Minutes of the Silvers Volunteers Meetings at The Tom Farrell Institute for the Environment

Fifth meeting - Thursday 31st March 2011

Present: Tim Roberts (Part of the time); Karel Grezl (Grey Nomad from 1st May); Bill Collison (web and working displays); Nev Williams (Retired - Chemistry and Psychology background); Margaret Williams (Retired Science Teacher/Volunteer at Hunter Wetlands Centre); Liz Huxtable (Centre for Teaching and Learning); Hank Williams (Retired lecturer - Community Wellbeing): Tiahna Owens (Students at UON/Tom Farrell Work Experience); Pema Choden (Farrell Scholar - Student, M. Phil)

Apologies: Ann Schumack, Peter Scaife, Pam Dean-Jones.

Minutes of Previous meeting:

These were distributed.

Comments on the previous Minutes:

Bill Collison explained that he had a suggested source of light for the solar aeroplane model that he had made.

Membership

John Crothers had resigned. Membership is now 20.

Projects:

The Bushland Campus and the Silver's website were mentioned

Previous Proposals:

These were taken as read. There were only comments on 5 and 7.

1. A community garden on top of the Auchmuty Library. Put forward by Jim Wilson who wanted Tim Roberts to take charge. Tim passed the project back to Jim.

2. Extension of Don Morris Walk through to Wollotuka Building through the intervening bush - cabbage tree palms and other good things to see in there. Put forward by Tim Roberts.

3. Revival of the Wetlands Pavilion. Locked up due to white ant activity. Could use it to observe bird life, teach, hold solar and wind demos and even Silvers Meetings. Friends of the Uni have agreed to assist financially. Put forward by Karel Grezl.

4. Development of working models that demonstrate renewable energy principals (to use as exhibits for talks to schools and at Silvers Meetings. Primarily need these working exhibits to be on display at the entrance of new premises at the Industry Development Centre by October. Put forward by Bill Collison.

5. Development of environmental exhibits, in cooperation with CSIRO Energy and Pete Dormand of NCC, for the new Museum containing the new Supernova hands on science centre. (Tim was responsible for the establishment of Supernova and the Newcastle Regional Museum in the 80s). Put forward by Tim Roberts. This has become a Silver's Project.

6. Organise an activity with a team of students such as catchment management data collection and analysis. Put forward by Peter Scaife.

7. Organise an art exhibition in conjunction with the Wetlands, featuring the outputs of students in Bachelor of Natural History Illustration program. Put forward by Margaret Williams and Grant Morgan. This was being organised. Suggested date was April 20, 2011. Tim is checking details and organising the Natural History Illustration people.

Other Business:

An Electric Festival is planned in November 2011. A draft brochure was distributed. This will be part of the Living Smart Festival being organised in conjunction with Lake Macquarie City Council
Transport Forum at Tom Farrell Institute in June, 2011. Hank gave out some information about ideas for transport and was invited to participate.
Enviro Jobs. There is a list on the Notice Board outside the Tom Farrell Meeting Room
Text Books. Donations were welcome. Needed for 3rd World countries.
Take 3 Initiative. Tim Silverwood is to take a yacht across the Pacific Ocean to make people aware of the rubbish being accumulated in various parts of the oceans. Donations are being sought.
Farrell Scholarship Briefing. Pema Choden gave a short speech about her research into Rubbish tips and their leaching. Some discussion followed.
Social Statistics. Karel read out a list (supplied by Stephanie Bako) showing that we were now using Social Media efficiently.
Climate Cam. Most of those attending the meeting had a look at the recent information from the Newcastle Climate Cam. There were various attempts at trying to interpret the graphs but no-one felt competent.
Reintroduction of Bottle Deposits. This was mentioned but no proposition was put forward.

Reminders:

*** A cartoonist is required for the Newsletter ***

The meeting closed about 6 p.m.

Next Meeting:

4.30pm April 28th. This meeting will also be a farewell to Dr Karel Grezl as he temporarily departs his desk, and his role as Editor and writer-in-chief of our Newsletter, to travel in his eco-friendly camper truck over the breadth of Australia.

Fourth meeting, Thursday 3rd March 2011

Present: Tim Roberts; Chelsea Zuiderwyk - B. Sc. & Comm; Karel Grezl (Grey Nomad from 1st May); Olivier Rey-Lescure (cartographer); Barrie Stokes (Stats and fast cars); Bill Collison (web and working displays); Andrew Spannenberg BSC (eco village at Shortland); Nev Williams; Margaret Williams; Don Munro (psychologist); Grant Morgan (HWCA & NUPSA); Michael Mahoney (frogs and Discipline head of Environmental Science & Management0; Peter Scaife (CSIRO and farmer ); Frank Tuyl (mathematician) ; Jim Wilson (engineering & fungi)

It was agreed that the TFI Silvers meeting would fall on the last Thursday of every month.

Proposals:

1. A community garden on top of the Auchmuty Library. Put forward by Jim Wilson who wanted Tim Roberts to take charge. Tim passed the project back to Jim.

2. Extension of Don Morris Walk through to Wollotuka Building through the intervening bush - cabbage tree palms and other good things to see in there. Put forward by Tim Roberts.

6. Organise an activity with a team of students such as catchment management data collection and analysis. Put forward by Peter Scaife.

Notifications:

1. Scholarships on blackboard

2. Careers night early May - there will be a diversity of industry reps. 24 local environmental partners, in partnership with the Hunter Environment Institute.

3. Last year Tim Roberts offered advice on cv's.

4. Co-hosting a seminar with Hunter Environment Institute on Part 3A Planning Legislation, 9th March at Newcastle Institute for Environmental Research. Will partner with NIER in future.

5. Seminar: PLANET EARTH: CLIMATE CHANGE, ROLE OF AEROSOLS, COAL VS. NUCLEAR, AND THE HEALTH CONCERNS; Professor Robert F. Holub, Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science (CARES), Clarkson University, USA; Monday 28th March 6.30 - 8.00 pm, V31 Mathematics Building.

6. RHD Seminar: Pema Choden. "Garbage makes mischief. Leachate quality analysis and passive treatment options" and Kylie Agllias. "Family estrangement. An examination of causes and consequences"; Wed 23 March at 4.00 - 5.00pm.

7. Seminar: ANOMALOUS TRANSPORT PHENOMENA ON SOLID-FLUID INTERFACES; ARE THEY MACROSCOPIC QUANTUM EFFECTS? Professor Robert F. Holub, Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science (CARES), Clarkson University, USA Monday 28th March 12.30-2pm, V31 Mathematics Building.

8. Seminar in April - Professor Dave Rutledge from Caltec will be speaking: "Estimating long-term world coal production with logit and probit transforms" Location: NIER Conference Room, Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER) is located off Vale Street, Shortland, adjacent to Shortland Waters Golf Club and the University of Newcastle. 4-6pm : Wednesday, April 6 2011

9. Tocal field days for three days. April 29- May1st. Volunteers needed to assist Tim on this one. Please send him an email indicating which day you could put in some hours on the TFI stand while he is giving a talk in another pavilion

10. Green Steps sustainability training program coming to the Uni. Interviews on 30-31 March; workshop on five days in April and May. This also involves a three week placement after training in environmental auditing. 14 students will be in the program

11. Needed - cartoonists for Newsletter.

12. Tim Roberts does a weekly show Tuesdays at 11:15 am on 2NURFM. Proposal to podcast this segment for downloading. Also ideas needed for suitable topics for Tim to speak about (5 minutes)

13. Farrel Fursty Fursdays: You're Invited - Every Thursday, TFI Board Room - V31 Ground Floor Mathematics Building, 4.30pm. Come along for a casual get-together and meet people from around campus. You never know what ideas you might exchange!

Concerns:

1. Regional Solutions for a Sustainable Future . The Lower Hunter with a population of 540,000 people has the same ecological footprint as Sydney which has ten times the population.

2. Margaret mentioned Transport again as an issue.

Next Meeting:

Third meeting, Friday 29th October 2010

Present: Kevin McDonald, Bill Collison, Margaret Williams, Nev Williams, Gary Ellem

Apologies: Anne Shumack, Chris Tola

Immediate Discussion:

Attendance has declined sharply since the first meeting. This is a concern for both the effectiveness of the Silvers and those travelling large distance for the meetings.

Suggested solutions

Combine the silvers with TFI presentations
Change the time, 4:30pm Fridays seen as a poor time
Send reminder of meeting via email
Ask non-attending members what the issues are
Use email to discuss issues between meetings

Projects:

Don Morris Walk

Proposal for brochure and website
Silvers to provide content (text and pictures)
TFI to supply Silvers with a campus map for use
Kevin has been asked to write a chapter on the Don Morris Walk for Zemy Giles book, Earth, Rock, Metal

Response to Minutes:

Nev supplied email to Tim on London bike hire scheme

Demo of different online communication tools to be demonstrated at next meeting – TFI to organise.

Meeting closed 5:45pm

Second meeting, Friday 24th September 2010

Present: Anne Shumack (scribe), Bill Collison, Margaret Williams, Nev Williams, Kevin McDonald, Tim Roberts, John Farrell, Jim Wilson, Kylie Wallace

1. Tim Roberts reported that we have 18 paid up members and he was happy with this state of affairs.

a. The scribe was not and wondered where all the environmental science and management students were and whether we could at form a link with the NUSA Enviro Club, perhaps having the Chair come and tell us what they are doing. Tim responded that he had a plan to garner support from the Enviro Club. Would be good to sign them all up as members.

b. ACTION: Tim to follow up for next meeting

2. Tim informed us that the social media group of Ainslie and Meredith Young would be meeting with Karel and Tim in mid-October to plot a course for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

3. The upcoming events for the TFI were

a. a breakfast meeting at Isabella's on campus (which turned out to be a full on debate about parking at uni),

b. an Energy Forum on October 1st, 2010

c. Recycling Forum followed by Fungi Finale, 3rd December 2010.

d. Uni members were joining a 'ride to work' day, part of a national program. This was primarily organised by NUBUG and Sharon Rixon.

i. In 1993 Kevin had organised his students to monitor vehicles at three entry points to the University in the period prior and during a similar leave your car at home week and they noted a 9% drop in vehicles. Kevin left his report with Tim.

ii. Nev reported that in London and Paris bicycle ports are provided at various sites around the city for use by interested public.

4. Kevin gave us a 'Bushland Campus' update. The first edition came out in 1994, resulting from a project begun in 1991. The then Vice-Chancellor had approached Kevin to tackle the project. He was assisted by an excellent committee, with financial support from the Friends of the University. Kevin was not remunerated for his work, but the illustrators were paid. The project exceeded the budget and further support was forthcoming from the new Vice Chancellor. It was agreed that the second edition should also feature fungi found on campus. Gregg Heathcote, Pam O'Sullivan and Jim Wilson would assist in achieving this goal.

a. Tim commented that advice from Patrice Newell, an author and an Editor with Penguin Publishing, was to attempt to use some of the original artwork in the second edition. Tim was to approach the Friends of the University to attempt to locate same.

5. Don Morris Walk publication: Kevin proposed that a book be prepared on the Don Morris Walk as a guide to the walk and that this could become a chapter in the Second Ed of the Bushland Campus.

6. A Guide to Fungi on Newcastle Campus: It was agreed that a publication/field guide to the fungi on campus should also be produced.

7. Blackbutt Reserve rejuvenation: Tim had had a visit from Councillor Nuatali Nelms, NCC, who is involved in the regeneration of Blackbutt Reserve. She reported to Tim that it will stay a reserve for the local community and there would be no radical changes. She was interested in the history of Blackbutt Reserve - some of us felt there should be plenty of documentation at Council. John said there is a very active, but small group of people looking out for Blackbutt, in spite of NCC apathy. They had tried and failed to stop parking meters going in at the reserve. Brian Gilligan had written a history of flora and fauna of Blackbutt. One of Tom Farrell's greatest achievements was to bring Blackbutt Reserve into being. In 1931 he approached five local councils to purchase some blocks of land to create the reserve. In 1980 there was a threat to run traffic through by the Department of Main Roads. This became a huge issue and turned in to a Federal Inquiry. (Kevin has the transcript and newspaper clippings on the whole saga and also lots of files on the reserve.) Department of Main Roads had a diagram of where the road should go which was presented to court by Tom Farrell.

a. Tim proposed a history of Blackbutt Reserve as a Silvers project.

8. Tom Farrell was involved in many significant projects. He worked to get the university established as well as establishing Blackbutt Reserve. He worked to establish Mount Sugarloaf, Barrington Tops and Greenpoint being among them.

a. Within the university there is a project to do a history of Tom Farrell.

9. Bill Collison has set up a Silvers website. This is up and running. From the Tom Farrell Institute on the homepage there is a link on the left. Minutes of Silvers meetings will be posted here. http://www.newcastle.edu.au/research-centre/tfi/farrell-silvers/

a. Kylie suggested setting up a Wiki type page for people to write what they know of the history of Blackbutt Reserve

10. Kevin will take on the Don Morris walk project as a subset of the Bushland Campus project.

11. Tim - Tom Farrell Silvers Organisation. The reason we are not an incorporated body is that if we sit just as an association within the uni we are covered by uni insurance

12. Jim suggested we have a blackboard section for members. Quick witted as ever, John came up with the password hi ho Silver! The fungi jokes that followed were too awful to write down but this one got through - what did one bacteria say to the other? Who needs biology when we’ve got chemistry.

13. Next meeting 4:30 pm, Friday 29th October, 2010. Tim, Karel and the scribe will be absent at this next meeting - Gary will be chairperson. Minute taker needed.

Inaugural Meeting, Friday 27th August 2010

Present: Gabe Anderson; Howard Bridgman; Penna Choden; Simon Clulow; Bill Collison; John Crothers; Gary Ellem; John Farrell; James Giblin; Emily Grace; Karel Grezl; Bryan Havenhand; Sonia Hornery MP; Michael Mahoney; Kevin McDonald; Don Munro; Sharon Rixon; Michael Roberts; Tim Roberts; Zel Sanli; Anne Shumack; Dongxin Su; Kylie Wallace; Henk Willems; Margaret Williams; Ainslie Young; Meredith Young.
Apologies: Peter Scaife, Julie Midson-York. Frank Thuyl

1 Tim Roberts, Director of The Tom Farrell Institute for the Environment (TFI) welcomed everyone to the meeting with special thanks to Sonia Hornery MP and John Farrell for attending.

Tim stressed that this was a volunteer’s group for all ages, from students to retirees, with Projects in mind or, just as important, ideas to discuss on a social basis without any commitment to a Project.
Tim acknowledged the contribution of Howard Bridgman who had been instrumental in the formation of this group.
Silvers meetings will happen the last Friday of every month, except for December and January.

2 Other TFI members include

Karel Grezl, who is currently sending the TFI Newsletter he creates to 1,000 people on an email list.
Belinda Marks and Helena Hannan are also members of the team.
Gary Ellem has recently come on board as manager of the Carbon Valley 2050 Project.

3 Another major environmental player at the Uni is Sharon Rixon, Environmental Manager, who seeks to create a sustainable campus consisting of buildings, transport, landscape (and the myriad of other things that this Project will tackle).

The uni is to operate like a business with a strategic environment plan.
She has a background of working in various government environment programs.
She used to teach interview techniques and is keen to develop a mentoring program.
She hopes to establish a green fund and definitely sees student involvement in campus management

4 Sonia Hornery MP explained that the Uni is in her “patch” and

pledged any State Government help she could deliver.
Her major area of interest is in improving public transport.

5 Silvers Projects.

5.1 Kevin McDonald is updating his book “Bushland Campus” – he may require volunteers – Anne Shumack would be delighted to edit – she is great at spotting written mistakes.

5.2 Ainslie and Meredith Young are going to bring the TFI into the 21stC and update our social media. They aim to take us to youtube.

5.3 Andrea Griffith, psychology lecturer, is researching the behaviour of Indian mynahs and needs volunteers for data collection. Her colleague Carmen is looking at contraception for Indian mynhas – is there room for volunteers here?

5.4 Howard Bridgman, an atmospheric scientist feels this area has largely been ignored because you can’t see or touch it. Is there a Project here?

5.5 John Crowthers had a Project in mind, which we hope he will present at the next Silvers meeting, or circulate to us beforehand for discussion at said meeting.

6 Upcoming for the TFI:

6.1 October 1st 2010– Forum on Energy
6.2 December 3rd – Farrell Fungi Finale.

7 Other things environmental –

Curtin University are doing a feasibility study on retrofitting old cars
September, give your feedback on public transport after a week of using it and you could win an iPod, on October 13th national ride to work day,
in November a national program for a biodiversity corridor in the Great Eastern ranges and finally
there is an International Organisation called Earthwatch which will put volunteers in touch with scientists who need “hands”. Mike Mahoney uses them in his frog research. He himself trains rangers as part on an international program from countries like Indonesia and Vietnam.

8 Last words to Karel who observed at a recent conference on Sustainable Development in Sydney that the best examples came from communities who decided to do things themselves.