GIY Australia
We have long been of the view that GIY has potential to scale up overseas and we are starting to have some interesting conversations with potential partner organisations and individuals in the US and UK about starting GIY there. The exciting news from down under is that GIY is up and running in Australia and our first group is in Kalamunda which is a suburb of Perth in Western Australia.
Deep clay soils in the valleys in this area provide ideal growing conditions for stone fruits, apples and pears, wine production and for a small commercial rose growing industry.Toni Warden, an aquaponics enthusiast and permaculture designer, started the GIY group in Kalamunda after a trawl on the internet brought her to the GIY Ireland site – not wanting to reinvent the wheel, Toni felt that the GIY model would work well in Kalamunda and is now in the very early stages of a process to expand GIY around Australia.
She is joined in this endeavour by her husband Gary who runs an organisation which helps people to take small steps towards sustainability (see www.daysofchange.org). Interestingly though the challenges which GIYers in Kalamunda face are different to those that face us here in Ireland (too little water is their main problem as opposed to too much), the model they use for running their GIY group is the same and works perfectly well.
Basically we feel that GIYers all over the world have the same needs – they need access to information, support and camaraderie – and the best way for them to get that is to get together with other GIYers. Check out their website at www.giyaustralia.org , their Facebook page here and watch a video of their first GIY Day here. We will be launching an international site for GIY soon and look forward to being able to inform you of further developments!
