About Me
I have been an activist within the broader environmental and social justice movements for over a decade. I am a former social worker in the disability sector, where I created inclusive sporting programs for teenagers living with disabilities.
12 years ago, I became a vegan and an animal rights activist. This was a quick learning curve into the world of direct action and the realities of how humans systematically treat other species (not very well, surprise surprise). My longest stint in direct action land has been with the Coalition Against Duck Shooting (CADS). I have met the most wonderful people and closest friends through my decade long involvement with this group.
On moving from Perth to Melbourne in 2012, I became involved in two seemingly distinct movements. First was the ‘residents rights’ movement, basically lobbying against overdevelopment, property developers, and terrible State Government town planning decisions. I spent several years campaigning with Protectors of Public Lands and Planning Backlash. Later I co-founded ‘Population Permaculture and Planning’ in 2015 (now ‘Town Planning Rebellion’).
Secondly, I became involved the ‘anarchist’ and ‘intentional community’ movements in Melbourne, which intersect heavily with the ‘permaculture’, ‘retrosuburbia’ and ‘voluntary simplicity’ movements. Within a year of settling in Melbourne I was running the food swap table at Peppertree Place and I become a facilitator with ‘Doing It Ourselves’ and was their representative with the ‘Post Growth Alliance’ (where I first discovered the post-growth movement big time). A short while later I co-coordinated the ‘Gnomes’ urban gardening collective and then joined an intentional community rental home, based on collaborative community and retrosuburbia principles.
Somehow, I ‘accidentally’ fell into the sustainable population movement, championed by Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). Without quite realising it, I become the president of the Victorian and Tasmanian branch of SPA. This lead to a career change when I was offered the position of ‘National Communications Manager’ in 2018, which is still my bread and (vegan) butter at time of writing. My position on population was informed both by my experiences living and working in rural communities in Kenya and Uganda, as well as my time spent back home in town planning circles. The launch of the book ‘Overloading Australia’ at my old high school in Perth cemented the deal.
I found myself living a split personality in many different worlds and thought there must be a bigger picture to unify this threads together. That’s when I discovered post-growth which has now become my ‘modus operandi’. I personally believe that most reform activism is rearranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic, without transitioning away from infinite GDP growth on a finite planet. In particular, the anthropocentric stories we spin in our globalised, industrialised society to justify the persistence of this unsustainable behaviour. I was also instrumental in spearheading the Holistic Activism ‘movement of movements’ several years ago, which combines mindfulness principles with the wider activist movement.
I am renowned for my poor work-life balance, but since moving to Albany on the Southern West Coast of Australia, I’ve tried to make amends for this. Outside of activism, I take the time to engage in healthy pursuits such as bouldering, swimming and bushwalking, while spending as much time as I can in what remains of the natural world to quieten the mind and reconnect with the greater mystery that is our planet and the universe.
Would you like to find our more about my specific political reviews? I launched a 2021 Christmas special for the podcast series that I host, ‘Post-Growth Austraia Podcast’, where I spell out my manifesto. Give a gander below!