Heartlands : the promised land

The highly populated Eastern seaboard of Australia is subject to enormous pressures. The demands of agriculture and the urban sprawl have led to poor land management and unsustainable use of the land. This program looks at land use on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland as an example of the problems caused by bad planning. It focuses on a number of individuals who have envisaged new and more sustainable ways of inter-relating with the land they live and work on. They all emphasise that breaking the cycle of stress on the land requires radical shifts in the way we think. Max Lindiger promotes the creation of small self-sustaining communities, rather than ever-expanding urban sprawl as a way of reducing suburban isolation and costly food transportation. Margaret Skelton and her husband have turned to permaculture as a way of efficiently using their small block of land. Permaculture is an intensive, organic agricultural system which conserves natural resources and produces a surplus of food. Sugar has been a staple crop of the Nambour region for many years. However the heavy use of chemicals have depleted the land which, since the decline of the sugar industry, is being sold off for real estate. In order to retain the land for agriculture one farmer has turned to organic methods of farming.