It is the year 2020, and Eden-Monaro looks quite different to what it was in 2008.
There are some obvious big differences. There is a wind farm on the Monaro, quietly producing more than half of our region’s electricity needs.
With this wind farm alone, we have met the second half of our region’s target (a 50 per cent production of energy from renewable sources), which is fortunate, as the Snowy hydro scheme is struggling from lack of water.
There are smaller community wind farms in Bega, Moruya and Merimbula, which altogether employ over 50 people.
Australia’s first community owned solar farm was constructed in Bega in 2009, and was formed in the shape “50/50 by 2020”. It has become a huge tourist attraction, by 2011 averaging 2700 visitors a year. Jindabyne, Moruya and Batemans Bay each have a large community owned solar farm, and new ones are planned for Merimbula and Braidwood,
These macro-renewable energy projects are exciting, and are attracting tourists from all over Australia. Eden built the first wave generator in the region way back in 2012, and that has helped the tourist industry in the southern end of the Bega Valley Shire. The tourist operators throughout SE NSW are thriving, as the cost of international air travel has gone through the roof, and people are deciding to holiday within Australia.
This is not a picture of Utopia. Atmospheric CO2 is 30 parts per million higher than it was in 2008. The Monaro is dry, with record droughts (the sceptics call it a one in 10,000 year drought).
The dairy industry on the coast is forced to come up with innovative ways to cope with reduced milk yields, and smaller herd sizes, but continues to be competitive.
Sea level is 3cm higher than it was back in 2006, which has yet to cause significant coastal inundation. However, the threat of relentless sea level rise has seen the value of low-level coastal real estate plummet.
Petrol costs $7 a litre, and many are struggling to cope with the rapidly rising cost of electricity.
As I look around the region, I need to look carefully to see that a lot more is going on than just large scale renewable energy projects. It takes a keen eye to spot the fact that every house in Eden-Monaro has a solar hot water system on it’s roof.
This was made possible thanks to a collaborative effort made by all local councils in Eden-Monaro in 2015. Photovoltaic cells are the norm, thanks to the rapidly falling price of solar cells, and a national feed in tariff, that is allowing low-income households to make money selling electricity back to the grid.
The Bega Eco Neighbourhood Development (BEND) was up and running by 2010, setting a benchmark for sustainable housing development right across the country.
Bermagui was the first town in the region to attract a major developer that modelled its project on the BEND style development, as investors start to realise that there is money to be made in building sustainable housing estates. The Thompsons Estate in Tathra was built along similar lines shortly thereafter, and created a development that all locals were proud to live alongside.
Bega was the first town in the region to build a large community garden in its town centre, which by 2014 was employing 12 people full time, and producing fresh vegetables for most of the town. Locally grown produce becomes increasingly important due to higher transportation costs, and local food producers are starting to compete with supermarket chains.
Other regional centres quickly followed suit, and Jindabyne constructed the largest community-owned green house in the Southern Hemisphere in 2017, irrigated by the water from Lake Jindabyne.
In 2013 the 305th surf club in Australia was set up with renewable energy, and Tathra became known as the birthplace of LifeSaving Energy. A year later, LifeSaving Energy is launched as a national campaign in South Africa and New Zealand.
In 2009, the Rural Fire Stations in Tathtra and Bermagui put solar panels on their roof tops, inspired by the LifeSaving Energy campaign, and by 2020, all Fire Stations in SE NSW are self sufficient in energy.
St Johns Anglican Church in Bega installs solar panels on its heritage roof top after some protracted discussions with council late in 2009, and this inspires other churches, throughout the region to do the same. By 2020, 15 mosques and 12 synagogues in larger centres have joined the LifeSaving Energy campaign.
In 2013 the Tathra primary School was the first school in Australia to have zero emissions, and the Nimmitabel Primary School installed their third wind turbine in the same year.
In 2018, EdenMonaro reached its 50/50 by 2020 target, and by 2020 the region is considering ways to become a net exporter of energy. With an emissions trading scheme up and running, the region is earning millions of dollars in carbon credits, money that is being directed towards further renewable energy projects, and is also used to help the poor cope with tough economic times.
It is the year 2020, and Eden-Monaro has a stronger sense of community than it ever had. Whilst the world economy struggles with rising petrol prices and climate change, our regional economy has developed a robust resilience that makes me feel like we can cope with just about any crisis that the world can throw at us. I am now confident that my children will have a secure future, although I am certain that they will have to continue fighting for it.
In 2020 I look forward not with anxiety, but with excitement. The world is what we make it. Our region is what it is in 2020, not because we wished for it, but because we made it.
Matthew Nott
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