Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
16 Apr 2025
Reply rate
86.7 %
Usually responds within 6 days
Feedback
5
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Badges (3)
Details
Description
Hi I'm Jay—I live in an Ecovillage in Central Coast NSW with my partner Cathie (who's Irish) and our two sons, 4 and 8 years old. I'm fluent in Spanish, and Cathie speaks Italian.
I'm a writer with a background in non-profit advocacy, Cathie's a singer with permaculture and natural building experience. We love gardening and playing music and parenting. We're a neurodivergent and queer-friendly family, we're honest and clear communicators.
We bought a normal suburban house right on the verge of the amazing local Ecovillage, in which we're very active members. Now we're renovating it with largely recycled materials—as well as scoping some cob building extension, installing a pool, and building a sauna — and we need some help :)
The Ecovillage is a thriving community of 200+ members nestled in the Narara Valley, with a private entrance to the majestic Strickland Forest, which is home Australia's oldest arboretum. We enjoy a shared dam for swims in epic forest surrounds, and a solar smart-grid powers our homes.
The homes themselves are amazing — all designed to amazing building standards using technologies like rammed earth, strawbale, passivehaus and earthship design. There's even a famous hobbit-house made with cob.
Our Ecovillage is fortunate enough to host Deep Ecology workshops with the pioneering nature champion John Seed — one of our members — and we're just 20 mins drive from spectacular beaches.
Workaway folks and wwoofers camp and stay in houses all round the place, so there's often groups of travellers building and learning as a step on their journeys around Australia. We're a fun community with music, storytelling and shared dinners. We use a cool system called sociocracy for shared decisions and volunteering — so if you're into social innovation it's a fascinating place.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Interests
Books
Drawing & painting
Nature
Beach
Dancing
Charity work
Events & social
Culture
Movies & TV
Sustainability
Politics / Social justice
LGBTQ
DIY & crafts
Music
Gardening
Cooking & food
Languages
Performing arts
Sailing / Boating
Water sports
Cycling
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
I've mentioned our Ecovillage in the first response — it's an amazing place that's home to some incredible people — so many unique opportunities to participate in a unique culture with a spirit of collaboration and care. Also to share your culture in meaningful ways with well-travelled, curious folk who love to listen and learn.
We have talks and events, workshops and music. Wednesday night is a DJ — 'dancing in the dark' in our village hall, plus there's yoga, meditation, qi gung, community gardens, forest walks, swimming and more.
Help
Mostly help as we renovate our house inside and out. We'll be laying flooring, painting, building a deck around our pool, building a sauna, converting a studio room to a standalone apartment, and building some cob feature walls.
Depending on when you arrive, we'll also have some gardening tasks — and of course the Ecovillage is on the doorstep to explore involvement in amazing builds and a very active community garden.
You'll be doing tasks with us both, but mostly me (Jay) on most jobs. I'm learning as I go so you won't get a masterclass, but you'll have access to some very cool and qualified people who help us with design, planning and trades.
Sometimes you might help care for our sons, the youngest is 4 years old. This might be preparing some food, or taking a walk through the village, or dropping at school or daycare, or playing games, that kind of thing.
Languages
Languages spoken
Spanish: Fluent
Italian: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
We miss speaking Spanish and Italian! We love our kids hearing us speak with people, and joining in. We're both good conversationalists in any language :)
Accommodation
Choose from either a lovely, freshly renovated downstairs 1BR apartment, or a campsite in the heart of the Ecovillage (and possibly with other wwoofers in the village). In the apartment you'll have your own kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and a shared laundry.
In the apartment your windows look out on a pool and over the green hills of the Ecovillage, with a short path and 20 second walk to arrive.
We're happy to share meals sometimes, and we'd love if you sometimes cooked for us (if you like cooking). We're flexible on food, but we're very busy with kids and work and village volunteering so we're not able to share meals every day, or even most days. It'd be more a social thing to invite you for dinner sometimes. But the Ecovillage has big dinners occasionally — delicious!
If you were camping, you'd be using shared bathroom and shared mudbrick camp kitchen — which has a firepit and great vibes, just near the dam.
What else ...
We have a golden retriever dog named Champ. He's an older dog, enormously charming and gentle, no aggression at all. His first language is Spanish (long story!).
The train to Sydney/Newcastle can be caught from Narara station - 15 min walk away. There are many beautiful beaches and bushwalks to explore around here.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
I work remotely too.
Space for parking camper vans
In a big campervan, we'll find you a spot in the heart of the Ecovillage!
Can possibly accept pets
Just no dogs inside on the freshly renovated flooring, otherwise all welcome. Our dog is very mellow.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (4)
Jay and Cathie are two fantastic people with two really sweet kids. The youngest (and I apologize for not knowing how to spell their names, even though I can say them) sometimes storms through the apartment like a little wrecking ball. But… read more
If you want to help kind people, go there. Enjoy the atmosphere. The accommodation was perfect, and they spoiled us with groceries for dinner.
Thank you both very much for your kindness. It was a… read more
it was great!
3 days before my planned arrival without too much hope I asked Catie if we could move up the date of my arrival because I was in a difficult situation in the place where I was staying before, she said yes right away, it was enough to say that I was sick in that situation.
They are wonderful… read more
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Feedback
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(5.0)
Jay and Cathie are two fantastic people with two really sweet kids. The youngest (and I apologize for not knowing how to spell their names, even though I can say them) sometimes storms through the apartment like a little wrecking ball. But… read more
If you want to help kind people, go there. Enjoy the atmosphere. The accommodation was perfect, and they spoiled us with groceries for dinner.
Thank you both very much for your kindness. It was a… read more
it was great!
3 days before my planned arrival without too much hope I asked Catie if we could move up the date of my arrival because I was in a difficult situation in the place where I was staying before, she said yes right away, it was enough to say that I was sick in that situation.
They are wonderful… read more
