by Sue Langeder

Created on: January 26, 2009

Australians are finally catching up to the advance thought of the Europeans in 'green thinking.' In our vast brown land, we have vast resources that can be converted into energy without the use of non-renewable resources, and now government is starting to catch on.

Due to Australia's worst drought on record and the escalating price of petrol, the Australian government has had to act fast in making households energy and resource independent as well as keeping the land clean of waste.

The government has introduced new policies on building new homes. Besides new regulations on insulating a house, each home has a choice of adding a water tank to the property or solar hot water system. There are cash rebates from the government for installing these necessities.

Citizens are becoming responsive to these policies due to the drought and concern for the environment. More and more families are putting in vegetable gardens in their backyards as the cost of fruit and vegetables skyrocket. Compost bins are now a permanent fixture next to the shed. Sprinklers are now a thing of the past.

Water tanks have come along way since the 1950s where there was a huge tin can on a stand with a tap in the backyard. Now they are slim line and have all types of uses. Some homes even install 20,000 litre tanks under the home to maximise the water available to the property. Water tanks are usually connected to the drain pipes and guttering system so that the water from the roof can be collected into the tank. Water tanks are then available to feed dripper irrigation systems that are set up for the garden and toilet cisterns. High end water tanks have filters to ensure all the water can be converted to drinking water and feed the entire house for bathing, kitchen needs, laundry needs and the garden.

I know of one household that has never tapped into the state water supply. They went on a 7 week vacation and during that vacation the water board sent them a note stating that their water meter was faulty and that they were going to change it over on a particular date that they were away. As they didn't know that this was happening (being overseas), they didn't have a chance to ring up the water board to tell them not to worry as they had 40,000 litre water tanks on the property so they were completely self-sufficient. The water board changed it over, none the wiser.

With Australia's raging sun, solar panels are perfect for every household. Attached to the roof line, anything between 8-16 panels will

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