you to know:

Opening hours are 2pm10pm ursday - Sunday (open at 12pm on Market sundays)

Different food trucks each evening between 4pm-8pm (burgers, ai,Indian,Japanese,Korean, Italian) until we open our kitchen

Hoping to open the kitchen within the next 4-8 weeks to provide classic australian pub food with a Japanese twist

Will open from 11am once the kitchen is open

Live music instead of pokies/ keno/tab

Look forward to the pool comp every ursday,with talks of trivia/joker draws/meat raffles starting back up in the near future anks so much for bringing back our community gathering place,and we look forward to many chilled,and celebratory moments shared at e ChannonTavern in the future.

TERRI NICHOLSON

Our Terania-Keerrong Flood Safety project is taking shape.We’re bedding down a system whereby upstream rain sentinels provide data on rain intensity during rain events.Some have online electronic weather stations.If these should fail,we rely on admirable and committed sentinels to make two-hourly observations to give us the precipitation rate (rain intensity). We are improving as we go, and during the October event were able to provide collated rain intensity data to the SES.We also provided this information to downstream members of our CB radio network by sending them an email rain summary,then a group text to look at their email,and a CB radio broadcast to remind them to check their inbox. If the internet goes down we’ll need to provide this information via radio.Our Tech Development team is working on a way to show real-time rain and creek levels on our own website,but that’s a work in progress.

Our partnership with the ANU Institute of Climate,Energy and Disaster Solutions has been most helpful.Dr Barry Croke is developing a hydrological model for theTerania catchment,and their team is applying for a grant which, if successful,will enable us to get the creek monitoring and communication gear we need to get to the next stage. is gets us to your ood

observations! We hope to tap into the wealth of knowledge in our community and seek your observations of where oods reached in 2017 and 2022.We will soon launch this project via social media and lea ets.If you are not on social media please reach out to us by emailing SafeTerania@gmail.com,or phone Anna Conley 0490-089-676.

e Terania sub-catchment includes Tuntable,Terania,Branch and Rocky creeks.It covers Terania creek down to the junction with Goolmangar Creek, including Bowen gully and the unnamed creek that ows into Terania from Koonorigan. is is what we’re after:

Your observations of ood extent on the land during the oods of 2017 and 2022.In particular if you can point to the spot you think the ood extent came to.

Photos that show ood extent or height against permanent structures such as poles,fences,big rocks or trees.

Searchyour phoneimages

Could you search your phone images? e most important dates are 30th March 2017,and the February and March oods of 2022.Once you nd the photo,have a look at the information about the image (if you don’t know how to do this,ask someone who has a similar phone). e image information will tell you the date and time it was taken.We suggest you make a copy of good photos for safekeeping.

Once our project is underway we will visit locations where residents can

point to ood extent so we can get GPS coordinates. is will help build our understanding of how rain translates to ood-on-landscape.We will also show interested people how to add text to images that gives year,date,time and location (when sharing images on social media it’s important that people know what they’re looking at).Photos with this information written on them are what we mean by ‘benchmarked photos’. Remember to always keep a copy of unmarked originals.

e Channon Resilience would like to thank Northern Rivers Community Foundation for the grant that makes it possible to engage Anna Conley on this ood observation project.We know there’s a treasure trove of community ood knowledge and we can’t wait to gather it.

ANNIE KIA

Solomon Islands 2023

The ageing twin prop Dash 8 aircraft has just lifted off from Henderson Airport in Honiara.I have the seat nearest the cockpit. I am surprised at how young the pilot looks and am a little uneasy when she removes a folder from her briefcase labelled’training le’.However,she then hands it to the co-pilot.We touch down at Suavanao airstrip at the top end of Santa Isabel Island. Two of my Solomon friends Jerold and Casper are waiting for the arrival of myself and two other guests,Guy and Danny,who are from around Byron area.Our ‘taxi’,a 5-metre open runabout with 60hp motor,is waiting to transport us to Kagata village 90 minutes further north.We battle with a stiff headwind and enough swell to make the voyage less than comfortable.

On arrival at Kagata various family members,who I last saw in 2020,meet us. e children have obviously changed enormously in 3 years and Grena (16 years old in 2020) is now married with a 9-month-old son,Levi,and with a second on the way. Joseph and Veronica,who were newlyweds in 2020,are expecting their second child in February.

We settle in to our leaf hut just in time to hear the dinner bell. e food here is simple but sustaining.A typical lunch would consist of sh (prepared in a myriad of ways),sweet potato (boiled, mashed or chips),one of the various green leafy vegies and fresh pineapple.Dinner is similar and fresh coconut features strongly in many dishes.

Next morning after

breakfast,we take a boat ride out to the reef,about 10 minutes away,for our rst surf. It is quite windy - the waves are not so great - but we can’t resist diving into the warm, turquoise,tropical water.I always pack a couple of shing rods,so I trolled (dragging a line behind the boat) on our return to the village and managed to hook a couple of trevally that would cover our lunch and dinner.

Day 2 and Jerold is keen to sh.He likes to surf as well but prefers to wait for a good swell. ere is a tight budget with the fuel for the boats (very expensive out here) and they allow for two trips a day.So,Jerold has a plan to send the other two guests off sur ng and we head off in the small 15hp boat,before breakfast,to get some sh.We go to what Jerold describes as ‘his secret spot’to the very north of the islands,and it doesn’t take long to start reeling them in. We return for a late breakfast with ve Spanish mackerel (up to 8kg) two rainbow runners and a barracuda. ere is no refrigeration in the village but nothing is wasted – three sh are delivered to our neighbours across the lagoon at Legaha.

Tomorrow is Friday and Jerold is keen to catch plenty of sh so they can ‘dry’some for the ‘Sabbath’(they are mostly Seventh Day Adventists). is time we take an extra driver,Peter,so we can have two shing at a time.It is another successful morning at Jerold’s ‘secret spot’with ve mackerel,but I lose one good lure and one sh when our lines become tangled.

Suffice to say there

continued to be a plentiful supply of sh for the 20 days I spent in the village.

A couple of kilometres from home the motor suddenly falters as the last of our fuel budget drains out of the tank.Luckily,Jerold manages to ag down another boat way in the distance and they change course to come to our rescue with a litre of fuel.

e village dog,Rasta, has assumed the role of my ‘keeper’- sleeps on the doorstep of my hut and lies under my table at meal times.

ere is a litter of pups in the area attributed to him. e

bearer of said pups is a bitch named Lebu that lives at Legaha about one kilometre across the lagoon.We are all very surprised when Lebu swims across the lagoon to visit Rasta.Unfortunately,the romance is cut short when a canoeist from Legaha arrives to escort Lebu back to her village.

e surf continues to disappoint right up to the day Guy and Danny are due to leave. e swell does pick up eventually and there is a reasonable wave at Kale (pron: Karlay),the most consistent surf break.After

a couple of good wipeouts my back is feeling sore and I wake the next morning with considerable back pain.We are expecting good waves today so I drop a couple of painkillers before motoring to the next surf break south called Kookadaka. ere is a perfect right hand wave rolling through and Jerold and I can’t wait to get amongst them. e next day we return for more of the same with not another surfer within miles.

By the third day,the swell has dropped slightly,but still waves to be surfed.My back has not responded well to my 2 day ‘surf therapy’, so I decide to take the day off.I discover there is a local ‘witchdoctor’named Natta who,I am told,knows a thing or two about sore backs.So, we set off on the half hour journey to his abode near the village of Kia.I trail a line on the way and hook a couple of mackerel - one a solid 10kg. Natta is a tall elderly man with just one front tooth.He gets me to lie down on an old foam mattress and pokes and pushes around the tender area while Jerold lifts and slightly twists my right leg, under Natta’s instructions.

e whole procedure takes less than 10 minutes.And the payment – two mackerel! By the next morning,my back feels much better.

Many of the men smoke tobacco,usually ‘rollies’. ey buy ‘Solomon tobacco’in Kia, but Jerold tells me he grows his own,packs it in a tube of bamboo and oven-dries it,as the Kia stuff has a chemical added.

On Saturday 21st I wake to the sound of a boat engine – it is 3am – that’s strange. Next morning I discover that Veronica had been having strong contractions and had headed to the clinic in Kia with Joseph,Revua (Joseph’s mum) and Pina (Veronica’s

niece).Communication with Joseph proves difficult,but eventually word reaches us on Monday that Veronica has given birth to a baby girl.By that afternoon,they return to the village. e clinic in Kia has no medications (one of the down sides of living in 'paradise') so I supply Veronica with my remaining paracetamol.

I bought a cheap laptop computer back home as a gift to the local primary school. I learn that the school is no longer at Kagata,but is now at Kupicolo a slightly larger village ve minutes away.It is my last day and I present the computer to Lisa,one of the three teachers,and am touched by the reception I receive.I have quite an audience as I go through a few basics with Lisa.I am presented with a garland of owers and the children sing a couple of songs in my honour.

Chinese logging companies have made inroads into much of the previously remote rainforests of the Solomon Islands. e many small islands on the northern tip of Santa Isabel had been untouched. is time I saw the rst signs of logging. e low-key village stay tourism is one of the few avenues to protect these islands,giving the villagers an income so they don't need to sell the timber rights.

It is my last night and the mandatory farewell party is prepared. e women have been cooking all day and we get together with the Legaha folks for a smorgasbord type feast.After dinner the children (12 in all) assemble to belt out a few hymns (actually it is Quite a few). ey love to sing and it’s with some relief that two of the older girls have joined them for a couple of 'choreographed' pop songs.

e trip to the Suavanao

airstrip is another rough one. Luckily,I have remained dressed in my sur ng attire as I soak up the combination of sea spray and driving rain.

e ight has been cancelled due to heavy overnight

to the reef for a surf.Left my board at the airstrip! No problem – I get to choose one of the many spare surfcraft on offer,have a wave then return for a scrumptious meal,all courtesy of Solomon

rain so the airstrip manager directs us to Papatura, a low-key sur ng resort just 10 minutes away and run by an Australian family. is is an unexpected bonus – I am shown to my leaf house and invited to join one of the groups of guests heading out

Airlines.A day at Papatura ‘trumps’a day in Honiara every time.

I return home and re ect on the multitude of stuff cluttering my life compared to the basic essentials of my Kagata friends.

This Civilisation is Finished Conversations on the end of Empire - and what lies beyond - Rupert Reid and Samuel

Part2 of POSTSCRIPTUM: HelenaNorberg-Hodge

The mass insecurity created as the drone-like global economy robs people of their livelihoods,identities, self-respect,and control over their own lives has left them forgotten,disillusioned,angry at the ‘progressive’,urban political establishment and inclined to vote for extreme right-wing parties. e spectre of fascist leadership in an increasing number of countries is arguably more frightening than the spectre of climate change,not least because it threatens to outlaw environmental protection and protest. For this reason,it is absolutely essential that we harness a systemic analysis to connect the economic and social issues faced by marginalised sectors of the population with our ecological predicament.I’m convinced we need a campaign that ties together our social and ecological crises and diagnoses their sys¬temic root cause.We need what I call‘big picture activism’to build up enough political momentum to deal with climate change.

We must attempt to zoom out to see the system as a whole,place it in its historical context,and learn from more self-reliant,pre-colo¬nial practices and worldviews. In doing so,we can call into question conventional assumptions about wealth and wellbeing,poverty,development and deprivation—are we really,as Bill Gates and Steven Pinker would have us believe, the most privileged generation ever to walk the face of the Earth? Can we even begin to

imagine how much we have lost as we’ve been herded off the land into soulless high-rise buildings,cut off from community and from decisionmaking power? Broadening our perspective in this way sets us on track to expand perceptions of what is possible

Alexander

corporate-run economy,we inevitably begin to reweave the fabric of local,human-scale interdependence.We start to build localised economic structures,which reconnect us with each other and with the earth,creating the structural basis for community and for our own psychological and spiritual wellbeing. e localisation of economies moves us away from homogeneity and nourishes the diversity of ecosystems,cultures,and individuals that makes up the richness of life on Earth,and slows us down to a pace at which we can more genuinely appreciate the uniqueness of every being.

shift; be¬cause local markets demand diversity (rather than huge quantities of standardised commodities),production is encouraged to shift away from machine-run monocultures to favour diversi cation and more jobs for people.It has given me great joy and hope to see a kind of‘agriwilding’—the rapid recovery of both agricultural and wild bio-diversity on previously damaged land—and to see the simultaneous creation of meaningful,community-based jobs on that land.

and desirable for the future of our species,beyond the Western-centric,urban-centric vision of a techno-utopia that Silicon Valley’s billionaires would have us believe in.

It is true that we can go no further with this civilisation— we need fundamental systems change.It is equally true that this is almost entirely good news! e growth prerogative of this inhuman system is leading to ever greater social fragmentation,imprisoning people in cutthroat competition,joblessness,ruthless individualism,and spiralling epidemics of addiction and mental illness.A fundamental shift in direction,therefore, is not only a prerequisite for preventing further damage, but is also an immense opportunity for deep and widespread healing.

As we remove our dependence on the centralised,

At the grassroots around the world,the seeds of a worldwide localisation movement are already germinating.In a common-sense way, people are responding to various forms of breakdown, and coming together to regenerate place-based relationships,economies,and cultures in a myriad of creative ways. From community gardens to farmers markets,from alternative learning spaces to local business alliances and co-ops, countless initiatives are demonstrating the deep healing that springs from turning away from the consumer culture and reconnecting at the local level. I have seen prisoners transformed,delinquent teenagers given meaning and purpose, depression healed,and social, ethnic,and intergenerational rifts bridged.

e shortening of distances between the production and consumption of our basic needs is the most effective way to immediately reduce CO2 emissions.It also leads to another fundamental

Given the huge systemic supports for the big and the global,from lavish government subsidies and tax breaks to corporate-owned media and heavy biases in funding for academia,the continued ourishing of these alternatives is a testimony to the power of community—to the motivation,perseverance,and strength that emerges when people come together to create positive change. ey represent a fundamental departure from the colonialist dreams of industrial capitalism,and put forward a very different vision of the future—one in which human beings nd their way home to community and to Mother Nature.

Increasing numbers of people around the world are beginning to wake up;they see cracks in the consumercapitalist façade,failures in our so-called‘democracies’.What we need now is a meaningful explanation of what has gone wrong—a structural diagnosis—and a vision for the future that can motivate people from all walks of life to challenge the status quo.

(continued on page 21)

Our lovely hall is a central part of our community.It is such a joy to be part of the hall committee and to contribute to keeping the legacy of all the volunteers who have been part of the hall in the past. ere are many weekly activities which happen in the hall and other private and community events.It is a place of changing roles as it can be a central hub in emergencies or just a place to

News from our iconic Public hall

exchange a good book.

e hall is old with good bones and needs some TLC; through the hard work of the hall comm and others, we now have the funds to give the hall a well deserved makeover. We are very fortunate to have the hall in the community's hands.

Recently,I went to a nurturing Sunday yoga gathering run by Laura and Kathrin, regular weekly yoga teachers at the hall.It was marvelous

to see so many people come out of the hills and valleys. ey were all keen to connect. ey were all very different people in ages,abilities and ideas. is coming together of different people plays an important role in our hall. Weekly classes of yoga,circus, choir and dance are available. e Channon hub website, https://thechannonhub.org/ has details or refer to this spectacular community newspaper. Each teacher is held in high regard in their chosen eld of expertise.

e book exchange is highly successful.However,I would like to remind people that it is a book exchange, not a book dump.If the shelf is full feel free to exchange books but please don’t leave boxes of books on seats and tables. e hall needs to look neat and tidy for events like weddings where people have a highly aesthetic eye. e quality of books is excellent and the variety of text is vast.

RENA WOOLBANK

Come down and take some books away.

ere is much cause for celebration as we won a government grant. e funding was made available by the NSW Government who seek to improve the lives of people across the state and give grants to provide signi cant bene ts to communities.Now we can x the footings,upgrade the toilets and the other million and one jobs which need doing.A huge thanks to all who were involved in this process.

What’s onat thehall?

Weekly classes:

Tuesday:Yoga 6.15-7.15pm

Wednesday: Raise e Roof Choir 10:30-12:30

ReAct Circus 3.05-6.00pm

ursday: Kids Circus 3.054.30pm

See website: thechannonhub.org/whats-on for contact details

DarrenHanlon

The whole thing seemed odd. My partner and I thought we were going to see the singer from Savage Garden playing in someone's backyard in South Lismore. is was on December 21st of last year. As is often the case,I was confused.I had the wrong Darren H. is became evident when an unassuming bloke who looks a bit like Russel Crowe's downto-earth brother (and nothing like Darren Hayes from Savage Garden) got up to the microphone with a well-loved old guitar.To hammer the point home Darren's rst announcement was "I'll take requests but no Savage Garden stuff because I wasn't in that band".My inner embarrassment at not knowing who I had turned up for was assuaged by Hanlon's wit and knowing that I

wasn't the rst to make that mistake. As soon as he started singing I was even more assured.I know his voice and I even know and really like quite a few of his songs.Darren has enjoyed heavy rotation of a few of his many songs on Triple J in the past.I may have lost his name for a spell but his witty offbeat lyrics and catchy homegrown Indie-folk sound are unforgettable.

ere is something charmingly sincere in Darren’s music.He writes in rhyming couplets that at face value seem simply clever but gently sneak up on you with their quiet poignancy.Hanlon reminds me of my very favourite singer songwriter John Prine in the way he walks a ne line of humour and sadness to disarm and impress the listener. His melodies and arrangements have a simple brilliance that are a perfect foil for the clever lyrics.My favourite track of Hanlon's is the hilarious "Punk's not Dead (She's just gone to bed)".

I also love "Falling Aeroplanes", "Happiness is just a chemical" and "Lapsed Catholic". ese are just a few amongst many great tracks that ll Hanlon's impressive six albums and three EPs.

Storytelling is an enjoyable part of Hanlon's show.Along with funny tales of growing up in Gympie,

Darren brought us back to the golden era of music in Lismore. e early and mid 90’s was a time when there were up to seven venues with live music playing on a given night fuelled by the fertile garden of SCU's music school as well as the Con.It was during that time that Hanlon,forged his musical identity. First as a member of Lismore band e Simpletons and after their 1997 split,as a solo artist.He has been recording and performing ever since in the admirable low key manner of a Journeyman musician.

Regrettably,those days are long past. Sitting in that lovely little backyard on a gentle Summer Solstice evening was a lovely experience that seemed to take us back there.It felt like much of the audience were veterans of those times and were sharing an intimate reminiscience with the artist.Darren Hanlon is a talented musician as well being a thouroughly enjoyable perfomer.He is one that Lismore and Australia can be proud of.

It's make,bake,create and showcase at TCCM each month on the 2nd Sunday,if you are a tinker,a producer or an artisan the time is ripe for you to come and join us,small stalls and large stall sites are available and we are keen to support you in bringing your wares and talents to the markets.

To have a site,please visit our website and register as a casual stallholder www. thechannonmarket.org.au.

the main stage please email admin@thechannonmarket. org.au if you dare,it's a great venue and a wonderful gig to get. e marquee and power is supplied.

Feel like busking and putting out your hat,please register at the office on the day,we would love to have you join us (it's a great opportunity to hold a space and make some $$’s)

What makes a great market like e Channon?

People like YOU,folks

hit the region in February and again in March 2022. Lismore City Council have planned activities and we urge everyone to attend,this is part of our healing and well worth attending.

e last 2 markets in December and January were amazing with many people attending as punters and reporting that the atmosphere and selection of artisans and products were unique and exciting,the days were warm but pleasurable.Please remember we are a pet free event.

guides folks into parking spots.We ask everyone to carpool if you can and have your money ready to give to our team on the gates,this makes entering the market smooth. Parking on the road between Nimbin St and Keerrong Road is not allowed,we want to get our emergency vehicles into the village if required, parking on the road between these areas creates traffic jams and blocks access,please remember this.It's much bigger than just ‘a car’

Why are pets not allowed at the markets?

Our insurance can cover a majority of stall products for a small fee.

We are looking for food stallholders to join us,please email your proposal to the committee,we encourage folks to do ‘something different’than what is currently available,power is very limited so alternative power supply is recommended. secretary@ thechannonmarket.org.au

We are also looking to build on our entertainment, if you have a 4 piece band or bigger,the markets may be able to give you a gig on

who visit and of course our stall holders who create their stalls and bring them along once a month.Our team compliments everyone and we are proud to be known as ‘the region's ultimate market experience’.Please share on your social media,invite your mates and pencil in your diary the 2nd Sunday of the month. www.thechannonmarket.

org.au

February and March are a time to remember as we come together to take time out to celebrate the survival of the ‘extreme weather event’that

In January we had some ‘outrageous folks’graffiti the men’s toilets and also write things on the back of the toilets about people we know and work with,this is totally unnecessary and devastating for the folks whose names and numbers were included. If anyone sees suspicious or down right destructive behaviours occurring please call Lismore Police,they are very interested in stopping this behaviour and believe they know who is involved. It's up to us all,to protect our community assets.

In May we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Aquarius,with an amazing lineup of performers and speakers.We will remember the awesome times that lifted up the spirits of our region and are working with Aquarius 50,the team from Nimbin and afar who have a host of activities evolving. Keep an eye out for events in our region.

A reminder to everyone who visits,the car park fee is $3,this helps towards managing the car park and our team

Historically this has been the case due to pets not being on leashes,accidents and incidents occurred between pets and children and the Committee and team wish to avoid any con ict or incidents that can be avoided.To some folks this is unfair but to us is necessary to create a safe space. is condition of entry is still current 35 years on and we ask everyone to please respect this,this includes the car park.Leaving pets in cars is also illegal and we will have no choice but to report owners of pets who cruelly leave their animals in vehicles, please remember most of us love pets and want them to be safe.

Do you have some photos you can share of our community market?

If you have some great shots please forward to admin@thechannonmarket.org. au we would love to use them for promo of the markets.

See you at the markets!

e Channon Craft Market Management Committee

and Team.

The Channon Resilience AGM is coming up and welcomes community members to get involved!

Hi there community :) Terri Nicholson here on behalf of e Channon Resilience Inc.

We would love to give you an update on what’s been happening and invite you to be part of it!

How “ e Channon Resilience” came about…

After the 2019/2020 res we,the community,recognised the need to get more organised around disaster preparedness and resilience in general.A small group of community members got together to run a workshop with this focus. It was held at e Channon Hall in Feb 2020 and attended by over 100 people. Out of that came a number of smaller “Action Groups”where people who had an interest in a certain topic were going to work together to help that move forward. is was stalled a bit (quite a bit) by the covid lockdowns of the following 2 years of 2020/2022,although some groups continued to tick by,sometimes meeting by zoom. e Fire Preparedness Group,the People C.A.R.E.group,and the Food Resilience group were notable in continued action.

In 2020/2021 Lismore Council gave some funding towards a community-led development of a Disaster Resilience Plan for both Terania/ e Channon and Nimbin/Tuntable Creek. e Channon Disaster Resilience Action Project formed and a small group worked with Locale Consulting to put together a Plan.19 Action Steps were identi ed that would help our community be more disaster-ready and resilient. is plan ‘launched’in Oct 2021,at the same time as the website www.thechannonhub.org was made as a resource for community cohesion and resilience. is has disaster information as well as a What’s On page and Local Directory - check it out and bookmark it!

Part of this funding from Lismore Council went towards paying an excavator contractor to clear the strategic re trail access points between Terania Ck Rd and Wallace Rd on western side of

the valley (Mop’s track & Nicholson’s trail) and on eastern side of the valley to connect Terania Ck Rd with Gibbergunya Range Rd (Rainbow/Burke’s place),so they are open and accessible to RFS in the event of further res. is work was about to commence when the Feb oods/landslides happened.It was delayed until recently and is underway as I type.

ere is still $3615 of community donations that were raised around the re times,to go towards re related preparedness and resilience.Some of this will go towards completing the strategic trails for RFS access for if/when res happen again.

e dramatic and disastrous Feb 2022 ooding/landslides event happened,and the community once again galvanised to respond immediately, setting up an Emergency Centre at e Channon School and then e Channon Hall.

After the initial month or two of disaster response,the core crew who had been coordinating the Hub as well as those involved in the re times and the Disaster Resilience Project,realised that becoming ‘Incorporated’would mean we could have an ‘umbrella group’that could apply for grants to aid in recovery & community projects,that we could have a bank account where funds can be received and organised in a neutral place, and would give us a framework for being more cohesive as a community action group.

What has e Channon Resilience Inc helped happen since it formed in March 2022?

* Opened a bank account speci cally for e Channon Resilience related projects and funds. ere are sub-accounts for speci c grants and projects.Decisions about how any funds are spent is made by e Channon Resilience group.

* With the $10,000 Healthy North Coast grant that was received in 2021,a number of free events were planned and delivered :)

- e Channon Resilience Party afternoon/evening event at the hall. is was a free event and was the rst real gathering in the hall since the covid

lockdowns of the last 2 years.It was a joyful and well attended event which de nitely brought the community together.(Due to prolonged wet weather and covid restrictions,the initial idea of a Resilience Festival at the oval was replaced by the Party)

- Building Resilient Landscapes workshop (this was lmed and will be put on Youtube)

- Wellbeing workshop with Petrea King (Mental wellbeing event dedicated to exploring the pathways to posttraumatic growth such as the oods/ landslides of 2022)

- e Channon Emergency Radio Network - ere are 70 people in this network that takes in e Channon, Terania and Tuntable Creeks,Koonorigan and the northern Keerrong valley. We are gradually improving our reach, helped by the Summerland Amateur Radio Club,and with tech advice from David Smith,Hutcho and Russ from the re brigade,coordinated by Martha Beasley.

- Terania-Keerrong Flood Safety continues to develop.A small development team has been nutting out the tech side with Greg Hall.During rain events a reliable group of rain sentinels provides rain intensity data which is shared to the SES.As we rm up our system the SES will be able to provide ood warnings for the Keerrong valley and e Channon.With the help of a NRCF grant we can now start on gathering community ood observations - see the article in this edition for how you can help by sharing your observations of where the 2017 and 2022 oods came to at your location.

Coordinated by Annie Kia.

Received a grant of $10,000 ($8K for a container with disaster preparedness tools and equipment,$2K for workshops) from the Australian Mutual Foundation in partnership with the Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals,G&G Mutual Bank and Summerland Credit Union.

Projects/ideas that are in the works but need interested folks to help them move forward:

Smaller interest “action groups”will continue to form with e Channon

TERRI NICHOLSON

Resilience as an umbrella,so you needn’t feel you’ll have to engage with a large group. You can bring ideas forward and smaller action groups can form around these.

Some of these are continuations of the ideas that arose back in the workshop after the res,and also in the Disaster Resilience Plan.So many wonderful ideas and planned steps,and they just need folks with some energy to help move them forward.

Some ongoing ideas/ foci are: Disaster Readiness, Fire Defence,People Care/ Wellbeing,Youth group, “ e Commons”revamp (the triangle of land between the shop and the pub),Food

Resilience and others.

Would you like to be involved?

e Channon Resilience is made up of community members who care about the overall wellbeing and disaster-preparedness of e Channon & surrounds. e more community engagement and participation means greater resilience!

You are welcome at the AGM on March 25th at e ChannonTavern at 1.30pm

e current “office bearers”are: Ivy Young,Martha Beasley,Annie Kia,Robyn Kelly &Terri Nicholson,as well as a wonderful list of community group members. Any community members

are welcome to come and nd out more,and to join as nominated ‘office bearers’or just as group members who can have input into decisions. Come join us.:) You can also email us at

Aquarius50Conversations for the World Today

The 50th anniversary of the Nimbin Aquarius Festival does much more than remember a milestone event.

e original festival was alive with big ideas and driven by people who saw grass roots changes in the way we live were not only possible,but eminently achievable.

Now,as we celebrate half a century of these ideas,as they have matured into the fabric of Australian society,we convene a ten-day event to examine, celebrate,discuss and act.

Between May 12 and May 21,2023,ten themed days will initiate conversations supported by workshops,celebration, music,performance,dance,

food and much more.

Nimbin has a limited visitor capacity so we will develop ways people worldwide can participate online. e original festival had groundbreaking narrowcast technology; we will use modern devices to reach a broader audience.

Peace,love and kindness will make Aquarius50 an event for our times,rekindling the spirit of the original with a renewed perspective.Keeping the dream alive.

In respectful collaboration with the Bundjaling Nation and the Nimbin Aquarius

thechannonresilience@gmail. com

To see the full e Channon Resilience Action Plan please go to the website: www. eChannonHub.org

Foundation,we would love you to join us.We thank and pay our respects to Bundjalung Elders and community,on whose unceded lands we will celebrate,hand in hand with the original owners.

Dafydd Hyett Chair,Aquarius50 Organising Committee

On behalf of the committee

admin@aquarius50.com.au

The latest activities ofTCLC

The summer break has offered little reprieve from seemingly endless jobs like mowing and brush-cutting let alone weed control in these favourable growing conditions.Just keeping up with the tasks of looking after our own back yards can feel like enough and nding the time and energy for Landcare can feel like a bit of a push especially given the heat and humidity of late.Never-the-less, following a break for January, Tuntable Creek Landcare is back in business for 2023 and we hope to bring our A-game to our activities in the coming year.

Koalas ofKoonorigan

Our rst workday for the 2023 was held in Koonorigan supporting the newly formed group ‘Koalas of Koonorigan’. e following is Vanessa Eden’s story.

One day a newbie farmer realised that there were several fences that needed xing on the too big,sprawling,weedy farm.Always on the lookout for a bargain,she came across a grant that was available to install fencing if

it was koala habitat.“Ah ha” she thought,there’s a good way to get some fencing done and help our native habitat at the same time.However, this newbie farmer was good at following instructions,and the grant application said that the best applicants talked to lots of people.

So off she went and the logical place to start was Friends of the Koala.Mark the nurseryman suggested that fences were a waste of money and what was needed for the koalas was cleared paths between the trees and islands of habitat so that the koalas could run up a tree, away from the koala stomping cattle who could mistake the koala for a vicious wild dog.

Right,so always keen for a job on the tractor smashing stuff up,her son drove the tractor lots through the head high lantana,between the koala trees to make tracks.

At some stage an email was sent to Lina at Tuntable Creek Landcare.Lina replied with lots of advice. en came the glorious days of multiple workshops on emotional and landscape resilience,natural sequence farming and how to

grow a koala forest. People were really keen to do something about our furry friends and their homes,everyone she spoke to wanted to help.Many had already started on their own farms and the farms of others and there was a wealth of information out there. e ball had started rolling,all she had to do it seemed is bring some morning tea and make sure that people signed the paperwork while weeding for insurance purposes.

e upshot of all this is that we have formed a group called “Koalas of Koonorigan” to help restore existing koala habitat and help plant some more.We are currently a subsidiary group of Tuntable Creek Landcare,who have offered their sweat,expertise, loan of tools and a wealth of knowledge towards our local projects.Perhaps someday we will form our own Landcare group,we just need someone who likes a bit of paperwork, currently Lina is doing a wonderful job of handling it.

e Koalas of Koonorigan’s rst event was weeding the corner of Cox and Koonorigan Rd.Have a look as you drive past.We spent a lovely morning clearing between the koala food trees.Native trees seedlings and other delightful shrubs were found and tagged with pink tape.A huge thank you to those who came to pull out lantana.

Another chat with Friends of e Koala and it turns out that they are giving away free trees!! Can’t go past a bargain,so I picked up 100 trees and we planted them with Tuntable Creek Landcare in a grassy patch beside Koonorigan Rd (well

LINA SVENSSON & VANESSA EDEN

technically we only planted 50 but it was a bit hot).We planted a mix of gums and some shady rainforest margin trees that the koalas like to shelter in during hot weather. Did you know that the Forest oak or Allocasurina torulosa is eaten by lactating mother koalas and black glossy cockatoos? We planted some of those,along with swamp mahogany,teak,grey gum and many others. anks to the many volunteers who planted the trees. ank you as well to Big Scrub Salvage who make a very sharp tomato stake which supports the guards on each tree. at’s enough from me, time to get some shut eye and got to water the new trees in tomorrow.And there is no way that Chat GPT could have written this piece,especially as it wasn’t there when Victoria sheltered under the cheese tree and started looking for crackers.

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AirSeedTechnologies

In response to the mass land movement and landslides created during the February 2022 ood event a company called AirSeed saw the potential for their drone technology to be adapted and used for the revegetation of some of the larger and more difficult to access landslides in our local area.AirSeed uses drone and proprietary seed-pod technologies to help tackle global climate change, address biodiversity loss and land degradation and they saw the potential to adapt their technology for landslide remediation.

With funding from the World Wildlife Fund and supported by Richmond Landcare Inc,team members from AirSeed began by visiting local landholders who had sustained signi cant landslides to witness and hear rst-hand about the impacts the landslides were having on both personal and environmental levels.

In October 2022 initial mapping of each landslide was undertaken using a small drone which collected important data for the AirSeed team to begin planning the seeding of the landslides and to properly understand the variables of each situation such as topography,existing native vegetation pro les, water movement through the site and obstacles like power lines.

Data from the initial mapping was later transferred

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e articulation of this vision must therefore not limit itself to the ecological arena—it can and must include powerful arguments about the economic and psychological bene ts of transforming

to a much larger planting drone which ew an autonomous path delivering two seed pods per second across the landslides.Each pod was delivered with a GPS coordinate so that future monitoring,a process referred to as ground truthing,can compare the initial data with what is actually happening on the ground over time.

e seed pods are about the size of a macadamia nut, maybe a little bigger,and contain a selection of seeds from native species that are encased in a proprietary blend of minerals,microbes and nutrients tailored for this environment. e species selection offers a range of root types, heights and growth habits all of which it is hoped will contribute to the revegetation and stabilisation of each landslide.

e on-ground success of this pilot program relies heavily on favourable weather conditions for germination but rst these pods must nd a snug place in which to germinate and send down roots amongst the rocky regolith. Just as many landholders have a strong commitment to seeing their landslides stabilised and revegetated the team at AirSeed have also committed themselves to the long haul and plan to return to each site for monitoring and follow-up in the coming years. eir team is dedicated to the best possible outcome for both social and ecological success and after a conversation with Jonathan just now he has asked me to extend an

civilisation as we know it, and thereby get far greater numbers of people on-side. We are facing collapse on multiple levels,but the good news is that the crises we face are interconnected— they share a root cause,and there is a systemic strategy

invitation to anyone who may wish to engage AirSeed for plantings on their landslides to please get in touch. ey can offer the same funding relief meaning that their work is at no cost to the landholder.

Donationsgratefully accepted

A little philanthropy is always a spirit lifter.Locals, Dale and Sue Paget (who also

for beginning to solve them simultaneously. is book is an example of the kind of‘big picture activism’we need in order to get people to zoom out,see their commonalities with unlikely allies,and unite voices for a fundamental shift in direction.We have the

contribute to the TT) have pledged a small contribution per booking from their Hipcamp venture to Tuntable Creek Landcare Inc.Sue said its their way of contributing to the work we do in the community and we gratefully accept this kind and ongoing gesture of support.

Contact us at tuntablecklandcare@gmail.com

opportunity to create a people’s movement; a coalition like never before.I agree with Rupert and Samuel that the end of civilisation as we know it gives us an opportunity to create the conditions for both human and ecological wellbeing.

Lismore Theatre Co News

'Some of us are more than junkies’

So says Lily in Hungry Ghosts by James May.

Hungry Ghosts premieres at Rochdale eatre Goonellabah on 28 April. James May wrote the play based on his experiences as a young queer person in Sydney in the 1990s.

Junia Wulf is the Director and she has worked with James to bring his play to the stage.Another of James’plays In the Ghetto was workshopped with Sharon Brodie at LTC last year and was chosen by Cracked Actors eatre Melbourne as their Midsumma production. is play,Hungry Ghosts is a journey into the ‘queer underground’delving into the lives of people on the margins of society.‘ e play invokes themes of sexuality and torrid relationships along with addiction and destructive behaviours but it’s also a search for deeper meaning and spirituality,’said James.

It features ve speaking roles played by ve experienced actors- Elyse Dallinger,Sarah-Jane Loxton,Krystle Winter, Crystal-Amber Bock & John McPherson

Director Junia Wulf is very pleased with the cast she has selected.‘All ve have embraced their characters with gusto,’she said. ‘ ese seasoned performers will leave audiences with a greater understanding of why some people become addicted to substances.Hungry Ghosts is raw and edgy and will challenge some people.Others will relish its honesty.’

Hungry Ghosts is set to open on Friday 28 April for six shows over two weekends- Friday and Saturday nights at 7.30pm

Sudoku is a puzzle based on pure logic. e numbers 1 to 9 are used,no mathematics is required to solve the puzzles. e grid consists of nine boxes and nine cells within each box.Each column and each row must contain one each of the numbers 1 to 9.And each box must likewise contain one each of the numbers 1 to 9.

and Sunday afternoons at 2pm.Bookings are now open at trybooking.com/CGBBS or via the website Lismoretheatrecompany.org.au

Tickets are $25 or $20 concession.

ese puzzles have a rating (from 1 to 6) according to the degree of difficulty.I will usually include one puzzle in the upper range and one in the lower range (solutions on page 23).Happy solving!

Rainfall Chart