(f)route + Organics Association = (f)route CART soon

Organic Agriculture Association Inc (OAA) - Heather, Audrey and Stephen

One of the best bits about (f)route has been making connections with all the people in East Gippsland who are on the same page. fruit+art+sustainability+culture+heritage+community=makes us all feel better. (f)routey.

A little while ago (f)route was funded by the Shire to support the making of a dozen COMMUNITY (f)route carts. (these are separate to our Arts Vic application for ART CARTs - still pending). a bit less arty, and a little more practical most likely. but ALL about connecting.

First cab off the rank - the Organic Agriculture Association Inc (OAA) in Bairnsdale.

This is SOOO exciting for us. the OAA were at our very first (f)route 'strategic planning day' - 2 years ago!! [who'dve thought it would take quite so long] Nonetheless.. we are well and truly on the way..

Their CART will be the centrepiece of their new community garden at the Steiner/Makerspace/OAA precinct. yay.

Stephen, Audrey and Heather are the passionate Organics people who drive a fabulous movement. and have done for ever. We hope this is project will be yet another connector of (f)route-like minds. http://www.organicagriculture.asn.au/

225 survey responses!

An amazing response to our (f)route CRUNCH survey - with 225 responses in 2 days.
And not just quantity!
The answers and extra comments were really helpful in the process of designing our Social Enterprise - it's all about great places, great walks/cycles, extreme relaxation, and fruit. (well good food anyway).
And - Glamping. (but more camping than glam). (but ENOUGH glam).
With a website that supports the growing (f)route community and lets travellers create a  (f)route (f)riendly itinerary.
With well mapped fruit & art . Oh and (f)routeville in March.
Sorted.

The VERY important (f)route SURVEY.

What do you want when YOU travel? (f)route is now building a social enterprise based on the belief that people will love what (f)route can offer in East Gippsland.

We'd love you to complete our survey to help our business planning process.  Click here to take survey

(f)route CRUNCH BRUNCH @ Nungurner

A grand day at Tallon Glass Nungurner watching Norm and Sam blow beautiful glass, a (f)route cake brunch, a walk with blue tongue lizard & tortoise spotting, crab watching by the jetty, over to Oneofftwo Studio to pick up our (f)route jewellery. (oh and we picked up our (f)route apple and pear from Norm too!) (pix to follow).

Special thanks to Eva for washing all the dishes before we got back to them.

(f)route, ABC OPEN & a summer road trip ahead

ABC OPEN begins a (f)route series with us!

"The (f)route project is essentially and ever growing community arts project, which combines ideas of art, agriculture, sustainability and tourism. The project encompasses a range of fruit related activities including regular outdoor community breakfast gatherings in different locations, commissioned art pieces, fruit harvesting, jam making, fruit bottling, market and festival activities, tourist mapping and cartography of fruit growers in the region." ...

Our CRUNCH mentor comes to Nowa Nowa

It was great to have our CRUNCH mentor Shankar (from Accenture) come visit us in Nowa Nowa today.  He and Neil Smith, Andrea Lane and Gary Yelen had a good chat about what the (f)route enterprise is.

It seems like it's shaping up as a community driven Travel Bureau :-) . Where a) local businesses and b) tourists are both our 'customers' - paying for the service we provide in creating, marketing and selling (f)route 'packages'  - slow art, travel, local experiences, accommodation, (f)route  breakfasts, supported walks/cyle tours, workshops, local produce ... etc.

hmmm... a (f)route brand ... that helps develop local product ... then markets the experiences that fit the (f)route ethos.

... and continues to seek funding and partners to develop the (f)route experience/product.

Something like that anyway.

SUSTAINABLE GIPPSLAND LEADERSHIP

Well. we had a fantastic 2 days at the 'Leadership for a Sustainable Gippsland' Pilot Program (on Raymond Island) . 

My take away fact? They built the power station (at Latrobe Valley) WITHOUT LIGHT SWITCHES ... so they just burn around the clock. cos no-one cares how much it costs.

The other thing I loved?  http://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U

[This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award.
For more information on Sir Ken's work visit: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com ]