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Shane Sylvanspring

Growth of the ecovillage and intentional communities networks

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With the growth of the intentional communities, land-sharing communities and ecovillages in Australia, the need to have a network organisation to support communities on the ground emerged in the 1980s and has become stronger in the last 10 years.

PAST NETWORKS

There have been loose networks in the past in Australia such as the Intentional Communities Conference (ICC) network and PAN in the 1980’s. The ICC ran for a number of years organising bi-annual community conferences in Australia with the last one held at Moora Moora Co-operative in 2013 and was attended by representatives from over 40 communities.

PAN was developed in the 1980’s as primarily a political lobby group to assist Land-sharing Communities in Northern NSW in relation with the government and was disbanded in 1990 when the need waned.

Intentional Communities Conference, Moora Moora, 2013

Emergence of GEN AUSTRALIA (2014 – 2019)

GEN Australia registered as a not-for-profit incorporated association in 2014 to support ecovillages and intentional communities in Australia. GEN International was however founded in 1995 at Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland, with some of Australia’s ecovillage elders, including Max Lindegger (Crystal Waters), Helena Norberg Hodge (Local Futures) and John Talbot (Narara Ecovillage).

A small group of Australian ecovillages saw a need for GEN presence in Australia, in addition to the regional branch, GEN Oceania and Asia (GENOA). Shane Sylvanspring (formerly Bruns Ecovillage) and Andrew Olivier (Narara Ecovillage) had previously learned about and experienced GEN at Findhorn and in other parts of Europe and felt excited to start the Australian chapter. A few others also interested in creating a national network joined to create the core team, including Wendy Armstrong (Tasman Ecovillage), Sue Gibley (Christie Walk) and Peter Gringer (Gaia Education). Chris Gibbings (Bellbunya) also was active in the GENOA network as the Australian representative.

GEN Australia has met every month for the last 5 years, networking and discussing issues with communities here in Australia primarily with the founding committee members. A small but tight network has developed as a result.

Planning at Tasman Ecovillage Conference, 2015

Significant things were achieved:

The Tasmanian Ecovillage Conference in 2015 hosted by GEN Australia

This brought together around 20 communities at Tasman Ecovillage and the future of a national network was discussed. A loose agreement for a group represented by Co-housing Australia, Co-operatives Australia and GEN Australia were to form to continue intentional community conferences into the future. This never eventuated due to lack of resources and time commitments.

Regional Gathering Nth NSW and SE Qld at Currumbin Ecovillage 2018

A gathering for communities in the SE QLD and Northern Rivers area. A intimate group gathered from various communities and networks, with learnings, exchanges and networking taking place.

Representation at The Sustainable Living Festival (VIC) and other various festivals and events

Throughout the years various members representing GEN at events and festivals.

Members including Shane, Andrew and others have also brought GEN Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) programs and GEN principles into their work developing and supporting communities.

Other Similar Networks 

Recently there has been an emergence of networks and groups that include intentional communities and ecovillages in Australia.

Fellowship of Intentional community has an online directory with many communities in Australia registered.

Welcome to FIC

Co-housing Australia – a volunteer group representing cohousing in Australia. Constitutres are mainly from South Australia and Victoria

Alliance of Intentional Communities Australia (AICA) – A South Australian group that has no projects and is unclear of its intentions. Founded by Ed Wilby.

Co-operative Living Australia – primarily established by Mark Snell from Moora Moora and specifically interested in communities that established as a co-operative.

http://www.equilibrium.org.au/coophousing

Ecovillages Australia – Established by Andrew Mclean and Clare Odgen – recently purchased first property in Maleny to establish an eco-community. They do however want to be a larger network.

Polkadot Ecovillages – founded by Jimmy Hirst to raise awareness of tiny homes and ecovillages.

Short history of the intentional communities movement in Australia

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Australia has had a history of intentional communities throughout its colonial history with religious and other communities up until the 1970’s. In the early 1970’s Australia had its own alternative revolution that saw many people seeking alternative lifestyles around the country and developing intentional communities. 

The heart of this was the 1972 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, NSW, where after the festival, we saw the establishment of land-sharing communities around the area.

A scene from the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, 1973. Flickr/harryws20/Harry Watson Smith, CC BY

NSW became the epicenter of land-sharing communities, in part due to legalisation in the state that allowed ‘land-sharing communities’ on rural land that has multiple dwellings and community facilities on one parcel of land. There are estimated to be over 250 land-sharing communities in NSW (real number not known) with over 180 in the northern NSW region. Another small centre exists around Bellingen NSW with roughly 40 land-sharing communities in that area. Land-sharing communities range in size from 10 to 200 people with varying levels of facilities, intentionality, vision and collectivism. Many of the land-sharing communities would not identify themselves as an intentional community rather a group of people sharing the same piece of land for a sustainable affordable lifestyle.

There was also a wave of Sanyasins in the 1980’s to Northern NSW which saw the establishment of a number of intentional communities with an Osho focus. There are also other religious intentional communities developed in the region.

 Other states such as South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria restricted such uses in the late 1970’s which stopped the growth of intentional communities in these states with only a few established prior to legal issues. Queensland had more liberal planning laws than other states and therefore enabled communities to be established there in different formats.

There has also been the establishment of more planned larger ‘ecovillages’ in Australia concurrently however as they are hard to establish and finance only a dozen of these exist in the country such as Aldinga Arts Village (SA), Crystal Waters (QLD), Currumbin Ecovillage (QLD), Cape Paterson Ecovillage (VIC), Narara Ecovillage (NSW) and Tasman Ecovillage (TAS). 

The amount of co-housing communities in Australia is small and underdeveloped with only around a dozen existing as its still a largely unfamiliar living/development type for Australians.

The total number of intentional communities, ecovillages and land-sharing communities in Australia is unknown however there are estimated to be over 350.

Intentional Communities Conference, Moora Moora 2012

GEN Australia co-hosts regional ecovillage gathering at Currumbin Ecovillage, 23-25 Nov 2018

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REGIONAL SE QLD AND NTH NSW INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY AND ECOVILLAGE GATHERING

23-25th November 2018, The Ecovillage at Currumbin, QLD

An amazing opportunity for people already within intentional communities, landsharing communities and ecovillages to come together to discuss, laugh and connect with each other. With a rich timetable and hosted by Currumbin Ecovillage, this weekend will delve into many aspects of living in community and ecovillage design.

Multiple occupancy zonings being ‘abolished by stealth’

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The NSW Government is set to abolish a successful planning policy that has seen more than 120 intentional communities established across the state over almost 30 years, most of them in the northern rivers. The policy allows groups of people to establish Multiple Occupancies (MO) or intentional communities on land of 10 hectares or more in rural or non-urban zones. by Chris Dobney (first published in http://www.echo.net.au)

Just three councils statewide will be exempt from the changes – Lismore, Shoalhaven and Byron – because they wrote an MO policy into their 2014 LEPs, although Byron’s is more stringent than the state government’s version.

The policy change will not affect already existing MOs but it will prevent any new ones from being created outside of these shires. The department of planning and environment (DoPE) commenced a review of the State Environment Planning Policy Review 2015 in June this year with only a one-month notification. Amongst this review was the recommendation to remove SEPP 15 – Rural Landsharing Communities.

Shane Schmidt, a representative of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), a town planner and a current resident of an MO in Mullumbimby, is angered at the move.
‘The Department of Environment and Planning is not replacing the policy with anything. They are expecting local councils to now include local policies however most councils are under-resourced and this would not be a high priority for them,’ he told Echonetdaily. 

Stealth
Mr Schmidt is concerned rural landsharing will now go into the too-hard basket for the many north-coast councils that did not incorporate it into their 2014 LEPs. ‘Rural Landsharing is a complex issue and therefore many councils do not have the ability to interpret the state policy. Effectively the removal of SEPP 15 removes the ability for land sharing communities in most of NSW by stealth,’ he said. The proposal impacts all of NSW and in particular the council areas of the region without local rural land sharing policies such as Tweed, Kyogle, Ballina, Richmond Valley, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Tenterfield. 
Mr Schmidt was also concerned that the advertising of the review was not broad enough. ‘Many people would not have realised what the department was considering as the review included many policies and the proposed removal of SEPP 15 is lost in the detail,’ he said.
He is calling on the Department of Planning and Environment to reconsider the proposed removal of SEPP 15.
‘The department has not provided adequate justification for its removal. SEPP 15 is a progressive planning policy that should remain within the State Environment Planning Policies. It has for 30 years effectively allowed people alternatives to living with the environment and each other. I want to know why the state wants it removed,’ he said.

Affordable and sustainable
Mr Schmidt believes the proposal will have a big impact for people seeking alternative lifestyles in NSW. ‘Anyone now hoping to form a community in NSW or share land together will not be able to do so under this proposal. Removing SEPP 15 will result in removing the ability to create MOs and intentional communities in most of the state,’ he said. ‘The department has not provided adequate justification for the removal of SEPP 15 and when affordability and sustainability in housing is an ever increasing issue they should be strengthening the policy rather than removing it’. 
‘For the last 30 years MO’s have provided affordable sustainable housing options for people who want to live in rural areas and have limited money as well as providing options for people that want to live more communally.

‘MO’s also are active in Landcare and rainforest regeneration successfully transforming degraded farmland to rainforest and bushland. For many people in the area rural land sharing is a legitimate way to live more sustainably within the area,’ Mr Schmidt said.

People who are concerned about the removal of SEPP should contact the Department of Environment and Planning on (02) 9228 6333 or 1300 305 695 or email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or contact their local State MP. (https://ecovillage.org/australia/)