GENOA Maleny Co-operatives

The following is a piece taken from Planetary Connections, a UK newspaper. It is on something which is happening in our local town here in Australia, and is very much part of our everyday lives. We are so accustomed to it that we didn't think to write about it. It's easy to overlook the achievements of the familiar!

In the last twenty years, Maleny has transformed from a fairly ordinary small rural town into a town with a thriving green economy. In the early seventies half a dozen new settlers, refugees from city life, decided to take their destiny into their own hands.

First came the Maple St. Co-op which met the new residents needs for wholefood. It also served as an outlet for their surplus fruit, vegetables and flowers and other homemade produce and won the hearts of the older residents by reusing such things as bottles, jars and plastic bags. Today the Co-op services over 800 members and has an annual turnover of half a million dollars.

All this money needed a home outside the conventional financial institutions which, typically, were not supporting the local economy. In 1984 the Maleny and District Community Credit Union was born.

12 years on, the MDCCU has 3000 members, in a bioregion of around 10,000 people and an asset base of over A$9 million. It, too, is run as a co-operative and has helped finance the purchase of land and housing and assisted more people to start businesses.

First came Mountain Fare, the first women's co-operative in Queensland which started as a small catering service using the members' own home grown produce. Then came a restaurant with an arm specialising in frozen foods. Many of the women had never worked outside the home before so workshops were set up for training women in business which now attract women from all over Australia.

Wastebusters Recycling Co-op was set up the same year as a joint venture with the Council. Because so much rubbish is now recycled they need 60% less tip space.

Then followed a publishing and printing co-op, a Community Radio station, an Arts Co-op and a community Learning Centre. The Government became interested and put funds into an Enterprise Centre which now provides shared workspace, a Telecentre and a centre for incubating new ideas.

Maleny has attracted so many talented people that it can now meet many of its own needs. It has spawned a host of innovative green businesses including Dowmus Composting toilets, Maleny Clean Cuisine and Sustainable Timbers and boasts more community organisations than many towns twice the size. The latest co-op, and perhaps the most popular, is the Co-op Club where everyone can get together for inexpensive food, drink and live music. It just goes to show what a small group of committed people can achieve when they know what they want.