Sustainable House Day 2018
Last Sunday SHAC opened its doors to over 200 visitors during National Sustainable House Day.

As this is SHAC’s first year in existence we have not been part of SHD before and we found the day to be a rewarding and lively experience. Visitors were enthusiastic to see and hear about the development’s sustainable features and to hear how we, the artists and creatives who dreamed this all into being, enjoy living here.

A brain wave of Rachel’s was for Lynda to dress up in her Clown Clothes and be the crowd controller! This she did with her usual good-natured exuberance, making people laugh and entertaining small children. On the more serious side Lynda held vehicle buffs enthralled by her explanations of EVs and our home based Nissan Leaf in particular.

We were fortunate to have Glenn Howe, Design Manager, from Access Housing here for part of the day to impart his knowledge to the visitors as they toured through the building. He pointed out the special design features that make SHAC a low carbon built and maintained development. It was a pleasure to see so many members of the public gaining knowledge and information about sustainable building and living, and aff from our apartments and the two community studios.

Balance Utility Solutions who installed the solar power battery at SHAC sent along two of their staff, Matt Rule and Moiz Syedto speak to people about the construction and working of the battery in this state of the art solar power system.

Rachel, Coral, Steve and Ken took the tours through our homes and Adam did a great job in helping Lynda keep the crowds amused whilst waiting for their tour to begin.

Tim was a stalwart throughout the whole project – helping with docs, signage, volunteers and general organisation as well as with the tour of Co-Lab 2 where SHAC members’ artwork is being displayed.

Thanks so much to all helpers! Thanks too to Jesse and Adrian who gave up part of their sunny Sunday and volunteered to do the visitor registration.

In early March a young magpie walked up to me in the SHAC carpark. She waggled her wings and begged for food. A street urchin here in White Gum Valley.  I told her to wait while I went upstairs to get some food. I came down with a bit of raw mince and she took it from my hand. She had been fed by humans before obviously. 
I noticed that she could fly and presuming she would join her family, I turned around and returned to our apartment. Half an hour later there was a magpie call from our front door and there she was, waggling her wings. I gave her some more mince and a bowl of water. She drank easily from the bowl.
Half the co-op were now interested in Maggie – the cats too. But she knew how to deal with cats and flying over their heads, she dive-bombed them and hurled verbal abuse.
At this stage Maggie’s family realised where she was and we were devastated when four big magpies fronted up and attacked her. She screeched and flew, they followed. This was to continue for a week.  Maggie found which balcony belonged to me and waited there for a feed several times a day. Jo, a young girl in our community, helped me to feed her and to remove a long piece of sewing thread that became tangled in both her legs when she tried to play with it.
At least twice a day the big maggies would attack and she would fly for her life. Sometimes hiding in the building site opposite us.
At last I realised we were not winning the battle; one of the big males caught her on our balcony and was viciously pecking her. Ken chased him away, but we knew that our little urchin obviously had some disease that made her unsuitable to live with her family. We took her to Native Ark and they diagnosed Throat Worm parasite and kept her for two weeks until she was well.
The rescue centre said they would return her to her home ground when she had recovered and that the adults would then accept her.  We are still hoping she will visit us again.  If you live in Hope St and a young female magpie comes to your door asking for food – it might well be our Maggie!

Coda Studio, Urbis, Landcorp, Josh Byrne and Associates have won the Australia Award for 'Urban Design, Policies, Programs and Concepts - Small Scale' for the WGV at White Gum Valley (SHACs location)

Congratulations Sensorium Theatre for their NSW and Victorian Tour - including playing in the Sydney Opera House. Sensorium Theatre is Australia’s only company making live shows specifically designed for young audiences with disabilities.