Open field permaculture homestead & share-house in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia

Infos

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  Description

  Family-friendly home, with big homesteading dreams!
  
  We are a small permaculture homestead in the making, a HUGE community style share-house with a focus on regen agriculture, natural building & communal living. We are a bustling co-living community and homestead of 7 adults, 2 toddlers a 12 year old and a new born. We are excited to welcome you to be a part of what we are creating!
  
  We are in the early stage of our journey, as we set up our community, orchards and gardens. Long-term, our plan is to be semi-self-sufficient, and to grow almost all of the food we need to feed ourselves, and the friends/housemates who will live here with us. (We are a residential homestead, not a commercial farm).
  
  The home is warm, spacious and light filled. We have a number of sleeping options for people staying, we can accomodate multiple people both in the house and in our tiny houses.
  
  
  ABOUT US
  We are 8 adults: Issy, Kat, Claudia, Suze, Nectar, Lucia & Ash. There are 4 kids: 12 year old Jimmy, 2 year olds Rae & Giacomo and new born Alesandro. We all live together as a community in a hempcrete passive house purpose-built for 'co-living'. We all share a passion for sustainability, permaculture, and a wide range of interests ranging between gardening, yoga, dance, shiatsu, singing, swimming, bushcraft, board-games and natural-building, hiking and camping. It's fun, busy, love filled and beautiful opportunity to be a part of a warm, multi-generational home and be welcomed as a part of the family!
  
  ***NOTE: There is no public transport to our property, but we are 5kms from a train station. You will need a bike or car. We have one spare bike and can arrange to pick you up from the train station if you need a ride here***

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Aide dans une ferme

  Baby-sitting et jeux créatifs

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général
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  Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

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  Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  ABOUT OUR HOME
  In our home we excel at tasty home-made food, deep conversation, laughter and play. We love having an open and welcoming house where friends or family can pop in, kids can roam and play, and guests feel at home. We enjoy spending time at home with our housemates and friends doing wholesome, warm, fun things
  
  Communal food is a big part for us, of what makes our house feel like a home. We take turns cooking and share dinner together each night that we are home. Most of our shared meals are easily vegan, but we welcome vegetarians, vegans, freegans and 'ethical omnivores'.
  
  When you visit us, you'll become part of our household and community, as a temporary housemate.
  
  We have all travelled extensively ourselves, we get it and know how wonderful it is to land in a warm, safe, beautiful space that feels like home. We look forward to welcoming you!

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  Projets impliquant des enfants

  Ce projet peut impliquer des enfants. Pour en savoir plus, consultez nos directives et conseils ici.

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  Aide

  We are open to receiving help in a variety of areas, depending on your skills and preferences, physical capacity, and what needs doing at the time.
  At the moment (May/June) 2025 our main need is help with supporting the transition of people moving in and out of the house. There are lots of time sensitive house maintenance tasks, including moving and sorting, cleaning, some garden work by way of weeding and mulching and general house keeping (cooking, cleaning etc).
  
  We are a busy household, looking after kids, working, studying and gerernal life things, we are setting up the homestead and moving towards self-sufficiency with our food but at this time of the year (winter) we are focused more on house maintenance and tidying/refining current systems. Some days you might be working by yourself or with just one or two other people. We've has LOTS of workaways and work exchange people come through and we LOVE those who are able to work independently and fit in to the flow of everyday life.
  
  Many of us are passionate about permaculture, regenerative agriculture, sustainable architecture and natural building, so we have lots of knowledge to share with you while you are here - feel free to ask as many questions as you like!
  
  Tasks that we might ask you to do
  ~Cleaning, sorting, organising, lifting and general day-to-day help, playing with kids and support around the home (main thing in May/June 2025)
  ~Gardening: weeding, mulching, watering, harvesting, helping care for chickens.
  ~ Preserving & cooking: baking bread, making jam, dehydrating fruit, making fermented foods
  ~ Managing forest - out invasive species, thinning trees, pruning
  ~ Building projects and woodworking such as building a compost toilet or chicken coop, setting up an outdoor kitchen, making a solar dehydrator, a cob pizza oven (not the focus right now May/June)
  
  EXCHANGE
  ~ We welcome any length of stay 3-10 days being the sweet spot. Our first preference is refer a minimum stay of 7 days.
  ~ The exchange is 4 hours per day. We provide incredible and abundant food, all food preferences accommodated for with fresh local organic food. Warm cooked dinner is provided for each evening which we generally share as a community.
  We can provide you with a warm, comfortable, room either within the house or a private detached tiny house.
  
  ~ We can provide food to suit all dietary preferences, our house has nuts. Most of us 'ethical omnivores' but we also have 2 vegan people living with us too and range of dietary nuance.
  ~During your stay with us, you would become like a temporary 'housemate'. This means that we would hope that you would help to cook dinner, wash dishes, and clean up after yourself, just like any of our housemates. These 'housemate' tasks are not included in your volunteer hours
  ~ We eat dinner together every night around 6pm-7pm, and would love you to join us, sometimes everyone is here, other time not, in general we share. We sometimes make communal breakfasts and lunches but it really depends on the day!
  
  WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR:
  
  We are looking for people who are excited about putting energy into the home and garden to make it functional, productive and beautiful. We are looking for others who share our values being co-creative, flexible, connective, self-aware communication and living lightly on the earth.
  
  Ideally we are looking for people who are:
  ~ Genuinely interested in living with and learning from other people, including children and young people, and excited about being part of an active community.
  ~ Have practical skills to contribute or are keen to get in there and help with all kinds of random day-to-day tasks including (not limited to) cleaning, gardening, cooking, communication, creativity, building or fixing things, facilitation, animal care, lifting, tidying.
  ~ Clean and tidy, but tolerant of occasional chaos and mess (the reality of living with kids!)
  ~ Have a 'can-do' attitude, willing to give things a go, ask questions and make mistakes

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  We love learning new languages and connecting with people all over the world. Lucia speaks fluent Italian and Issy speak some German.
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  Hébergement

  You will have full access to our main hempcrete passive house with has a large living room & kitchen, separate lounge, study, 2 bathrooms and a huge shed. The house is wonderfully warm in winter and cool in summer.
  
  We have guest accommodation for up to 4 people (options of 2 tiny houses and space inside win our lounge and study- both with privacy options). . We have bedding available or you can bring your own.
  
  There is plenty of flat space for camping if you would like to bring your own tent or caravan.

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  Autres infos...

  ~Our property is a 10 acre bush block on Djaara land just 5kms from Castlemaine centre
  ~ Castlemaine is a thriving, creative, alternative small town in regional Victoria, just 1.5 hours by train or car from the city of Melbourne.
  ~ Our land is right next to gorgeous conservation bushland, with kangaroos bounding past, birds singing, wildflowers blooming, and so much room to wander and explore in the nearby forest.
  ~There are lots of bushwalking trails and cycling trails nearby in the Muckleford forest
  ~ The Castlemaine area has lots of historical sites from the gold rush and historical architecture
  ~ There are lots of lovely places in nature to swim such as our very own big dam, also 'The Res' on Golden Point Rd, Glenluce, or Vaughan Springs
  ~ Castlemaine town centre has everything you need and more including shops, restaurants, pubs, live music, a library, community gardens, yoga & pilates classes, circus classes, permaculture courses, art classes, secondhand stores and a public swimming pool, sauna and spa.
  
  TRANSPORT
  ~ There is no public transport to our place. But we are just 5kms, or a 15-25 min bike ride from the train station. If you don't have your own vehicle, a taxi from the train station to here costs about $20 but we can also offer you ride and maybe loan you a car if you need it,
  ~ Once here, you are welcome to borrow one of our spare bikes to get around town as well.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  We have good internet access via mobile phone data and high speed unlimited WiFi connected. We have a shared study you can use for computer work and there is a library close by in town with free WIFI.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  We have plenty of flat land and space for parking a caravan, campervan, or tiny house.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  We can accept friendly, gentle dogs. No cats and no vicious dogs.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Plus de 2

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