My name's Kim, and I live about 10 minute's drive south of Jimboomba. That's in Beaudesert Shire, South East Queensland, Australia.

At the moment (end of May 2005), there's no formal local "group," but I got a copy of "The End of Suburbia," and my own local councillor has agreed to show it at a council committee meeting. Also, Andrew McNamara (the Queensland State Member for Hervey Bay) has agreed to attend the showing. Andrew gave a key speech about Peak Oil in the State Parliament, February 2005. Here it is:-

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/031005_globalcorp.shtml#2

So right now, I'm at at the stage of waiting for my local councillor to get back to me about time/place details. If I haven't heard back from him by the end of June, I'll chase him up again.

I've also been keeping my local councillors updated with key information about Peak Oil (via email) - as well as the editor of my local newspaper ("The Beaudesert Shire Times" & "The Jimboomba Times"). Our local press is pretty responsive, and I notice that this week there's a letter about the imminent decline of world oil supplies. I don't know the person who wrote it, but I intend to follow up with a letter of my own (did that and it was published , I've reproduced it below) - and I'll also contact the writer. In this way, I hope to create an inter-connected local group in Beaudesert Shire.

As for the rest of the State, I have the email address of every local newspaper in Queensland - and the email addresses of all local councils in Queensland are readily available. Over the next fews weeks, I'll disseminate key information (update, "letters to the editor" emailed to around 250 local newspapers in Queensland on the 6th May 2005) And if any other Queenslander from any other part of the State is reading this, you're more than welcome to create your own local space here too.

I live on just over 2 acres, on a "rural residential estate." My 3 kids (13, 19 & 21) are still at home, as well as my long time hubby. We both work for the Queensland Government, I'm a nurse. I first heard about "Peak Oil" when I read Colin Campbell's July 1999 key note address to the British House of Commons. It came to my attention via a news list I subscribe to, "Information Clearing House." Reading that was a jaw dropping experience, and it prompted me to do a lot more research - and there's heaps of reading on the web. I'll add more info here (on local issues), as more becomes available.