Press

Eco homes aren’t the only answer to sustainable housing
Think Sustainability (Jun 2024)
“It’s not about housing, it’s about community.”
[listen]

How the ecovillage works for families
On the Coast Families (Dec 2023)
“Playdates happen regularly and automatically, parents don’t have to continually check schedules and make calls.”
[read the article]

Helping hand for outback footballers
Community Coast News (Oct 2023)
“When members of the rugby league Wilcannia Boomerangs were finding it difficult to get accommodation for the recent Central Coast Koori Knockout, Narara Ecovillage came to the rescue.”
[read the article]

Retrofitting a 90-Year-Old Queenslander
Restoration Australia (Aug 2023)
“This episode of RESTORATION AUSTRALIA delves into the restoration of a 90-year-old Queenslander house named Dorothy.”
[watch the episode]

Johanna from BHG visits the ecovillage
Better Homes and Gardens (May 2023)
“During a tour of the village, Joh sees three very different homes, including one that looks like it came straight from the pages of a fantasy novel.”
[watch the episode]

Hobbit homes to earthships: the NSW village setting a green example for Australia
Sydney Morning Herald (Oct 2022)
“Every homeowner at Narara is required to commit to a minimum of seven stars, reduce water use by 70 per cent, generate enough solar to meet their annual need and use more sustainable materials.”
[read more]

How Narara Ecovillage is being used as a national model for renewable energy
Cosmos Magazine (May 2022)
“Continuing our year-long Greenlight Project – a series looking at how regional Australia is responding to climate change – NSW ecovillage a model for sustainable communities.”
[read more]

‘I don’t want to live alone’: co-living, community and affordable housing
Guardian (April 2022)
“For community elder Emily MacLaurin, a retired single grandmother, the chance to live around others was part of Narara’s appeal. “I have faced the prospect of living [alone] like my mother for 30 years. I’m by myself, I don’t want to live like that.”
[read more]

Green houses: the great Australian dream can be a reality
SMH (March 2022)
“Not far from Tony and Teresa Farrell’s simple and conventional 2½-bedroom home north of Sydney, there is a hobbit house – and a cobbit version made of straw bales. Unusual or not, these three homes share one thing. They all use much less energy than the six-star minimum under the National Construction Code.”
[read more]

Could collaborative living provide an answer to the housing crisis and climate change? Some people think so
ABC (January 2022)
“Collaborative living encompasses many different models […] what they all have in common, however, is the rejection of the traditional model of property ownership. Typically, this looks like a single person or a couple purchasing a standalone property with a mortgage and without a focus on the surrounding community.”
[read more]

‘Communal babysitting, home-made meals and bees’: What it’s really like to live in an ecovillage
Domain (January 2021)
“The family enjoys dinners with the community twice a week and a free holiday program for kids. A monthly levy covers shared facilities, including a machinery shed, food gardens, chooks, bees, op shop, dam and kids treehouse. Other perks include a bulk-food buying service and unofficial “shag roster” for couples with kids.”
[read more]

Narara Ecovillage: Where families thrive in community
On the Coast Families (October 2020)
“I love free-range eggs and free-range children: can I have both at Narara Ecovillage? Yes, Yes and Yes!”
[read more]

Eco Home Now Reality
Western Times (January 2020)
“It was the ultimate Christmas present, more than 20 years in the making, when Narara Ecovillage founder Lyndall Parris and her husband Dave moved into their completed home.”
[read more]

Sustainable House Day Wrap Up
Owner Builder Magazine (December 2019)
“More than 500 visitors and members mingled and exchanged information, with the opportunity to talk to architects, designers and builders, while children enjoyed riding their bikes, playing on the trampolines or climbing the treehouse.”
[read more]

Power to the People
Sydney Morning Herald (August 2019)
“Lyndall Parris, founder of Narara Ecovillage on the NSW Central Coast, has watched her vision for a better community become reality. ‘For me, it’s so joyful.'”
[read more]

Collaborative Housing – The eco-village making home ownership more attainable
Domain (November 2019)
“It can appeal to younger families or Millennials… it meets a lot of the challenges that older people are facing with housing, such as affordability and social isolation.”
[read more]

A Great Place to Live
Collaborative Housing (July 2019)
“We were sold when we started to meet the people involved… and we were impressed on the energy going to build the community itself, before we were building our houses.”
[watch video]

Think: Sustainability
2SER Radio (July 2019)
Starting from Scratch – If you could start our society again from scratch, how sustainable would you make it? Our Project Director, John Talbott, and other Narara Ecovillage members talked to 2SER about our aspirations and how starting afresh doesn’t always mean leaving old problems behind.
[listen]

How to live in an Ecovillage: Narara organisation selling plots of land
Realestate.com.au (18 Feb 2019)
In a lush valley bordered by Strickland State Forest, a group of passionate individuals are starting to build their own little township.
[read more]

Multi-Generational Community
Financial Review (1 AUG 2018)
Alternatives to traditional aged care are slowly emerging, including models that maximise independence, promote individual choices and social connectedness.
[read more]

Narara Ecovillage granted first community-owned water licence in NSW

In a first for a community enterprise in NSW, the Narara Ecovillage Co-operative (NEV) announced today that it has secured permission to operate its own fully integrated water system. Granted by NSW Minister for Energy and Utilities Don Harwin on the recommendation of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), the licences allow NEV to provide residents with drinking water from the community’s own catchment and on-site dam, treat all sewerage and provide recycled water for use in the village. When combined with stormwater harvesting and management, the system will allow the community to be 100% water self-sufficient. [read more]

Ecovillage a step closer to Australia’s best community-owned energy …

May 5, 2017 – A key element of the Narara Ecovillage’s ‘smart grid’, a $165000 … “We’re so thrilled to have secured the grant from ARENA,” she said.

The Ecovillage People
They’re living co-operatively and off the grid. Just don’t call them hippies.
The Weekend Australian (September 2016)

Read the article