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7 Feb 2025
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Description
Family-friendly permaculture share-house.
We are a small permaculture homestead and share-house with a focus on regen agriculture, natural building & communal living. We are a bustling co-living community and homestead of 12 adults, 4 kids and 2 dogs, that we are excited for you to be a part of 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).
***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***
ABOUT US
We are 12 adults: Dan &Nicola, Bee, Issy, Kat, Claudia, Alex, Nectar, Lucia & Ash, Meagan & Cesar. There are 4 kids: 11 year old Jimmy, 3 year old Jo, and 2 year old Rae & Giacomo. 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. The 2 dogs are called Affi and Opal and are very friendly, safe and kid-tolerant. They will be very happy to have a new friend who might throw sticks for them!
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Babysitting and creative play
Help around the house
General Maintenance
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
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 things like garden working bees, baking, potluck dinners, board game nights, music jams, dance sessions and swims in the dam.
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.
You'll learn about natural building, sustainability, communal living, permaculture gardening, group facilitation/communication, planting and managing orchards and keeping animals for semi-self sufficient living. It'll be fun!
We have also both travelled extensively ourselves, mostly cycle-touring or hitch-hiking, across Asia, Africa and Europe, so we also have plenty of travel tales to share and are keen to hear yours. :)
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
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 our main need is help with setting up the homestead and moving towards self-sufficiency with our food. Each week we have one 'working bee' day where we all help out in the garden and it's a lot of fun doing stuff together as a group. On other days you might be working by yourself, or with just one or two other people.
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
~Gardening: planting trees, shrubs, seeds, weeding, watering, harvesting, etc.
~Childcare - looking after the young children so we can get other tasks done
~ 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
~ Preserving & cooking: baking bread, making jam, dehydrating fruit, making fermented foods
~ Managing forest - chainsawing trees, pulling out invasive species, etc.
EXCHANGE
~We prefer a minimum stay of 7 days, with a preference for 2 weeks or more so that there is some stability for us and the kids
~ We expect an exchange of 20 hours per week, (4 hours x 5 days) with fresh local organic food and high quality, insulated, private accommodation included.
~ If you provide your own accommodation (caravan, tent, etc.), we can negotiate a reduced exchange that feels fair
~ Typically we would work between 8am-12pm each weekday, resting in the afternoon, with just a few household chores in the evening. However, this schedule can be flexible if you have other commitments or activities you would like to fit in, or what our schedules are like. For example, you could do a full 8 hour day and then have the next day off, or do some afternoon work instead of morning.
~ We can provide food to suit most dietary preferences such as Gluten Free or vegan. We call ourselves 'ethical omnivores', so we do eat mostly vegan or vegetarian food but do also occasionally eat local, organic, free-range meat or dairy
~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 for everyone once per fortnight, wash dishes, and clean up after yourself, just like any of our housemates. These 'housemate' tasks are not included in your volunteer hours
~ We tend to go to bed quite early (9pm) and wake up early (6am), so we prefer to get started early in the day and keep the noise down late at night
~ We eat dinner together every night around 6pm, and would expect you to join us if you are home that evening. You are welcome to do your own thing for breakfast and lunch. It's fine if you want to go out for dinner, just let us know you'll be away
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 around permaculture, nature connection, 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 permaculture ‘homestead’.
~ Have practical skills to contribute or are keen to learn: gardening, cooking, communication, creativity, building or fixing things, facilitation, animal care, etc.
~ 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
Languages
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
Spanish: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
We love learning new languages and connecting with people all over the world. Lucia speaks fluent Italian, Nicola & Issy speak fluent German.
Accommodation
You will have full access to our main hempcrete passive house with has a large living room & kitchen, separate lounge, study, 3 bathrooms and a huge shed. The house is wonderfully warm in winter and cool in summer.
We have guest accommodation for up to 2 people in a tiny house called Geo. It is well insulated, with a nice big window. It has a fold up double bed, kitchenette, fan, and fold-up desk, as well as a compost toilet and hot shower. We have bedding available or you can bring your own.
We also have a large bell tent available that can accommodate up to 8 people, it currently has a queen mattress and one single bed.
There is plenty of flat space for camping if you would like to bring your own tent or caravan. We can negotiate a reduced exchange if you do.
What else ...
~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.
~ Once here, you are welcome to borrow one of our spare bikes to get around town.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host 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.
Space for parking camper vans
We have plenty of flat land and space for parking a caravan, campervan, or tiny house.
Can possibly accept pets
We can accept friendly, gentle dogs. No cats and no vicious dogs.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (2)
everyone made me feel so welcome and it really was like being another community member for a warm loving family of people choosing to live in a beautiful space and with really grounded consciousness about what they are doing.
Nicola and Dan made sure to check in with… read more
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everyone made me feel so welcome and it really was like being another community member for a warm loving family of people choosing to live in a beautiful space and with really grounded consciousness about what they are doing.
Nicola and Dan made sure to check in with… read more
