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Treaty Yarning Circle- First Peoples’ Assembly
When: Sunday June 15th, 4-6pm
Where: Castlemaine Bowls Club
World Localisation Day- June 21st
World Localisation Day is an annual celebration, World Localisation Day (WLD) 2025 – . On June 21 and during the whole month of June, Local Futures celebrate the great many efforts underway across the world which strengthen ecological economies, local communities and food systems.
People and groups in 50 countries on six continents have been participating in World Localisation Day through a wide variety of activities since 2020. We expect broad participation this year as well, and envisage a rich international program that will inspire and inform others with examples of localization in action, including in food, energy, business, finance, governance, culture and education.
Community members are invited to actively participate by: Hosting a film screening. We have several films that you can use:
- The Power of Local – localization-in-action worldwide – soon available in ten languages.
- Closer to Home – a united call for a new economy – available in 16 languages.
- Planet Local: A Quiet Revolution – grassroots activists from every continent – available in 11 languages.
- Many shorter videos and animations are available too.
Focusing on local food: A local food feast, An eat local challenge, Local food and seeds fair.
Spreading the message: Get World Localization Day on the radio, Host a webinar, Organise a workshop, Run a campaign on social media that introduces the global-to-local message
See more information about World Localisation Day 2025, and how to get involved, and check out this year’s events for more inspiration.
Rising Tide Film Afternoon- Turning the Ship
Central Victoria’s Rising Tide is screening the Rising Tide documentary “Turning the Ship” about the 2024 Newcastle Protestival.
When: 3pm on Saturday 21st June
Where: West End Hall, 37 View St Castlemaine.
It’s FREE and we’d love to see you there. There will be cake.
Castlemaine Community Cooperative- Debentures Offers to Purchase the Hub
In our first week our debenture offer raised $631,250 of loans to buy the Hub! Nearly a third (32%) of what we need!
We need our remaining 215 members to apply now if you are thinking of investing – our offer expires in only 3 weeks (29th of June).
Apply here to help us reach our target. If you would like to see inside the Hub before investing, book a tour with Angus, Jeanette and Cath any Monday 4.30-5.30pm – or a time that suits you. Book here.
We also need you to reach out to family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and passers-by. Tell them why you joined and invested. We want this town to be talking about the vision and how they can get involved by June 29.
The Deep History of the Loddon River, Volcanoes and the Guildford Plateau
Photo: Geoff Park_ Natural Newstead
Letters
- From Ben Laycock- Castlemaine
“I bumped into Lisa Chesters today, at the CCH community lunch. I pointed out to her that 2,000 voters from Mount Alexander Shire voted Green, about 85% of them gave their preferences to her. That is 1700 votes. Lisa won by 3300 votes, so over half of those votes came from us. She was efusive in her gratitude. Then I asked her to pass on a message to Murray Watt. She said the first person she contacted on arriving in Canberra was Murray Watt. She conveyed her grave concerns about Woodside’s North West Shelf project. I congratulated her on her victory.
URGENT! Save us from Woodside! The newly minted minister for the Environment, Murray Watt, has a very important job to do. It may well turn out to be the most important job he ever has, deciding on Woodside’s application to extend its North-West shelf gas project to 2070. The decision must be made by May 31st. Gas lobbyist Roger Cook, also moonlighting as Premier of Western Australia, has already given the massive project his imprimatur. If this project goes ahead as planned, it will reduce our chances of achieving net zero emissions to, well….zero!
Please read the full story in the blog post, then send an email to every single Federal Labor politician. I have attached their email addresses. ( these are no longer publically available due to people doing what I am suggesting. You may get a better response if you send each email individually, starting with ‘dearest politician, I love your work,’ or similar.
This is an incredibly momentous decision that will effect the entire world for generations to come!”
For more info: https://binsblog.org/…/keep-woodsides-north-west-shelf…/
Ben Laycock, Castlemaine
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2. From Bernie Tonkin, Castlemaine – The Member for Woodside?
If Lisa Chesters said she was not opposing dozens of new coal fired power stations would you lose faith in her?
Well Labor has just approved another step closer to the emissions equivalent of this – according to The Australia Institute ie. – Woodside’s North West Shelf export gas processing expansion. This is barely a week after the latest unprecedented climate driven flood disaster on the mId north NSW coast. The hypocrisy is unbearable with Albo out comforting the victims.
During the election campaign we heard Ms Chesters repeating the line that they only approved fossil fuel projects that ‘stacked up’ environmentally and economically. However the IPCC scientists stated in early 2023 – there can be no new fossil fuel projects if we are to have any chance of aligning with Paris. If I hear Ms Chesters say that one more time I don’t know if I’ll cry or be sick.
Australia’s lie is that we don’t have to include the fossil fuels we export in our national emissions target. Those emissions are someone else’s responsibility – the drug dealer’s defence.
But here’s another rub for anyone who cares about social justice – the Melbourne Uni report “10 Years Beyond Bushfires” p. 13 found that women in the disaster aftermath were seven times more likely to be assaulted.
But wait- the fossil fuel industry inc Woodside donated $1.8 million in 2023-4 to both Labor and the Coalition according to Market Forces. So I’m calling out Lisa Chesters as the “Member for Big Business” – not the member for ordinary people like Echuca and Rochester flood victims, who only remain to suffer the consequences of her (as well as the Libs/Nats Coalition) failure to be in solidarity with rural & regional people on climate justice issues.
Ask our member and other candidates for a statement on the Woodside Project – Australia’s largest fossil fuel project, and, our local disaster vulnerability including violence against women, impacts on farmers etc.
Yours sincerely, Bernard Tonkin, Castlemaine
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3. From Trevor Scott, Castlemaine- An Open Letter to the Prime Minister
Dear Mr Albanese
I am 78 years old, a retired architect who has worked hard most of his life. I have been fortunate to have 3 children, but lost one at age 30. I grieve for her and for a planet that we are about to lose too, if we do not take immediate action.
Now, congratulations upon election to PM for a second term. I have a very important message for you so please listen! During the 5 week federal election campaign, you said on ABC Radio “I believe in Climate Change and my party believes in Climate Change.” What we were waiting for you to say was that you were going to take action on the climate, but unfortunately, you didn’t. You found, as did many ministers and politicians before you, that you weren’t capable of being that liberal with the truth. We should, I suppose be thankful for small mercies.
Climate Change aside for a moment, earlier this year in March, The Guardian reported that Labor had vowed to establish a Federal Government Environment Protection Agency, and that it would close the loopholes in the EPBC Act, providing much better protection for the environment (including from Climate Change). Please tell me if I am wrong Mr. Albanese, but it was then reported, towards the end of 2024, that you got a call from Roger Cook, Premier of Western Australia who pled with you to put this legislation on hold. To our surprise, you did exactly that! Since when does a PM take heed of a State Premier and put a vital piece of federal legislation on hold? This inspired me to do some research of my own. I found out that the WA Chamber of Minerals & Energy (representing the fossil fuel companies) had put pressure on Roger Cook to put a hold on the deal that Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek was negotiating with the Greens and Cross benchers. The outcome from this means that then and now, our environment, the native forest habitat of wild creatures, has no protection whatsoever. Even designated national parks are not protected and logging continues as I write, in The Great Koala National Park in NSW.
Returning again to Climate Change, it is my belief, and that of many others, that you and your government have recently been elected overwhelmingly, on the issue of protecting the climate. But as I am writing this, floodwater levels from Taree to Coffs Harbour on the mid north coast of NSW are reported to be higher than ever. Earlier this year in March, Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s heavy rains inundated Brisbane and devastated Gold Coast beaches. Alfred traveled further south than all the cyclones before it, even reaching into northern NSW. So, Mr. Albanese, the signs are that Climate Change is right here, and is putting more and more life at risk, and doing more property damage than ever before. Since it is clear that you have been elected to keep us safe from the climate, what are you and your Environment Minister going to do? What will Chris Bowen, our newly appointed Climate Change & Energy Minister do? In September of last year we were gobsmacked when former Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek signed off on expansions to 3 huge coal mines. One is now scheduled to continue mining until beyond 2030; the other two have been approved to mine coal to beyond 2040. She was quoted at the time as saying that they were permissible under the Safety Mechanism which goes to prove that this piece of legislation is simply not worth the paper it is written on!
Currently, Woodside Energy, Australia’s largest energy company, is requesting approval from Environment Minister Watt to approve a massive expansion of the North West Shelf Gas Facility in Karratha, in the Pilbarra Region of Western Australia. This project is planned to extend beyond 2030 and it is a carbon bomb! If allowed to proceed it will release 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon pollution, which is twice as much as the Coalition’s (now abandoned) nuclear scheme, and is equivalent to a decade of Australia’s annual emissions. This is all for gas that will be burnt offshore. So Mr. Albanese and Mr. Watt, the choice is yours. Are you going to keep Australians safe into the future, or are you going to pave the way for a very small number of individuals to get even richer? And please don’t forget that your re-election is very fresh in our minds!
Yours sincerely, Trevor Scott