This project aims to coordinate and promote locally-relevant climate-change related educational resources for Alice Springs educators.  It will work with the Sustainable Schools Program (and Environmental Educators Network), to help develop a collection of resources to support educators in middle years and high school who wish to have a local message about climate change. 

The Climate Action Group will also undertake appearances in classrooms, public speaking and in the media to promote the message of climate action and Alice Springs adaptation strategies for a desertSMART community and the Cool Communities program objectives. 

The focus of this project is to address the impacts of increasing human development and movement on specific project sites on Casuarina Coastal Reserve including Tiwi Creek, Sandy Creek and the Coastal Dune Site. The habitat is important for a wide range of marine and terrestrial creatures including Orange Footed Scrub fowl, Olive Ridley and Flatback turtles and pardalotes. The main objectives of the plan include the:

• Water Quality monitoring focusing on popular creek ecologies, where fish stocks and tortoises remain and an increasing amount of suburban stormwater drains into
• management of exotic grasses through a detailed weed management program;
• the planting of native species for stabilisation of degraded dunes; and monitoring water quality to ascertain if pollutants adversely affect plants and habitats
• Supplement planting in treated weed infested areas.

This project will produce four Community Service Announcements (CSA) for airing on local television, delivered by an animated character, known as Enviro Girl. Each CSA will have a different theme and each theme will focus on an important area of sustainable living. The themes are:

1. Home energy conservation – using timers/monitoring the amount of time pool and spa pumps are used;

2. Transport – encouraging bicycle riding as an alternative to driving;

3. Transport – how make driving more efficient; and

4. Climate change – an explanation about the importance of acting to reduce greenhouse gases.

This project expands Desert Knowledge Australia COOLmob’s scope of action to incorporate a wider “sustainable lifestyle” approach, specifically focusing on the high water usage in Alice Springs. 

DKA COOLmob will work directly with householders adressing products, systems and behaviours using Home Water Audits. These audits  address water issues directly by providing a customised assessment of the house and identifying key areas for adjustment in collaboration with the individual.

This collaborative audit approach involves providing the housholder with information and options, applying to their home situation and then allowing them to identify changes that are realistic and achievable given their circumstances. 

DKA COOLmob will host a series of workshops and open days to raise awareness, provide practical demonstrations and source interested community members. A promotional strategy will then raise interest and community focus on water issues and introduce the Home Water Audit program. Audits will then be undertaken and data corrolated to record changes in behaviour.

This project will provide a public seminar in Alice Springs and community legal education forum in Darwin, undertake VET seminars in Palmerston and undertake senior high school classes in environmental law. It will actively engage the public in seminars, improve knowledge of the public in relation to rights and procedures for engaging with environmental laws and improve general environmental knowledge and how the law applies to it. 

The project will specifically focus on tropical and Alice Springs Desert Knowledge environments and the laws relevant to them. Other deliverables include how to prepare and present submissions for environmental planning, environmental assessments and related environmental laws. Environmental Defenders Office will work with Arid Lands Environment Centre and Northern Territory Environment Centre and other community groups to advertise and promote, as well as collaborate in organisation of content for these public seminars and forum.

Greening Australia have recently developed a manual on bushland management to assist our rural community in the greater Darwin region to better understand and manage their land.  This project aims to introduce and demonstrate these skills in a series of practical workshops on all aspects of native vegetation management. 

The one day training workshops will help our community to develop skills such as plant identification, plant propagation, site preparation, direct seeding, planting of tubestock, natural regeneration, weed management and other aspects of bushland management.

Central Australia (CA) has unique flora and currently there is no publication that combines both photographs and growing notes for the CA gardener. The aim of this project is to produce a publication about growing local native plants in CA and consolidate all current knowledge into an attractive publication which is accessible to the wider community.    Such a book would help make plant selection easier and educate the CA community on the use of local native plants, ultimately enhancing the ecological values of gardens and promoting water wise gardens (Alice Springs residents use 60% of their water on their gardens).

Additionally the project aims to reduce the introduction of weeds, as currently CA has a low number of weed species compared to other parts of Australia.  However, many of the exotics that are currently planted in gardens that can survive the harsh CA arid conditions can end up as serious weeds in the environment.  Weed control is expensive (4 billion dollars nationally) and eradication is virtually impossible once weeds have established in an area.

Keep Australia Beautiful Council NT will work with Toadshow to develop and learn the skills to maintain a workable and self manageable website.  The new website will be linked to websites such as the National Keep Australia Beautiful website and the Local Government Association NT and will provide and exchange information that benefits remote indigenous communities.  It will host a forum to share inspirational good news stories and publish information about programs, initiatives and opportunities to bring improvement in environmental management in the remote communities across the Territory.

The Territory Tidy Towns (TTT) Forum has for many years been a popular event attended by representatives of remote communities from all over the Territory.  The Forum is held in conjunction with the annual award ceremony for the Territory Tidy Towns Program and showcases and shares the good ideas and achievements of the TTT participants encouraging others to take these ideas back and use them in their community.  It is a networking opportunity providing training and education in the reduction of litter, reuse and recycling to address landfill issues through workshops, speakers and agency presenters.

A Garden for Wildlife scheme would build the capacity of private (and commercial) landowners, schools and town camps on town blocks in Alice Springs to conserve biodiversity and live sustainably, and would also investigate other conservation incentives (eg. tax concessions).

Garden for Wildlife has the potential to be a stepping stone in the path towards a sustainable town. It could help encourage sustainable business practices, tourism, and living within our means in a desert climate. 

By providing advice to assist members to 'retrofit' gardens by maintaining and planting local native gardens (which require less water), Garden for Wildlife would not only provide habitat for native wildlife, but could lead to reduced water consumption as well.

The Local Government Association NT (LGANT) will develop an Integrated Waste Management web site for use by all councils and communities in the Northern Territory.  The web site will provide information on how to develop and implement an Integrated Waste Management Strategy in remote communities.  It will also cover how to manage hazardous wastes, recycling initiatives, and safety issues.

Develop an Integrated Waste Management Plan Template which councils and communities can use to plan waste services and operations and ensure all safety, environmental sustainability, and legal obligations are considered and planned for.

This project will deliver a range of skills and training to the indigenous Wagiman-Guwardagun Rangers.  Littlefish will train rangers and traditional owners in financial decision making, understanding the ranger program’s present finances, and in how to use funding grants.  Other activities include attendance at the capacity building forums including the North Australian Forum in the Kimberley organised by the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance and a 3 day Capacity Building Workshop offered by Aboriginal Resource and Development Services in Darwin in Sept 2006 and visits to other ranger groups at Maningrida, Gove or Bulman.  These forums broaden the outlook of rangers to look at alternative strategies and the priorities of other groups and identify common issues and values.  They assist in the development of networks to encourage mutual learning and assistance in the future.

An objective of this project is the establishment of the Society of Sustainable Environmental Engineering Chapter in the Northern Territory. The project will also conduct a series of seminars offered in the Northern Territory to engage various speakers from around Australia to talk about and discuss issues such as:

• History of change in environment to sustainable development 
• Principles of sustainable development and why they are important 
• Examples of sustainable development projects including NT projects
• What is sustainable development and why is it important?
• How can sustainable development principles be applied to what we do.
• Sustainable development and legislation.
• Sustainable development and planning
• Sustainable development and mining