Australia was selected as a location for this gathering for a number of reasons:

• the initiative for organising this conference has come from alumni who are Australian, or else who have an interest in supporting the event there
• this gathering has to be held somewhere - if held in Australia this time (which may be an expensive and/or long way to come for some), it will be held somewhere different next time (when the ’shoe will be on the other foot’)!
• we believe it is important to expand the experience and reach of the program beyond Karlskrona & Sweden (much as we love it)
• as so many alumni are North American and have regular opportunity to connect with each other simply due to proximity, we wanted to bring you guys out here so we can be part of that exchange too
• whilst Australia’s new Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, has ratified Kyoto (yay!) we’d like to benefit from the work the rest of you are doing in your home countries - we still have a long way to go!
• we want to show off this great country but also show you first-hand how climate change and sustainability is experienced ‘on the ground’
• we think it is interesting to get a southern hemisphere perspective - the climatic patterns, landscape and night sky are completely different to the north ; )
• the weather is great in Australia in February
• we have an amazing indigenous culture - the oldest in the world, in fact..and arguably the ones who have managed to sustain themselves the longest!!