Guy and Suzie with their school-aged daughter, Lila, moved from Victoria to the ecovillage in 2021 to rent from ecovillage-founder friends who own a townhouse here. They liked it so much they decided to buy a block and build! Their 8.5 star home was completed in 2025 – a split-level home at the top of the hill, made from aerated concrete panels (Hebel), recycled bricks, timber and Colorbond.
One of the main aspirations to move to the village was for Lila to have the autonomy to roam and play across the community land with friends. With some of the other girls she has been making and selling their home-made cards, jewellery and cookies at events. The village has many opportunities for young budding entrepreneurs.
For both Guy and Suzie, environmental and sustainable living is a top priority and at Narara there is the opportunity to grow food with others and share things like shopping, transport and equipment. Doing things collaboratively is one of the attractions.
Suzie founded the national advocacy group, Parents for Climate, and says: “I’m good at running projects and teams, fundraising, presenting, community organising and political strategy. But that’s what I was doing for my job and here in the village there is space and the facilities for me to indulge in other interests like growing lots of food and planting trees, but not having to do it all myself!”
These days Suzie works as a mindfulness meditation teacher and teaches retreats and workshops online and around Australia. These skills translate well into the village where she is on the Community Circle and hosts regular Listening Circles and other gatherings focused on members connecting and learning skills to resolve conflict.
Guy has been instrumental in setting up the Wildlife Circle at the village with other like-minded individuals to protect and increase the native wildlife in the ecovillage and beyond by increasing resilience of the indigenous species that are sharing the land, water or air with us here.
“My background is a veterinarian by education, an academic by nature and a field naturalist by passion. I’m the go-to person when a snake needs to be moved to another location! My interests extend to sociology and anthropology, as inspired by my years of life in different cultures, notably in the Pacific islands. My work skills are centred around developing pragmatic solutions to nature conservation challenges based on my deep field experience and my broad intellectual knowledge”.
Lila enjoys life in the Central Coast where she spends many hours a week learning different dance styles at a local dance school, including entering competitions. She attends the Central Coast Steiner School, a short bus ride from the village, which she really enjoys – the school has a great community as well.
Overall the family love living in the ecovillage because of the supportive and friendly community and the many opportunities it presents to do positive work in the world with other like-minded people.