Compost Revolution workshop 2016 in Tamworth focuses on bioenergy

Richard Walker said the the third event on the compost calendar, held on Wednesday, attracted about 80 people and was “absolutely wonderful”.

“There was a mixed lot of people there: council people, representatives from companies and there were a few farmers,” Mr Walker said.

“[The feedback was] that we had some of the best speakers they’d ever heard … I was struggling to find speakers about four months ago and it all fell into place.”

The idea for the series of workshops was initially to focus on effectively using poultry waste.

However, the organisers soon decided to broaden this to include other valuable waste resources such as green waste, food waste and abattoir waste.

“There are better outcomes for yields and income, and keeping overheads down because insecticide cost will be reduced, herbicide cost be reduced and your stock will have better returns,” Mr Walker said.

He said the workshops had followed a natural progression of what participants needed to know.

The first covered the science behind composting and soil biology; the second looked at the practicalities of composting; and the third covered bioenergy.

The speakers included National Farmers Federation vice-president Fiona Simson and Australian Organics Recycling Association executive officer Peter McLean. 

Mr Walker said one particularly interesting guest had been Peats Soil & Garden Supplies managing director Peter Wadewitz, who has been commercially processing compost for more than 40 years. He appeared on The New Inventors with his BiobiN, a skip-like composting unit for large enterprises.