People that help us along the way

I met with Michael Mobbs last week. He is a sustainability coach and owner of the remarkable sustainable house in Chippendale [‘when the sun shines we make our electricity, when it rains we make our water’]. We chatted about the SCEV project, he mentioned the phrase ‘build it and they’ll come’ and warned against squandering hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars on consultant’s fees. His advice is to use consultants who will buy a block in the village thereby showing their support and commitment to the project.

I hope Michael will join us at Narara, not the least reason being that he would make a great neighbour!

Michael emailed us a copy of the report titled “Aussies Sustaining Australia” (link below) which he co-authored and which you might like to have a look at. The report confirms to me that SCEV Inc is on the right path and is critical of what he refers to as government ‘irrelevant and wrong red tape’ getting in the way of what now should be mainstream development.

In the appendices to this report, there is reference to a number of sustainable developments around the country and makes reference to some of the lessons learnt. One of the developments referred to is Koala Beach on the mid north coast of NSW about which the Weekend Australian printed: “It has provided the project model for the coexistence of wildlife and humans, applauded as a ‘made for the future development’”

I feel that we are moving closer towards success, especially as Michael has offered to give us a leg-up.

www.sustainablehouse.com.au

Aussies Sustaining Australia Project
Why sustainable projects are a solution and government rules (presently) are not
Report 1 - Nov 2006 (Large PDF 1MB)
Appendices (Large PDF 2MB)
including case studies and best practice

Last week ABC Radio National’s programme Life Matters discussed and introduced Ester Perel (and her book ‘Mating in captivity’). She, like many of us, was bought up on the idea that there is one person who is going to give us what once an entire village used to provide – companionship, support, children, family life, respectability. This person would be our best friend, trusted confidant and passionate lover. She reminds us that what we need is an entire network of connections and multiple attachments with people and not one person who is going to answer all our needs. This gave me another wave of enthusiasm for our ecovillage project and got me writing the following in the ABC’s guestbook:

“Really interested to hear your Friday talkback programme today on the ‘Urge to Merge’.

Dave, my husband, and I are both entering what I think of as the '3rd trimester' of our lives. Before children, during children and after children.....so can look back and look forward as well.

My ambition is to develop an ecovillage which is really just an holistic, sustainable residential development which looks to address some of our social, environmental and economic issues (www.scev.org)

Since we put up our website, we have attracted, just through word of mouth, nearly 500 people who have added their name to our database for project news.

I envision living in a community where the village design facilitates community interaction AND balances our need for private space, whose structure supports people through all stages of their life and provides a safe and rich community for bringing up children as absolutely basic for supporting the ‘urge to merge’ and .....contributing to its success. So much better if in addition to our partner, we can easily find a sounding board in consequential daily activity and thereby dissipate our need to offload everything on to our partner.....which is not really sustainable, is it?

Both my daughter Margo entering her '2nd trimester' and me entering my '3rd trimester' are excited by the idea that we can set up structures that will support our respective marriages, giving a balance of separateness and togetherness. This we hope will lead to sustainable marriages/partnerships and give us more ease and fun in our daily life.”

Legals and Dollars

We have heard that the NSW government is still having the Narara land revalued and in the meantime we are focusing on two things. How to buy the land - looking at structures and financing as well as searching for a partner to help with the development.

Thanks to an email from Peter, a pretty spunky lawyer from our database, I met with two developers last week - interesting discussions but they are more into retirement villages and other business ventures. However, I learn something with every conversation and am grateful for those of you who take the time to point me in various directions. Thanks also to an equally spunky Pip for linking me up with a fella who has been head of property development for a large capital investment company, he is going to come back to us with some ideas. Those I speak to seem pretty interested in our idea of gathering people before the land/infrastructure come into play.....a model not seen very often before. People usually come on board after we have been told to get excited with granite bench tops and Miele appliances!

Still looking into the idea of forming a co-operative to raise the money to buy the land and would appreciate any help at all with that path.

As mentioned before, we are aware of a group of people who formed a co-operative in Victoria to develop a windfarm, selling shares for a small minimum subscription. They are successfully raising a similar amount of money to what we expect to be charged for the Narara site......wondering if this might work to develop an ecovillage?

‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has’. Margaret Mead