Passion for people and ponies, and biking the world
Trevor and Scilla became members of Narara Ecovillage in 2014 – very soon after their partnership began. For Scilla, at least, an understanding of the challenges presented by establishing an ecovillage, knowing the history of Narara and the awareness that Deep Ecology had a presence were all factors in her decision to join. From the start, Scilla and Trevor were …
Retrofitting our lives – and our home
Rosemary and Rafaele are referred to in the village as R and R, not for Rest and Recreation but for Recycling and Retrofitting. They met a few years ago at a stage where they were looking for a lifestyle that would support their wellbeing in retirement, while offering avenues for helping the community and environment. Coming from backgrounds in academia …
Field Naturalist and Parent for Climate Action
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 …
Tame neighbours
Todays’ treat!
Radhika reflects on three months at NEV
At the end of March I attended a fascinating talk about the Auroville Ecovillage (more an ‘Ecotown’ with over 3000 residents!) in India by Radhika, a delightful young engineer who has lived there for 7 years, and who had recently arrived to spend a few months at NEV, thanks in part to Tanya and the Global Ecovillage Network. Hard to …
Crisp morning mists
Winter nights are crisp but the mist rises from the forest and the days are glorious!
17 A & B Gugandi
Jonathan and Sue are building a modular 3 bedroom house adapted from a Parkwood Homes design at the front of this site on Gugandi Rd, the main ‘spine’ road of the village, close to the Village Hall and Coffee Cart and to our recycling collection point. The dual-occupancy site will ultimately include Tanya’s 2 bedroom home to the rear as …
What Life is Like in this Ecovillage
After 28 years of dreaming, progressing and living the Narara Ecovillage Dream, Lyndall Parris reflects on some of the aspects of Narara Ecovillage that she loves. It is fun living at Narara Ecovillage (NEV): when the NEV band plays gigs in the Village Hall and I dance with people my height and kids up to my belly button when I walk the …
Steam Weeding
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 …
A Tale of Two Houses
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 …
21st Century Homes for the Future Society and Climate: The Eco Dreamers seminar
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 …
Sacred Spaces Design Workshop
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 …
Narara Kitchen Dinner Tuesday Night: Gratitude. Community. Life.
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 – …
Village day Feb 24th
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 …
Village Day in January
The Village kicked off the year with a new format for the monthly Open Days. Renamed to Village Days we are inviting you to join us for ‘a day at the village’ – we’d love you to join in the fun and comaraderie of a group of people working and playing together. During the year as we start to build …
Wildlife at the village
A very healthy-looking Echidna was spotted late afternoon last week. Said Richard Cassels: “This was the first I have seen here after living for 5 years. It was digging into an ant’s nest, on the track to the creek bridge, before curling up into a ball and burying its vulnerable parts, in fear of me and pooch Bentley. The mobile phone …
Construction of outdoor kitchen
To accommodate our many outdoor activities in the Farm Square area, we are building an outdoor kitchen (led by Majella Lloyd, co-founder of the Natural Building Group) from recycled materials, not only for the convenience of a practical, usable space in the northern area of our site, but this project is a hybrid experimental foray into ancient natural building techniques …
Open Day is now Village Day! 27th Jan 2017
Saturday 27th Jan, 1-4pm Our exciting new format Village Day is designed to allow visitors more involvement and opportunities to engage with our community activities which will change from month to month. Village Day organizer, Jeni O’Connor says: “As our Ecovillage is moving to the next stage of development, with the imminent growth of houses and infrastructure, we felt it was important to …
The Natural natural builder
By Richard Cassels A pair of Magpie-larks have just completed this fine mud nest in a Pecan tree below the Fisheries Building. The source of their building materials is the dry mud at the base of the nearby detention basin. (The barrenness of the detention basin’s bottom is due to a flock of about 50 Maned Wood Ducks having eaten …
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