New at Horsham House!

Horsham House wins Efficient Energy Award in the Horsham 2011 Tidy Towns Awards
On June 15th Horsham House was announced as the Efficient Energy Award winner in the Horsham Tidy Towns Awards 2011. This was in recognition of our reduction in energy use since we took on Horsham House in mid 2007 as well as our reduced 'energy intensity' in the past 12 months. In the four years since taking on Horsham House, we have prevented emissions of over 34 tonnes of CO2. We look forward to having an opportunity to help represent Horsham at the State Tidy Towns Awards in Rutherglen in October! (June 2011)

Room upgrades - 26 inch digital TVs!
Horsham House have replaced all the old analogue TVs with new 26 inch LCD/LED sets. These give you all the digital free-to-air channels in bright, full screen detail. We have also done the responsible thing and disposed of the five CRT sets through e-waste recycling - this keeps about 10 kgs of toxic lead out of landfill.

Fresh Horsham House produce!
Our seasonal bounty of fresh tomatoes, strawberries, basil, corn and potatoes are in full swing! Guests continue to have fresh garden-grown tomatoes grilled with their breakfasts, accompanied by the latest strawberries. Our blueberries are still a year away from production.

Keeping our garden fresh good and safe from nature's raiders
We at Horsham House have tried a couple of ways to protect our fruit and vegetables from birds and grasshoppers: a scarecrow and by netting the whole garden... The scarecrow (Ella) seemed to eat more than the birds, so we went with the netting!

We won in the Grow Me the Money Awards for Results event!
We are excited to announce that Horsham House won in the VECCI/EPA business sustainability Awards for Results event. This award recognises businesses who not only create annual action plans for business sustainability but achieve outcomes from these action plans. In the awards, two businesses were selected in the 4 employees and under category, with Clean and Gone the other successful entrant.

Award Winning VECCI EPA Grow Me The Money

We're a Statewide Finalist in the Keep Australia Beautiful Tidy Towns - Sustainable Communities Awards!
We are thrilled to be one of six finalists in the Water Conservation category! We're in good company with entrants from St Arnaud and Rainbow. Horsham is one of six Statewide Finalists in the overall award! We look forward to knowing more on October 9th! (We didn't win, but we were in great company! Congratulations to Lanes Construction for wimming the Towards Zero Waste Award!)

New local supplier of free range eggs
Our previous supply of free range eggs from St Arnaud have become unavailable - hens seem to resent the cold this year! After using suspiciously uniform supermarket-bought free range eggs in the interim we looked further... So we have a new supply via Green Eggs. This local food is produced just 80 klm away in Great Western. A family-run business, Allan and Shelley Green have gone as far as seeking rehoming for hens who've got to 'a certain age'. (July 2010)

Horsham House featured on The Age online
We're featured on Fairfax Digital! Horsham House has been featured in an article on resource savings in small business. With a focus on the monetary savings from reducing our resources use, we've helped spread the word that minimising our environmental impacts can pay for itself! (July 7th 2010)

Horsham House wins Water Conservation Award in the Horsham 2010 Tidy Towns Awards
On June 15th Horsham House was presented with the Water Conservation Award in the Wimmera Mail-Times - Horsham Tidy Towns Awards 2010. This was in recognition of our reduction in water use of 67% since we took on Horsham House in mid 2007. Compared to past consumption, we have save a total of over a million litres of drinking water in three years! (June 2010)

Solution for those hard-to-recycle gadgets
How to get rid of dead compact fluorescent lights?! We thought CFLs were supposed to last *ages*... but then we now have a collection of dead ones. The problem is that, like all fluoros, they have a little bit of mercury in them. So don't bin them! Our local Thriftylink hardware shop now has a recycling drop off for them. So check out your options before going for the circular filing cabinet!

More vegies on the way...
Our little friends Ella and John planting our Winter vegetable garden! We have planted garlic, leeks, spring onions, lettuce, beetroot, strawberries and peas! These will keep the blueberry bushes company, and the winter soups coming! Lots of compost from our kitchen and garden trimmings have kept our patch well fed. (April 2010)

Fresh fruit from Horsham House's garden
Our crop of rockmelons are coming into their own! They follow our roma tomato supply enjoyed by guests during summer. Fed by our compost made from kitchen and garden organic waste, they'll just get across the line with the kindly mild Autumn we're having so far. (April 2010)

Horsham House is a Finalist in the Premier's Sustainability Awards 2010!
Chris and Dallas entered the Premier's Sustainability Awards detailing the initiatives we've undertaken since we took on Horsham House in 2007. As you will see in our 'Environmental values' page, we have drastically reduced our water and energy consumption whilst minimising waste to landfill. Our latest actions have been to source more of our food locally. We buy our eggs from a producer in St Arnaud and make our own sourdough bread in-house. In addition, we seek to assist others in their sustainability objectives.

Rare species in environmental plantings at Horsham House!
Rare butterfly find! In early February we spotted the very rare golden-rayed blue butterfly feeding on our grass-replacement native groundcover (Myoporum parvifolium). This butterfly in known to exist only at three small lakes in the Wimmera and feeds and reproduces solely on this groundcover. For more information see the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority's story on this butterfly.

New to our breakfasts!
Sourdough bread. Horsham House's own hand made sour dough bread, using locally sourced Pink Lake Salt. Our bread is made by Chris after he undertook a course and obtained a mother culture (from which our bread is made). We are now in the process of sourcing locally grown and milled wheat for our bread.

Free range eggs. We now source our free range eggs from a producer near St Arnaud. This locally produced product comes from just over 100 klm west of Horsham. The eggs have bright yellow yolks, firm whites and come from happier chickens!

Homemade sourdough bread at Horsham House

Upgrade to our free WiFi system
A higher gain antenna (better!) has been installed which dramatically improves our wireless network range and data speed. We run a free WiFi b/g network for guest use.

Tour of Future Sustainability Leaders
We hosted a tour of about 40 high school students from Westernport, Melbourne and Wimmera regions during November. Our environmental initiatives in reducing our resource consumption and waste whilst preserving the heritage values of Horsham House were a clear demonstration of 'can do' change for the better! (November 2009)