I attended the Future Ready Expo at Kawana Waters on Saturday and learnt a lot! Wearing the SustainaBundy shirt meant I was approached by a few original Bundabergians who wanted to know more about what SustainaBundy's doing. The second-hand, green-and-gold work shirts certainly attract attention!

The morning workshop "Surviving in the Suburbs" looked at solutions for a low-carbon future across many levels- home, food, personal and community. I got a bigger-picture perspective and realised the importance of community in responding to peak oil and climate change- we're all in this together and together we'll get through it better than alone. Anne Wensley also talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and how food and shelter are the most basic need- so we need to have those sorted first. Later, I was able to learn more about permaculture principles and low-energy backyard solutions such as solar and cob ovens.

From listening to the presentations of Geoff Lawton I felt a sense of hope. Geoff talked a lot about The Permaculture Research Institute's projects in "developing" countries, where permaculture techniques are used to rehabilitate land and significantly improve the residents' quality of life, by providing clean sources of drinking water and sustainable systems of producing food to prevent starvation. Geoff emphasised that many lives can be improved by sharing this important knowledge - including our own - all we need is people out there doing it!

Geoff also talked about drought-proofing areas of land and water harvesting, which I thought were amazing ideas- I didn't know it was even possible, but permaculture is clever, using knowledge of natural systems. With Australia's escalating water concerns, these solutions are now highly relevant.

All in all, it was inspiring to see many interested and knowledgeable people united to explore solutions to current environmental issues such as peak oil and climate change.

I can't wait to see more at Bundy's World Environment Day Celebration!