Anglesea Neighbourhood Environment Improvement Plan
The Anglesea Neighbourhood Environment Improvement Plan was approved by EPA in December 2004.
- Download a copy of the Anglesea NEIP (Adobe PDF File, 1823KB or 1.8MB).
Find out the story behind the Anglesea NEIP:
- About the neighbourhood
- Issues of concern
- Initiatives
- Proposal development, aims and objectives, and launch
- Plan development
- Current activities
- Getting involved.
About the neighbourhood
Anglesea is located on the Great Ocean Road, approximately 100 kilometres south-west of Melbourne. Anglesea is renowned for its sweeping beaches, forests and heathlands. The Point Addis Marine Park further adds to Anglesea's list of natural attractions.
Approximately 2000 people call Anglesea home all year round. During some holiday periods the population grows to more than 10,000.
Issues of concern
There are a range of environmental problems affecting the Anglesea community. Collectively these issues threaten the sustainability of Anglesea.
The issues of concern to the Anglesea community include:
- water quality
- tourism pressures
- on the coastal and marine environment
- associated problems such as litter and land degradation
- air quality
- from local industrial sources
- from the wood fired heaters in the community
- waste management
- development pressures
- potential impact on the habitat and biodiversity of the unique Anglesea heathlands
- ocean outfall.
Initiatives
There are a number of initiatives currently in place aimed at reducing or managing environmental effects associated with water quality, land use and waste.
The Neighbourhood Environment Improvement Plan aims to empower the community in Anglesea to make a difference within their own town to ensure that Anglesea is sustainable into the future. Existing initiatives include:
- working with the Alcoa Community Consultation Network (CCN), which provides a forum for the community to exchange information and concerns about the coalmine
- Angair working bees and field days, which focus on the unique local biodiversity
- Coast Action and friends groups, which include coastal and land based activities, especially a significant summer activities program focussed on the marine and estuarine environment
- Waste Wise Traders Program, which involves Surf Coast Shire and Barwon Region Waste Management Group working with local businesses to develop an effective waste management system.
Proposal development
The Anglesea Neighbourhood Environment Improvement Plan (NEIP) is sponsored by the Surf Coast Shire Council. The process undertaken in Anglesea has generated ideas, enthusiasm and the support of the Anglesea community. It has several aims, including:
- redeveloping the NEIP proposal to further enhance the achievements of the community
- improving community understanding of environmental issues
- providing links between already existing groups to enable groups to continue to evolve and strengthen
- building the capacity of the Anglesea community to bring about environmental change.
All events undertaken to engage the Anglesea community have had a very strong social element, including BBQs, local musicians and the opportunity to build and strengthen friendships.
Key events included:
- consulting with, and encouraging management input from, the Surf Coast Shire Environment Advisory Committee (ENVAC) and Surf Coast Shire councillors
- circulating information about the Anglesea NEIP via the local media and a letter drop of 800 residents
- five information sessions for the public, attracting 20 households
- NEIP group members staffing a street stall in Anglesea shopping centre
- presenting information at Barwon Regional Waste Management Group Waste Wise Business breakfast (approximately 50 attendees)
- contacting and involving local community networks and groups:
- Anglesea and District Community House
- Anglesea Primary School
- Angair environment group
- Anglesea Tourism and Traders Association
- Ecologic – a local environmental tour business
- Anglesea Camps Network
- Anglesea Kindergarten
- Surf Coast Alive, a regular local music get-together
- a Hot August Night social extravaganza – More than 80 people attended and more than 50 signatures were gained. The night aimed to:
- allow people to get to know one another
- learn more about sustainability
- obtain a copy of the draft NEIP proposal, and
- contribute to a discussion on the proposal
- trial and promotion of the Ecological Footprint Calculators to engage the interest of the public
- sustainability workshops aimed at improving the understanding of participants on sustainability issues including:
- understanding sustainability
- waste minimisation
- energy conservation
- water conservation
- green purchasing
- understanding Anglesea's biodiversity
- creating change – influencing family, friends and neighbours
- a 'straw dog' workshop to develop ideas and actions to create a sustainable Anglesea.
Proposal aims and objectives
The Anglesea pilot Neighbourhood Environment Improvement Plan (NEIP) aims to achieve four objectives, which are:
- to build community capacity
- protect Anglesea's natural ecological values
- identify Anglesea's Ecological Footprint and develop strategies to reduce it
- develop a model program and sharing the learning from the pilot with others.
To build community capacity
Building the capacity of Anglesea residents to live sustainably is a key component.
This is being achieved through analysis of current household consumption and the development of strategies aimed at reducing consumption.
This involves residents participating in a learning program around seven key issues:
- Understanding sustainability
- Waste minimisation
- Energy conservation
- Water conservation
- Green purchasing
- Understanding Anglesea's biodiversity
- Creating change – influencing family, friends and neighbours.
The program of learning has also enabled residents to get a picture of how community sustainability might be achievable and the type of behaviour changes required to have an impact on current levels of resource consumption.
Through people working together to achieve a common aim, the capacity of the Anglesea community will also be enhanced.
Protect Anglesea's natural ecological values
To protect Anglesea's natural ecological value the Anglesea NEIP aims to:
- generate greater understanding of Anglesea's ecological values among residents and stakeholders
- increase community understanding of the land and water catchment and how individual actions have an impact in the catchment
- work with local groups, such as Coast Action and Angair, and encourage NEIP participants to become involved in and support them.
Identify Anglesea's Ecological Footprint and develop strategies to reduce it
This is being achieved through:
- participation of a diverse range of household types, so that a calculation of the community's Ecologial Footprint can be generated
- comparative data to enable pilot program participants to assess the value of various community strategies being developed to achieve a sustainable Anglesea and to monitor their own household consumption levels.
Develop a model program and sharing the learning from the pilot with others
Documenting and developing the pilot NEIP, so that it can provide the basis of a model which could be applied in other communities in the Surf Coast Shire and other parts of Victoria.
Proposal launch
John Thwaites, former Minister for Environment (left), and Mathis Wackernagel imprinting their footprints.
The Anglesea Neighbourhood Environment Improvement Plan (NEIP) proposal was endorsed by EPA on 7 January 2003 and launched on 28 March 2003. The NEIP is sponsored by Surf Coast Shire.
- Download a copy of the proposal (Adobe PDF file, 544KB)
More than 100 partners packed the Surf Life Saving Club to celebrate the launch of their NEIP proposal.
Attendees included John Thwaites, former Minister for Environment; Mathis Wackernagel, the co-inventor of the Ecological Footprint concept, and representatives from local community groups, government agencies, education sector, residents, businesses and industry.
Local musicians participated in the festivities of the night and a BBQ was offered by Lions Club.
The Minister and Wackernagel left a symbolic reminder of our impact on the Earth by imprinting their footprints in a sustainability mosaic to be located in Anglesea.
Plan development
The development of the Anglesea Neighbourhood Environment Improvement Plan (NEIP) began in early 2003.
Partners kick started the plan development with an event aiming to have some fun and to revisit the proposal. At this event, partners nominated projects that they would like to contribute to. These projects included:
- developing the NEIP
- pest, plant and animals group
- fire group
- education and information group
- transport group
- community garden group
- sustainability action plans.
The Anglesea NEIP has been developed using an action/learning approach with considerable involvement from the community in taking action at home or in community groups that have built awareness, knowledge and skills needed to develop a NEIP. The community has participated in a number of activities including:
- learning sessions on seven key sustainability themes
- Ecological Footprint sessions at home
- feedback to Government on the use of the Ecological Footprint as a tool to promote awareness, enable measurement and facilitate behaviour change
- State Government workshops on the NEIP process
- a workshop to identify a "straw dog" (working) shared vision and priority actions
- a number of social events including high profile speakers, music and food
- a 'straw puppy' workshop with the Anglesea Primary School (to gain ideas from the local children about making Anglesea sustainable)
- the development of the Sustainability Action Plan
- a sustainability forum.
The development process for the NEIP proposal and the NEIP itself has seen the beginnings of a community capacity building exercise that sets a strong foundation to go further, to plan and deliver a place based integration program for environmental sustainability.
The Anglesea NEIP was approved in December 2004.
- Download a copy of the Anglesea NEIP (Adobe PDF File, 1823KB or 1.8MB).
A community leadership group continue to meet monthly and are overseeing the strategic implementation of the NEIP. Everyone is welcome to be involved and attend any of the meetings and/or take part in any NEIP projects.
Current activities
Anglesea traders with NEIP re-useable shopping bags helping to make Anglesea plastic bag free.
Following the successful approval of the Anglesea Neighbourhood Environment Improvement Plan (NEIP), the working group has continued to meet monthly and implement a range of objectives outlined in the NEIP.
Initiatives to date include:
- becoming a Cool Community and receiving a grant from the Australian Greenhouse Office to develop household sustainability action plans
- NEIP information stalls held at local markets
- rubbish collection along the Anglesea River
- tackling the ecological and fire threat of pest plants
- the ongoing development of a website in order to inform people of NEIP projects and about living sustainably in Anglesea, and
- creating change through a commitment to make Anglesea plastic bag free.
The NEIP Working Group are currently focusing on encouraging Anglesea to be a plastic bag free town. Previous actions have included working with shop owners to remove plastic bags from all shops and markets in Anglesea, providing Anglesea NEIP branded re-useable shopping bags to traders and householders and installing signage around town to encourage the use of re-useable shopping bags. This continues with more traders in 2007.
In the coming months Anglesea NEIP will be developing new ways to encourage the community in and around Anglesea to work together to create a sustainable township. Monthly film nights are being held to encourage local community debate and discussion around sustainability.
If you would like to be part of the decision-making process and work with the community, please contact one of the people below, or ask around Anglesea itself!
Getting involved
New participants to the NEIP or any of the community projects are always welcome.
To find out more or to become involved, contact:
Environment Officer
Surf Coast Shire
Telephone: (03) 5261 0600
or
EPA - South West Region
Telephone: (03) 5226 4502
Send an email