News & Events
January 2006:
As part of the Friends' committment to environmental best practice, we have recently become involved with an innovative community project funded initially by the RMIT Handbury Fellowship program.
Along with an untold number of communities throughout Australia, Coleraine has a wastewater treatment facility that deals with thousands of litres of water per day. The water is currently treated via a series of settling ponds/lagoons. The treated water (Class III standard) is then sprayed onto adjacent farmland from where it ultimately filters into local Bryan Creek, and then the Wannon River. This is a wasted resource.
The Handbury Fellowship has enabled an alliance between RMIT water engineers and the Coleraine community, seeking to further cleanse the water on site, then use it for an environmentally and economically sound purpose before its discharge back into Bryan Creek. We envisage being able to purify the water to Class I standard, via a constructed wetland. Once this has been achieved, we intend to develop a biodynamic/organic horticultural enterprise that will involve training at certificate level, as well as community education on the value of local high quality food production for both health and environmental reasons.
Our community will benefit from the establishment of a new business that can be shared by everyone. For instance, local school schildren could be provided with a piece of fruit each day.
In addition, we will strengthen the training base of the Friends of the Points. The environment will benefit in a number of ways:
