Dr Carolien Hoogland is proof that you don’t have to have a lot of cash to live comfortably.
In the name of research, the academic from The Netherlands spent an entire year living in the city without money.
The experiment focused around her ability to create a localised cashless economy.
Piffle you say! Well be sure to get along to Hawkesbury EarthCare Centre on Saturday (July 23) and hear how Dr Hoogland made it work.
Dr Hoogland will serve as guest speaker at the centre’s next sustainability winter workshop.
Running from 5pm to 7pm, visitors will be treated to insights into Dr Hoogland’s experiences.
She set about completing the exercise once she had finished her PhD in environmental psychology.
Staying outside of the conventional economic system, Dr Hoogland made one-on-one bartering agreements to make ends meet.
All of her food needs were covered by agreements made with an organic restaurant, an organic farm and an organic shop in her neighbourhood.
In exchange, she worked on various projects, such as creating an education program for children in the neighbourhood on food.
Bookings to attend the workshop are essential and either cost $10 per person, or by bartering one volunteer hour in the centre’s organic community garden.
Hawkesbury EarthCare Centre is located on the corner of Science Road and Campus Drive, Western Sydney University, Hawkesbury Campus.
Details: info@earthcare.org.au or www.earthcare.org.au.
