Writings from Paul’s friend Warwick, who with wife Gillian inhabits an extremely simple and comfortable passive solar “earthship” home in the South West of Australia. Warwick and Gillian taught me and many others about Permaculture. Lining the walls and stairways of Rockneath is a 4000 item indexed library of a books and articles relating to sustainable living from Architecture to Communities, land management to Zoology. May of us have ”wwoofed” at their previous place where many practical lessons were learned and are now improved upon at Rockneath.
Permaculture ethics could be summarised as People Care, Earth Care, Surplus Share and Limits Aware. Ethicalsuper is about surplus and about managing the financial side of this game of life we are in. The Rockneath Report will be about the living and practical side of things. Or it could be a complete surprise. It will always be worth reading.
PAUL MELENG
————- THE ROCKNEATH REPORT , Setting the scene ——————
A colleague concerned about climate change wrote today:
“Scientists face one long-standing obstacle to public communication and one new factor.
The old difficulty arises from limits on our ability to detect expected change in a chaotic climate system, especially concerning the significance of specific regional events.
The new factor is the likelihood of being pilloried for reporting evidence of a human role in climate change.”
I replied:
A third issue is the pervasiveness of a legalistic approach: firstly, “prove it”, then I can appeal, then, let’s find a compromise. I am sure one of the tobacco companies has used “Prove it wasn’t something other than smoking ” as a defence against a case for death from lung cancer.
Another more insidious one, which is being manipulated by the lobbies anyway, is the bureaucratic approach: fundamentally looking to the government to solve the issue is not going to get the result we need in the time frame required. Individuals need to be convinced to take the matter into their own hands. “The land of the free”??? Look at how inept the combination of the lobbies and the bureaucracies are in handling the financial crisis…
I attended one of the last lectures Fritz Schumaker made, in Perth WA, in 1974. The Winthrop Hall at the University of Western Australia was absolutely packed – about 2000 people. He gave a wonderful lecture, on the theme that in the long run of history, people would look back on this 150 years or so as the age of the exploitation of millions of years of the natural manufacture of oils and gas, and see it is a totally aberrant way to power a culture.
At the end someone asked him a rather plaintive question: “Fritz, there are so few of us, what can WE do??” This little round man, in a crumpled suit, looked down, lifted his head, and with a rather cherubic grin said: “You will not like my answer. All you (sweep of hand to audience) have to do is so NO. It is what you buy, what you do, that causes the problem.”
That is why for thirty odd years now, we (my family) have been reducing the “out-go”, rather than maximising the in-come.
By locating ourselves here (333927S 1150446E) we have insulated ourselves from the more aberrant climate we anticipate. We’re on the top of a 140m hill, within 4kms to the sea in two directions: the height is for orographic and so more reliable rainfall, the proximity to the sea for no frosts, and extra humidity to absorb heat, and so reduce maxima.
We have a passive solar house that requires no heating, and have designed it so we have NO input costs other than bottled gas. We are still on our first 40 Kg bottle of gas after living here for fifteen months. Our solar panels are now earning us about 10 dollars a day from government subsidies of 47c/Kw, as we only consume about 5 KwHrs a day.
The house is also designed to be cyclone proof; we specified the structure for category five (250+ kts), and then upped the spec, taking all fastenings up at least one notch in strength and longevity. The house has a very simple roof line, and no eaves.
We are about to invest in another large water tank (180Kl – 45,000 gals) to augment the present 135Kl (30,000 gals) one, to allow plant irrigation through potentially 9 months of drought a year (which we had last year, for the first time in sixteen years in the area). Our roof gives us a 6 to 1 multiplier: 1mm of rain gives 6 mm in the tank, so 350 mm (13.7 in) will fill a tank from empty – our worst year so far was 685 mm (27 in).
We have nearly completed planting, irrigating and protecting a food forest of around fifty fruit and nut trees. We run pigeons for meat. The major food item we do not produce is milk. We have said for years that we need three people capable and willing to milk, so no one person/family is too tied down.
On transport: we have minimised usage incredibly by living adjacent to our three grand-daughters. We drive an Hyundai i30 for 21 kms/litre (59 mpg). As soon as an electric car is available here, we will add 4 KwHrs of panels, and get all of our local transport for no emissions.
One of the really enjoyable outcomes of our efforts is that our grand-daughters, now 5,7, and 10, are now able and willing to take visitors (including their school friends) on tours. We hear them giving detailed expositions on the strawbales, the double glazing, the solar design aspects, the breeze control, the dry composting toilet, the pattern language, the fire protection measures. Isn’t osmosis a wonderful teaching tool? I have no doubt at all as to what sort of lifestyle they will lead, which is of course the major reason we’re doing it. What more important legacy could we leave them?
Why all this information? We see ourselves as role models of the only realistic alternative available: DO IT YOURSELF. Do not expect anyone else to deal with climate change issues. We are not saying it is easy, but we are proving day to day that it is possible, sensible, and that it can be done with minimal impact on your life style. And we meet a wide range of interesting people as we share our knowledge, and show people some hope and some practical things to do.
Warwick Rowell
Rockneath
