Spurtopia story on TEDx

TEDx talk in Ispwich

What a great privilege to present our eight year sustainable living journey at famous TEDx talk.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an invitation-only event where the world's leading thinkers and doers gather to share ideas worth spreading and find inspiration.


Watch a 16 minute video of the TEDx talk

Our Publication: Sustainable Living in the Inner City - An Inspirational Case Study

We wrote an educational publication - "Sustainable Living in the Inner City - An Inspirational Case Study and Toolkit for the Urban Farming and Establishing Sustainable Communities in the Cities" which aim to provide inspiration, help and guideline for other people interested in wholesome, simple and happy life.

To request a free copy of the publication (PDF) please send an email to spurtopia@gmail.com

Abstract:

Liveable cities are those that are healthy and sustainable. Close to 90% of people in Australia live in cities (esa.un.org/unpd/wup) and about one third are renters. There is an increasing number of people who want to grow organic food, live a more sustainable life, and enhance their well-being, but they may not know where to start. Many want to live a more wholesome, simple and fulfilling life. This case study outlines the opportunities and challenges of a five year transformation of an ordinary urban block of rental units in the inner-city Brisbane into a productive urban farm. It became a functional community, and a sustainable lifestyle was achieved. This publication  also provides testimonials from tenants and neighbours as well as a landlord who supported this sustainable urban design initiative. It aims to demonstrate: what can be achieved; to inspire people (homeowners, tenants, landlords and property developers) to be creative; to initiate other sustainable projects; and show how this example of sustainable living can be scaled up or down and be replicated elsewhere.

Wellbeing magazine article about Spurtopia

Wellbeing magazine article

"You do not need to buy expensive things to live healthy lives" - an article about Spurtopia in Wellbeing magazine published in Sep 2015 issue. Many thanks to Kylie Terraluna for writing the article and spreading our message.
Read the article

SpurTopia virtual tour on Google maps

Now you can take a virtual tour on Google maps and be inspired.

Thanks Google for capturing Spurtopia place.

SpurTopia virtual tour

Every End Has a New Beginning

It has been over six years since we rented the property in New Farm.

Spurtopia Logo

We have converted a small back yard into a productive garden - an ecosystem buzzing with life and symbiotic relationships between humans and nature. We have set a prime example of how sustainably people can live in a city, how to set up a small but functional community (renters of five units and neighbours) and how this can be replicated elsewhere by sharing our experience and knowledge with other people.
Now, with regret we have to announce that the creation is going to be demolished in May and replaced by two new houses. This is particularly sad, not because we have to move out, but because of the ecosystem which is going to be destroyed - such a huge loss for the local environment.
So if you would like to come and see what has been achieved, we will be running a few last workshops and an open day here at New Farm.
Having said that, every end  has a new beginning. We are moving (21 April 2015) to live temporarily at our friend's farm close to Jimboomba. In the meantime we will be looking for a property to live permanently. So, if you know of something which might be suitable please let us know.
SpurTopia is still operating and faster than ever with about 100 events already booked for this year and the number is growing. We will be running inspirational talks, presentations and workshops at libraries, schools, gardening clubs, community centres and BCC parks to educate, inspire and empower people to live more sustainably. For more info see our events and workshops.

We are really excited about what the future will bring.

Your SpurTopians
Roman Jana Lada

 Every end has a new beginning

SPURTOPIA - THE YEAR AHEAD

SpurTopians

What an incredible journey it’s been for Spurtopia during its first year! Firstly, we’d like to thanks to all our friends and countless people who have supported us in creating the Spurtopia notion (with over 100,000 blog views; over 1000 facebook followers and over 5000 people we talked to in person at over 100 events). We have been overwhelmed with the number of people who have been inspired and who have begun to walk lightly on the planet. Living by example has enabled us to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

What’s coming up in 2015.
- Spurtopia workshops will encompass a variety of different topics which include:
· How to start gardening;
· How to start beekeeping;
· How to live sustainably;
· How to make a self-watering planter box;
· How to use solar energy; and
· Natural parenting, chemical free kids and healthy homes.
- Presentations and workshops at libraries (Brisbane City Council, Redland Bay, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, and the Sunshine Coast)
- Education of the younger generation – Talks and workshops at child care centres, schools, colleges, universities and excursions to our “urban farm”. Through education the younger generation can be inspired and in turn they can pass on their knowledge to ensure not only change now but also into the future.
- Collaboration with Brisbane City Council and Education Queensland, to deliver sustainable education program to the general public, schools and environmental grants for community gardens and centres.
- Continuing to share our experience, knowledge, ideas and innovations of sustainable living to become more self-sufficient via our blog posts, videos, and media as well as attending various expos and events.
- Sustainable household assessments and garden consultations providing tailored advice to individuals.
- Positively promote our ethos of sustainable living around Australia via articles in magazines and newspapers, radio interviews and TV appearance.
- Take Spurtopia onto the international stage following our great success around Australia.

There is such a bright future ahead of us.

Be inspired to take the first step - create your own Utopia.

Life is Beautiful
Yours SpurTopians

Roman, Jana and Lada

Bright Kids = Bright Future

We at SpurTopia support and encourage not only adults but also children by showing our  simple, healthy and happy way of living,  sharing our knowledge, ideas and inventions, inspiring  them to take the first step and empowering them to make a difference.

Not only are we positively influencing kids close to us (our daughter Lada and her friends), but also other children who, in return, are influencing and changing the environmental consciousness of their parents so they will start to walk lightly on the planet.

Working together, we will make a difference

Mt Maria College students came to visit SpurTopia as a part of their sustainability studies.
About 80 students learnt during a sustainable living talk, what they can apply to their "day to day" lives at home. An organized tour around our rented block of units  allowed them to see and touch "first hand" a lot of practical and inexpensive examples for sustainable living: recycled bath tub as self-watering planter, a cob oven, solar powered pump for a pond. They also saw beehives and chickens as well as finding out how hot a solar oven and a solar hot water system can get. They learnt what can be achieved in a small backyard.  This re-connection with nature ignited a light in their natural curiosity for how things work and an eagerness to learn more. We spent such a rewarding time together.
Bright kids create a bright future. There is such a great time ahead of us.

Sustainability talk

Students arriving... 

Show and tell

Lada engaging her new friends

Tour around the house

Life is sweet as honey

The Good News

SpurTopians  slogan

Our lives have been overwhelmed with bad news constantly bombarding us from various media -  TV news, Radio and Newspapers. However, is it really like this?
We (SpurTopians)  look at the world from a different perspective - the bigger picture - and we see a huge amount of positivism, progress and a great deal of good news around us. More and more people  are awakening, becoming interested in a sustainable lifestyle and opting for a better, simpler, healthier and happier life. This positive change is becoming inevitable -it is bubbling under a lid and every now and again a bit of fresh steam comes out.

Imagine

• TV news full of good news
• Radio interviews with positive attitudes
• Newspapers publishing success stories
• Companies being ethical and fully transparent with their profits 
• Internet platforms (like Google or Facebook) providing only good news
• People being  healthy and happy
• Integrity honesty and passion 

 .... and if you can imagine that, it is possible to achieve, otherwise it would be unimaginable....

There are more and more people growing their own organic food.

There is a lot of great work in communities around Australia and internationally.
There is a lot of Tender Love and Care around.


If we  all do what we love to do and get the most joy out of an entire day - what would the world look like? There is a bright future ahead of us.

Did you know

- When you have a good time doing what you love to do, time flies; what we think was just one hour was in fact three hours. However our body ages just for an hour.

- We are the change. The  change will come from people (bottom up) never from Government (top down).
- It will require only less than 0.5% of people to change the entire population as positive energy is a thousand times stronger than negative energy.

Goodnewsnetwork.org
TheVenusProject.com
NewEarthNation.org
Kryon.com

SpurTopia - A Small Kingdom of Happiness

SpurTopians

My family and I have been living in a rental property in Brisbane for over five years. We have adopted a sustainable lifestyle becoming less reliant on the system and more self-sufficient.
We created a “farm” that produces vegies, fruit, honey and eggs in abundance. Most of our fruit and vegies come from our garden. Excess is shared and swapped within a functional community of neighbours.

We grow organically over 100 different types of vegetables, 25 herbs and 25 fruit trees utilizing every available space (yard space, block walls, fences, staircase) of a typical urban block.
We continuously improve effectiveness with our new ideas and inventions e.g. vegetable pyramid, self-watering/fertilizing planter boxes, worm farm planter pots, gravity fed irrigation, chicken feeders, maggot tin grower - all made from recycled materials.
Our “farm” is productive, efficient and visually pleasing. It includes:

• Chickens, honeybees, worm farms 
• Rain and grey water harvesting, home-made solar hot water system
• Preparing organic rich soil and fertilizers, seedlings, seed saving, multi-purpose bamboo pyramid
• A bath tub with fish and water vegetables
• A cob and solar oven
• Use of locally available resources
• Sprouting, fermenting, preserving, cooking from garden produce

The low maintenance urban “farm” (under 1hour a day) provides us with fresh organic food, fun, physical and mental exercise and a connection with nature. Gardening is extremely rewarding making life simpler, cheaper, healthier and more sustainable – it is another dimension to life.

We set an example of what can be achieved in a rental property, passionately sharing our experience, knowledge, ideas and inventions with the general public via TV, radio, newspapers, public events and workshops .

We have created the notion of “SpurTopia”, a small kingdom where we are living a fulfilling and happy life.

Sharing is Caring - Do you Care?

Sharing is caring

 We care and that is a reason why we are sharing. We share with passion which is infectious so people are awakening and sharing the passion with others. Altogether we will make a difference.

Once more and more people start to care, the world will become a more enjoyable place to live in. And it will be.

Many thanks to Nancy and Andrew Kent from The Inspiration Garden for being a part of the Open Garden day where we shared our sustainable ideas and inventions.

We also shared our beekeeping experience in the "How to start Beekeeping" workshop with over 30 keen people at SpurTopia's place. They came to learn how to start keeping  honey bees in a backyard from scratch. This shows how much people care as without bees and their pollination we would not have over 2/3 of the food we eat.  So .... Be Free with Bees.

As we want to share more and an increasing number of people are eager to learn, we have decided to run  more workshops on specific topics at our place.

SpurTopians with Nancy and Andrew from The Inspiration Garden

Bees, bees, bees, what would we be without you?

SpurTopia's Formula for Happiness

The "happiness formula" works so well for us that we want to share it with you.

“Every single moment you can, act to the best of your ability as this contains the highest amount of excitement (joy, love, creativity and passion), take it as far as you can and keep doing that with zero assumption, insistence or expectation of the outcome of what that action ought to be.”

Inspiring public at "What's cooking in the garden" event

Living sustainably and walking lightly on the planet is a wonderful lifestyle and the way of the future which excites us the most. Sharing with and inspiring people while igniting a light of the true values of life, fulfils us and makes us happy. More importantly, acting without any expectations of final outcomes and financial benefits (we do everything on a donation basis), brings us to another dimension of life where it is possible to achieve everything. And it really, really, really works. We are getting more and more people interested in how we live and what we do, our sustainable living talks, our presentations and workshops.   

In the last few days we:
- Inspired university students as part of a  QUT leadership, development and innovation program.
- Taught people to make self-watering planter boxes and "showed and told" our way of life during SpurTopia Open Day.
- Shared our sustainable living and practical ideas at the SpurTopia stall and during a presentation at the "What’s cooking in the Garden" event at Redcliffe.

If you live and do a whole day according to what you really want, that would be the highest achievement which would make us incredibly happy. Imagine that everyone would live like that - the world would be completely different. And It Will Be...

Lada is speaking public at the event  

Concrete yard as a large workshop

Self-watering boxes group

Sustainable living Demonstration

Play time

SpurTopia on SBS radio

SpurTopia interview on SBS radio

We are constantly sharing and inspiring people to live sustainably not only in our local area but also Australia wide and internationally. Check the Czechs (SpurTopians) on SBS Radio interview in the Czech language which was aired 24 July 2014.

We Are What We Eat - Grow Your Own Food

Creating a no-dig garden bed

Empowering people to grow their own food allows them to eat fresh and organic fruit and vegies, be healthier, save money, provide physical and mental exercise, connect with nature and be less reliant and  future resilient.

If people knew how conventional food has been produced and stored, they would not buy it and either grow it at home or purchase it from an organic farmer. With the  amount of "artificial and dead" food people eat it is surprising how the human body can cope continue living.

We are what we eat. It is all about education. And that is why we freely share our knowledge and experience of growing your own  food. In the last few days we have been sharing our gardening and alternative lifestyle knowledge with people to inspire and encourage them to take the first step.

• Filming for Bris 31 TV gardening program Blooming in Brisbane and aiming to have a regular segment – it starts 10 Sept.
• Demonstration of ideas and inventions at DIY Vertical Gardening Workshop at Loganlea Community Centre
• Hands on Workshop – no-dig garden at the Community Garden Bethania Street Wynnum

Talking gardening ideas and  inventions

The TV producer - Lada

10 Top Sustainable Living Tips for Rentals

The majority of Australians live in cities where about 30 per cent of people live in rental properties.
Tenants usually feel restricted in what they can, and mainly cannot, do. Why should they be bothered to adapt their home to be more sustainable, if they eventually have to move on to another property?
Does renting mean that they cannot live sustainably? Even if you don’t have a garden or much room, you can still grow herbs or vegetables, for example.
Though we feel like rulers of the Earth, we are actually a most vulnerable species, as we lost the art of simple living and we take most things in our daily lives for granted. What do we do in the event of a power outage or loss of power supply, for example? We don’t consider these things any more.

SpurTopia Residence - Block of 5 unit with a small backyard

Our family have been living in a rental property in New Farm for more than five years. We have adopted a lifestyle of being less reliant on the system and becoming self-sufficient. We do this by growing our own food, using resources readily available to us and using the urban environment to our benefit. As a result, we have also created a more resilient existence.
Sustainable living to us means an enhancement of life, lowering our living expenses and being environmentally aware without compromising our comfort or incurring extra expenditure.
We have created “A Small Kingdom”, where we are living a fulfilling life in complete happiness. Enjoying every moment of life, having a sense of belonging in our community and achievement in our aims encourages us to take further steps into an amazing future ahead of all of us.

We would like to share with you our sustainable-living tips that any tenant can employ to get you inspired to take the first step along this path.

10 top sustainable living tips

Self-watering planter box

1. Grow your own food – in a small garden bed, a pot, even in polystyrene vegetable box. Create your garden on a balcony or a patio. Focus on herbs and lettuce to start with. These are easy to grow and quick to harvest. Start small and then build from there.

Sprouting on a kitchen bench

2. Sprouting – sprouts are one of the healthiest, freshest and cheapest superfoods you can eat. You can grow them on a kitchen bench in a jar. In just a couple of days you have great sprouts to eat, while sprouts on the supermarket shelf can be several days old. Mix them with muesli or into fruit salad. Add lemon juice to enhance. The sprouting process significantly enhances vital energy, increases digestible protein, provides vitamins and minerals . Try sprouting mung beans, adzuki, lentils, fenugreek, wheat, barley, rye and alfalfa. Soak seeds overnight, then rinse twice daily in an airy container. Once sprouts mature, they can be stored in a fridge for a couple a days.

Worm farm as a planter pot

3. Recycle organic materials – recycle your organic kitchen scraps, newspaper and cardboard in a worm farm which can be made with a bucket with a lid or a styrofoam vegetable box. This saves organic material clogging up landfills and prevents rotten smells in your normal rubbish bin. As a reward you get a nice earthy compost as a potting mix for pots and a high-nutrition worm juice, an organic fertiliser which plants love.

4. Green Power - purchase 100 per cent green power from your electricity supplier. It doesn’t cost a fortune (extra 5c per kWh), and your power comes from renewable sources of energy.

Rosella Jam

5. Home produce – is healthier and more environmentally friendly, it saves money, is usually better quality and you know what it’s been made of. Think home-baked bread and cakes, preserves, cleaning products using vinegar and bicarbonate soda, aloe vera, for example).

6. Freecycle - give stuff away, get stuff for free from web based Freecycle organisation local to your area. Stuff you no longer want can find a home rather than being dumped to land fill. Or even easier, put unwanted stuff on the footpath with a "free" sign. It usually goes in a day!

Our community BBQ night

7. Functional community - get know your neighbours, swap produce, give stuff away, socialize. It’s fun and provides a sense of belonging in your community.

8. Active transport - walking, cycling and using public transport are better for the environment and your health. Think a car costs about $10,000 a year to run, and a gym membership costs about $600. If you bike, it costs nothing and you don’t need gym membership!

9. Five R's - Refuse-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Repair

10. Get out and smash it - do not make excuses and start now. Start with the easiest, smallest thing such as a pot of basil. Do that now and then add more as you go.

SpurTopia inspired thousands of Queensland Garden Expo visitors

SpurTopia stall at the QLD Garden Expo

SpurTopia had a stall and gave presentations at the biggest Queensland Garden Expo, in Nambour. Over three days of sharing useful information, ideas, inventions and practical tips and tricks for day-to-day use, we inspired thousands of people to become less reliant, more sustainable and environmentally aware while reducing living expenses and living healthier lifestyles. The overwhelming positive responses fuel us to carry on with spreading our messages.

To share knowledge rather than competing and making money
A new era of sharing for the benefit of others and the entire community is the way to go.

To revive what was common half a century ago but somehow got lost in the translation
How is it possible that our grandparents lived a more or less self-sufficient life, producing their own food, clothes and doing everything by themselves while now with all our so called “society progress” and all the available technology, it is unthinkable to be self-sufficient? In fact, we are so reliant on food, energy and healthcare supply that we have become a very vulnerable and unhealthy society.

To brighten up our children's future
Our current way of life leaves our children a lot of “garbage” to deal with. So when your children ask you in the future, “Daddy, Mummy if you knew what was happening, What Did You Do about it?”, what will your answer be?

Sharing ideas 

Presentation

 Everyone enjoyed the event

Talking sprouts

SpurTopia Happy Day

New styrofoam box gardeners

SpurTopia had a great afternoon which was sunny but a bit windy. Plenty of self-watering planter boxes were made and countless useful and practical information and ideas were shared. Seeing people being inspired and being grateful for what they have learned, makes us happy and keeps us going. Many thanks to all who came today and for your donations to help us continue to run these workshops.

It's priceless to receive feedback like this:

"Hi Jana, Roman and Lada,
Just wanted to send a quick email thanking you for a wonderfully informative and inspiring talk this afternoon about sustainability, I can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
On the drive home we have planned our cockroach killing spree and washing powder cook up.
With your lovely clear blue eyes, healthy skin and happy smiles you are all beautiful examples of living well on what is provided by mother nature. Thank you to Jana for allowing us to take a little snip of Aloe Vera, we planted him when we got home. We love your stories Roman, in particular the one about the “road kill possum”. :-)
Blessings to you all.
Helen and Terry. "



Intro

Making boxes in progress

Lada overseeing the workshop

Grand garden tour

Power of a community

Our sustainable living talk on the Sunshine Coast

What one can create is nothing compared to what a community can achieve. On Saturday we were invited to the Yandina Community Gardens on the Sunshine Coast to talk about our gardening, sustainable living and the importance of living in a functional community. People from the local community were inspired by what we do and how we live in a small community of five units in Brisbane city. We were also very impressed with the community gardens - productive, blossoming gardens full of fruiting trees, lush greens, ponds, a native beehive, an aquaponic system, a stylish cob oven and a cosy community building - all run by friendly volunteers. It was very inspirational for us to see what people in a community such as Yandina Community Gardens have accomplished.

Presentation in progress

"Blue House" at Yandina community gardens