Transition Epping - the story so far

Where is Epping?

Epping is a leafy suburb in the north-west of Sydney; a transport hub for the expanding commercial and employment centre of Macquarie Park and close to Lane Cove National Park. It’s a popular (but expensive to buy into) area for families to live and is located about 20 km from the CBD. The main sustainability issues are overdevelopment, declining suburban amenity with increasing traffic and loss of trees with new housing, viability of small local shopping centres and an ageing community. The suburb of Epping has a population of about 14,000 with many home units in central Epping and low density housing predominating in both West and North Epping. North Epping is surrounded by bush on three sides hence its community feel is greater than that of other areas of Epping.

When was Transition Epping formed?

Transition Epping was formed about 12 months ago by a committed group of seven community activists.  Our group is currently auspiced by Permaculture North and was successful in receiving a small grant from the North Epping branch of the Bendigo Bank for $500 to run a series of eight sustainability workshops on consecutive Saturday mornings from March to May this year in North Epping.

Getting Transition Epping off the ground: our workshop series

First up, we letterboxed 2,000 homes in North Epping and held a public meeting – 40 people turned up. At that meeting we advertised our workshop program and got people to commit to coming along. The workshops attracted from 12 to 15 regulars and featured a guest speaker (preferably local and passionate about their area) who provided information that encouraged individual behaviour change. Topics included energy efficiency, health and wellbeing, waste and greywater, local biodiversity and our ecological footprint, building community, transport and local food production.

What are we working on now?

At the end of the workshop series at our planning workshop a number of projects were chosen for the group to work on. Project teams and a committee were formed. The projects are progressing well and include: a verge garden at the local shopping centre; bi-monthly practical skills workshops; compilation of a community directory; assisting the primary school with their new food garden and a bulk-buying group for green technology.  Some ‘viral infection’ is happening already e.g. a presentation to a local gardening group on permaculture to be followed up with a site visit.

Our next step

Our public launch is planned for 7:30pm Tuesday, the 19th October 2010 in the All Saints Anglican Church, corner of  Malton Road and Devon Street, North Epping. It is hoped that we will attract many more members to help with our projects now that we have some runs on the board.  

Contact Us
For more information and to find out how you can join in our activities please contact Sandra Nichols, Coordinator Transition Epping, at 02 9869 1351 (h) or 0438 415 715 (mob) or by email at envirodoc@ozemail.com.au.