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Ngalingah Mijung Dubais Art Exhibition - Love & Power

Sustainable House Day competition challenges designers to think locally. The Sustainable House Day Design Competition not only inspires people who want to build sustainably, but is also helping pioneers of new and innovative housing make their mark. Last year Michael Leung entered the professional category and won the People’s Choice Award for SkyFarm, a rural studio he and his family were living in outside Mullumbimby while they planned their future house. After losing Michael’s father-in-law to asbestosis, both he and his wife wanted to build a “healthy, energetically balanced home” made of hemp, recycled timber and other non-toxic materials. As a result of the build, Michael met two builders who would become his business partners and they created the vision for his business Balanced Earth. He said the Sustainable House Day Design Competition and Expo played an important role in helping his new venture get noticed. “I put 200 business cards out and they were gone in half an hour. It was incredible,” he said. “It’s important that our work gets seen by the public because that will bring more awareness to living healthily, as well as sustainably.” The theme for this year’s Sustainable House Day Design Competition, opening on 16 June, is Build it Local. The theme challenges entrants to build an urban structure using materials from our collective backyard in the Northern Rivers region. Event Coordinator Andia Cally said she was excited to see what local designers could create from local and recycled materials. “Most of us are familiar with the concept of food miles where our embodied energy footprint is reduced as a result of growing and transporting food locally, but embodied energy is often overlooked in the building sector,” she explained. “We are a region that is rich in local materials like bamboo, basalt, clay and camphor to name a few, as well as having an abundance of recycled materials.” The competition also encourages entrants to build themselves or use local labour. “Affordability is a huge issue in housing in this region,” Andia said. “We believe this theme addresses environmental and social issues. Building locally will boost the region’s economy and skillset. It will also highlight where the gaps are in terms of skills and materials and open the door for new industries, such as hemp production.” Leung believes that building from our backyard goes hand in hand with creating healthier, more sustainable buildings. “Everyone talks about wanting to be sustainable but we’re all living in houses filled with global products. I like the whole idea of embodied energy because as soon as you add globalisation to the discussion on building materials the embodied energy goes through the roof,” he said. “The key to changing the world is becoming more localised and moving away from global economies.” The Balanced Earth designer plans to create a new ‘sweat currency’ around building with hemp called ‘hemp credit’. “I want to create a local community labour pool where people gift their time and in return eventually people gift time to their projects,” he explained. “Labour is such a huge part of building costs these days. We all think it is materials but the key is the labour. We’re all building houses and things so let’s exchange time and energy.” CEO of event sponsor Summerland Credit Union, Margot Sweeny, said she was thrilled to be part of Sustainable House Day and help promote and support local businesses. “We’re delighted to support this event as it aligns with the values of Summerland Credit Union,” she said. “Summerland actively supports local businesses to assist in strengthening our local region. The more business we generate, the better the entire area will be in managing the ups and downs of business, which quite often are outside our control.” Entries for the 2017 Sustainable House Day Design Competition are open from Friday, 16 June until 1 September. The 2017 Sustainable House Day Expo will be held on Saturday, 16 September at Tweed Seagulls Club, where all entries from the design competition will be displayed. The 2017 Northern Rivers Sustainable House Day Design Competition is a joint project by Lismore City Council, Byron Shire Council, Ballina Shire Council, Tweed Shire Council, Nimbin Neighbourhood & Information Centre, TAFE NSW, Self Seed Sustainability and Dorroughby Environment Educational Centre. Visit www.sustainablehousedaynr.org for entry details. Image: SkyFarm in Mullumbimby is a unique hemp and reclaimed-timber studio and is a carbon negative home. The studio was built in three months by the team from Balanced Earth. For interviews and more information phone Michael Leung 0415 739 767 or Andia Cally on 0438 825 411. For more photos from Balanced Earth, visit: http://balancedearthbuilding.com/post/158339532646/sky-farm-hemp-house-mullumbimby-nsw-located

National Simultaneous Storytime. Now in its 17th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, Today Casino TAFE childcare students read and performed a dramatisation to pre-schoolers at St Mary’s Preschool of this years book "The Cow Tripped Over The Moon” The excursion was a huge success and the children and staff thoroughly enjoyed their performance. WANT TO WORK IN CHILDCARE? Visit Student Central Casino for semester 2 enrolments or call 1300 628 233 and speak to our friendly staff.

DO YOU WANT A CAREER IN IN THE NSW POLICE FORCE? The Indigenous Police Recruitment Our Way Delivery Program (IPROWD) supports Aboriginal and/or Torres Straight Islander people in the journey of becoming a police officer. Want to know more? Visit us at the Casino TAFE, visit www.iprowd.tafensw.edu.au or call the IPROWD team on 1300 823 939. #casinotafe #iprowd #police #tafensw #richmondvalley #indigenous

FREE TAFE COURSE Starting this week Casino TAFE is running a Certificate I in Business for two days per week -. Monday & Tuesday 9.00 am - 2.30 pm both days for 9 weeks. A fantastic course for anybody just beginning to learn business skills or wanting to learn new skills. Drop into Casino Student Central or call 1300 628 233 to get started in this course.