Randwick Gets Serious About Eco Living

By Marcus Braid on September 11, 2014 in News

Randwick Council’s environmentally friendly profile continues to grow on the back of its flagship event, the Eco Living Fair.

Taking place on Sunday, September 14, the Eco Living Fair will celebrate its tenth birthday and continues to enjoy a reputation as one of the largest environmental festivals in Sydney.

“The entertainment this year is very much a feature,” said Randwick Council’s Events Officer, Maria Parris. “We have a local Sydney band called Winterborn, as well as Monsieur Camembert, who are the headline acts.

“The kids’ entertainment is always very, very popular with free arts and crafts for the kids. There’s also the ability to eat delicious food from the City of Sydney’s food trucks. We’ve got six confirmed food trucks.”

A demonstration of Aboriginal food preparation called ‘Good Tucker, Long Life’ will be presented by Uncle Jimmy Says. Guided walks through the environment park are also set to take place.

“There’s a big emphasis on riding your bike to the Eco Living Fair,” Ms Parras said. “We have a free valet service there, where we look after your bikes and you can get a maintenance workshop on your bikes. There is a big push to walk and ride your bike to the fair.”

Greens councillor and former Randwick mayor Murray Matson said he was pleased to see the event grow every year.

“Every time there’s a solid turnout of people,” he said. “I often run into individuals that I’ve known from other walks of life who are environmentalists. They seem to be attracted to it.

“It’s like some little ‘Green Mecca’. Everyone who is an environmentalist is there at one point or another during the day.”

Randwick Council is diverting more than 50 percent of our waste from landfill, saving 500 million litres of water through water reuse systems and doubling the amount of solar power generated to operate our facilities.

It is this type of green action that has netted a plethora of awards, including the top environmental prize from Local Government New South Wales (LGNSW) last year.

“You can’t win awards if you don’t have money to put up valid environmental projects,” Cr Matson said.

“You can’t win an award by just giving lip service to some project. You have to have a couple of hundred thousand dollars and then you do suddenly have an interesting project.”

A range of green, family friendly and interactive activities and displays will be featured on the day. Children’s entertainment, native wildlife shows, the return of Council’s annual Garden Awards, cycling activities, tours of the Randwick Environment Park and ‘ask the experts’ sessions will all take place.

“It’s a fun day out,” Cr Matson said. “It’s like going to a show. You can walk around and look at stalls, you get to buy food and you see people doing interesting things.

“It’s a little bit like going to a show and looking at combine harvesters or livestock, except this time you’re going to the composting toilet display or the solar energy system.”

The Eco Living Fair 2014 will be held from 10am at the Randwick Community Centre. For more information, jump on to www.randwick.nsw.gov.au.