header for Stories of Transition 8 April 2024 with logo of Transition Town Wellington and Pocket City Farms
If you like to hear what others are doing in the face of the overwhelming challenges of our world, these online events are for you. You can watch videos of previous speakers on our YouTube channel here.

We (the organising team) aim to create a relaxed, informal tone, with time for everyone to introduce themselves and to hear three inspiring stories.

We keep the session to one and a quarter hours.

This series of online events enables us to we find new ways to connect with others in creating the future we wish to see.

We hear how groups in Australia are contributing to the transition from an Industrial Growth Society to a Life-Sustaining Society

In 2024 we decided to explore a particular theme at each event, beginning with 8 April 2024 when we explored community land use as we heard from Anita Roy and Helen Gillingham of Transition Town Wellington in Somerset, England and Jacqui Besgrove from Pocket City Farm in Camperdown, Sydney.

In sharing our stories and learning from each other we help to make our groups and the Transition movement stronger.

The first online Stories of Transition event was held in July 2022 with 3 speakers:

  • NSW: Iain Mackay from Sustainable Living Armidale
  • Tas: Karen Hewitt from Transition Tamar
  • WA: Jane Genovese from Transition Guildford

That was a pilot and we decided to run a similar event quarterly. Always online.

Speakers at the November 2022 event were:

  • Vic: Tim Drylie, Transition Creswick
  • Vic: Monica Winston, Transition Streets Geelong
  • WA: Karen Majer, Transition Margaret River

After the November event we started to edit the recording for viewing on YouTube.

You can find the recordings on our YouTube channel here

So this project has evolved to become an interactive online event for those who can attend, with the bonus of a growing collection of stories for sharing with the wider world. One listener told me she likes to listen while she’s driving.

Speakers at the February 2023 event were:
  • WA: Lisa Gibson, Transition Bridgetown
  • Tas: Robin Krabbe, Live Well Tasmania
  • Vic: Meg Ulman, Relocalise Hepburn
Speakers at the May 2023 event were:
  • Vic: Amanda Healy and Christine Pinniger, Transition Darebin
  • NSW: Peter Duggan, Transition Dubbo, NSW
  • Tas: Nettie Hulme, Active Hope online, Tas

Speakers at the August 2023 event were:

  • WA: Al and Tess from Sustainable Bayswater, a community engagement arm of Enviro House, discussed how their group ‘walks the talk’ and ‘talks the walk’ on climate protection, active transport, and other sustainability issues. They discussed their various projects, including the successful monthly Share and Repair.
  • Qld: Penny Claringbull spoke about her experiences running the Toowoomba local food challenge aimed at eating only food grown within 150 km of Toowoomba. Penny was a Coordinator of the Darling Downs Environment Council.
  • Vic: Megan Baulch of Monty First Nations Allies spoke on ‘Finding Our Heart’ Story Walk project: how a few passionate parents are connecting schools with the Uluru Statement from the Heart

Speakers at the April 2024 event, on the theme of community land use, were:

  • Anita Roy and Helen Gillingham of Transition Town Wellington in Somerset, England, on how they transforemed disused land into urban orchards, forest gardens, wild meadows and natural wetlands.
  • Jacqui Besgrove from Pocket City Farm in Camperdown, Sydney on converting the former Camperdown Bowling Club into an urban farm that runs educational programs, workshops, weekly produce boxes and training programs to spread the idea of urban farming.

All of this is achieved entirely by volunteers – the organising team, the speakers, the video editors –  all contributing their time and energy and skill to create more connection and more inspiration towards the world we wish to see.

Mary Stringer

August 2023, updated April 2024