Totally Renewable Yackandandah

21/03/2026

We’re so grateful to be a small part of Yackandandah and the Folk Festival and want to say a big thank you to everyone. Apart from the amazing artists, we are so impressed by the remarkable people who pull together across most clubs, committees, organisations and volunteers to deliver an awesome weekend and a real sense of community!

Reflecting on the enduring relationship between TRY and the Yack Folk Festival (now in its 10th year!), we feel we have made a contribution to the Folk Festival and Yack that has made it a national exemplar for energy innovation. Those efforts are ongoing – in 2026, TRY and the festival have collaborated to improve the lighting across town to enhance safety and add to the festivity – mostly solar-powered of course!

Work remains to address key dull places, but we trust your festival was just brighter! And a big shout out to the tireless folks on the festival committee!

09/03/2026

The Yack Folk Festival is 11 days away – Yack's largest and most collaborative event!

TRY and YFF have an enduring relationship with many years of mutual support, with one of our contributions being ongoing innovations in lighting and power. TRY also assisted the festival to achieve carbon-neutral status in 2018 and the event now generates 6 times more power than is used over the weekend (yackfolkfestival.com/about/sustainability/)

The Festival is volunteer-run and TRY has traditionally provided helpers, as a simple act that we can do to support a renewable energy transition in Yack. We contribute a few hours of our time and the Festival has generously provided funding to TRY. Volunteering is a small way we can return the favour and help make the event even better.

So, if you're a TRY member and have a couple of spare hours on the 20th to 22nd March, get in touch with [email protected]

And if you want to experience some amazing music with 200 Australian and international performers, you'd better be quick!
–– yackfolkfestival.com ––

Yackandandah Folk Festival 2026 Yackandandah Folk Festival Totally Renewable Beechworth Totally Renewable Indigo North

08/02/2026

After a bit of a false start with our link the other night (ironic given the power outage!) TRY has targeted grant funds from AusNet to spend ***

BUT we need Yack's help!

–– SURVEY 👉 https://forms.office.com/r/ftccQXXEE7 ––

We're launching FREE energy support for households and businesses in the Yack area thanks to AusNet. But we need to hear from you FIRST to provide the type of help that YOU want.

So, we've put together a short 2-minute survey on what kinds of support would be most useful, for topics such as:

– solar & batteries,
– insulation,
– getting off gas,
– understanding your bill,
– or preparing for the next outage?

It takes about 2 minutes and you can stay anonymous if you prefer.

–– SURVEY 👉 https://forms.office.com/r/ftccQXXEE7 ––

If you've thought about any of these or related energy topics, we need your feedback (even if you can't take action right now). As you can see, some locals have already taken the plunge, and this is open to everyone in the Yack area.

MORE INFO available on page 8 of the latest Yackity Yak!

Supported by AusNet's ENERGY RESILIENCE COMMUNITY FUND (further developing our 2025 work due to the recent generous grant from AusNet).

— feeling excited.

06/02/2026

TRY is launching free energy support for households and businesses in the Yackandandah area thanks to funding support from AusNet. But we need to hear from you first.

We've put together a short survey to understand what kinds of support would be most useful — whether that's help with solar, batteries, insulation, getting off gas, understanding your bill, or preparing for the next outage.

It takes about 2 minutes and you can stay anonymous if you prefer.
👉 https://forms.office.com/r/ftccQXXEE7

MORE INFO available on page 8 of the latest Yackity Yak!

Supported by AusNet's Energy Resilience Community Fund.

22/11/2025

If you're up Bright way on Tuesday evening, take advantage of the *BATTERY INFO SESSION* by Sustainable Upper Ovens at the Bright Brewery.

SUO are part of the Community Energy Network with TRY and have some amazing programs on the go. They're also collaborating with some familiar faces from our local area, Indigo Power and Solar Integrity. If you missed TRY's Home Battery Session in September, this is an opportunity to find out what you need to know before the end of the year (and who can resist an evening at the Bright Brewery!)

Tagging other local groups in case you're interested:
Totally Renewable Beechworth Totally Renewable Indigo North Wangaratta Landcare & Sustainability 2030Yea: Community Energy Clean Energy Nillumbik Mitchell Community Energy Myrtleford Neighbourhood Centre Renewable Energy Benalla

06/10/2025

A morning stroll in downtown Yack would have uncovered the amazing folks from the Yack Gardening Club... Independent of TRY, the club hit on the idea of buying a battery powered wheelbarrow and mobile watering system.

What a cool resolution and locally funded.

30/09/2025

Who would have thought – it seems TRY is now on display at the Melbourne Museum!

The museum has just opened a a new permanent multisensory gallery focusing on biodiversity and the future of our planet, called –– Our Wondrous Planet –– (to be in place for approximately 10 years!)

The new extensive gallery aims to inspire people to action for a healthy, biodiverse planet – empowering them to nurture our natural world and our home for generations to come.

What an honour! Our story is a snippet among many others highlighting actions that care for our planet and communities. We're inspired by the many stories on biodiversity and sustainability that are on display – and that Yack's included!

Next time you drop into the Museum, check it out – we're on an interactive table called What if? With a short description of what TRY has been doing and a photo of the Yack Community Centre project.

https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/whats-on/our-wondrous-planet/

Photo credits: Museums Victoria & TRY

Indigo Power Indigo Shire Council YCDCo: Yackandandah Community Development Company Coalition for Community Energy Hepburn Energy Community Power Agency Yackandandah Community Centre

29/09/2025

–– WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW? ––
There are still two more workshops in our electrification series to go on the
13 October and 10 November.

So what do you want to know more about?

* another battery workshop?
* comfortable homes on any budget?
* being outage ready, to ride out mains power cuts?
* what about EVs?
* or hot water systems?

All the above can also reduce your household running costs and your emissions.

Let us know what would be helpful in this 5-minute survey!

– Electrification workshops survey –
https://www.menti.com/al3z82ihozjq

Survey open till October 5 for everyone in the Yack area (including past attendees and those interested but who can’t make the next two workshops).

Be heard, collaborate, and share ideas—make meetings and classes more engaging with real conversations.

25/09/2025

There was a great turn out to Monday's workshop in Yack on Home Batteries, and great engagement via questions and feedback afterwards. We were grateful yet again for the interest and support of the Yack community. We all learnt what makes up the components in your electricity bill and how you can influence that while getting other benefits. You can read about the session here:

* Is a Household Battery right for me? * https://totallyrenewableyack.org.au/2025/09/is-a-household-battery-right-for-me/

We are running at least two more workshops in October and we'd like to hear what topics you would like. Is another battery workshop your thing? Do you want to be outage ready? Or know about EVs or hot water systems?

Do this 5-minute survey and help us decide what the next workshop will be! The survey will be open until October 5.

https://www.menti.com/al3z82ihozjq

TRY seeks funding for all our projects, and the initiatives are designed to reduce costs for participants, while bringing other benefits – these workshops are free!

22/09/2025

REMINDER – our Household Batteries workshop is on tonight! It's all about the Why, What and How of household batteries – come along and find out more. Registration is open until 4 pm today.

Monday 22 September
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

REGISTER:
https://www.trybooking.com/DFFDR

MORE INFO:
https://totallyrenewableyack.org.au/.../talk-and-qa.../

17/09/2025

TRY's President Matthew Charles-Jones and past President and founder, Matt Grogan, were interviewed recently by Wendy Agar for her EmPOWER podcast series. Titled "Regional Voices: Lessons from Totally Renewable Yackandandah", in the 30 minute interview they spoke about TRY's achievements, the ingredients that went into that and how to bring people along.

The takeaways are to build trust and partnerships, a sense of belonging and agency, and set yourself up to succeed by working with a diverse range of small activities. But still leverage people's imagination and celebrate and work towards big ideas – big audacious, ambitious goals.

Success has many parents, failure is an orphan. Perhaps you could say it's been raised by a village...

In this episode of emPOWER, Wendy Agar sits down with Matt Charles-Jones (MCJ) and Matt Grogan from Yackandandah, Victoria, to explore how a small regional town has taken charge of its energy future. Both deeply involved in the Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) movement, they share practical less...