Get Ready! What you need to know for Climate Camp '09
On this page is information about:
- How to get to Climate Camp - Directions
- What to Bring
- Registration
- Food at Climate Camp
- Billeting
- Local accomodation
- Neighbourhoods
- Action Teams
- See here for some Frequently Asked Questions.
- See here for Climate Camp's Participants' Agreements
You can get ready for Climate Camp 09 by telling your friends, family, people in the street to come down to Helensburgh on the 9-11 October.
Invite your friends via the Facebook event, or send them an invitation with information about Climate Camp '09.
Directions to Helensburgh:
We'll be camping at Helensburgh Park, Walker St. It's great!
Public Transport
Trains are your best bet. It's a 40 min ride from both Sydney Central and Wollongong stations.
Trains run approx. every half hour on weekdays and every hour on the weekend. Check times here.
NB: Cityrail introduces a new timetable Sunday 11th October, you can download the new timetable or use the CityRail South Coast line timetable.
When you get off the train in Helensburgh: Look out for the local Greens Northern Coach that meets the train (timetable here). This coach will take you into the heart of Helensburgh. Get off on the corner of Parkes and Walker streets (Helensburgh's main streets). Then it's a quick walk up Walker St to Climate Camp at Helensburgh Park (you'll see the signs).
There will also be a shuttle bus running from Helensburgh station to the camp site at certain times.
From interstate: catch a bus or train to Sydney, then a train from Sydney to Helensburgh. Interstate and regional trains to Sydney from:
Driving? There is a car park at the Climate Camp site at Helensburgh Park, Walker St. Helensburgh. Click the following links below for google map directions from:
Sydney, Wollongong, Campbelltown, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin and Brisbane
What to bring:
- Your friends, family, colleagues, parents, kids and neighbours
- Any decorations, colourful streamers, banners, costumes, musical instruments, and action, materials you want to have
- your tent, sleeping bag and bedding
- food (preferably co-ordinate with others to make yummy meals)
- a cup, plate and spoon, etc.
- warm clothes, rain gear and sensible shoes
- if you want: a chair, torch, towel
- any special foods, snacks or treats
- a drinking water bottle
What you could bring for your ‘Neighbourhood’ (where you’ll be camping):
- Cooking gear including a BBQ, big pots, gas bottle and burners, cooking utensils, sharp knives and a bread board
- Food!
- Tarp and ropes to make your neighbourhood waterproof
- A big container of water, containers to store food.
- Chairs, rugs, bean bags, and/or other random junk from the side of the road to create a unique and beautiful neighbourhood
- Anything else you need to make a contribution to the camp
- Eski, and maybe a light
- First aid kit and fire extinguisher
What not to bring:
- Pen-knives: the police love to find a couple so they can go on TV and spread scare stories about Climate Campers!
- Dogs (except guide dogs)
- Alcohol and Glass bottles
Registration - Cost
Please register when you arrive at Climate Camp. You will be asked to agree to the Participants Agreements, a condition of entry and participation at Climate Camp ‘09
Climate Camp has been organised by committed volunteers on a tight budget. We hope you’ll be able to make a donation to help us cover costs. It’s okay if you aren’t able to contribute any money: the most important thing is your participation. Children under twelve are free. Aboriginal peoples do not need to pay registration – we are really grateful for their support and attendance.
The Registration tent will have Volunteer information and rosters, Climate Camp information, Maps, Security, Lost Property, and reporting grievances. We’re asking everyone to sign up for at least one volunteer task at Climate Camp ’09: please ask at the desk to see how you can help out.
The most important donation you can make to Climate Camp is your time and involvement. We've done our best to keep the Climate Camp budget low, but many costs are unavoidable. If all of us who are coming contribute a little, it will add up to a sizable contribution towards our collective expenses. The money will cover things we'll all need and use at the camp like composting toilets, kitchens, marquees, and water.
Food at Climate Camp
cooking and eating! Most neighbourhoods are organising their own food. You are welcome to do this – in your neighbourhood, or with a small group of friends. We are providing some basic ingredients for folks who do need it. You can get these at the Food Tent. Climate Camp is providing tea, coffee, water, and fruit; and for those who need it, some
FRIDAY LUNCH: Neighbourhoods welcome to make their own. For those who need lunch: chickpea salad on a roll (chickpeas, lettuce, tahini, tomatoes, parsley, garlic… and bread rolls).
FRIDAY DINNER: Neighbourhoods to make their own.
For those who need dinner: ingredients available for a curry: lentils, rice, spices, vegetables, coconut milk.
SATURDAY BREAKFAST: Neighbourhoods to make their own. For those who need breakfast, ingredients available for museli/porridge.
SATURDAY LUNCH: Neighbourhoods cooking. Also tofu burgers organised and cooked by the wonderful UNSW Environment Collective for 300 people.
SATURDAY DINNER: Neighbourhoods to make their own.
For those who need dinner, ingredients available for pasta (pasta, tomatoes, garlic, onions, carrots, red/brown lentils
SUNDAY BREAKFAST: Neighbourhoods to make their own.
For those who need breakfast, ingredients available for museli/porridge.
SUNDAY ACTION DAY: Sandwiches provided (make and take your sandwich in the morning). Snacks available at different times in the day: dates, oranges, museli bars.
SUNDAY DINNER: Neighbourhoods to make their own + many folks will be leaving. Folks can cook with the left over meals.
Billeting
If camping isn't your thing or you have special needs, we might be able to set you up with a billeting spot in a friendly local household. If this sounds like you, email Christian at cd267[at]uow.edu.au with your name, mobile phone number, email address, and any special requests or needs you might have (including allergies to food or animals).
If you live near Helensburgh / Sutherland / northern Wollongong, you could offer a billet for Climate Campers!
So if you, or anybodyyou know, is able to provide a spot, that's be very, very muchappreciated!! Just include your
- Name, Address, Phone no., Email and
- Information like the number of places you'd like to offer; Nights available (from Thursday October 8 to Sunday 11th); Whether you have pets / if it's okay to bring pets; Whether it's a smoking house / okay for smokers to stay; Whether there are kids/ okay to bring kids; what sort of public transport is available; and any other info.
Send it to Christian at cd267[at]uow.edu.au
Local Accomodation
There are lots of great local BnBs and accomodation if you don't want to camp.
Check out in the Helensburgh and Stanwell Park area:
- At the beach: 42949885
- BnB at 63: 0411 049 065
- Cabbage Tree Cottage 99554064
- Centennial Hotel 4294 1005
- Green Guest Hout 42944672
- TopStay Accomodation 1300 857 100
- Tudor Lodge Bed & Breakfast 42942449
- Tumbling Waters Retreat 42941888
- Wagon Wheels Country Retreat 42942449
- Watergum Grove 42942199
- Wattle Drive House 0402 646 747
Neighbourhoods
The camp will be organised in neighbourhoods. Your Neighbourhood is your “home” for the duration of the camp.
A ‘neighbourhood’ is a group of people who choose to camp together andmay also organise to cook and clean together, hang out together,support each other at climate camp. Neighbourhoods are mini-communitiesfor Climate Camp 09.
Why neighbourhoods?
The neighbourhood system is intended to:
- encourage people to mingle and meet others with different levels of previous experience in activism,
- give people the opportunity to meet others from the same town, begin working with them, and possibly continue working with them beyond the camp,
- give people a sence of place within the camp and a chance to join together and contribute to the overall look and feel of the camp.
Register your Neighbourhood
Please let us know if you’re planning to organise a neighbourhood. Send:
- The name of your neighbourhood;
- A brief description of your neighbourhood;
- Any access requirements, i.e. wheelchair access;
- Whether your neighbourhood is open to being contacted by people who may want to join it;
- Whether you are happy for the details of your neighbourhood to go on the climate camp website; and
- The details of a contact person for your neighbourhood.to scarlet - scarlet.wilcock@gmail.com
Or Join an Existing Neighbourhood To find out what neighbourhoods are being organised and who to contact click here.
Action Teams
What is an ‘affinity group’ or ‘action team’?
recommend not larger than 15) who work together independently on direct
actions or other projects. You can form an affinity group with your
friends, people from your community, workplace, organisation; you come
together on whatever basis you would like for your participation in the
Sunday action.
2-4pm on the Saturday afternoon of the camp (10 Oct) has been set aside
to facilitate the formation of action teams and for action planning - bring along your action ideas! You also don’t have to be in a team in order to participate in discussion about the Sunday action, though we recommend it.
during the camp (please see the Climate Camp 09 Spokescouncil Proposal
for more information about this suggestion). We’re recommending people
form an action team prior to or at the camp in order to help all of us to make decisions about the action as quickly and democratically as possible.
proposal for the camp so we don’t have to start from scratch at the
camp. The proposal entails a rally beginning at 11am on Sunday 11 Oct,
meeting at Charles Harper Park in Helensburgh, moving to a walk to the
Metropolitan mine in Parkes St, Helensburgh.
- Get together a bunch of your mates with similar interests in issues and actions.
- Start hanging out, doing actions and building trust. We reckon
trust is a key element for affinity groups to function. You could do a
direct action training together, a banner drop in preparation for a protest, talk through where y’all
stand on big questions and have good idea of how you will work
together, brainstorm possible protest situations and talk through
responses. Knowing people’s fears, weaknesses and strengths helps us support each other in our actions. In our crew, we try to do something every month – a graffiti run, a dumpster café, film screening in a spunky squat, an occupation… just to keep meeting up!
- Have a think about what sort of decisions your affinity group need
to make before a protest. Where you stand on big issues, what your aims
are, how you wanna interact with police, debriefing processes after
actions and other organising, how you want to communicate during
actions, how you are going to make decisions (consensus, voting,
appoint decision makers, and chatting about quick decision making).
- Chat with other crews on their aims and tactics, how you might
want to work together, what support you need, what methods of
communication between affinity groups could be used before and during a
protest (spokescouncil, blocking up, phone number swap for
communication people, fist raised huddles, cycle communication crews,
walkie talkies)
- Your affinity group might even wanna take on a specialised role in
the way it interacts with other crews, or operates within the breadth
of the protest or campaign. You could *specialise* in cop-watchin’,
legal observation, food, communication, medical, or good old common
garden variety blockading. With a role focus, each affinity group can
do their jobs and support the work of other affinity group. In this
way, many affinity groups form an interdependent network that achieves
so much more than a large group of individual activists.
What can an affinity group do?
Anything!! We can use affinity groups for mass or smaller scale
actions - to drop a banner, blockade a road, provide back-up for other
crews, do street theatre, block traffic riding bikes, organise a tree
sit, or play glockenspiels in a radical marching band.
What makes affinity groups so awesome for actions is that they can remain creative and independent and plan out their own action
without an organisation or person dictating to them what can and can't
be done. There are endless possibilities for what our affinity groups
can do. Let’s be creative and remember: direct action gets the goods!
