Flinders Bush Festival News page

2009 FLINDERS RANGES BUSH FESTIVAL
Bush Ingenuity | Innovation | Local Culture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

26 March 2009

Quorn’s heritage buildings will never look the same again as Quorn Lights Up! with art after dark. This is just one of the activities as Quorn celebrates the Flinders Ranges Bush Festival,
24- 26 April 2009.

A full weekend of activities reveals the ideas and innovations of local people living in a bush community.

Crowd favourites such as Flinders Flicks outdoor cinema, the Market Muster and the very popular Bike to our Sites return with ideas for sustainable homes and gardens or a chance to taste Adnyamai (Food of the Rocks) cooking and local produce.

New features include:
   • Quorn Adventures 4WD & AWD self drive tours
   • Buckaringa Sanctuary, normally closed to the public, will be open on Saturday
     and Sunday. The sanctuary is home to the endangered Yellow-footed Rockwallaby.
• The Playground BBQ, a family friendly event, held in the centre of town.

This is a weekend not to be missed as the Austral Hotel joins Tastes of the Outback, Pichi Richi Railway gets their Steam Up! and the Bel Canto Bush Opera perform at Pichi Richi Park.

Website: http://www.flindersbushfestival.org.au/

Media Enquiries: Bernadette Zanet, on 02 6041 5558 or 0427 215 559
Interviews available with:
Cindi Drennan, Illumination artist Quorn Lights Up!
Ross Vonow, Sustainable housing owner
High resolution images available upon request.

The following home was part of the 'site visit' programe
of the 2008 Flinders Bush Festival

Ross and Jacky Vonow have just received a cheque for $99 from AGL, instead of a bill, for energy they have fed into the grid since they moved into their new house 3 months ago.

The house was built last year and was the curiosity of the town as it went up, because it wasn’t something that had been done in Quorn before. The Vonows had chosen a reverse brick veneer design because of its superior energy efficiency compared with double brick or brick veneer construction. People were intrigued by the hebel blocks that were being put inside the external walls, while later on blue-board, a type of cement-fibre sheeting often used in wet areas, was put around the outside of the house. Even their builder was skeptical, stating “in my opinion bricks go on the outside.”

The house was also oriented to face north with large eaves on the north side, and the Vonows went the whole hog with roof insulation, installing aircell in addition to the usual batts, giving it an R value of more than 5 (the minimum requirement is R3). Double-glazed windows will help keep the place warm as toast in the winter and cool in the summer. There is no air-conditioning and the maximum temperature measured during the summer heat waves was 29 degrees.

Then $17,000 worth of solar panels (after rebates) were installed on the roof, and any excess energy after supplying the needs of the house is fed back into the grid. Apart from low energy lightbulbs, the Vonows have a range of other appliances which save energy. The pride of these is a solar cooker, which is simply put out in the sun, and weather permitting, can be used to make cakes and jam.

Meanwhile solar panels have appeared on other houses around Quorn in recent months, and if this keeps up, perhaps there’s hope for the planet after all.

We hope that the Vonow’s energy efficient house will be available for open inspection at the next Flinders Bush Festival 2009( to be held in Quorn Flinders Ranges)

article by Tarla Kramer (from Flinders News Paper)