March 2025
What Happens Next Is Up To Us
Read time: 3 mins
The global shifts since the start of the year have only strengthened my resolve in local community action.
Let’s not be meek here. Staying private about our serious concerns is not politeness, it’s complicity.
There is an over-accumulation of wealth, power and influence in the hands of a few people, and the negative consequences are spilling out globally. It’s happening most visibly in the US, where the government is deconstructing diversity, trust, and eliminating any balancing restraint on power. It’s a dangerous mix. I recently wrote a piece on a why diversity matters when facing uncertainty, a penny drop moment for me, which you can read here.
With a Federal election imminent, some of these same challenges are in play here in Australia as well. This is not good news for anyone who cares about mitigating the worst of climate collapse, or its associated economic, social and human cost. I don’t say this to offend you. I say it free you from your private anxiety. You are not alone in what you feel, nor are you powerless to act. For those of us who are no longer doubting the scale of the global leadership failure, there is a real psychological freedom available as we starting living into the local solutions where our future can indeed be better than our present.
This Myponga project, this Human.Kind community and this collective action we take can be a source of relief, inspiration and joy. For everything that I care about, this Myponga project makes sense to me.
“When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.” – Ilya Prigogine (Nobel Prize Winning Chemist)
I see The Circular Initiative as my island of coherence in a sea of chaos. It’s a project, a place and a pathway for positive action in our uncertain future together. What better things can we do than to invest in place, in care, in trust, in learning and in community health?
This is a lighthouse project, in that is has the potential to show the way ahead for a brighter future together. So let me tell you some good news from the ridge-line above Myponga Beach, and how you can be part of it in 2025.
The Land
It’s deceptive. Right now as I walk around it looks really barren; the weeds slashed and browned from a dry summer, and the kangaroo exclusion fence seems to be guarding a rather empty paddock.
But look a little closer and it’s starting to come together.
Our onsite nursery produced it’s first native seeds for harvesting. And our pre-planting preparations are in their final year. 2026 will mark the first of 3 years of major planting cycles. Over 3 million native grasses, tubers, shrubs, climbers and trees will be put back into the soil. This will bring the soil to life, and soon after the niche habitats created will become an inviting home to small creatures in, on and above the land.
At 45 hectares this will become the largest area of native woody grassland on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Which is not to say that it is enough, or in any way replaces native bushland and forests that are still being cleared in Australia. But it is a start, a demonstrations of what can be done in regeneration. The hope is that this effort links in with other private and public land along the area, bolstering life and biodiversity in the land, waterways and skies.
Once the Summer heat settles down we’ll be back out on the land, hands-on in landcare. Our working bees run monthly on a Saturday and are a great way to meet new people and learn new skills.
Design
A huge milestone was achieved at the end of 2024 with the submission for planning approval from council. For those unfamiliar with the process of building something as complicated as a public facility, this means that the work by architects and consultants (civil, soil, environmental, wastewater, traffic, etc) has been brought into an impressive final retreat centre design.
Yes, that’s right; we have a final retreat centre design.
This could be one of the most beautiful and iconic retreat centres in Australia, located here on the Fleurieu. I can’t publicly share imagery just yet. But I can say it manages to be everything we had hoped for it to be: spectacular, elemental, and deeply considerate to the land it will sit within. A huge thanks to our architect Felicity Gartelmann who has worked on this project from its inception to bring it to fruition.
You’ll be the first to know when we can start sharing the design publicly.
Funding
Once the design is approved, we have all the pieces needed to go ahead with construction. Well, almost all. There is the *small* matter of funding. Already more this project has raised more than $2.5M to secure the land and revegetation project. This is incredible and something we can all be proud of to ensure the long term health of this patch of land.
The next stage of creating a facility has been costed at around $6M dollars. Which is an incomprehensible sum of money for most of us. But not impossible. And when you think that this facility will accomodate 25+ people in comfort, and be able to host over 150 for events, that’s an impressive design feat.
I know there are people with wealth that are looking for a way to meaningfully contribute. I see it’s no coincidence that the four major funders thus far are all women, with some inherited wealth and a track record of investing into landcare, culture and communities in South Australia.
Maybe you are ready for a conversation? Or maybe you know someone we should speak with? This is the time for good people to come forward.
Major Investors will be people who can invest upwards of $500k. There is a small portion of funding that can included smaller investors of $200k+, so if that is you, please also reach out. More details can be found here.
Community level investors ($5k-$50k) are still a key part of this project, as the long term stewards and decision-makers of this project. I will be reaching out to you directly soon. Ensure you are on the list here. But right now our focus is on gathering the Major Investors who can make the construction possible.
Thanks for reading. And thanks for being a part of the journey, whether you’ve been elbow deep in soil, or in conversation about values, or even if your engagement is still yet to come.
Kindly,
Triton Tunis-Mitchell
To ensure that your voice becomes part of this unique project, be make sure you express you interest in each of the areas you want to get involved.