Geoff wants to slow migration of money out of Shepparton

A sample of the Shepparton Ducat - the currency
will be launched late in February at the City Market.

Geoff Allemand wants to slow down the migration of money, out of Shepparton.

Subsequently, he has created the Shepparton “Ducat”, which he will launch later this month.

The former director of Kids’ Town on The Causeway between Shepparton and Mooroopna has been “thinking about” a local currency for some 15 years.

Ideas behind the Ducat, thought to be the first currency of its type in Australia, gel perfectly with similar projects around the world which are all different, but with the same underlying concept of keeping local money local.

Geoff, who maintains the “Lost Shepparton” website and has an associated shop in Corio St, is rather pedantic and so although the Ducat has a contemporary money value, he insists that a Shepparton Ducat is just that, a “Ducat”.

Although it reflects the name of a Shepparton family, the Ducat has direct historical connections with Australia as it was currency on the First Fleet and was used to buy livestock in South Africa.

The idea of keeping money local fits the evolving changes the global warming will bring to the world as the emphasis in localism becomes increasingly important with the survival of communities to be increasingly about local “everything”, including currencies.

The new currency will be launched at the City Market focussed on Shepparton’s Maude St Mall on Friday and Saturday, February 26 and 27.