Tag Archives: Sustainability

As soon as you solve one problem in gardening, you’ll undoubtedly come up against another. Last week we were really excited because we read on the Gardening Australia website that land cress is poisonous to the Cabbage White Butterfly caterpillar. We were thrilled, as something had started to eat our tiny kale at Blackheath Community Farm and this seemed like …

  There’s an excitement and a lovely crunch as you run your finger down the side of a dried bean pod and split it open to collect the seed. If you haven’t done so already, now’s the time to collect your bean seeds to ensure a crop for next summer and potentially also meals over this winter. Some dried beans, …

  If you’d like a steady supply of homegrown food fast, whatever you do, grow radishes! Now is a great time to plant them because in summer they tend to bolt. You can use radishes to define rows between slower growing vegetables like beetroot and broccoli to remind you where you planted them, and, because they’re the fastest growing vegetable, …

After devastation, the restorative forces of nature begin the process of healing. On the 22nd December 2019, Australia’s biggest forest fire, which had already destroyed an area seven times the size of Singapore, raced up the gully below Clarence St and burnt to within 10m of Eva and Bill Johnstone’s property, just above Pope’s Glen in Blackheath. It burnt all …

Rowe teaching in Kabul, Afghanistan After its development in Tasmania in 1978, Permaculture has become one of Australia’s most successful exports. Practitioners are now certified in more than 140 countries and Katoomba resident, Rosemary Morrow, co-founder of the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute, has been one of the pioneers responsible for this global uptake.   This week young people (aged 16+) …

  Popes Glen Creek rises in Memorial Park, close to the town centre of Blackheath, then flows east for about 4km through Popes Glen Bushland Reserve and into the Grose River. Over decades this beautiful interface between the town and the Blue Mountains National Park had suffered the effects of polluted urban stormwater inundating a natural system, and had become …

Students from Blackheath Public School Stage two Blackheath Public School students could hardly contain their excitement today as they were the first people EVER to cultivate the endangered species Zieria Covenyi. They’ve spent the last few weeks learning about biodiversity and endangered species, and the important role they are now playing to protect this endangered plant. Only around 2000 of …

On the edge of the Simpson Desert, 35 km from the nearest town, lies the bed of an ancient, dried-out lake which every July becomes home to the Big Red Bash, the largest remote music festival in the world. The festival has featured well-known artists such as Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes and Missy Higgins. Now coming into its seventh year, the …

The Blue Mountains has long told the story of how its young people are forced to leave the Mountains to study and work, primarily because there haven’t been enough opportunities for them there. But that story may now be about to change! Led by The Big Fix, a broad coalition of government, community groups, organisations and businesses are collaborating to …

  Blackheath businesses have been proactive in the ‘War on Waste’. In 2016, Blackheath became the world’s first town to agree to phase out plastic straws – still a ‘work in progress’. The community and businesses have also supported Boomerang Bags and are working to reduce the use of plastic bags. To tackle organic waste, the Wattle Cafe, Blackheath General …