3CR
 Community Radio 855am

THE RADIO-ACTIVE SHOW

With Eric Miller and Linda Marks

Saturday at 10.00am

7th November 1998

Good morning, this is the Radio-Active Show brought to you by the Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service. I'm Linda Marks and with me in the studio is Eric Miller. (Good Morning). The Radio-Active Show is a weekly program bringing you news and information on Nuclear, Peace and Energy issues.

Support 3CR by becoming a listener sponsor, ring the station now on 9419 8377.

And now to today's show. We hear how about the going Solar Fair near Daylesford which is taking place next weekend, and from the Stop Jabiluka demonstration in Melbourne this week.

The Going Solar fair is taking place next weekend, 14 - 15th November, at a little place called Musk, 7 k from Daylesford on the Trentham road. It is taking place over Saturday and Sunday with over 100 displays on renewable energy and sustainable technologies, and products for the home and industry. As well as the displays there is a program of seminars and workshops on a wide range of topics from solar heat pumps to ceramic fuel cells. Eric spoke to Liz Andrews in the Smith Street Going Solar shop this week.

Eric: You're putting on a Solar Fair, what is this fair?

Liz: It's called the 'Going Solar and Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair' and the idea of it is to let people know that there's a lot of options available to anybody wanting to make a house environmentally friendly. At the moment we have a shop where we get lots of inquiries about where people can go to get a hot water system or who installs solar electricity or whatever... and it seems that there's a real hunger for that sort of information. So we thought we'd try to get all of the people together who can offer that sort of information, all on the one site, all on the one weekend and let people do a whole lot of gathering of information in one weekend.

Eric: This is going to be next weekend up at Daylesford?

Liz: That's right. It's actually the 14th and 15th of November at Musk, around 7 k outside Daylesford, on a small private property.

Eric: What's going to be the format of the solar fair?

Liz: There's going to be quite a lot going on. There's going to be around 100 exhibitors. There will be manufacturers and installers of renewable energy equipment, a range of building products, architects, designers, people who specialise in passive solar design, people who deal with a range of sustainable living products like composting toilets and solar hot water systems. There will also be representatives of environment groups and education institutions. On top of that there will be demonstrations of building with straw bale, mud brick and stone. There will also be a really comprehensive seminar program of over 60 short seminars running over the entire weekend . It's a chance for you to get loads of information in the one spot.

Eric: You'll have a lot of commercial people there and a lot of people who are messing around with alternative energy.

Liz: Hopefully not too messy. The idea was to get a range of people together, the people who make the equipment, install the equipment, people who do the research and development on the equipment, then people who are promoting the equipment like environment groups and retailers. However you want to access renewable energy, from whatever point of view, you will be able to speak to those people at the fair. It will be a fantastic representation of what's going on in renewable energy at the moment.

Eric: There's a huge range of different workshops, what are some of these workshops?

Liz: There will be an introduction to renewable energy presented by of our agents who is an experienced installer of electrical equipment. He'll talk about how to set up your own system to the big picture projects, We've got someone from Integral Energies, a utility in NSW. We're looking at how we can do good interactive systems. Then looking at Future Directions of renewable energy, we've got Professor Bill Charters from Melbourne University speaking on Hydrogen and Solar Heat pumps. Then we have people speaking on local government and sustainability. We've got Paul Murphett from Moreland City Council on that. We've got people speaking on composting toilets and grey water. We've got David Homgren speaking on permaculture. Then we have some architects speaking on passive solar design and ecologically sustainable development. It's an incredible range really. It's going to be amazing.

Eric: You have people speaking on solar energy and the way to conserve energy at the same time.

Liz: That's right. Everything you need to know.

Eric: And there's going to be people exhibiting these different forms of solar energy and renewable energy and how you can conserve energy as well?

Liz: That's right, yes. We are trying to come at it from a number of different ways so people can sit and listen to someone talk about it or they can go and look at a wind generator for example. One of the exciting things is that the site itself is going to be powered by a big solar array so you can get a look at the equipment and speak to the people who make it and install, it or you can go and hear about it more generally.

Eric: Who are some of the people talking at the workshops?

Liz: One key speaker we have is David Baggs. He's an architect and he's been a consultant working on the Olympic Village. He works for a company called Ecologically Sustainable Development. He'll be speaking about the design of the Olympic Village and other aspects of that. Another topic he'll cover is earth covered building in Australia. Sharing his experiences and current thoughts based on 20 years of underground design. He has written a book on that subject. Another speaker will be Paul Murphett from the Moreland City Council as I mentioned, he will be discussing local government and sustainability and energy conservation and management. Moreland City Council has a strategy that was developed in response to major changes in the electricity industry and privatisation. There will e discussions on some of the measures local government can take in response to that. We have other speakers like installers of renewable systems who'll speak about how batteries work, or what sort of elements are involved in a renewable energy system. There's going to be quite a range of topics covered there.

Eric: I see that Alan Grey is speaking on sustainable energy systems. He's a favourite of mine. He's from Earth Garden. He's been around for a long time and I really enjoy what he has to say, so it seems like it's going to be a good weekend.

Liz: I think so. I could just go on and on about all the different speakers. They've been incredibly generous about coming along. There's also Russell Andrews from Owner Builder magazine, Professor Alan Roger from Deakin University, working on their initiative for sustainability. Also Dr. Robert Vale who's from the University of Aukland Architecture Department

Eric: How do people get up there? It's over 2 days. Is there accommodation?

Liz: There's quite a lot of accommodation in the area. Daylesford attracts quite a bit of tourism so there is a lot of accommodation but it's getting booked out because there's a lot of people going to this thing. You do need to get in and book things early. There's a range of accommodation from camping to B&Bs and guest houses. You can talk to the Daylesford Information Centre if you're looking for accommodation. How you get up there, one thing we're doing is running a car pooling notice board at Going Solar because we'd really like to encourage people to do that, you can contact Going Solar and leave your name. There is public transport, you can catch V-line up to Woodend and I believe there's gong to be a bus running from the train station. You may need to contact Going Solar for some extra details about that. It's about 7 k outside Daylesford.

Eric: There's camping sites up there you can camp overnight?

Liz: Not actually at the fair site but there is in the area. The fair site itself is a private property.

Eric: It all seems to be pretty informative, there's going to be a lot happening and a lot of interesting people talking and a whole lot of exhibits.

Liz: When we first thought of putting this together we only imagined it to be relatively small and the interest has been such that it's snowballed. It's really grown so now there's an incredible range of exhibitors and the seminar program is just wild. Can you imagine being able to hear 25 different short topics each day. That's a lot of information you can gather. It's an amazing opportunity.

Eric: Thank you very much Liz

Liz: Thanks Eric

Linda: Eric was spearing to Liz Andrews from Going Solar and the music played during that interview was Holly Near with 'Power'. There's going to be 2 uranium seminars as well as the other seminars Liz mentioned. The first one will be 'Jabiluka, the tip of the uranium iceberg' taking place on Saturday at 12.30 and on Sunday at 12 there will be 'Uranium mining in Kakadu National Park'. The Anti-Uranium Collective of Friends of the Earth will be there all weekend with more .information and they'll be selling yummy food, so call in a visit their stall. If you're interested in finding out more, or you want a brochure, you can ring Going Solar on 9328 4123 or call in a and see them at 322 Victoria Street North Melbourne or at their other shop at 406 Smith Street Collingwood.

On Sunday 1st November there was a Stop Jabiluka Rally in Melbourne. It was announced at the rally that North Ltd had cancelled its shareholders information meeting planned for Monday. The rally marched through the city to the Victorian Arts Centre where North was going to have their shareholders meeting the next day. A number of people slept in the Victorian Gardens opposite the Arts Centre as they had originally planned before the cancellation of the shareholders meeting. The next day there was a quick change of plans and the demonstrators had a presence at the Arts Centre until about 11am, then they went down to North Ltd and blockaded for about an hour.

Protesters: Export Howard, Not uranium, Export Howard, Not uranium...

Police Liaison: As police liaison person I must do my duty, we have been given a warning and the police have told me that they will use whatever tactics necessary to move us out, so I leave that to your imagination... We have a proposal that we wait until they come for us and at that time we toi toi down the pathway with arms linked, and for those who don't know what toi toi is.... is there any dissent to that proposal... do we have consensus... ok...

Protesters: Landrights, not mining rights, stop Jabiluka now, landrights, not mining rights, stop Jabiluka now...

Police Liaison: I've been informed that the police are about to move in and they've asked us to do our bit and get out of here...

Protesters: Kakadu is sacred, Kakadu is sacred, hey, hey, hey....

Hey, North, you're running out of time, you're never gunna get your Jabiluka mine...

Speaker: Just remember, this is what constitutes business as usual for a company like North Ltd. They've got to have 50 cops, 4 horses, 6 horses, 8 horses, however many it takes, standing outside their building just so they can get a delivery of fruit juice. Get used to it North Ltd. Get used to it because we're small today but we've been bigger in the past and we're coming back to get you until you stop the Jabiluka mine development and listen to what people are saying.

Protesters: Landrights, not mining rights, stop Jabiluka mine...

Linda: That was blockaders outside North Ltd. last Monday after North cancelled its report to shareholder meeting. The speakers were Fiona and Fleur from the Jabiluka Action Group. In an open letter to shareholders that appeared in newspapers on Monday, North said that the meeting was cancelled because of past protests by JAG that have led to violence and vandalism. Just to put the record straight, the JAG groups are committed to non violence and in all of the hundreds of demonstrations organised by JAG in Melbourne over the past year, not one person has been arrested, so I leave that with you.

Eric: In that letter to shareholders, one paragraph read 'while we strongly advocate the rights for people to protest peacefully, equally we are firmly opposed to activities that are illegal or designed to deliberately promote violence.' On Monday there were about 20 demonstrators and around 50 police. The demonstrators were standing on North property blocking the door as an act of civil disobedience. They were prepared to get arrested. But, what did the police do? They brought in horses and all of those police to force us off the property. If they didn't want any violence, all they had to do was to arrest people. The demonstrators, seeing that there would be violence, quickly got off that property and out onto the footpath. The Jabiluka Action Group is firmly committed to non-violence. And as to the destruction to property, the day that building was painted red was the day that the senior traditional owner, Yvonne Margurula, was charged with trespassing on her own land and fined. It's no wonder that people were really angry and painted the building red. What's the painting of a building compared to the actions of a company that is digging a huge hole in the middle of a national park? Why didn't they arrest people then? They had video cameras filming people doing it, the security guards in North were watching people doing it, the police outside were watching people doing it. But North knows who the majority of people in Australia think are the criminals are in this case. They know that if they did starting arresting people, they know who would be brought to justice if those court cases went ahead. That's why there's been no arrests. And the Jabiluka Action Group is committed to non violence.

Eric: We really need a strong 3CR and 3CR really needs your sponsorship so phone 9419 8377 and become a listener sponsor.

What's on:

1. Going Solar fair 14 - 15 November at Musk, 7 k from Daylesford on the Trentham road.

2. March to a radio-active site from Flinders Street Station, Thursday 19th November.

3. Stop Jabiluka Rally, 'No Mandate for Jabiluka' on Sunday December 6th, assemble at the State Library Lawns at 4pm.

4. New International Bookshop at the Trades Hall, Sunday 8th at 2pm, Verity Burgman 'Green Bans, Red Union, Environmental Activism and the Builders Labourers Federation' and Sunday 15th, John Wiseman, 'Global Nation, the Politics of Globalisation in Australia'

Eric: And that's all we have time for now Linda, so it's goodbye from me Eric.

Linda: And goodbye from Linda.

Transcript produced by Linda Marks - with much thanks!!!
Page last updated November 11, 1998.
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