The Catalyst When a tree is not a tree, but a war club. by Cat Holloway 488,000 dollars, 102 trees, 4 car parks and 1 councillor who embodies exactly what is wrong with Shoalhaven Council and how it is hurting our community. It should have been a moment to celebrate a windfall. It could have shone a positive light on collaboration between
Spark Shoalhaven Toxic City: Asbestos, Amnesia, and the Collapse of Care by Cat Holloway When Shoalhaven City Council abruptly shut down its own chambers last week over fears of asbestos in the air-conditioning, a deep and dangerous wound reopened in our community. Asbestos was discovered in a concrete pipe underneath Council’s Nowra administration building, and the doors were shut tight.
The Catalyst A politician, a developer and a monk walk into a bar... by Cat Holloway (With excerpts of documents provided to ICAC, Ombudsman and the Office of Local Government from Peter Allison and others.) Of all the mad stories I've been told and all the crazy people I've met since starting Spark Shoalhaven, nothing beats the saga of
The Catalyst Earth, Water, Air & Fire: How environmentalists occupy Australia's radical centre. Does composting make you a communist? Are solar panels only for socialists? Will recycling threaten the royalists? Of course not. But party politics and the mainstream media lags way behind the everyday environmentalists already fuelling the core of Australian society. Well-meaning and left-leaning friends have told me: "Greens should
The Catalyst Takesa Frank: Taking A Passion for Protecting Country Global by Vanessa Barnett, WWF-Australia / In the quiet, forested hills of Yuin Country on the New South Wales South Coast, the Clyde River winds through ancient bushland containing lyrebirds mimicking the sounds of the world around them. This very special place is home to Takesa Frank — a proud young Aboriginal woman
The Catalyst The Devil in the Details If you follow the "news" on commercial radio stations and the South Coast Register, you could be excused for believing that Culburra is a vibrant town on the verge of a housing and infrastructure boom thanks to the visionary Halloran Trust developer, Sealark. That's the thrust
Spark Shoalhaven Come-To-Jesus Moment in Gilmore Election by Cat Holloway / Mixing religion and politics is dangerous, right? Not to Reverend John Brentnall, of Berry Uniting Church, who says it's inevitable and natural for church to influence culture and expects generational change will lead to people more courageously speaking out to impact policy. "If you
Spark Shoalhaven Green Eggs and Spam by Cat Holloway / Persistence, not resistance, is The Greens' real power. I woke up this morning to a third unsolicited, but perfectly legal, Trumpet of Patriots text. Their toxic coal-dusted advertising money is wasted on me. It’s even easier to ignore texts than to bin the paper brochures
The Catalyst Catholicism, Climate and Capitalism The death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday has alerted many within and outside the Catholic Church to the impact of his message of stewardship rather than dominion of planet earth. In 2015, Francis released his ground-breaking encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, making a pivotal and
The Catalyst Fisheries flex to bulk up Jervis Bay Mussel Farm Serious questions surround the March 20 approval to increase commercial mussel farming in Jervis Bay Marine Park, despite dramatic footage from local divers of unusual mussel blooms dominating locations throughout the bay. by Cat Holloway / (with reporting from Lucy Robertson) Even contradictory science and a majority of formal opposition did
The Catalyst Carving Deadwood, Creating Wildlife New and valuable real estate is being carved into our urban landscapes by the very experts trained to cut away the dead wood. Conservation Arborists on the NSW South Coast are turning their chainsaws and their passion for wildlife to creating tree canopies of the future. by Cat Holloway / Terence
Spark Shoalhaven The Gaffe and the Gamble that made Gilmore 2025 Environmentalists around Australia are thanking Liberal candidate Andrew Constance for single-handedly attracting more than one million dollars of crowd-funding for the Climate 200 “Community Independents” running in this year’s Federal election. by Cat Holloway / Buoyed by the eager gaze of a Liberal-friendly Sky News “Pub Test” audience, Constance was
The Catalyst How to build a circular economy by Professor Veena Sahajwalla / Highlighting an innovative Nowra recycling project in this op-ed feature, engineer and inventor, Professor Veena Sahajwalla, explains how MICROfactories extract commercial value from waste materials and point the way to sustainability. At a waste depot in Shoalhaven, NSW, 200 km south of Sydney, old mattresses, fabric
The Catalyst Affordable Housing: Numbers v. Narratives by Cat Holloway / Economists have a knack for letting the truth get in the way of a good story. But Dr Cameron Murray’s decade-long investigation into the true story behind affordable housing is as compelling as it is surprising. Do you own, rent or want a home? Do you
The Catalyst Wall of sound saves animals and money by Cat Holloway / It’s common: that sinking, guilty feeling of passing wild animals dead on the side of the road. Vastly worse is the experience if your car is one of the thousands on the South Coast every year that collide with a kangaroo, wallaby, wombat or possum. But
