Leading up to 'Impact 2010', we present to you the following pre-conference activities to dive deeper into understanding some of EWB's themes and values:

Permaculture at it’s best:

 Permaculture Guru David Holmgren has dedicated his life to the principles and practice of permaculture which he describes as consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy.  Sign up and take a tour of Holmgren’s vision come to life – ‘Melliodora’ – situated in Victoria’s beautiful spa country,  Hepburn Springs.  Melliodora is one of the best documented and well known permaculture demonstration sites in Australia. With a passive solar house, mixed food gardens, orchards, dams and livestock you will see how a blackberry covered wasteland has evolved into a small scale permaculture success.  David and his property have featured on both Gardening Australia in 1998 and 2007 and Landline in 2004.  This tour also includes lunch at Melliodora kindly provided by David and Su Holmgren. (book fast as last year this tour sold out).

Times: this tour starts at 8am  and concludes at 3.30 for a return to Melbourne at 5pm.
Note: this tour includes lunch

Click here for the full itinerary and details

Sustainable communities, eco buildings for the future:

As Australia’s population increases so does its need to provide affordable housing.  Striking a balance between sustainable building design and cost is going to be a tricky balance. Join this tour to take a look at some sustainable developments already in place around Melbourne.  First we take a tour of Westwyck Sustainable housing.  Formally a school it threatened to become yet another example of quality inner-urban infrastructure that had lost its original function and faced the bulldozer. Instead, the WestWyck developers aimed to bring the building to new and vibrant life as an urban demonstration showpiece of sustainable development and good design.

The tour then goes on to visit two more sustainable developments, firstly the ACE: an automotive training faciltity which features innovative and sustainable environmental design principles and practices, for which it has received a 5 Green Star rating for energy and sustainable design, from the Green Building Council of Australia.  Lastly we visit Urban workshop . The 33 storey tower provides a mix of commercial, car park, retail, leisure, heritage and public urban facilities. This innovative building is one in a series of new buildings in Melbourne with strong environmental credentials, achieving a 4.5 ABGR Star Rating.  The tour includes lunch at Hairy Little Sister Restaurant (formally Council House 2) – sustainable and organic in both it’s produce and building design.

Timing: This tour commences at 10 am and concludes at 3.30
Note: this is a walking tour
Note: this tour includes lunch

Click here for the full itinerary and details

The epic Energy tour: Renewable vs. Coal:

Did you know that Australia’s reliance on coal for a high percentage of our electricity generation actually shoots us to the top of the ‘OECD Worst Climate Polluters’ ;cost on a per capita basis! – yep that’s us. Well as the politicians um and arr about our future energy use make your own comparison on the great energy tour. This tour takes you down to Loy Yang (which is actually an Aboriginal word meaning ‘big eel’ ) mine - the largest producing open cut brown coal mine in the southern hemisphere. It then takes you to the Loy Yang power station capable of generating 2,200 megawatt and consuming up to 60,000 tonnes of coal a day. Wow! After a lovely lunch to give you some time to take it all in we then travel to Toora Wind Farm .  Wind power currently provides 0.5% of Australia’s electricity requirements, did you know that in Denmark 20% of its electricity needs from wind power!?.  What does the future hold? find out on the great energy tour (this tour sold out last year.)

Time: This tour commences at 8am and concludes at 4.30 for a return to Melbourne by 6.30pm
Note: This tour includes lunch
Note: this tour sold out quickly in 2009

Click here for the full itinerary and details

Aboriginal Melbourne:

This tour demonstrates that to get a taste of Australia’s Indigenous history, and to appreciate Indigenous culture today you don’t have to stray far from the Melbourne CBD.  Amongst the hustle of the city lies the Koori Heritage trust – a non profit organisation aiming to protect, preserve and promote the living culture of Aboriginal people of South Eastern Australia.  Take a wander through Koori culture then onto the Yarra River (Birrarung) to gain a sense of a small but significant portion of the ancestral lands of the Kulin people. Walkin’ Birrarung is a journey back through time to a memory that lies beneath our urban existence today.

Time: This tour commences at 9.30 am and finishes at 3.30pm
Note: This is a walking tour
Note: This tour includes lunch

Click here for the full itinerary and details