Currumbin Eco-Village

I had heard a lot about Currumbin, the residential development in Queensland designed on eco-village principles so it was exciting to be able to do a drive through on our way back to Sydney. This is certainly an upmarket community and it was refreshing to see so many architect designed houses that were built in tune with the environment but also pleasing to look at.

The village is in an ideal location with close access to the bush, the beach and the city. You have the choice of designing your own home or choosing from a set of architectural drawings. There are stringent conditions to be met when designing your home here but knowing there are also pre-designed homes to choose from makes it easier for the less adventurous.

While this is certainly an upmarket development, creating a sense of community and designing ecologically sound buildings are fundamentally part of this site. There is a weekly calendar of events that you can join in, ranging from singing, yoga and meditation to movies, tai chi and zumba. The community frequently enjoy their Village Hall space for coffee mornings, birthday parties, workshops, meetings, movie nights and many other gatherings. There is a pool, gym and children’s adventure playgrounds for more active times.

The Village Centre is being developed with a cafe / bakery, convenience store and other small-scale commercial buildings. The accessible location of serviced office areas ensures that resident’s needs are met as close to home as possible. It looks idyllic but we are only driving through and must reserve judgement till we are able to speak to people who live here and find out what their own personal experiences are. We have heard that perhaps the development is over regulated and that some residents may find this challenging. On the surface it looks great and given the option I wouldn’t mind moving in here..!

Crystal Waters

Our first impressions of Crystal Waters were not great!   We stopped by the bakery to get some bread and struck up a conversation with some of the locals who had come down to pick up a loaf and socialise. Their view of communal living was that it was full of challenges and its biggest downfall was the one thing required to make it work - People! Unfortunately, people tend to bring with them their own idiosyncrasies, their views on how a community should function and are often too wedded to their own beliefs to be flexible enough to let a community evolve. We hear that some people tend to be too purist and end up crushing the dreams of others who may not meet their standards for ecological living which is quite disheartening.

We were staying at the Eco Caravan Park in Crystal Waters, which included a bunkhouse, space to pitch a tent and a cabin for a bit more comfort. We had booked the cabin due to the rainy weather that had been predicted but for our good fortune we had the only two days of sunshine they had seen in months.

Crystal Waters Eco Village is set in 650 acres of bushland at the headwaters of the Mary River, and is about 30 minutes away on a windy country road from the wonderful little town called Maleny. We wondered why it hadn’t been placed closer to this bustling community, which would have provided far more opportunities for economic exchange and interaction. Crystal Waters includes both private and co-operatively owned property and is run by a body corporate. The Crystal Waters Community Cooperative is the social and economic arm of the village and provides activities and facilities for visitors and the community to participate in. The recently built Eco Centre is an ideal location for visitors to learn about the permaculture principles the community was founded on.

A tour of the village gave us a brief introduction to how the houses were designed and some of the permaculture practices in place. Many people had composting toilets and solar panels and some people grew their own food. Water was pumped from the creek with a limit on each household of a1000 litres/day for consumption, supplemented by rainwater tanks for drinking. The plots have been situated on the ridges leaving the floodplains as communal land. The roads that were originally constructed by the co-operative were used to dam the creeks for water. While this is great for water consumption it is perhaps not ideal for the eco-system in the creeks.

A plot in Crystal Waters had originally cost about $20K it is now on par with land in the adjoining area and would cost in the region of $300K. This is partly to ensure that people are not trapped in the community and can get out if they wanted to.

Despite many of the positive features we saw during our tour of the village with Barry O’Connell, it didn’t take us long to realize that Crystal Waters had not even come close to realizing its full potential. The community land would have been a great space to raise cattle, grow food and cash crops enabling the co-operative to generate some income. Yet we learn that despite this village being founded on communal principles many people are not prepared to volunteer their time and even trying to enforce a contribution of 1 hour a week was an issue. The high population of renters was perhaps another contributing factor to this.

The private land at Crystal Waters is held on a Free Hold Title so asking people who were not prepared to live co-operatively in a community to leave was not easy. It would involve lengthy court cases and expenses that the co-operative could not fund. While there was a need to increase the current fee of $1,200/yr for the body corporate to function efficiently, there was a general reluctance to do this. We hear that eco-villages often seem to attract two kinds of people - the risk takers and those that want to hide away from society. This results in conflict with those averse to taking risks holding back progress. Unfortunately, there appear to be a few disgruntled people who keep sniping from the sidelines, which prevent the community from moving forward.

Crystal Waters is located in a beautiful spot…but it hasn’t quite fulfilled it’s promised potential.

Griffith University

We are driving up to Griffith University to spend 10 days in Queensland.  Steve needs to spend a week at the Uni working on his ethics approval as well as his Phd Confirmation.  We spend a night at Tamworth and enjoy a great steak for dinner.  The next morning we leave early and continue on the scenic route stopping for lunch at Glenn Innes to enjoy a taste of the Celtic countryside. 

We arrive late on Sunday and check into student digs. It is an apartment with about 5 rooms but fortunately, there is only one other grad student.  I spend the week working at one of the open air internet hot spots while Steve works on his Phd.  I meet his supervisor Paul and we have a few chats with Bill Metcalf, a world authority on eco-villages.  He gave us a lot of leads in terms of people and places to visit as well and what we should look out for on our research trip to Europe.  It was really interesting to chat with Bill and to be exposed to the world of intentional communities.  By the end of the week Steve Bill Metcalf has offered to be his third supervisor.  

It was a fun week at Griffith.  I enjoy getting a taste of uni life once again and meeting the people in Steve’s world.  Mid week we have lunch with Christof, a German Phd student who shares his experiences in Japan and gives us more leads on eco-villages in this part of the world.  The week comes to an end and we leave for Crystal Waters, one of Australia’ first eco-villages in this part of the world.  We have planned to spend the weekend here to get a first hand experience of life here

The New Dream

 

2010 was one of the best years of my life. I took a year off to travel and volunteer around the world. I made new friends and felt a sense of freedom I had not experienced for a long time. While I challenged myself to live a little differently and experienced many things outside my comfort zone, taking that year off had sill been a safe option because I had a job to go back to.

This time it will be different. On the first of February I said goodbye to a very secure job that had given me many things…from intellectual stimulation, friendships and financial security to the opportunity to make a difference in Western Sydney.

I had not been the same since coming back from my year away. I had a hankering to be more creative and to be the author of my own destiny. I was yearning for the sense of freedom I had felt when I had lived for a year with just the stuff I carried in my backpack.

I have always wanted to live life a little differently to the norm. However, escaping the gilded cage is fraught with risks, is regarded unfavourably and is loaded with insecurity; but what is life without a dream to chase? Better still, this time a dream that I can share with my partner Steven.

I have left my job to form a partnership with Steven at PolisPlan, the venture he started in 2011. While Infrastructure Planning and Flood Risk Management is our bread and butter we are planning to go back on the road perhaps for 6 months to research Eco-villages – intentional communities that aim to be socially, economically and ecologically sustainable. Our dream is to help design and build such interconnected communities, perhaps living at each one as long as our skills might be needed.

Steven and I have often asked if there is an alternative to the type of development we see all around us in Sydney. Unsustainable houses that are disconnected from the natural environment and people disconnected from their neighbours. Our ecological footprint in Australia is one of the largest in the world. While we embrace the advancements of the technological era we live in, we ask if we can learn some lessons by looking at how the more traditional societies used to function.

Is there an alternative way of building our cities? I invite you to follow our journey as we go in search of answers….

Photostart Exhibition

I am excited to hear that the photograph I submitted for Photostart, a pop-up exhibition of new and emerging photographers, has been accepted for the print category.  Photostart is an Australian Centre for Photography curated exhibition of student works from terms 3 & 4 in 2012.

My photograph is of Tom Ugly’s Bridge and I took this during my course on Camera Craft 3 when I was practicing my night photography.  It had been a fun course and introduced us to a new genre each week. 

It was exciting to be at the opening and to see my photo on the wall and watch people stop to look at it more closely.  Perhaps next time I might even win an award 

Chinese New Year

I don’t usually like being in the midst of a million people, vying for a spot so I can get a glimpse of a passing parade.  Yet, I am also torn by the opportunity of capturing a few good photographs and also experiencing everything the city I live in has to offer.  The fact that I had never been to a Chinese New Year celebration was begging to bug me so this year Steve and I decided to brave the crowds and am I glad we did.  We left early in the aafternoon so we could spend some time in Darling harbour and have a nice meal.  It’s a sort of combined birthday, Valentine’s Day and Happy Chinese New Year celebration.  We are also celebrating the fact that I have just quit my job to join Steve in his consultancy…

We decide on the floating restaurant….something else we haven’t tried in this wonderful city and settle down for a bit of a splurge on a nice seafood meal in what must surely be one of the best cities & views in the world!! 

It’s the Year of the Snakes so guess what…snakes figure quite prominently in this year’s parade.  We’ve been standing around for about an hour…but it’s been worth it.  We scored ring side seats….except that  we are standing…but it’s great to have a an unobstructed view for a change.  The noise of clanging symbols, drums and fireworks fill the air as Clover Moore declares open the festivities.  Known as the Spring Festival in China it was traditionally a time to remember your ancestors and gather together with your family.  A time to cleanse your home, rid it of bad luck and make way for some new luck.

Red features prominently in the parade and in the decorations around us. From what I have read it appears that according to legend in ancient China, Nian a man-eating beast from the mountains, could infiltrate houses silently to prey on humans. The people later learned that Nian was sensitive to loud noises and the colour red, so they scared it away with explosions, fireworks and the liberal use of the color red. So "Guo Nian" actually means "Surviving the Nian". These customs led to the first New Year celebrations…go figure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We get a real sense of this festival.  Many of the items feature large red dragons who envelope dancers.  They run into the crowd and people reach out to touch the dragon and grab a piece of the action….as more fireworks explode above us.  After about 2 hours of non-stop action the parade comes to an end.  A lone cyclist reminds us that it will all be played out again next year…in the Year of the Horse!

“A lot of people, they get all caught up in the New Year's resolution thing and I think it gives them an easy way, later, to say, 'Oh, that was just a New Year's resolution' and not take it seriously. People who really want to make changes can make them any day of the year, whether it be the Jewish New Year, the Chinese New Year or any day that suits them. You've got every day of your life to make changes.”  Dr James Wilcox

Capture the Cover Winner

I am thrilled to hear that the photograph I submitted for the Yellow Pages competition, Capture the Cover is a winner and will appear along with a number of others on the cover of the Hills Shire and Upper North Shore edition when it comes out on the 16th of February! 

My photograph is the second from the left, bottom row – Boats in Brooklyn.  More news at: https://www.capturethecover.com/winners/sydney.html