Blue Hills Wetland Taken Over by Snap Happy Residents!

Sunday morning saw 20 local residents armed to the teeth descend on Blue Hills wetland. No it wasn’t a riot, it was a swarm of photographers brandishing massive telescopic lenses, tripods, and other fancy equipment!

The photography walk was organised by Council as part of its Water in Penrith photography competition. One of the highlights of the walk was our ‘gun photographer’ Maggie, who was there to help people learn about photography and to get the most out of their cameras – and she was in high demand!

Thanks to everyone who came along, it was a pleasure having you all there. We can’t wait to see all of your entries in the competition! Hopefully there will be a few entries from the walk on Sunday.

To learn more about the Water in Penrith photography competition, please click here (entries close 11 October!). In the mean time please enjoy these shots from the walk at Blue Hills Wetland on Sunday (click on the pictures to see a bigger version).

Green Skills Training Program for Local Businesses

Local businesses can now participate in a Green Skills training program, which helps them to become more environmentally friendly. Each workshop goes for two half day sessions, with topics including:

• Caring for the Environment
• Implementing and Monitoring Environmental Protection Measures
• Develop Workplace Policy and Procedures for Sustainability

There is a nominal cost per person of $100 with the remainder of the training costs covered by Government funding that will be secured by the PBAs (Penrith Business Alliance)

For more information, click here

"Go Green or be left behind"

Local Kids Harness the Sun and Conquer the Waves

Glorious sunny blue skies greeted the 2010 Solar Boat Challenge on Saturday at Penrith Pools. Almost 30 schools were pitched against each other in a bid to see who could build the best solar powered boat. Primary aged students built crafts which follow an overhead wire, whilst high school aged students built boats which were fully remote controlled.

The day started off with each team making presentations to a series of judges on how they designed, built and decorated their boats. This included a panel of engineers, who assessed the boats on their technical design and use of recycled materials. The engineers also had the all important task of allocating racing classes to each boat based on its design and construction.

You could tell when racing got underway, with all of the noise and excitement from the crowd of teachers, family and friends! The wire guided boats raced in a specifically constructed pool with a wire ‘track’ above it, while the remote controlled boats had to navigate around a series of buoys in the full size pool. A series of heats were held throughout the day, with a little bit of time allowed for the students to make those crucial tweaks (and in some cases emergency repairs) to their crafts. The wire guided boats finished their heats a little early, so some handicapped grudge matches were held for those all important bragging points, not to mention chocolate freddos for the winners!

Overall it was a fantastic day, with a number of winners over a range of different classes. Congratulations to all of the students involved, and we look forward to seeing you next year!

The wire guided boats ran in their own specially built pool.

Everyone was able to get close to the action

Preparing for a start with the remote control boats.

GO! The marshall signals the start of the race.

There was a big crowd in attendance

The crowd got into it too!

Take a peek inside a local sustainable house!

Ever wanted to take a peek inside a regular house that has been improved to make it more sustainable? Ever wanted to chat to the people who own these homes, for an honest opinion without a sales spiel? Sustainable House Day gives you the chance to do just that!

Sustainable House Day, which is on this Sunday, is perfect for those people looking to make their home more sustainable, or even those people just curious to check out what other people are doing. Over 270 houses across the country will open their doors, with the owners on hand to answer all of your questions, and it’s all free!

For more information, and a list of the houses which will be opening their doors, check out the Sustainable House Day website:

National Threatened Species Day – 7 September

Tomorrow is National Threatened Species Day. Held on 7 September every year, this day aims to make people more aware of the number of plants and animals at risk of extinction across our great country. This day, September 7, was chosen in recognition of the day the last Tasmanian Tiger died in Hobart Zoo, back in 1936.

Unfortunately, our environment is under stress from things such as land development, introduced plants and animals, pollution, and a changing climate. Sadly, about 50 native plant and animal species found in the Penrith area have been listed as threatened under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. However, we can all take steps to help our local plants and animals.
Workshops are being held as part of the Ropes and South Creek Project on topics such as native gardening, seed collection and propagation, and bird habitat restoration. These are a great way to learn more about the different things we can all do to improve our local environment. To find out more these workshops, please click here.

Looking after local bushland by getting involved with Bushcare is another great way to make a difference. To find out more about Bushcare, please click here.