Just before getting back to Melbourne we go and meet Peng, from Peng Aquaponics who presents us his very interesting system! Look out for his videos here below!

 

In Melbourne, we have chosen to go back when i used to live as a student. Brunswick. Tom has found an airbnb which is not too expensive and seems nice.

 

After some deep dive in my archives, we realise we are actually 15min on foot from my previous place ! We are going to see the house for the memory, take a pic and put it on facebook. Some hours later, my former housemate writes to me « what are you doing there in front of my house ? Why didn't you ring ? » Sia still lives there ! We are going back to have some tea together and find her as if 10 years hadn't gone passed, dynamic and smiling with now two adorable daughters. Her daughters go to the local Montessori school. She started to run half marathons.

 

I also take the chance to meet up with some people from the uni from my year. What an event to meet up 10 years later ! Sue who is indian is now married and settled in Melbourne, though she wishes one day to go back to India and bring something to her country. Arthur now has a small child and works also in Melbourne. Roger is now working as civil servant in an area pretty similar to where i used to work before and still travels the world looking for the best snowboarding areas. Some things do not change.

 

Meg also put us in touch with Ostii who lives in Melbourne. He lives in the city and tries to make a life with more meaning and with a light carbon footprint. He lives in Brunswick too. We go and see him for an interview. He has a business creating websites for people and advising them about marketing. He is lucky that he can chose his clients and so he works mainly with well-being or permaculture or organic businesses. He works from home, try to go zero waste and his backyard is a bountiful veggie garden where he makes his own compost. He also has the project to establish solar pannels. He makes do with what he can in this environment and that provides a pretty harmonious space actually. He seems happy and serene and welcomes us warmly.

 

Following his advice, we go to two shops, one that sells bulk produce and the other the Pachamama, also both in Brunswick. The first shop is an Australia brand with 50 shops across the country that are entirely zero waste. The products are bought in bulk from the suppliers and sold within big baskets. There are the usual dry food bulk but also biscuits and chocolate as well as oil and soap and all kind of comestic and cleaning products. We then go two blocks further down to the Pachamama, a space that is an organic shop, from food to any products you would normally find in a supermarket and is also a café place with beautiful space to settle, connect and work.

 

We meet Christophe there with whom we spend a small hour of interview. Some days later we go through the Ceres Garden, also in Brunswick, a huge space that use to be a wasteland 30 years ago and has now become a veggie garden, an organic shop also selling the products grown there, community gardens, pedagogical areas with workshops and activities of all kinds for children of all ages, a space to experiment ecological building as well as a plant nursery in order to encourage people to grow their own. In fact the gardens of the whole neighbourhood around are filled with tomatoes, zuchinis, fruit trees and other edible stuff. Brunswick definitely impresses us. A whole part of a big city taking its faith into its own hands, guided by individual initiatives which imprint a real sense of community, another fascinating alternative !

 

 

When we are not chasing alternatives, we are visting the city. We go at least four times to the Univeristy of Melbourne, first because of the memory and to enjoy the Harry Potter atmosphere and also because it is a practical stop to catch our tram. One evening Tom goes to catch a cooking class with Free to Feed, in Brunswick (again!) which is a cooking school where refugies awaiting their papers can teach the cuisine of their own country. Tom will learn some Sri Lankan cuisine. On my side, I take the chance to go and check out the lindy hop scene in Melbourne. I am definitely feeling rusty but it goes well. We meet up then for a Melbourne by Night exploration around Flinders Station and enjoy the huge illuminated Christmas tree in Federation square. We are wearing T-shirts, it's summertime. Our Australian visit is nearing the end and we are full of the nice warmth that gratitude and joy provide for having met so many beautiful people, having been able to spend some time with cherished friends and having been able to witness all these amazing viable alternatives, these already existing solutions. In a few days, we are off to New-Zealand !


Videos made at Peng Aquaponics:



and



and