As part of this initial roll-out, the Northern Rivers-based company  has also announced a unique energy plan involving the establishment of a renewable energy initiative to be used to support communities who want to build their own renewable energy generation.

Initial responses have been enthusiastic. “It’s early days,” said Steve Harris, Enova’s CEO, “but we are excited by the response we have had so far, which has returned a 100% sign up rate of new customers approached. We feel this is an early indication that Enova is able to provide customers with what they want – a real choice in how they can supply energy to their homes and businesses.”

Harris explained that this careful initial roll-out to Enova supporters, ahead of the company’s official launch, was providing the Enova team with a chance to test offers, systems and processes, and to get real time feedback so necessary adjustments could be made before officially launching to a wider public audience later in the month.

Enova is offering a range of plans to suit all budgets for both residents and businesses. We are also rewarding those customers not on the 60c feed-in tariff by offering a very generous 10c feed in tariff. This plan will also be available to customers who roll off the 60c feed in tariff at the end of the year. “We are particularly heartened by the number of people who have chosen our unique plan, Enova Renewable Development Initiative,” said Harris.

The plan is another Australian first for Enova. By choosing this plan, Enova will put aside 13% of a customer’s standard bill which will then be used to assist communities with the initial business case development. In effect customers are foregoing a discount to help get local renewable energy off the ground in this region.

“We are particularly impressed with the number of people who have chosen to support our Renewable Development Initiative, this is what power by the people for the people really looks like,” said Harris. “All Enova staff, energy consultants and coaches  as well as solar experts and installation technicians are based at the company’s head office in Byron Bay.

Beyond providing jobs and supporting regional growth, Enova is providing a choice to its customers, Harris said. “If you don’t want the money you pay on your electricity bill supporting the development of coal seam gas or fossil fuel generation, and you want assurance of profits staying in the region, then sign up with Enova and support a cleaner future.”

Meet Enova Energy Coaches at Upcoming Events https://www.enovaenergy.com.au/events/

Events scheduled in Murwillumbah, Brunswick Heads, Tweed, Mullumbimby and Nimbin over the coming weeks.

“We realise that for too long the Energy industry has been complex and confusing, and we want to make it simple for people to access sustainable energy, and to understand what energy they are using, what it costs and how they can save,” said Steve Harris. “Showcasing these events sends a strong message that Enova is accessible, and not in an office offshore. We’re here, we’re part of this community and we want to get to know our customers.”

www.enovaenergy.com.au

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These beautiful hand-made soy wax candles in recycled bottles come from local Northern Rivers designers Samson & Bronc – who have a special story behind their Mother’s Day Bulgarian Rose candle.

Sam remembered his mother talking about his great-grandmother and great-grandfather, and the rose garden they’d created together in the garden of their villa in Bulgaria. “My great-grandfather, Frank, was an English diplomat and Eva was an Irish nurse, and they met in Varna where they married and had a family. They had a huge garden, and they filled it with roses. When the second World War broke out, my great-grandmother had to leave Bulgaria for England with her five children. She never saw Frank again. He was killed in Egypt, but many years later Eva showed my mother letters from him talking about how one day they would recreate their Bulgarian rose garden.”

When Sam also discovered that Bulgarian Rose Otto was the most highly prized fragrant essential oil in the world, the story and the perfume came together.

“We chose Bulgarian Rose for so many reasons – roses are a symbol of love,” he says, “and this candle is created for a love story – we’re proud of this candle, and we hope it lights up your Mother’s Day.”

Get your Samson & Bronc Mother’s Day Candle from The Harvest Deli, Flowers at the Farm, Bangalow Post Office, Millar & Moore and various Loot stores.

To order online go to samsonandbronc/candles/

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Julie Paterson’s iconic patterns, inspired by the Australian landscape, grace houses and buildings around the world, including singer Jack Johnson’s Byron Bay home, and the Byron at Byron resort.

When Cloth Fabric founder Julie Paterson first arrived in Australia from England twenty-odd years ago with a textile degree and two hundred pounds in her pocket, she thought she’d “give it a go for year or so”.   With an already-bulging portfolio of textile designs, she went to see the bed linen company, Sheridan, who bought some designs from her on the spot, so Julie and her then-boyfriend could continue their travels around Australia in the traditional “army-green Kombi, with a dirty white canoe on top”.

It’s worthwhile noting Paterson’s use of the words ‘army-green’ and ‘dirty-white’ because, as becomes obvious reading her wonderful book, ClothBound, the idea of colours, patterns and finding ways to offer them to the world at large was wired into her right from the moment she began to take notice of the world around her, including her mother’s cheerfully garish use of loud 1970s furnishings: “slubby woven curtains in big brown and cream stripes, clashing orange and lime geometric printed vinyl wallpaper, forest-green cut-pile swirly patterned carpet…” It’s a far cry from Paterson’s now iconic textile design range with materials as close to their natural state as possible, and with much or her work a paean of praise to her adopted home, to the rich colours and flora of Australia.

Old Man Banksia outside Julie’s workspace in the Blue Mountains.

Paterson’s connection to the Byron Bay region lies in the amazing work she first did ten years ago for the Byron at Byron resort, which when it first opened its door, was, without doubt the most brilliant example of how textile design could link architectural design, the natural environment and interior design. Ten years later Paterson is working on the refurbishment of the resort and I’ve no doubt that the results will be as spectacular.  Paterson’s artworks and furnishings are in resorts such as Heron Island, Hayman Island and Lord Howe Island – for those locals who have always wondered if Jack Johnson really did buy a house in Byron Bay, he did, and Cloth Fabric supplied much of the furnishings for it.

It wasn’t long after she’d settled in Sydney that Paterson discovered the Blue Mountains. She’d started her first business, Print House Furnishings, with Penny Simons, a friend who had also travelled to Australia with her, but drawn towards living in a more isolated and natural environment, she settled on Blackheath, where, curiously, she and her partner Amanda Kaye, have owned the same house twice.

Cloth Fabric textile designer and author of ClothBound, Julie Paterson.

It was in the Blue Mountains that Paterson’s innate artistry came to the fore – throwing away all her previous design ‘rules’ she began to experiment with – well, anything she could get her hands on. In the book, which is as tactile as a book can be, she writes that “Imperfection is our ally”. With both she and Simons allowing themselves to experiment, there was no such thing as a mistake any more – even the craziest splash of paint had potential. It was the freedom of those decisions that has created the ongoing outpouring of not only fabric designs, but paintings, drawings and artworks of all kinds, that has established Paterson as one of the most inventive designers in Australia today. Wonderfully cheerful sections named simply ‘curly’, ‘squares’ and ‘scratchy, for example, show the almost child-like pleasure Paterson takes in creation for creation’s sake. (And if there is a personal lesson for me in this book – it’s to never forget to ‘play’ with creativity.)

Julie’s ‘Imperfect Manifesto’ – a simple mantra by which to live.

Living in the Blue Mountains, the natural world has impinged more and more into Paterson’s ideas, and the Wollemi pine, discovered 20 years ago in a secret location, is one of her favourite reoccurring themes. “In the local language wollemi means, ‘Watch out, look around you.’ I like that – an ancient tree that counsels us to be mindful and to notice our surroundings.”

Perhaps if the Wollemi could talk it would also agree with Paterson’s credo: ‘Simplicity takes time.’ For those of us living busy, hectic lives, this book is a beautiful reminder of the power of surrendering to one’s inner life, a testament to imagination, and a veritable treasure-chest of colour, beauty and inspiration.

ClothBound is published by Murdoch Books rrp $51.50, 238pp

For more information on Julie Paterson and Cloth Fabric go to: https://clothfabric.com/

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David Young and Kate Platt on the verandah of their beautiful new B&B, Abelia House.

There’s nothing Verandah Magazine likes better than a great verandah, so when we heard that interior design guru Kate Platt and photographer David Young had opened their new five star B&B, Abelia House, just outside Byron Bay, Candida Baker popped down for a sticky beak.

If you’re in the southern end of Byron on any given day, you might very well see a bright lemon-yellow motorized bicycle whizzing down the hill towards the café on the corner of the cemetery road, or perhaps more importantly, as photographer David Young, the bike’s owner points out: “Whizzing back up the hill.”

It’s a form of transport that suits Young’s latest lifestyle well, since he and his wife, interior desiger Kate Platt, finished their latest project – the beautifully appointed, newly-built Abelia House, both their home and a stylish bed and breakfast, just a few kilometres from Byron. “But most of those kilometres are downhill,” says Young, “which means inevitably you’ve got uphill on the way home. I didn’t want to add to my carbon footprint by taking the car up and down, so that’s why I invested in the bike.”

The house, which sits in two acres of garden, is in a community title where no domestic pets are allowed, and each residence has plenty of space around it. The result is the feeling of a gated park – and somewhat unusually for this area, with its macadamia-covered hills – a true sense of the bush, the beautiful soft green-greys of the surrounding eucalypts contrasting with Platt’s pride and joy – her garden, which even in winter is a riot of a colour.

The Garden Room at Abelia House. Photo: David Young

Colour, of course, for those that might remember Platt’s name from her days as a fashion designer in Sydney, is Platt’s trademark. Originally a graduate from the National Art School (where their 22-year-old son Myles is now studying), Platt was one of the first designers to embrace a funky shop in Paddington’s Oxford Street in Sydney, where her angular patterns where embraced by the Sydney glitterati. And not just Sydney either – when Platt moved up to Byron in 1988 she was sending her prints and fashions around the world from her own factory in North Richmond and she employed around 30 people.

“I moved up to the Byron Bay area because I had a six-month old baby,” she says, “and I really wanted a less hectic lifestyle.” She bought herself a 120-year-old cottage in the hinterland village of Eureka and set about renovating it – applying her love of design to her new home. “It really gave me a taste for designing,” she says. “I started by doing simple things, designing bathroom renovations. Then someone asked me to design a house in town, and gradually this new career was born, which I loved, and still love.”

In the meantime Young was on his own career trajectory as a highly-paid advertising photographer in Sydney, but facing personal and emotional burn-out, he too decided to take the trip north, landing in Byron Bay in 1991. “I’d been living up here for about six months when I met Kate,” he says. “By then Isaac, her son, was three, and not long after I met her I moved into her house at Eureka, and we went on to have our son Myles.”

Creativity with an iPhone – coffee break at the Byron Markets. Photo: David Young

Doing up the house at Eureka had ignited Platt’s flair for house-design, and soon Platt had clients lining up for her services. “I started doing simple things, designing bathroom renovations and small jobs, then a couple asked me design a house for them in town, and I really enjoyed doing that,” she says.

The career turn allowed the couple to take on a new project of their own – having sold the house in Eureka (to singer Pete Murray), Platt focussed her energies on their massive Tuscan-style property in Ewingsdale, ‘Auaucaria’, which also functioned as a B&B. “It was an interesting journey,” she says, “because we’d intended it would be our superannuation, but we hadn’t really planned on what it would be like having such a huge house once the kids had left home. We were really rattling around in it, and that’s when we decided we’d like to down-size and also live closer to town.”

Running several businesses seems to be almost essential in this area, and the combination of using their beautiful new home with its gracious wrap-around verandah as a B&B with their respective careers as designer and photographer works well, says Young. “We play to our strengths,” he says. “I do all the IT work on the site, make sure we’re on the right places, Kate monitors everything and does the breakfasts – she decides if she’ll put the flower here or there!”

Being close to town has also given Young a surprising new angle to his photography – his amazing iPhoneography. “The iPhone is an amazing tool,” he says. “I’ve really experienced a resurgence of immediate creativity – just being able to have it in my pocket, and recording just what I see in front of me without having to take a heavy camera with me gives you great liberty to move around.” Aided and abetted of course, by his bright yellow bike.

Abelia House – Web site https://abeliahouse.com/ 6/146 Old Bangalow Rd,  Byron Bay, NSW, 2481, Australia

David Young:https://www.davidyoung.com.au/

David’s email  [email protected]

Kate Platt:https://www.kateplatt.com/

Kate’s email [email protected]

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Hinterland holiday accommodation available through planbooktravel.com.au

Search Planula and its beautiful verandah out in wotif.com

This beautiful beachhouse is available through environment.nsw.gov.au

Simple, classic, bush, beach and surf – available through environmentnsw.gov.au

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