Sustainable living project. An hour from Sydney. Hell Yeah!

If you are sick of rent hikes in the city and are dreaming about a life of growing your own food, practising your art, but still being in proximity to the city, and living in a community designed around your needs, you should definitely check out this eco-village in the making. Since 2006 a passionate group of people from Sydney and the Central Coast with diverse backgrounds have been hunting for a site to design an eco-community with affordable housing, shared community spaces, food production and of course environmental sustainable design. A bunch of us visited on the weekend to check out where the project is at, and to take a wander on the property they have their sights on: a now abandoned NSW Horticulture industry site in Narara (1 hour and 15 minutes hours north of Sydney) ranging 63 hectares bordered by Strickland State Forest. It's a pretty AMAZING site. Already a site for food production, including a dam, greenhouses, and a 7 minute bike ride from the station. Co-director Bek actually grew up there. (There is hardly a patch of Narara that she didn't ride her BMX bike over.) The prospects for securing the land look promising. But it needs passionate people to get involved. Of course, my usual reservations about 'intentional communities' rise to the surface, but the woman who has been spearheading it, Lyndal Paris, I have to say is pretty awesome. And she seems pretty onto all of the 'software' required in organising community, finance and governance structures. And she is particularly interested in artists taking an active role in designing the community. So I dunno, it seems pretty exciting.  Anyone wanna stick their hands in the soil?

What sits before us in our very own librarium....

What are the chances of your letter getting into the Sydney Morning Herald?! Bill and George Intern, Skye Gibson, who is currently helping us catalogue the Librarium, thought she would give it a good Aussie go. Amazeballs. Five fake gold stars to you Ms Gibson!