In late 1994 it became evident that the Society would realise some of the changes sought. In 1995, as David Cruise gained further support, moves were made to undertake a 'comprehensive review of the structure and activities of the Society'. The long term objective of this restructuring was the development of 'a more cohesive and effective organisation which will be able to retain and use the energies of all of its members' and to increase member access to the decision making process (DTE News 81 Jan. 1995:1). This was ambitious, but it was widely agreed that DTE must embark upon a course of openness and delegate power and responsibility through the creation of relatively independent sub-committees and groups (e.g. Confab, focus, newsletter, computer and finance groups as well as a ConFest committee). These goals came about after a meeting on the 8/12/94 when there was a unanimous decision (23 to nil - a rare consensus!) 'to examine the aims, objectives, operating structure, rules and behaviour of and within the Society and ... evolve a process whereby proposals for change are submitted to a SGM(s) for discussion and approval' (ibid:4). This was a momentous occasion revealing a sense of solidarity rarely apparent in DTE for over a decade. Some of the proposed processes imagined at that time included: more open newsletter participation, special gatherings, reconciliation and mediation, encouraging small discussion groups to form and network, and mini-ConFests. It was deemed that no group within this process shall comprise a majority of directors (ibid:1). These processes would, according to Les, engender a 'local-lateral type of infinite flat organisational structure' (the type of spontaneous and autonomous processes actually occurring at ConFest).

Events led to the resignation of five directors and the treasurer. One significant moment occurred at a meeting on 21/12/94. The treasurer, who had failed to provide shareholders with accounting details, and whose behaviour toward other members had become a subject of concern, had her integrity questioned and walked out. I could sense an immediate loosening of the tension which had stifled the Society since I first attended meetings - there was noticeable jovial interchange and conviviality. As one member said 'the bad energy has been let out of the room'. There was even a minute's silence! There was a motion passed that the treasurer and board be censured for failing to provide shareholders with all information surrounding loaned monies. At a later meeting, an SGM (16/3/95), it was Lance Nash's turn to walk out. At this meeting, characterised by the conspicuous absence of the mob of silent voters who had attended on previous occasions to block resolutions (as they had been pressured the previous week to provide rationales for blocking motions), several important resolutions were finally urged through. The obstinate Nash defended the position that members should be prevented from attending board meetings. The members present voted for an open structure.40

Recent Developments

The splinter group, Earth Haven (formed by most of the resigning board), conceived an 'alternative lifestyle festival' which promised a retrieval of lost ConFest traditions. The earliest leaflets promoted their event as a 'response to a need for a true conference/festival'. The literature was designed to seduce jaded ConFesters pining for a return to a space conditioning a lost sense of community, a return to 'the Garden'. The leaflet was nostalgic ('In the beginning was CONFEST'), and intentional (Earth Haven seeks a 'going back to grass roots'). A debate about 'the real thing' ensued incorporating a legal dispute over Earth Haven's promotional use of the name 'ConFest' (to which DTE now holds trademark rights).41 DTE responded by distributing posters warning patrons against being 'conned by imitations', and by advertising Moama IV as 'The Original, the Only ConFest' (DTE News 90 Nov. 1996).42 The conflict is reminiscent of the identity crisis occasioned by the 1980 French Island incident where Cairns had proceeded with the use of the names 'DTE' and 'ConFest' against the wishes of ADTEN. Criticism has been levelled at what is a private company run by a small group organising an event featuring a stage and billed acts as the central attraction and which does not promote a co-operative path. Such is contrasted with a Society which champions autonomy and facilitates an event actively encouraging the co-operative effort of all participants. The feeling is that Earth Haven, a 'card-board cutout miscegenated simulation of Pure ConFest' (Kurt, DTE email-group 22/5/99), is hardly 'grass roots'.43

In its third phase, DTE has experienced a period of new growth followed by a more recent 'entropic' period. I will give attention to both here.

'Out of the Dark Ages comes the Renaissance', characterised by mutual respect and 'a greater feeling of togetherness, a greater spirit, a rebirth' (Cheryl). Cheryl also identified feminine energy returning in an open space and climate. 'It pleases me greatly', she rejoiced, to witness DTE accommodate 'the essence of woman as negotiator, healer, the peace maker'. Indeed, at this recent phase, the Co-operative had entered a new era of growth. There were approximately 1,500 shareholders with increasing numbers participating in DTE organisation and activities.44 As Isha remarked, 'DTE is much more open to people coming in and speaking their truth and being heard' rather than being 'turned away' by 'rude and abusive' directors. And women became more active in the Co-operative, with four directors' positions held by females. With the addition of an Easter event in 1992 (at Tocumwal I), an annual cycle of Easter 'gathering' and New Year 'mega-event' was inaugurated. DTE also promoted a Winter Solstice Gathering held at 'Blue Lakes' in Plenty in 1993,45 and sponsored the annual St Andrews Music Festival. In June 1993, the Co-operative took up residence at CERES in Brunswick.46 DTE's Confab, a twice monthly evening of swimming, spa, sauna, massage and other healing arts also known as a 'clothing optional event', which started in June 1993 at the Fawkner Leisure Centre, moved (in Jan 1995) to the Collingwood Leisure Centre in Clifton Hill. In August 1997 a web site was developed and an email-group initiated. The Co-operative increased its coffers and generated funds used to support allied and charitable organisations and endeavours.

As a result of DTE's efforts at restructuring, ConFest itself took on a more open and decentralised (organic) character, resulting in greater co-operation ('energy') and diversity. Several committees and subcommittees deal with promotions, site survey, market, site works etc. A widening diversity of groups/networks (many of them funded via the village budget) have set up villages providing input and creativity (like Spiral, Queer Presence, Food Not Bombs, Tek Know, Warrior, Forest, Labyrinth, Laceweb and Hybrid). According to Manatoka, 'this empowerment of subgroups ... to run their own little territories' is a positive indication of the dissolution of the 'peak hierarchy' and of the distribution of power. As ConFest has been held fourteen times on or near the Murray River (at Moama and Tocumwal) since Easter 1992, significant numbers of locals from the region and country towns have experienced the event, often becoming regular ConFesters. At Moama III (1995) the Earth Link Cafe appeared (the re-emergence of community kitchens which had first appeared at Cotter, Bredbo and then at Walwa III). From Toc IV (1996) a multimodal Healing village emerged, as did Queer Presence. Also at this event, communications were enhanced via the installation of community base radios positioned in villages around the site rendering site operations less impenetrable. At Moama IV ('96/97) the ConFest Safety Group - a trained and co-ordinated group of non-violent community 'peacekeepers' - was incorporated within the existing security initiative (Pt'chang), and a solar powered stage appeared.

Despite such advancements, concerns have once again mounted, and speculations made, about the pending demise of the DTE ConFest. The apparent lack of equilibrium - of inproportionate conferencing and festival dimensions - has generated much anxiety. Kurt Svendsen is an erudite proponent of the thesis that ConFest has undergone entropy, becoming 'serepaxed' as a result of the expiry of the conferencing dimension (1999:129). ConFest, he avers, is becoming a 'pleasant & relatively trivial "Festival"', a 'Benny Hill boogaloo', and thus suffering a degeneration from 'ConFest to Festcon (festival confidence trick)' (ibid:41). Echoing earlier criticisms, Wattle claims ConFest has 'lost its connection with "grassroots" ethics and organisations and in trying to keep up with the fast pace of the '90s, it has lost direction and sight of its original vision'. And diasporic fragments of the original, including Earth Haven, but also Peacehaven (at the Tocumwal site, 96/97) and a non-DTE 'Confest' (held in the Blue Mountains, NSW, over Easter 1998), indicate growing discontentment.

The dramatic downturn in attendance and volunteer 'energy' at Guilmartens I (3,500) over 98/99 triggered a wave of introspection. Commentators readily concurred that the dominance of the festive dimension was the root cause. Amplified (especially electronic) music, considered to be anathema to the Conferencing dimension, received special critical attention (see Chapter 8) and Guilmartens II was promoted as an 'unplugged' event (a 'Human and Acoustic Sounds Festival'). The theme for that event was 'What is Alternative Now?' - an inquiry 'about the direction we as a group are taking at a time when I feel we may have lost touch with our roots ... What is our purpose? Where are we heading? What can we achieve?' (Symons 1999:2). Despite these efforts at encouraging debate about ConFest's continuing role in the ACM, Guilmartens II was also a poorly attended event (under 2000).

As was detectable in DTE's second phase, a decline in volunteer 'energy' accompanied the newly declining conferencing dimension. That this is a recurring problem suggests the Co-operative undertake a critical dissection and reappraisal of its practices. Indeed, as current criticism of DTE politics indicate, recurring afflictions demand more precise surgery than the panacea of prohibition (putting amplified music 'under the knife'). Claiming that the stewards of ConFest have rapidly achieved a new level of irresponsibility, Svendsen (ICBM 1999) is the most passionate exponent of a critical self-reflexivity within DTE.

Certainly the mutual distrust and open hostility I witnessed within DTE at the beginning of my research had not evaporated by the time of writing. In 1997, prior to the Easter ConFest, there was clear evidence of an open 'atmosphere of distrust' (Mark) at meetings. Indeed, verging upon the new millennium, DTE had become wracked by internecine conflicts, some continuing, others new. Tensions mounted again. Old factions deepened and new ones emerged. There were acts of vilification and persecution, spiteful pranks, charges of nepotism, corruption and fraud.

A belief holding currency within the Society is that the problem lies in a 'core group' with a newly established 'old guard' who have come to express protective, decidedly non-co-operative rights of ownership over ConFest. In 1994, David Cruise stated to me that he saw himself as a 'benign dictator'. It is widely reported, in the formal and informal commentary of many, that this self-conferred status of 'benign' dictatorship, to which David Cruise has clung with uncompromising tenacity - for which he has been reproached as an 'intrinsically dishonest ... exploiter of quiet people' (Laurie DTE email-group: 17/3/99) - has been a principal cause of internal division. Reminiscent of the political strategies of previous directors, lacking confidence in DTE processes over which he possessed no or little control, Cruise has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to undermine the efforts of those at odds with him, or who have attempted to operate outside his immediate sphere of influence. As a result, Cruise failed in his bid to return to office at the 1998 AGM.

Furthermore, it is considered that 'protective' strategies employed by 'the old guard' have taken their toll on ConFest itself. There has been a consistent pattern of isolating, distrusting, devalorising and, ultimately, distancing potential DTE/ConFest 'energies'. In an astute missive to David Cruise on the DTE email-group (14/3/99), Paula commented on his and Cheryl's skills in 'isolating the difference between members who are not like you - to groups who are not like your's ... there is a pile a mile high of groups you and Cheryl have shunned - [who] have now gone away'. To this effect, Richard later claimed that the reactionaries of 'the core group' have been steadily 'picking off the petals of the [ConFest] flower' (DTE email-group, 30/3/99).

That which has been referred to as 'the condition of Cruise control' (Laurie, DTE email-group, 30/3/99) involves the devalorising of those who have not achieved DTE 'worker status', and the undermining and/or exclusion of a raft of 'alternative' contributions and projects which are likely regarded as threatening. Devalorisation and exclusion are processes which have created a lacuna of activity (volunteering) in DTE and at ConFest in most recent times. The lacuna can be seen to fortify the authority of those who have achieved an elite 'true worker status'. If no one turns up to participate in 'the decision events' then a minority - those devalorising and excluding - make further claims to their 'rights of ownership', which leads to further suppression of different voices and noises. Ultimately, that which has been labelled 'the Cruise camp', a 'block' dominating the 'core group' of DTE for some time, requires a continual reproduction of an 'Other' in order to sustain its identity - and its ownership of ConFest.

The process as it is described here is consistent with that observed by Kurt Svendsen in his momentous 'letter' (ICBM 1999)to DTE. Kurt documents on-site processes whereby 'Core Group Gruppenfuhrers' would alienate potential volunteers (ibid:150). Newcomers would become distanced from DTE since their experience of it 'was so uncomfortably dissonant with their greater ConFest experiencing' (ibid:63). At Birdlands, participants approached DTE 'for some guidance in helping clean up ... only to come back confused, demoralised & shell-shocked at the ... hostility, indifference & intransigence that was meted out to them' (ibid:71). Potential participants in clean-up duties were seen as 'bludgers' and 'parasites' and thus immediately excluded from accessing the processes. Kurt recalls that on the morning of the final day of Gum Lodge I, 'a DTE posse was formed by David Cruise as ringleader [and] the purpose of the posse was to go around the site early in the morning & catch the "bums & bludgers" off-guard when they were still near their tents ... and expel them' (ibid:64). It is imagined that:

over the years a lot of inspired pro-active NICEs [Nobly Inspired ConFest Experiencers] have come and gone from the DTE Space, frustrated, alienated & exhausted, burnt out, demoralised & flicked off, anybody with the slightest aura of being able to foment real change being fanged by the representatives & vectors of the status-quo. (ibid:148)

Significantly, while ConFesters have been subject to systematic devaluation and alienation, suspected alienators deplore the lack of 'energy'. It is this 'lack' which enables members of 'the old guard' to indulge in a 'synthetic martyrdom' (Svendsen 1999:146-7), which sanctions their occupation of an elitist 'true-worker status', and, furthermore, which has generated the circumstance where an overwhelmed site clean-up crew have recently (Guilmarten's II) distributed Co-operative funds amongst themselves - a volunteers 'wage'.

Before concluding, I will address issues considered to place the survival of the Co-operative and its event in jeopardy: the 'greening' of DTE, and the divisive protectiveness of DTE's own 'parent culture'.

Greens of varying description (from radical activists to ecology educationalists and reformers) appeared in greater numbers from Toc IV. Indeed, as is evident in the factional alignment of activists to help dislodge the previous board, actions and interests of current members, loans and funding to activist groups, and content of recent newsletters, a growing green presence in DTE is unmistakable. Yet, though this influx of green commentary and support is apparent, as an organisation, DTE remains effectively neutral. It is considered that remaining bipartisan - detached from particular ideologies and agendas espoused by a cornucopia of politically active organisations and interest groups - makes for a stronger and more effective Society in the long term. This is apparent in posters promoting ConFest. It is also apparent in the Society's opposition to a strong undercurrent which pushed for a '96/97 ConFest on East Gippsland's Cann River.47 While numerous factors were posited to justify the opposition to this site, it is no secret that those interested in maintaining the Co-operative's neutral status felt such a move would effectively side DTE with radical Green elements opposed to old growth forest logging in the region. The greening of DTE is becoming a source of rising tension in the Society. How will DTE negotiate this? Will it accommodate environmentalists and become, as many see it, more 'down to Earth'? What are the implications of placing DTE's neutrality in jeopardy?

It seems likely that the protective strategies employed by DTE's emergent 'parent culture' (persecution, prohibition etc) - deployed in apparent efforts to shield the Co-operative and ConFest from perceived threats - may very well have contributed to the shortfall in 'energy' that the same members have lamented. The insular, negating and elitist conduct of a core-group minority and concomitant participant alienation replicates events leading to the termination of DTE's first two phases. It remains to be seen whether the Co-operative will draw lessons from the past by seeking to avert the recurrence of 'the tyranny of structurelessness', and the DTE worker/ConFest workshop cleavage.

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