Sunday 22 February 2015

Sunday at the pictures 22 feb 2015

Saturday 29 November 2014

Carl Foster tribute November 2014

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VALE CARL JOSEPH FOSTER

Nov. 17, 2014, 9:12 p.m.

Local icon Carl Foster passed away peacefully at Bellinger River District Hospital.

On November 14, 84 year-old local icon Carl Foster, passed away peacefully at Bellinger River District Hospital, with family by his side.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend Carl’s Requiem Mass to be celebrated in St. Mary Immaculate, Mother of God Catholic Church, Park Street, Bellingen on Saturday, November 22 commencing at 11am.

In lieu of floral tributes the family would appreciate donations to the Bellingen Lions Club, a collection box will be at the church.

On advice from the Foster family, the service is expected to go until approximately 12.30pm, when afterwards a funeral procession will travel along Bellingen’s main street (Hyde St) and then onto the Catholic Monumental Cemetery, Bellingen.

Traffic delays are expected at this time.

The tributes for Carl from the community have begun. Here are two.

Carl Foster was one of the founding fathers of Bellingen Lions Club having helped organise the charter of the club in October 1954 and maintained his membership throughout our 60 year history.

He was active in Lions until he passed away on Friday 14 November.

Carl had held all positions in our Club throughout the years and served as a Board Member for the whole 60 years.

He was awarded a life membership in 1989, and recognised with a 50 year medal from the Australian Lions Foundation in 2004. Carl was also awarded the highest honour for a Lion the prestigious "Melvin Jones" award, and only this year Carl was given his 60 year medal from our District Governor at our Anniversary Night.

A Good Man, A Good Lion, A Great Mate and will be sorely missed by our Club.

Bill Butler, Bellingen Lions Club Secretary.

Carl

The chariots of Heaven

must be in disarray.

God needs roadside assistance,

so...Carl’s been called away.

No need for God to worry.

His trust will be repaid.

And God knows how to pick ’em...

Carl’s master of his trade.

In him, old adage proven:

(too much these days ignored)

“Days spent in honest labour

shall prove their own reward.”

This town has lost an icon;

the ‛Pride’ its boast, I fear;

the market place, a legend;

the shire, a pioneer.

And we have lost a good ’un

we thought would always stay,

’coz Carl’s been ’round forever!

But...God must have his way.

I’m sure, for his good service,

he’ll give God ‛time to pay’.

We must make-do without him...

for Carl’s been called away.

By Will Moody

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Collecting water from the air

With temperatures rising, attention was concentrated on collecting water from the air, as well as harvesting rain whenever it occurs.

"Is there some special property of warm air that lets it soak up more water vapour? Not really. It’s just that, at higher temperatures, water molecules are more likely to go into the vapour phase, so there will be more water vapour in the air."

Collecting dew at every opportunity became normal activity -get water from the air and store it below the evaporation level in the soil

Monday 3 February 2014

Power Plastics in 2011

The Forest of the Bellinger River 1912

E H F Swain was the District Forester at the Department of Forestry 1912.

He wrote an extensive report on the state of the forests under his stewardship

Page 16 of that report is reproduced below. It is a photocopy, something of historical interest in the advanced digital age of 2030.

Saturday 1 February 2014

Young people are falling out of love with cars

Thursday 14 March 2013

Community Groups

Community Groups

Discussions/Networks

Bellingen Business Divas Network http://www.dynamicbusinessdivas.com/

Intimacy Circle - Relationships and Intimacy Discussion Group - Every Thursday - Alternating Coffs and Bello - 7:00pm - 9:30pm.

More details here: http://www.lovecoaching.com/intimacy-circle-coffs-harbour/

BLESS is a local exchange trading system (LETS) www.community-exchange.org

Mondays at 11.30am 2bbb - "Passionfruit and Chilli is the food program from 2bbb that highlights local, growers and producers that supports the land, the environment and the product.The tag line is "everything food - with a local twist". There is a high Bellingen content to the program as well as featuring food heroes from other areas. It is also available as a webcast and a podcast."

The website is: passionfruitandchilli.blogspot.com

Breast Cancer Support Group click on support

Lyme Disease Support group click on lyme disease

Environment

Bellingen Environment Centre http://bellingenenvironmentcentre.org.au/

Bellingen Environment Centre Green Groups http://bellingenenvironmentcentre.org.au/enviro-groups/

Food

Bello Food Box - http://www.bellofoodbox.org.au/

Bellingen Seed Savers http://bellingenseedsaversunderground.blogspot.com/

Coffs Coast Local Food Alliance http://coffscoastlocalfood.ning.com/

Food Sovereignty Alliance - receive a lot of information by subscribing to http://mail.foodsovereigntyalliance.org/mailman/listinfo/chat_foodsovereigntyalliance.org

Health

Bellingen Community Acupuncture & Shiatsu alternative health at a price people can realistically afford? Did you know its been happening in Bellingen for over two years now.

click on http://acubello.blogspot.com.au/ to see how they can help with your ailments.

People can enjoy the benefits of a comprehensive Acupuncture or Shiatsu treatment from as little as $25.

It happens every Wednesday in Bellingen at the CWA Hall opposite Kombu (in Church Street) from 9am to 3pm.

Community Gardens

North Bank Road Community Garden - www.northbankgarden.org.au

Bellingen Community Gardens Association Face Book - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bellingen-Community-Gardens-AssociationBellingen-High-School-Garden/128326590578311?ref=ts

Youth

Bellingen EYE is a group of inspired youth from the Bellingen Shire http://www.bellingeneye.com/

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Come and adopt your Community Garden on the South Side

COME AND ADOPT YOUR COMMUNITY GARDEN ON THE SOUTH SIDE

You may know about the Northbank Community Garden but not about the Community Garden at the Crown Street entrance to the High School. Or you may have heard about it and think it belongs to the School. Well it does … in the daytime during the week … but it also belongs to us in the Community during the evenings and at weekends. We share it.

Some funding was obtained from the Environmental Trust and we engaged Charlie Brennan to project manage the construction of the garden on land the school was happy to allocate to it. Charlie has done a wonderful job, as we knew he would, and the garden is now looking quite established.

There are raised beds, strip beds, and a central circular area with paths through it. There is a shed equipped with a range of necessary tools and supplies. There is a pizza oven and a picnic table and a hydroponics shed alongside the garden. The vegetables planted are of course seasonal – a broad range of them – with plenty of herbs and also perennial vegetables, including some less known ones like cassava, amaranth, perennial squash thai eggplant and many varieties of sweet potatoes.

We have a small committee, open to anyone keen to join us. At least one of us aims to be at the garden every Wednesday evening from 5 – 7pm to introduce anyone new to it, open the shed, do some maintenance work etc. But you’re welcome any evening or weekend to come and sticky-beak and get some produce to take home. In exchange, we just ask that you help out whenever you can with the work it takes to maintain the garden (about 10 hours a week in total). From time to time – like now, after heavy rain, or when new seasonal planting is due – we set up working bees to clear beds, make new ones, plant anew…

We’ve set the next Working Bee date for Sunday March 17^th from 3pm.

We’ll have some food and drink and we’d love you to join us there to enjoy some digging and open air … hoping of course that it won’t rain. If it does, we’ll notify you of a new date as soon as possible afterwards. Just look for us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bellingen-Community-and-High-School-Garden/128326590578311

Or if you have any questions, phone 0401225654. We look forward to you joining us!

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Koala Population report launch

Media Release

“Dave Scotts Report to Conserve Koala Populations of Upper Mid North Coast NSW”

For Interview: Dave Scotts: 0266 562938

Ashley Love: 0428699339

Inquiries: 0409996423

Presentation: Cavanbah Centre Main Room: 11.30am Saturday 16^th March 2013

On Saturday the 16^th March at the Cavanbah Centre Coffs Harbour at 11.30am the North Coast Environment Council is hosting a gathering where the Mayor of Bellingen, Mark Troy and Mayor of Coffs Harbour Denise Knight, will receive a presentation of “Dave Scott’s Report to Conserve Koala Populations of Upper Mid North Coast NSW 2012”

This is an exciting regional project where coastal communities and Environmental groups have made a long term commitment to keep on working with local ecologists and local Councils, sharing information to build up a bank of knowledge about iconic creatures our Koalas and their habitat.

The report authored by Dave Scotts, respected Fauna Ecologist, came about in response to growing community, government and academic concern about the long term conservation of the Koala at all scales of consideration. Further documented evidence came to light last year about the decline in health and welfare of Koalas (Australian Museum Study Dec 2012)There was growing anecdotal evidence from local people reporting injury and illness and from WIRES who reported that a small percentage of injured or ill Koalas were ever returned to the wild.

There are three large colonies on the Mid North East Coast and the report includes information about Koalas across our region, in the Clarence to the North and Nambucca Heads to the South. Developing coastal communities are seeing numbers of displaced, injured and ill Koalas on the fringes of their towns. Koalas are also being displaced by large tracts of industrial logging as their numbers continue to decrease.

The report recognises that Koalas to do not recognise Shire boundaries or Park and Plantation boundaries, and that there was an urgent need for more detailed information aboutpopulation and welfare. The report was funded and coordinated by the following coalition of community based, environmental organisations: Bellingen Environment Centre, Clarence Environment Centre, Nambucca Valley Conservation Council, the North Coast Environment Council and the National Parks Association of Coffs Harbour and Bellingen.

The Coffs Harbour and the Bellingen Shire have large sections of State and National Forested lands. In Section 2 of the report, “The Koala: Aspects of ecology relevant to this project”reported that, “The extent to which public lands support and foster ongoing Koala populations remains to be investigated and quantified”.

Koala Conservation is part of both the Bellingen and Coffs Harbour Council Strategic Planning.

We thank Dave Scott, for his work in the production of this report. Appreciation expressed for the valuable input from all of the groups mentioned and sincere thanks to qualified,fauna ecologists from both of our Shires who have contributed so generously to the production of this study about Koala Population and welfare.

Acknowledgement also for the major contribution made to this work by Bellingen Council, Coffs Harbour Council, OEH and the NPWS for their contribution and support. Thanks to the response from local communities across the region for their strong support for the protection of the Koala.

Friday 15 February 2013

Bellingen High School Community Garden - supervisors

Dear Gardeners - we need to establish a roster of supervisors for our new Gardening Time at the High School Garden which will be from 5-7pm Wednesdays during summer. Gardening tasks are listed below-it is up to each supervisor what they feel comfortable doing. We will advertise the new time on FB, the Transition newsletter and in a newspaper article so hopefully will get a few helpers each week.

Here are the dates we need supervisors for-please let me know if you can fill a monthly spot. If you would rather just turn up as a helper when available, please do! If you would like to supervise and need shed keys for access to tools etc please let me know and i will copy them for you. Any supplies needed, contact Sid Hazell-hazells1@bigpond.com

Wednesday February 6th - Annabella

" 13th - Solveig

" 20th - Annabella

" 27th -

" March 6th -

" 13th - Annabella

" 20th -

" 27th -

What needs to be done over the next few months

Frequent mowing
Frequent whipper snipping
Frequent hosing of concrete paths
Nut grass weeding
Picking veggies to keep them coming up
Raised beds – need increased organic matter in them before replanting (they tend to get dry and under-nourished)
Someone to support Sinclair with the hydroponics (contact Sinclair via FB to see what times he will be there)