Where Does Your Creative Harvest Contribution Go?

Bronwyn is a BBSN member and volunteers at the garden gates during the Creative Harvest weekend.

Your ticket to Creative Harvest buys you a weekend of open garden gates. It also does something else.

Creative Harvest is the main fundraiser for the Baw Baw Sustainability Network, the not-for-profit behind the festival. BBSN started in Trafalgar in 2007, when about twenty people met to talk about what they could actually do about climate change in their own region. It's been volunteer-run ever since, and it's a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.

Every dollar you spend at Creative Harvest goes back into that work. Here's where.

1. Helping people use less energy at home

   BBSN thinks everyone deserves a home that's comfortable to live in and cheap to run. Its home energy assessments and draught proofing retrofits show householders and small businesses where their money is leaking out, then help them fix it. The Home Energy Doctor program builds personalised plans for people who want to go further.

   
   

   For a household on a tight budget, a properly sealed home is the difference between heating the house and heating the street.

   
   

2. Climate action, locally

   BBSN runs community talks on the last Thursday of every month in Yarragon, on everything from renewable energy and zero waste to local food systems and community resilience. Past speakers have included Associate Professor Jess Reeves and Associate Professor Peter Christoff.

   The point of these nights isn't to make anyone feel guilty. It's to send people home with something they can do.

   
   

3. Sustainable living, shown rather than described

   BBSN runs an Electric Vehicle Expo and opens up real homes and real gardens so people can see how this stuff works in practice. Creative Harvest is part of that same idea. West Gippsland food gardens, real gardeners, no theory.

   
   

4. The gardening group

   Every Wednesday from 10.30am, BBSN's gardening group meets at the rear of the Yarragon Uniting Church. It's free, it's friendly, and it's the easiest way to get your growing questions answered by people who garden in the same soil and the same weather you do.
   

5. Monthly Sustainability Events

   Every last Thursday of the month, BBSN hosts public events to engage the community on various sustainability topics. Visit here to find out more.

Most importantly, BBSN fosters a welcoming space for like-minded individuals to socialise, discuss ideas, collaborate on projects, and take action towards a more sustainable future. 

So when you buy a ticket

You get a weekend of gardens. You also fund energy assessments, community talks, and a gardening group that runs all year.

Find out more about our next Creative Harvest event by Subscribing to hear when tickets go live

Want to go further? Join BBSN. Members get discounts on information nights and a say in how the organisation runs.

Members receive discounts on information nights and the ability to participate in the organisation's running. Individual membership is only $25 ($20 concession) and family membership $45 per year.

Visit the BBSN website to learn more and get involved: https://www.bbsn.org.au 

BBSN Membership