Betty’s 2040 Utopia

SIESTA. High noon in March 2040, somewhere in the Noosa Hinterland. As usual my daughters and I escaped the hottest hours of the day and went to work in the Co-op Shed. The Shed is vast and water-cooled. We often meet neighbours in the mess-hall where the kitchen team prepares simple, clean and healthy food. People go calmly about their business – mainly processing and packing our harvests, picking up mail and exchanging tips and news. We had our meal, my grandchild and a few other small children are resting up in hammocks with some tatty old picture books for entertainment. We sit in a group around a kitchen table. We are sorting hemp seeds into paper bags and label them. When we are finished we will add them to the Co-ops seed storage.

I love these times in the Co-op shed, such a pleasant way to work, to connect and to stay out of the heat.

But life wasn’t always so pleasant. My mind drifts to much darker days when traumatic disasters sent shock waves through our then unprepared lives.

Things started to get out of control in 2020 when one extreme weather event followed the next. Fire, droughts, floods and storms destroyed harvests and livelihoods. It affected our Gubbi Gubbi country badly, but it was so much worse for other parts of the country and many other parts of the world. To make matters worse, pandemic outbreaks meant people stopped traveling and trading of goods ground to a halt. Shops were empty, people started to panic. 

The government was on its knees and the country was going broke. Big daring changes simply had to be made and they had to be made quickly to avert an unspeakable future of violence, pain and starvation. People dug deep and new leaders emerged.

Humanity’s Finest Hour. In 2022 the smartest and kindest geeks and scientists in the world were trusted with the greatest data modelling effort ever. The outcome was a global memorandum of understanding and collaboration which would forge a peaceful and daring path for humanity to a different kind of prosperity. It became known as Humanity’s Finest Hour. 

The scale of freedom, kindness and innovation this memorandum unearthed started to bring out the best in everybody. 

We erased bureaucratic shire boundaries and instead areas were defined by aboriginal language boundaries. We started to tap into a deep and ancient knowledge of the land, culture and learned how to prosper on it. And as if by magic this got things unstuck and made everything else possible. Agri-smarts, social innovation and culture started to thrive while property ownership became meaningless. The necessity to be frugal is now an accepted truth and sharing has become the norm.

Townplans became redundant. Regulations got replaced by minimalistic ‘do no harm’ rules. Neighbourhoods formed their own sovereign assemblies. Today development is needs-driven and appropriate. Without fossil fuels any building work is naturally very slow. People mostly fix up houses to suit their needs and we see co-housing and many smaller cottages. Any bigger projects are being designed and decided by the affected neighbourhoods.

Native forestry and bamboo plantations provide most of our building resources. Mosaic planting with feed and roost trees create wildlife corridors. One species we thought was extinct in 2026, the Glossy Black Cockatoo, recovered against all odds – saved by the maturing feed trees planted by gardeners and conservationists in the early 20’s.

Gubbi Gubbi country was blessed with more moderate weather than other areas and we retained our soils better too. It became a beacon of hope. Lifestyle acreages opened their gates to climate refugees – people from our own internal dust bowl and arrivals on rickety boats from overseas were equally welcomed. We needed the labour.

A basic income scheme was rolled out and basic necessities were covered for everyone. Medical care was frugal, but accessible to everyone. 

Many people from Brisbane made their way to the Hinterland for working holidays, for a safe bed and a good feed. Many stayed on. Most arrived by train with their push bikes. We saw them ride off to little smallholdings all over the hinterland. People learned permaculture and survival skills and shared their labour and expertise too. 

The Noosa coast areas struggled. In the early 20’s coast side Noosa was one of the least resilient and hardest hit communities. Shocking scenes played out once food had run out, money became worthless and security guards and staff made off with boats, tools and fishing gear. Around 2030 flooding and tidal surges were so bad that most areas around Noosa Sound, Noosa Waters and Gympie Terrace had become first uninsurable, then unliveable and then had to be demolished.

Fortunately the food shortages were buffered by the Hinterland. Many volunteers came for working holidays to help with demolition and river revegetation work, oyster reef management and fish trap maintenance.

By 2035 the Noosa River was set free again and Noosa river and coastline became magnificently beautiful again. Large and plentiful fish nurseries are starting to re-emerge and the sites are known by nostalgic names such as ‘Massoud’s Mangroves’ and ‘Clarey’s Plenty’. Today fish and oysters are being traded with hinterland produce.

Noosa coast side is now recovering and welcomes visitors again, but the picture has changed dramatically.  

Noosa Woods Campsite was officially opened in 2036. Many old timers had tears in their eyes as they remembered the stories told by their elders about the old Woods campsite.  The new flood-proof campsite on stilts provided beautiful and simple tent accommodation for recuperating fire service people and for traumatised climate refugees and the people who cared for them, entertained and fed them.

Noosa Junction is now a major transit centre, it offers accommodation, services and is a vibrant market hub. Washing lines flutter on the roof top gardens. People are working in repair and up-cycling shops, doctor surgeries, hairdressers, there are tea houses, bars and restaurants for workers and travellers. Amongst it music, chat and laughter can be heard and a few kids roam freely in between the general business.

‘The Bowls Club’ is a popular spot – a big natural public swimming pool right in the middle of it all bringing much relief from the heat. Connected to it is a large aqua culture centre with fish and vegetables being farmed.

Waste is no longer an issue. Everything is now re-used and disposable household items, especially plastics are a thing of the past. Petroleum and the manufacture of new plastics is now strictly reserved for medical supplies, hazard equipment and in the development of low tech tools and community transport solutions. Everything that can not be fixed or reused is being recycled. 

Roads are looking worse for wear, but they are lively. Push bikes, cargo bikes, scooters, walkers were common. The occasional golf cart, horse and cart or slow moving biodiesel Co-op truck would pass. The pace has become so much slower. The side benefits of this change took many by surprise. People are chatting at garden gates. Obesity is rare, and heart disease and diabetes are things of a less active past. 

People are connected. We enjoy a rich culture and we understand that we rely on each other for survival. People are happier. Suicide rates have dropped. The elderly are revered and looked after in the community. Everyone has the opportunity to contribute into ripe old age. Everything is built with accessibility in mind. Voluntary euthanasia is widely accepted when pains are getting too much to bear and quality of life is too little.

And here we are in 2040. Against all odds the decline was stabilised. Temperatures and ocean water levels are still rising. Mass extinction hasn’t stopped. We all wish we had acted earlier and nobody knows which ecosystem would collapse next. But humanity is sticking together and had finally re-learned how to trust and how to collaborate and make do with very little. Life is harder now. Not many children are born, but the ones who are, are raised by the whole village and bring much joy.

We have buckled up for a tough ride and are now more resilient than ever.

Siesta is over. The Co-op chime was struck in the tower signalling the end of Siesta. Outside temperatures are now bearable and we set off to move our large herd of guinea pigs to their new pasture – a favourite activity for the kids so we take them along. Later we will cook together and I might still have the energy to walk to the new little valley pub set up by the Beale family for some music and a home brew. 

A good day in 2040 draws to an end. May there be many more.

Thank you for reading my Utopian 2040 vision. I’ll leave you with one of the most amazing Utopians the internet has ever seen: