Check out below our great program of events for this year.

We are very excited to announce that Dr Helen Haines, Independent Federal MP for Indi, has agreed to present her ‘Local Power Plan’ to support community energy, at our 19 June event. And our new Mayor, Cr Fiona McAllister will be there to open the event and introduce Dr Haines. 

Our committee would like to wish all our readers a very safe and enjoyable New Year. No doubt you are as relieved as we are that the onerous Covid-19 lockdown conditions have now been significantly lifted to enable a return to an almost normal way of life! The relief of our committee in being able to meet face to face rather than online has been palpable. We missed the personal connections with each other and many of us had really had enough of online meetings despite being fully aware of their necessity.

Our hearts and our thoughts go out to those in our community who have suffered during the lockdown and to those who continue to suffer!

2020 was a huge challenge for us all and as a small not for profit group of volunteers we were significantly challenged, personally and financially, in shifting our community events from face-to-face meetings in Healesville to a series of very successful online events. We were very pleased that Yarra Ranges Council supported us to redirect our grant funding to employing the professional assistance we needed to run our events as webinars and we would like to thank Council publicly for that understanding and support!

There were some advantages to moving to webinars in that we further developed our IT skills as a voluntary group under professional guidance, as well as seeing a broader audience being able to register for the events. We were able to record the webinars and keep them on our website. If you missed them and would like to catch up you can find them here:

This generous donation of $500 will assist Healesville CoRE to improve our communication systems with the Healesville & district community. Our President, Jeff Barlow, on behalf of the Healesville CoRE committee, wrote to the Community Bank and expressed his gratitude for the inclusion of Healesville CoRE in this group of community recipients. “Receiving this community recognition from the Bank for our work with engaging the community in transitioning Healesville to Net Zero carbon from electricity consumption, by 2027, means a lot to our small but hard-working group of community volunteers”, Jeff said. “Healesville CoRE is very pleased to be able to join this important celebration with the Community Bank. Ten years of operations is a significant achievement!”

The Healesville Community Bank will be holding its 10th anniversary celebrations at Queens Park on Thursday 18 February from 5.00pm and everyone is welcome! For further information and RSVP click the button below.

There is currently much excitement around the Robyn Jane Children’s Centre (RJCC) and with the Healesville CoRE committee. We have been working for over two years to get a solar system installed – discussions, developing ideas and plans, collaboration with Council, upgrading the electrical infrastructure, sourcing finance, developing contracts and so on. And now, the installation is happening!

After a lot of work from Healesville CoRE volunteers with significant financial and technical support from Yarra Ranges Council, the solar panels, the inverter and the monitoring system are all being installed.

Funding for the project was obtained through our local Federal Member of Parliament, Tony Smith, who enabled us to apply for $20,000 for the RJCC in addition to $70,000 for other projects. Healesville CoRE has developed an interest-free Revolving Fund for this money, which means that RJCC will repay the funds over 7-8 years from the estimated annual savings of around $4,000, with the RJCC being cash positive on their first electricity bill once the system starts producing. As the interest free funds are repaid, Healesville CoRE will then reallocate the funds to another community solar energy project so the funds keep recycling in perpetuity. This is our solar energy ‘magic pudding’!

For those interested in the technical information, the system is installed in two arrays, consisting of 56 x 350Wp panels with a total DC capacity of 19.6 Wp that will enable the RJCC to produce 50% of their electricity needs from solar. The top-quality panels are connected to a three phase 20kVA Fronius inverter and the Mondo Ubi, which is the monitoring device that will provide all the statistics.

It is estimated by the installer that this system will reduce the RJCC greenhouse gas production by around 621 tonnes over 25 years. Over the life of the system, it is estimated the RJCC will save $149,000 in electricity bills (depending on solar production, RJCC internal consumption and the increasing cost of electricity)!! This money will be retained in Healesville to be used by the RJCC instead of going to an energy retail company. What a fantastic outcome for the RJCC, for the Healesville parents who use it, for the Healesville community, for the environment and for Healesville CoRE!!

Healesville CoRE wishes to thank the RJCC for their cooperation and their willingness to be our first community energy project; the Yarra Ranges Council, and in particular the Sustainability Team, for Council’s financial, professional and technical assistance; as well as our local MP for Casey, Tony Smith, for facilitating the funding.

Stay tuned for our next installations, coming very soon, at the Healesville Living and Learning Centre and the Healesville RSL.

Event 1, on Monday 1st March from 7.00 to 9.00pm, ‘Switching to Solar: Solar Electricity and Solar Hot Water’ at the Darron Honey Centre, will be our first face to face event since early 2020.

Want to find out more about solar electricity and solar hot water for your home or business?

Want to find out how to get a safe, reliable and financially fair deal that could save you thousands of dollars?

This event will showcase our popular presenter and Healesville’s resident solar guru, Glen Morris, from SolarQuip, on all things to do with solar electricity and solar hot water.

Glen Morris will be strongly supported by Jason Parsons, the National Business Development Manager with Reclaim Energy, who will speak about the revolutionary, high efficiency heat pump they now have on offer through Healesville CoRE, at a very special price that will save you hundreds of dollars on your water heating bill.

Don’t wait till your old hot water system breaks down, because then you will want to get a system fast and you won’t have the time to get a decent renewable hot water system installed. The Government will pay you a fee to change your old hot water system for a renewable energy system.  Do it now, while you have the time!

And Julian Guess from Yarra Ranges Council’s Sustainability team will update us on the incredible renewable energy developments that Council has been initiating, and the plans they have afoot, as well as outlining the ‘Solar Savers’ program that enables Yarra Ranges Council ratepayers to take up solar panels and / or batteries from their reputable installer.

Our President met with James Aris, the Head of Marketing at the Matilda Bay Brewery in Healesville, in late January, to discuss ways we could collaborate around the theme of renewable energy. They’re some way along the journey with 248 solar panels on the roof powering their brewery, but by their own admission have lots of work still to do to get to a fully sustainable business model.

Any electricity not produced by their solar panels is provided by their electricity retail company that supplies only green energy, so the total electricity use at Matilda Bay Brewery is 100% renewable energy.

We had a very fruitful meeting, covering a wide range of ideas and potential initiatives in a brainstorm process. We have agreed to meet on a monthly basis to continue our discussions and we are both excited to see how we might be able to collaborate for the mutual benefit of both organizations and the broader Healesville community. We agreed to start off with Matilda Bay Brewery supporting our membership renewal program with a small prize.

If you are a business in Healesville and would also like to discuss with us ways we might collaborate around the theme of renewable energy do get in touch: contact@healesvillecore.org.au. We would love to meet and talk with you.

Did you know that if you are a loyal customer of your energy retailer (gas &/or electricity) you could be paying more for each unit of energy and more for your daily service charge than new customers are paying?

Your energy retailer is likely to provide a discounted price for new customers while old loyal customers like you could be paying a higher rate.  Don’t waste your precious dollars!!

The Victorian Government has a website where you can check your electricity and gas bill pricing to compare with other providers and you will be surprised how much money you can save just by switching to another retailer with better prices. OUR ADVICE IS ‘DON’T BE LOYAL TO YOUR ENERGY RETAILER! CHECK AND COMPARE YOUR BILL EVERY YEAR AND KEEP BIG DOLLARS IN YOUR POCKET. It is not your job to make their shareholders wealthy!!

Comparing Retailer's energy plans:

You can compare Electricity and Natural Gas plans from other retailers by going to the Victorian Energy Compare website https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/

Switching is easy and is done for you by the energy retailer. You will probably find they will offer you a better price as soon as you want to switch but do your own comparison!!

If you follow this advice and get a better deal please let us know so we can let our community know how much you are saving: contact@healesvillecore.org.au