Organised by Corrimal Rotary, the GreenFest sustainability expo is back this Sunday.
The free family fun day at Corrimal High School will feature more than 30 stalls, Landcare lessons, Bush Magic Therapy, ABC radio stars, raffles and a Rotary sausage sizzle.
“This year we’ve got a food truck, a coffee van, activities for kids and families… we’re going to have our sausage sizzle and a bit of an op shop. We’ve got stall holders giving talks and demonstrations,” says the president of Corrimal Rotary, Linda Bunclark.
“It’s a fun day, and an interactive event. We’re going to have a passport activity for kids, so they can go around and get stamps for interacting with different things.”
Held from 10am-2pm on April 13, 2025's GreenFest will feature environmental leaders in Landcare, permaculture, recycling and renewable energy. Bike and Blend – where guests can blitz a smoothie through pedal power – will be back and there'll be a raffle and prizes on offer.
“We’ve got some really great people coming – Bush Magic Therapy, for example. She does some nature exploration that's actually therapeutic for kids,” Linda says.
“And Mark Matthews, who’s an ABC celebrity. He hosts The Compost Heap with gardener and naturalist John Gabriel on ABC Radio. They’re both coming.
“We’ve also got an organisation called Green Gravity coming back this year. They’re based at UOW and they’re looking at creating energy from unused mine shafts, which is really interesting. We’ve also got some people bringing some electric cars to have a look at.”
As president of Corrimal Rotary, Linda works to support local organisations such as Escabags, Women Illawarra, The Imagination Library program, and various youth programs.
"We're doing GreenFest as a community service – it's not a fundraising activity, as we would normally do when we raise money for other things. But we are giving back to the community for a purpose – the environment is one and community education is another area of focus that Rotary has," Linda says.
GreenFest is the brainchild of Corrimal Rotary Environmental Group (CREG), whose president, Dilys Hoser, was recently awarded a Rise & Shine award from Wollongong Council.
“CREG formed about three or four years ago with the primary aim of doing beach plastics clean-ups,” Linda says.
“We were combining the clean-ups with Bushcare and Landcare people, and thought – wouldn't it be great if we actually had all of these different people come together for something? Because sometimes they work in isolation and they don't see each other, sometimes they're overlapping with the work they do,
“So we said, let's get everyone together and have a bit of an expo, and talk about who's doing what.”
Linda says GreenFest is a great opportunity for the local eco-conscious community to share knowledge and work together.
“It’s all about awareness and education, really,” Linda says.
“Stall holders have the chance to meet with others in the space, but also those organisations promote themselves and especially if they're looking for volunteers – then here's an opportunity to find volunteers and for people to be informed.
“If you’re passionate about something, you can find out more about it and maybe join or volunteer there. So our community is more aware of what's going on and how they can actually be involved, maybe even through their own home garden.
"Every stall can teach you something, whether it's bigger or smaller scale.”
Entry to GreenFest 2025 is free and it will be at Corrimal High School from 10am-2pm on Sunday, 13 April.