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For the last 6 months, a troop of enthusiastic volunteers have been working away at improving the soil in our Triplespan Greenhouse to get the ground prepared for growing food. We chose the greenhouse because of its location down on the floodplain and because the old structure meant we could grow in an area protected from pests. We started by …
Geoff’s Hempcrete House My owner-build hemp house is ticking along slowly but steadily. After a 5 month wait my double-glazed Murray River red gum windows and doors have been delivered and installed. I think they look brilliant and well worth the wait. My roof is on and we are now all ready for the hempcrete workshop starting on 13 April …
The aim of Narara Ecovillage is to build a caring, friendly community with social sustainability at its heart. As there will inevitably be differences and conflicts, we need a philosophy and process that sets out pathways to resolution: who to talk to, how to say it, what to do? Social sustainability is based on the safety and wellbeing of everyone …
‘Natural building’ is an umbrella term describing buildings constructed primarily from natural sources rather than man-made materials. It can include buildings made from mud, straw, clay, stones and wood, relying almost exclusively on raw or minimally-processed materials. Builders of ‘natural’ homes generally build use techniques which do not further pollute the environment, consume more fossil fuel, or unnecessarily extract more of the …
Narara Ecovillage is not a pet-free community but our Community Management Statement includes the aim to minimise the number. We are concerned about the risk to wildlife as we have many lizard, frog and rare bird species on the land we have custodianship for. We take the protection of this diverse ecology very seriously. We are also aware of the …
The Ecovillage aims to grow as much food as possible for the local community on site. We are committed to growing regeneratively, incorporating permaculture principles and hope to demonstrate a number of different techniques for growing food. The plan is to construct 5 comparison beds in the first span of our greenhouse, then build on our learnings and soil testing …
Permaculture is primarily a design system for a holistic approach to sustainable living and practice. Working with nature, it is the harmonious integration of design with ecology for creating sustainable human settlement by simulating or modelling the patterns and features of natural ecosystems. Permaculture was developed as a response to the dangers of industrial agricultural methods which are not sustainable …
The information supplied here of the Narara Agricultural Research Institute has mainly been obtained from the Conservation Management Plan, 2007 and the Conservation Management Plan Review, 2013, by Chris Betteridge, MUSEcape Pty Ltd for City Plan Services Gosford. After the supplies of valuable timber available in the area around the Narara Creek valley from mid-19th century were exhausted, the area …
At Narara Ecovillage, we have triple bottom line aspirations. We wish to raise the bar in the areas of Social, Environmental and Economic sustainability. As a part of our Social sustainability, we aim to be a Cohousing community. We focus on creating social interactions and connections that foster strong community fabric. In addition to layout of neighbourhoods, footpaths, common outdoor …
Narara Ecovillage aims to be self sufficient for its complete water needs. Narara Ecovillage Water (NEV) Water provides all potable water, sewer and recycled water services to the Narara Ecovillage site. NEV Water holds Network Operator and Retail licenses under the NSW Water Industry Competition Act (WICA). Narara Ecovillage was granted the first community-owned water licence in NSW by NSW …
As a community, we’ve agreed to protect and maintain the health of our members and ecosystems, and manage the land using organic and Permaculture principles. We aim to minimise, and ideally eliminate, the use of poisonous substances and nominate alternatives to the use of poisonous substances on the Community Parcel where possible. So today, we welcomed Ben Larson of Weedtechnics …
What drew me to Narara Ecovillage What was that drew me to NEV? … I was moved to speak with Lyndall after her talk at an Open Day and flag my interest in finding out more about the village. While I’m not sure of the correct order of events, I do remember that I attended a working bee (or two) …
The Gosford Horticulture Research Station was established by the State Government as Narara Viticulture Nursery in 1912 as a consequence of failures to produce Phylloxera-resistant rootstocks to combat a major outbreak of the Phylloxera aphid in the grape growing areas in NSW and Victoria. Heritage House Of the two residences built on the 220 acres, the Heritage House was built 1915-1916 …
Yesterday (Saturday 12 May) 75 people came to Narara Ecovillage to hear Brendan Condon, Project Director, talk about the inspiring Cape Paterson Ecovillage in Victoria and their new 9 and 10 star sustainable homes. This was followed by a panel discussion with Narara Ecovillage. They key topic was the challenge of creating climate-proof, zero energy cost, sustainable homes and subdivisions, in …
“Eco Dreamers” seminar 10-star Eco Homes and Eco Entrepreneurs: The Cape (Victoria) comes to Narara. Meet Brendan Condon, Project Director, The Cape (Cape Patterson Ecovillage). “It’s not enough for an ecovillage to go it alone” Saturday May 12 2018, 3-5 pm at the Narara Ecovillage. Brendan Condon, Project Director of “The Cape” (formerly the Cape Patterson Ecovillage) in Victoria, will …
Member Scilla enjoyed Robina McCurdy’s 2-day Sacred Space Design workshop held at Narara Ecovillage over the weekend of 28/29 April. She said: ‘It was a great success on many levels. We were inspired by glimpses of special places from around the world, learnt about how ‘attune’ to this particular piece of Earth and followed our leadings to work on a …
Mark is founder and fellow director with his wife Nicky, of Qi Health and Yoga, a successful yoga and natural therapy business on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. They have been involved in the project for several years with Nicky previously assisting our Project Director and serving for 12 months on the NEV Board. Both from villages in the UK, living and …
With this post we introduce a new-ish member of the Ecovillage. Dini is going to guest post various events from the village starting with this regular event we have at the village – shared dinners. Many thanks Dini! Narara kitchen dinners have been running for some time. Each one continues to be a hands-on example of making every moment count – …
Saturday 24 February, 1-4pm Our new format Village Day went off with a bang in January, with lots of activities to allow our 60 visitors to experience life at Narara Ecovillage. From 1pm our guests could choose to visit the tool library, have knives and tools sharpened by Rob and learn some bicycle maintenance skills with Mike. Many people enjoyed a site tour with Lincoln and …
Know More about Powerful Owls on the Central Coast! Have you heard night-time hooting in your area? It may be a Powerful Owl, a spectacular and seriously large Australian owl, that is also now a threatened species. The Central Coast of NSW is privileged to be home to a number of these wonderful birds. Dr. Beth Mott, Coordinator of the …
