The small shire of Bega Valley unveiled Australia's first green energy surf life saving club last week. It is one of many steps the community has taken to curb climate change.
On Saturday January 20, local lifesavers from the NSW south coast beach side town of Tathra unveiled a wind turbine and solar panels hoping to save the club a $1000 a year on its electricity bill and cut its carbon output by almost three tonnes a year.
Club President Tony Rettke thinks there might be interest from some of the 300 life saving clubs across Australia.
"We feel the majority will be keen and I think there will be quite a strong movement toward it," Mr Rettke told the ABC.
The $20,000 venture was jointly funded by the Bega Valley Shire Council and the local community, with a federal government rebate assisting.
This is part of the Council's 50-50 campaign – to reduce the shire consumption of energy by 50 per cent and derive 50 per cent of energy from clean renewable sources by year 2020.
The ambitious energy targets set by the predominantly farming community are more advanced than state or federal measures.
Since the council adopted the ambitious energy targets, prompted by a community meeting organised by the Clean Energy for Eternity (CEFE) group, it is now funding feasibility studies for wind farms, considering introducing hybrid vehicles into council, setting up an electric bus service and building more bike paths.
"Bega Valley is in many ways a conservative community but is seizing the initiative to minimise carbon emissions which threaten future global health and wealth," Bega Valley Councillor Keith Hughes said.
What has become a mainstream campaign is the product of local Bega Valley, an orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Mathew Nott. He founded CEFE, a grassroots organisation of "concerned" and "average working class people". CEFE was honoured as the 2006 "Energy Champion," an award from the NSW Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability.
"There's a big need in the community to change the way we think about energy and I think a lot of people agree with that," Dr Nott said.
"I guess its all about getting people to wake up; it's about getting the town to talk about these issues and it's about local councils and MPs in this marginal electorate knowing what the community really wants – clean energy, reducing consumption and getting on with it now," Dr Nott says.
2006 was a big year for him. Inspired by Tim Flannery's book The Weather Makers Dr Nott would rally local emergency services, sports and social clubs, hospitals and schools, and amassed ten per cent of the Shire's residents on the beach in May to spell out a 182 metre phrase "Clean Energy for Eternity". This was followed later in the year by: a 6 km swim in the alpine Lake Jindabyne in mid winter, successfully lobbying the council to adopt the 50-50 campaign, arranging a protest in Canberra and the 2007 New Years Day was marked by a giant sculpture of more than 1000 energy hungry white goods arranged into a formation of a cyclone.
"We're going to have some fun with all of this but we're serious too – this is about our future," said Dr Nott.
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