ARM Connecting people and communities Wednesday, 15 May, 2013 Page 21

COLLABORATIVE PLANNING, RESEARCH & ENTERPRISE | TECHNICAL EXPERTISE | FACILITATION FOR WORKSHOPS, FORUMS & CONFERENCES
Starfsh congratulates Armidale for its National Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Community nomination. We acknowledge the eforts of the town
over the last few years with large-scale habitat restoration, high uptake of renewable energy, waste reuse and educational initiatives.
Rural sustai nabi l i t y requi res col l aborati on by al l l evel s of gover nment
wi th busi ness, communi t y organi sati ons and the wi der communi t y.
TAMWORTH YOUTH STRATEGY NEW ENGLAND
SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY
THE LIVING CLASS ROOM | BINGARA
Sustainability is critical to the success and viability of rural Australia to both address challenges and realise new
opportunities. It is widely agreed that partnerships are the key.
The Starfsh Enterprises Network comprises professionals from all felds who enable collaborative rural sustainability
initiatives. The network has contributed to dozens of high impact projects which have generated mutually benefcial
outcomes for business, government and community organisations.
Contact us to discuss how we can be of service or fnd out more about how we
are making rural sustainability happen at www.starfshenterprises.net
FARMING THE SUN
Making rural sustainability happen
STARFISH Enterprises is a home-
grown New England start-up. Its pur-
pose is making rural sustainability
happen. In just three years Starfish has
played an important part in a wide
range of sustainability initiatives in Ar-
midale, the New England and beyond.
New England Sustainability
Strategy (NESS)
STARFISH grew out of NESS. Many
of its founders were also members
of the NESS Executive, nicknamed
NESSiE. NESS took more than two
years to create and involved more than
1,000 community leaders, organisa-
tions and residents. It identified the
most important priorities for the New
England to become sustainable.
Research confirmed that while the
region was becoming more sustain-
able, significant change was still re-
quired to become sustainable overall.
NESS also became a model for
sustainability planning. It has been
tailored and used for the Lismore Sus-
tainability Strategy, the North Coast
Energy Strategy and the Northern In-
land Regional Development Plan.
NESSs priorities have led to many
significant projects, several of which
are detailed below.
Farming the Sun
FARMINg the Sun is Australias larg-
est community solar energy project
and addresses the NESS priority for
new energy. In three years some
$6.7m worth of solar power, hot wa-
ter and heating systems were installed
throughout the region.
Today, Farming the Sun has shifted
its focus to creating Australias first
community owned large-scale solar
farms. Funding has been secured for
nine solar farms already, with an antic-
ipated 1MW of total capacity between
them. The project has also expanded
to be NSW-wide and is moving into
South East Queensland as well.
High Country Urban
Biodiversity (HiCUB)
HICUB is led by Landcare and has
planted some 14,000 trees in the last
few years, mostly throughout the urban
waterways of Armidale, Uralla, guyra
and Walcha.
HiCUB addresses the priority iden-
tified in NESS for regeneration. The
term regeneration refers to the strategy
of restoring natural areas, improving
habitat for wildlife, increasing the pro-
ductivity of farming areas and improv-
ing the beauty of the area for the com-
munity and tourism.
Starfish is a partner in several
landscape-scale regeneration projects
taking place across the wider region.
These include Regeneration New Eng-
land, The Living Classroom, The grass
Routes travelling stock routes initiative
and the Border Rivers-gwydir Catch-
ment Action Plan.
Community Well-being
STARFISHS single largest area of
work has been in strengthening com-
munity well-being. This spans youth
development, reconciliation, aged care,
education and employment needs.
The priority for community well-
being was also identified in NESS.
Current initiatives include the national
Partners In Recovery mental health
program, Home and Community Care,
the Tamworth Youth Strategy and the
internationally significant Myall Creek
Memorial and Centre for Reconcilia-
tion.
New England Wind (NEW)
BUILDINg on the success of Farm-
ing the Sun, New England Wind is led
by a local consortium of organisations
working to create NSWs first commu-
nity-owned wind farm.
The vision is to provide more af-
fordable electricity which is also re-
newable and clean, create local em-
ployment and keep our electricity
spending in the local economy through
local ownership.
The social and environmental ben-
efits of community energy projects like
NEW and Farming the Sun are signifi-
cant, particularly through extensive ed-
ucation as well as providing electricity
benefits for low-income households.
NEW follows in the footsteps of
Australias two operating community
wind farms: HepburnWind, Victoria
and Denmark Community Windfarm,
Western Australia.
The project is in the final stages of
negotiating funding for a third-phase of
work, which will include a wind farm
tour for interested to community mem-
bers and leaders. The tour will include
visits to modern wind farms, meeting
farmers hosting the turbines as well
as government and industry represen-
tatives in Canberra, plus an enjoyable
social and site-seeing program.
Looking to the future
STARFISH is committed to building
upon the sustainability work already
happening in the New England. The re-
gion has potential to become a leading
light for sustainability for rural com-
munities throughout Australia and be-
yond. Starfish has several new sustain-
ability initiatives under development
and has just been appointed as facilita-
tor for the Northern Inland Sustainable
Business Network (NISBN).
Everyone involved with Starfish,
including our partners and supporters,
expresses their sincere gratitude for the
opportunities to be of service to the
many communities of the New Eng-
land. We wish Armidale the very best
in their success with the National Keep
Australia Beautiful Sustainable Com-
munity Award!
More details about each of these
sustainability initiatives can be found
at www.starfishenterprises.net
Centre Design The Myall Creek Centre for Reconciliation at Bingara is
likely to be globally unique.
Solar Farming the Sun has
expanded to creating Australias
first community-owned wind
farms.
Sustainable Living in Armidale
showcasing