Hello, composting community!

Let’s dig into the the latest news, developments, and success stories from around Australia and across the world.

First up, don’t forget that this month we will be holding the second Composters Convergence in Australian history. Join us online on the evening of Thursday 23 October, to hear directly from fellow composters and enjoy discussion with like-minded people from all over the place.

Community Composters Spring Convergence 2025

The presentations will be followed by our 2025 LOCCAL AGM. Book now and block it out in your calendar!

Featured in September

Here are some of the topics we covered on the LOCCAL blog and in social media over the last month:

Kensington Compost has been steadily building a suburb-wide composting network for nearly 10 year now, engaging with residents and community groups as well as local and state governments:

The Kensington Compost Vision

As part of their monthly UCTV Alive for Kids webinar series, University of Tasmania’s Community Garden Coordinator Jeff McClintock provided an engaging demonstration of how hot composting works at their Inveresk Campus:

Hot Composting at the University of Tasmania Inveresk Campus

After arriving from Nigeria, Comfort Onyaga began organising student and community gardens, and is now working to connect community-led farming solutions across Australia and Africa:

From Nigeria to Australia: Comfort Onyaga, emerging global food security leader

Alice Star and Phil Garozzo from Draper, just out of Brisbane are working with food waste from the hospitality industry. Gardening Australia shows how every week they gather tonnes of food waste from commercial kitchens, and use it to feed their farm.

Loop Growers farm composting

Sustainable Chippendale employs public furniture to create compost from local cafes and households on the side of residential streets all around Chippendale. Here Michael Mobbs and interns Jaya and Lucy show us how it works:

Verge Composting in Chippendale

YIMBY Composting are on a roll when it comes to building local capacity to collecting and compost food waste. Having appeared on ABC’s Gardening Australia recently, the YIMBY crew are sharing the secrets of their composting with us all, and showing us all how things work over there in Castlemaine:

YIMBY Composting Method

Delegates from Hsinchu City inspect street composting furniture in Chippendale

LOCCAL helped to organise a visit by city council members from Taiwan. Hsinchu City residents have an active interest in sustainability and local food systems, and we were able to show visiting officials first hand examples of community-supported composting operations in Chippendale and Marrickville:

Looking Beyond Borders for Waste Management Solutions

We are always on the lookout for new stories to share with (you) our network! If you would like to tell the world about what you are doing, or know of an interesting activity coming up, or if you have heard of someone whose story needs to be told, drop us a line at info@loccal.org. If you aren’t sure where to start, let us know and we can help turn you words into something to share with the world.

Speaking of which, let’s see what this month has in store…

Upcoming Events

We maintain an extensive calendar of upcoming events, related to composting, soil health, and sustainability, all listed by state sorted by date. Check it out on our What’s Happening page

Here are a few of the things lined up over October:

QLD

18 October: Backyard Abundance Workshop
Do-Op Shop, Annerley, Brisbane
18 October: Waste reduction, worms, composting
Interactive display at Ipswich Council Sustainability Festival

NSW

9 and 11 October: Composting and Worm Farming Workshop
Moss Vale Resource Recovery Centre.
18 October: Composting at Home
Illaroo Scout Group, North Nowra NSW

VIC

4 October: Composting and worm farms for seniors
Eco Living Display Centre, Mount Martha
16 October: Worms at Work: Launch Event
Susuro Urban Winery, Port Melbourne

TAS

18 October: The Secret Life of your Garden Workshop

SA

9 October: Compost & Propagation Workshop
Bower Cottages Community Centre, Semaphore Park
11 October: 2025 SA Community Gardens Gathering
Glenelg North Community Centre

WA

4 October: Thinking Green: Worm farming in Guildford
Guildford Town Hall, Guildford
12 October: Worm Farm Workshop
City of Melville EcoHub, Winthrop
25 October: Earthcycling – Compost & Bokashi Workshop with Robyn from ‘Waste is my Resource’
Kwinana Beach

Online

9 October: Garlic, Cover Crops, and Compost
Soil building methods including mulches, composting, leaf mold and more.
23 October: Community Composters Spring Convergence
Inspiring guest speakers, Q&A sessions, virtual tours, have your say in discussions shaping the future of community composting

Stay In Touch

Thank you for being of this collective composting journey! If you aren’t yet LOCCAL a member, please consider registering here (it’s free): www.loccal.org/membership

Have information to share or a question to ask? Get in contact at info@loccal.org, and follow us on social media for more community updates and useful information:

Hope to see you at the upcoming Composters Convergence, until then, happy composting to you and your community!