2018 'Louise Petchell Award for individual Sustainability' winner is....

So, another year has passed and the recent LGNSW Excellence in the Environment Awards have concluded... This year, Adam Spencer again was the MC for the event held at the Waterview in Bicentennial Park, Olympic Park.

The award that I am humbled to judge, is a memorial award for Louise; The 'Louise Petchell Award for individual Sustainability' and this years winner is Peter Maganov - Randwick City Council.


Peter has been the Manager, Sustainability and Strategic Waste since the commencement of Randwick City Council's innovative ‘Sustaining our City’ environmental levy program almost 15 years ago.

Peter has led Council's small team integrating sustainability programs and aspirations across Randwick's strategies and plans, with other departments and areas of Council as well as with an extensive range of external community organisations.

Peter's commitment and leadership of Randwick's sustainability initiatives has resulted in a transformation and longevity extending throughout Council's operations, across into the wider community and to the local government sector.

Over the past 2 years, Peter has successfully lead a team who have an impressive array of achievements including:

• Completing the sustainability education 'hub' with a purpose built outdoor classroom and 'wild food', native habitat, honey and native bee trails 
• Coastal walkway upgrades protecting sensitive vegetation while providing access to a million visitors annually at South Maroubra and Malabar 
• 50 kilowatts of solar PV added at two community centres 
• Stormwater recycling now saving > 400 million litres of potable water per year 
• Electric bicycles added to fleet of hybrid and electric vehicles for staff use 
• Biodiversity design and habitat support with 8 local schools and a further 22 food and native garden grants to local schools 
• Randwick's annual Eco Living Fair providing specialist stalls, presenters and demonstrations. 
• Randwick's first Biodiversity Strategy 
• Renewable Energy Master Plan 
• An updated Energy and Greenhouse Management Plan 
• A final Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap 
• A draft Strategic Sustainability Framework. 

Peter is able to influence and negotiate on substantial programs, projects and strategies which have strengthened Randwick's sustainability results and reputation across the local government sector.

In an address to the audience, Peter commented on how much Louise was a 'dogged' person, who simply didn't understand the concept of 'no', but rather asked, 'why not'.... I know this only too well...

I would like to further extend both my thanks and gratitude to LGNSW and to Local Government Super, for the continued support of memorialising Louise...

Additional photos...

Hoo roo for now...

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Local Government NSW Environment Awards

Today, I attended the 2018 Local Government Excellence in the Environment Awards. I also judged an award, in memory of Louise, and is the last award to be presented.

The Award is sponsored by Local Government Super to recognises individual achievement by a council officer or elected councillor in contributing to environmental improvement and sustainability.

The award is named in honour of Louise Petchell, Sustainability Manager at Penrith City Council, who sadly and unexpectedly passed away in 2009. Louise was respected across the local government sector and was pivotal in the success of Penrith City Council in many Excellence in the Environment Awards.

Master of Ceremonies was Adam Spencer, who has been a breakfast radio announcer on Triple J and ABC Sydney, tv personality on everything from comedies Good News Week and The Glasshouse to weekly sports wrap the Back Page and is a member of the Sleek Geeks Science Team with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki. Below is a pic of him with me!!

Lunch at todays LGNSW Excellence in the Environment Awards consisted of...

Main - Baked free-ranged chicken breast served with a sautè of forest mushrooms, marsala wine sauce with a creamy polenta, truss baby tomatoes and broccolini

Dessert - Fig and honey pistachio with honey mascarpone

Yet again, Local Government NSW (LGNSW) have done an outstanding job on the awards, especially with the Louise Petchell Memorial Award for Individual Sustainability!!

For all the winners and a small brief about the awards, head to the LGNSW Awards page...

Hoo roo for now...

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Droning about...

So, in case you didn't know, I have a drone; a DJI Phantom4 to be exact... Its actually also pretty cool to extend the photography envelope as well!!

In Sydney, where the M4 meets the M7, there is the 'Lighthorse Interchange', a tangled, yet intricate web of roads making a smooth transition from one motorway to the other. It also makes for a nice photo, especially at sunset!! This image, is a four image stacked photo, which was made by 4 images of different exposures, to be able to get details from each image which you simply just would not have gotten within a single image, kind of cool hey!!!

Hoo roo for now...

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Summer Magpies

Summer has hit, the magpies are out, and I love how the chick in these photos, the first one, is looking straight down the camera at me...

After a long hiatus, and a couple of technical issues with my provider, I am back online after my hosting had been left on an old server and forgotten about. How I found out about it was, an influx with SPAM, and a decline of actual emails! But, over the past 48 hours, not a single email had come through... But, it appears to have been fixed, finally...

Hoo roo for now...

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