Journalist Brian Kelly interviews Cath Blakey, a Greens councillor for Ward 2, which covers the central part of Wollongong
Reports, votes, amendments, briefings, papers … those who make decisions about our bins and things soon get to know the scenic route to getting stuff done.
So it would seem Cath Blakey’s decision to return to Australia the slow way was perfect preparation to be a Wollongong councillor, a role she began in 2017.
Having lived and worked in the UK (“I kept finding jobs I liked – and falling in love!”), the Greens representative could have jumped on a jet and been back the next day but chose differently.
“I had an amazing time over a year … across Europe, then through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, and then I yacht-hitched to Thailand,” said Blakey of a trip that eventually ended in Townsville.
“When I doubt myself, I remember this trip and reflect that I can be tenacious.”
Blakey lived in Mangerton and Bulli as a child before attending Wollongong High School and the city’s university, where her honours thesis was on Bellambi wetlands and how nutrient recycling works. It’s small wonder she took an internship at Britain’s Centre for Alternative Technology.
“The locals call it ‘the shit and wind’ because it’s all about compostable toilets and wind farms – it’s been going since the ’70s and was getting 60,000 visitors a year, and that was just phenomenal,” she said.
Blakey’s path to the Greens began at school through the Wilderness Society and ecological restorers Bushcare, through which she met Greens member Rowan Huxtable, becoming his babysitter and joining his choir.
“We were singing about a union history I had no idea of, and I loved the stories of what’s possible, and how people working together can create change,” she said.
Like many councillors, Blakey had a job within council before being elected, a role in waste education helping to give her unrivalled background to initiate the FOGO collection scheme in 2021. The project collects kitchen and garden scraps for composting and has saved more than 400 tonnes of waste a month from landfill since starting.
FOGO has been one of council’s great recent success stories, but Blakey is keen for the idea to go further: “We need to get more apartments … and commercial premises on board. There is a higher rate of contamination in apartments, and the same goes for recycling.”
As to priorities, Blakey feels her party and council are spoiled for choice. “We need to consolidate strategies such as climate mitigation, the pedestrian/cycling plan … it’s about looking at what council is responsible for,” she said.
“We’re lucky that we have such an engaged community … and the climate conversation has moved on a lot, partly because things have been so grim with bushfires and floods.
“I’ve been concerned about climate change for a long time, but I never thought potholes would be a climate issue!”