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| What could the future look and feel like? |
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| Digital composite created by Csaba Szamosy for Imagine The Future Inc, 1996, from images by Snowdon Craven Design, Merrill Findlay and images contributed by the Department of Infrastructure, State Government of Victoria. |
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| Concept design of the Mobil tankfarm at Altona 'retrofitted' as a 'heritage' urban village for a post-fossil fuel future. |
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| Drawing by David Craven and Philip Snowdon for Imagine The Future Inc, 1995. |
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How can people live on the planet's plains without damaging or destroying the biological communities we depend on for our physical and spiritual sustenance?
What stories do we need to tell one another to help us create socially and ecologically sustainable futures? What questions do we need to ask?
So many urgent questions! Like can we produce all the energy, food, fibre and building materials we need in ways that do not degrade our land, air and water? Can we re-invent all our industrial processes so everything is re-used and recycled as it is in 'nature', and the 'waste' from one manufacturing process becomes the raw resource for the next? (Indeed, can we eliminate the concept of 'waste' from our minds altogether?) Can we redesign all our towns and cities so they sit more sensitively upon the plain, and are much more livable places for us humans to inhabit? Can we ensure the survival, in the wild, of all the species that are now endangered or threatened with extinction, such as the Small Golden Moths Orchid, the Altona Skipper Butterfly, the Striped Legless Lizard and the Eastern Barred Bandicoot so they can continue to evolve in their own robust habitats, rather than in zoos or fragmented reserves? And if so, how?
Many individuals and groups began asking these questions and finding their own answers a long time ago, and their vision and commitment has given us models for what's possible when we change the way we think about the basalt plain and the way we act upon it.
Breamlea Wind Generator
One of these models is the wind generator at Breamlea on the windy Southern Ocean coast of Victoria, near Bells Beach. This relatively small turbine was erected by the former State Electricity Commission and the Victorian Solar Energy Council in 1987 and sold by tender in 1994 as part of the restructuring of the Victorian electricity industry. It was purchased by members of Melbourne's Alternative Technology Association. The ATA now maintains the generator and sells its greenhouse-friendly energy back to Citipower, to be used by industrial and domestic consumers.
Each month the Breamlea wind generator produces 8000 kilowatt-hours of energy and saves its own weight (12 tonnes) of carbon dioxide emissions. Twelve tonnes represents only a very small reduction in Greenhouse gases, it is true, but this turbine has demonstrated that wind power is a viable alternative to generating energy from brown coal and other fossil fuels in Victoria.
The Tower: a monument to migration and aspirations
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| 'The Tower: a monument to migration and aspirations' by William Kelly at Cheetham Wetlands, near Werribee, is much more than a viewing platform from which visitors watch migratory waders. |
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| Photo by William Kelly. |
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Another model for a sustainable future is The Tower: a monument to migration and aspirations, a site-specific work of art by William Kelly at the edge of the Cheetham Wetlands, a former salt works that is now a significant habitat for waders and other birds, many of which migrate annually from Alaska and Siberia.
Artist William Kelly views the migration of the birds that visit the wetlands as a metaphor for human migration. Through his work he seeks a true reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples and increased social harmony between all Australians, since all of us are either migrants ourselves, the descendants of migrants, and/or the descendants of indigenous Australians.
The Tower also speaks about reconciliation with the biological systems we depend on. In designing this work, Kelly has used the most ecologically benign construction methods and materials available at the time. The footings bolt into the bedrock, for example, to have minimum impact on vegetation and soil profiles; while the tower itself and the ramp leading up to the viewing platform are constructed from selected recycled Australian hardwood. A very elegant Savonius wind generator is incorporated into the design to provide energy for night-time illumination. The long ramp over the wetlands also acknowledges the needs of disabled and elderly people.
Ascending the ramp offers visitors many different vistas of the wetlands, while simple words etched into copper plates on the railings - 'sanctuary', 'extinction', 'refuge', 'flight', 'migration' - inspire a more private inner journey. Kelly hopes that everyone who experiences his work will leave 'with a greater awareness of place, of others and of self.'
The Tower was funded through The Victoria Commissions, Arts Victoria, with matching financial support from Parks Victoria.
Altona tank farm
A more conceptual model for sustainability is the Mobil tank farm at Altona, as it could be if it were decontaminated and retro-fitted as an urban village for a post-fossil fuel future.
In 1995 Imagine The Future Inc commissioned young Melbourne architects Philip Snowdon and David Craven to re-conceptualise the tank farm site as beautiful but low-cost apartments, gardens and civic spaces for hundreds of local people in a future in which the giant tanks were no longer required for storing oil-based compounds. The inhabitants of this 'heritage' village harvest rain and sunlight, so are self-sufficient in water and energy; they recycle everything, including sewage; and they grow much of their own food following modified permaculture principles. But the 'historic' future site is not only a highly livable habitat for human beings: dozens of once-endangered native species, including small marsupials such as the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, flowering plants such as the Small Golden Moths Orchid, and insects such as the Altona Skipper Buttlerfly also live amongst the now-former petroleum tanks, in lovingly reconstituted native grasslands and wetlands.
Unfortunately the Craven-Snowdon design is still way ahead of its time! But one day ...
Meanwhile, have a look at Richard Meier's vision of a sustainable metropolis.
What are your models for a sustainable future on Victoria's basalt plain? What are your questions? What are your answers?
Copyright Imagine The Future Inc. 2002.
Text by Merrill Findlay for ITF.
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