Notting Hill was AV Jennings’ first urban city development in Melbourne. It was first known as the Westerfield Estate. According to Ian Banks, one of the first generation of residents, AV Jenings won the award (surprisingly in Los Angeles) for developing the world’s first most well planned city for its time during the early 1960s.
The Westerfield estate when established was designated a “garden” estate, with wide nature strips and generous front gardens rich with flowers shrubs and trees. Today, these valuable community assets are under pressure from a changing population as well as changes in planning regulations and mixed density developments.
As part of our sustainability program, the NHCA is initiating a campaign to enhance our “garden” estate. The project was first thought of by one of our residents, Jurgen Schneider, who is also leading the project.
We believe there are many things that can be done to make Notting Hill stand out as a green and sustainable community and a model for others to follow. Ideas like beautifying our nature strip plantings, fostering more native gardens, and creating new traffic management island plantings to build on for an even better future.
Just imagine our wide nature strips all planted with native grasses and flora providing a haven for our native birds stressed by the drought and bush fires. Galahs and Lorikeets have certainly become more resident on the estate.
The project is based on an establised Sustainability St program:
| The Sustainability Street Institute has been incorporated as the body for all matters to do with the development and promulgation of the Sustainability Street Approach (SSA). The SSA was devised by Vox Bandicoot, which will itself now focus on the very wide range of other sustainability education projects in its stable. The first Sustainability Street Village emerged in Moreland, Victoria in 2002. Since then more than 200 others have been fostered across Australia. Consistently, participants report three key outcomes are:
Local communities undertake a basic training? program in sustainable living which is documented in the Sustainability Street Manual -It’s A Village Out There. Most importantly, the basic training course is much, much more than yet another 101 tips to save the planet. The course also teaches Deep Sustainability and Dynamic Capacity Building, which revolve around a values based, visceral and potentially life transforming relationships with the Planet earth and with each other. Accordingly, as well as the Sustainability Street Course outlined in the Manual, the program relies also on the Communiversity. We are all learner and we are all teachers. Numerous of the sustainability challenges and opportunities have not even occurred yet. The Communiversity brings all of individual and household experiences, skills imagination and creativity to the Sustainability Street Village well to share. The more we share, the more we have. |
On the 18 August 2009, NHCA held the project launch and invited the Sustainability team (lead by Frank Ryan) to present the program. More than 30 residents attended this first meeting – a great start to the project. Further progress will be followed by Jurgen.
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