Community | Z-Net

Summary

Hepburn Shire has a strong culture of community action and relocalisation, built over many years by local volunteers and grassroots initiatives from local sustainability groups including; Hepburn Relocalisation Network, Trentham Sustainability Network, Transition Creswick and SHARE, alongside many more initiatives. These groups and organisations play a key role in facilitating much of the behaviour change and emissions reduction work we do. If you support, or are part of a community group in the Hepburn Shire, there may be targeted actions you can take to cut emissions while saving on energy and fuel costs.

A key opportunity for community groups is to get solar on their buildings which can be supported through the Hepburn Solar Bulk Buy community bonus, Council’s Towards Zero Grants and the Hepburn Wind Community Fund. The bulk-buy, Hepburn Shire Council and Hepburn Wind have funded many community solar installations such as Hepburn SES, Trentham Primary, Doxa and they pooled funding in 2020 to install a solar and battery system at the Hepburn Recreation Reserve. Click on the case study link below to learn more.

Programs

We have a number of programs that can help your community organisation or group to act on climate change.

Hepburn Wind is a delivering the ‘Hepburn Branch’ of the Grampians Community Power Hub, supporting community energy uptake across the shire.

Although primarily for homes – our energy assessment program may be able to assist you directly, or put you in contact with a provider who can. This assessment could help your facility lower its running costs.

The Towards Zero Community Grants are a Council initiative, providing support for community facilities to reduce their emissions and operating costs.

View Case Study View More

Resources

Community organisations: find a number of local community organisations and groups, supporting our shires transition to zero-net emissions.

Daylesford Repair Cafe: in its first year, the Repair Cafe fixers and supporters diverted 1019 kg of potential waste products and fixed 234 items that could have become landfill.

Hepburn Wholefoods Collective: is a not-for-profit community group which aims to support a vibrant and secure community food system by selling wholefoods and providing connection between growers and their community.

Melliodora: is one of Australia’s best-known permaculture demonstration sites offering tours and courses.

Daylesford Community Food Gardens: are community-actioned food gardens for everyone to use, with working bees held on the second Saturday of each month.

Trentham Food Hub: works to support new food enterprises and build resilient local value chain partnerships, including events, delivered veggie boxes and food swap events.

Goathand Co-op: use hand tools and managed goat browsing techniques to help transition weedy, fire-prone forests into biodiverse grassy woodlands. Their method aims to encourage biodiversity, build soil humus, hold soil moisture, mitigate dominant weeds and reduce bushfire risk.