What is a Transition Town?
Transition Towns (aka Transition Network, aka Transition Movement aka TT) The Transition concept emerged from work, permaculture designer, Rob Hopkins had done with the students of Kinsale Further Education College  in developing an "Energy Descent Action Plan". This investigated the possibilities for creative local clean renewable energy production, health, education, economics and agriculture as a "road map" to a sustainable future for the town. One of his students, Louise Rooney, set about applying the plan and developed the Transition Towns concept.  Which was presented it to Kinsale Town Council resulting in the historic decision by Councillors to adopt the plan and work towards energy independence.

The idea was developed further in September 2006 in Hopkins' hometown of Totnes where he had returned. The initiative spread quickly, and as of September 2008, there were one hundred communities recognized as official Transition Towns in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Italy and Chile. While referred to as 'towns', the communities involved range from villages, council districts to cities and city boroughs. The Sunshine Coast was the first official Australian Transition Region. Closer to home Bega is a dynamic hub for Transition, with their regular Hundred Kilometre Dinner at the Niagra cafe, first Friday evening of each month. Cann River also has an active group.

Features of the project
The main aim of the movement generally, and echoed by the Towns locally, is to raise awareness of sustainable living and build local resilience. in the near future. Communities are encouraged to seek out methods for reducing there energy consumption and increasing their own self-reliance. Initiatives so far have included creating community gardens to grow food, holding dinners cooked from locally produced food, Skill sharing, business waste exchange, (which seeks to match the waste of one industry with another industry that uses this waste) and even simply repairing damaged items rather than throwing them away.

 Central to the Transition Town movement is the idea that a life without cheap oil could in fact be far more enjoyable and fulfilling than the present

"By shifting our mind-set we can actually recognise the coming post-cheap oil era as an opportunity rather than a threat, and design the future low carbon age to be thriving, resilient and abundant – somewhere much better to live than our current alienated consumer culture based on greed, war and the myth of perpetual growth."

An essential aspect of Transition in many places is that the outer work of transition needs to be matched by an inner transition. In order to consistently reduce our use of unrenewable energy we need to change the way we see the natural world and our relationship to it.

The number of communities sharing the aims and aspirations of the movement is increasing with many localities in the process of becoming "official" transition towns. In short Transition Towns is about local thinking, building resilience, strengthening local economies, and celebrating community strength and unity. *Selected excerpts on Transition Towns mostly sourced from Wikipedia compiled by Peter Gibson. like to know more ? Friday 12th June 6.30 pm. Come along to a Community mingle at the Muddy. BYO food to share. 7.30pm. Screening of 'Power of community', gold coin donation for hire of Muddy.