Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
12 Mar 2025
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 1 day
Feedback
39
Email verified
Badges (3)
Details
Description
Suella: retired librarian, gardener, Permaculture student, musician (piano, ukulele), cook. John: vegan, musician (classical guitar, bass, lead, ukulele), bush walker, nature lover, gardener. We have a beautiful Bali-inspired home surrounded by a 1 acre garden that we're developing to provide us with our fruit and vegetable needs. Set in a eucalyptus forest in a quiet rural part of the Sunshine Coast.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We live in a beautiful area, Glasshouse Country, the hinterland to Queensland's Sunshine Coast. We are surrounded by the outstandlingly beautiful Glasshouse Mountains, with many climbing and bushwalking tracks.
We've planned our garden to encourage native birds, and have daily visits from flocks of fairy wrens, pigeons, king parrots and satin bowerbirds. We have the occasional visit from wallabies and bandicoots. We've found a naturally occurring hive of native bees, and see many native varieties that help pollinate our plants.
We're close to the colourful town of Maleny, which has a strong culture in cooperatives and Permaculture, and we are close to Crystal Waters Permaculture Eco-Village and the Blackall Range strip of towns like Montville and Flaxton. The beaches of Caloundra are 30 minutes away.
I'm part of the local gardening club, and have helped start the Maleny Permaculture group. I've invested time in understanding the soil in our area, which has specific requirements for gardening success, and we are starting to have good results in the garden. I'm currently studying a Permaculture Design Certificate online taught by Morag Gamble, an outstanding teacher who lives 30 minutes away in the Crystal Waters Eco-village, which is well worth a visit.
My husband is a classical guitarist, and we play ukulele together, including in our small ukulele group. We have an extensive music collection across jazz, rock, pop and classical, and a large DVD collection.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
We have 1 acre of subtropical land that we're applying a Permaculture design to. We've built many large wicking beds, and have several interesting projects ready to start:
- firing up our biochar furnace;
- creating a black soldier fly farm (for composting and to feed our chickens)
- building a compost tea brewer
- working out an effective fertigation system.
We're also planting fruit trees, and build hot composts every few months.
Previous Workawayers have been fantastic and have helped us:
- build a large gabion wall which we have used to build garden beds and a chicken pen.
- built a Johnson-Su composting bioreactor
- built a continuous flow worm farm.
We try to make the Workaway stay stimulating and a great learning experience.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
I'd love to be able to communicate in French
Accommodation
We have a spare room with bunks (a double bed and a single), or a loft room with a view to the garden. My husband is a vegan; I'm not, so we eat a wide variety of food. We eat a lot of fruit and salads.
We are dependent on tank water, so need to be very economic with our water use.
What else ...
Bush walks: Mt Ngungun, Mt Tibrogargan, Mary Cairncross Rainforest Reserve (amazingly beautiful ancient rainforest).
Tourist towns: Montville, Maleny. Beaches: Caloundra, Golden Beach, Dickie Beach, Moffat Beach.
Scenic drives: Mountain View Road, Old Gympie Road (views of the individual Glasshouse Mountains).
Nearby towns: Beerwah (10 minutes): supermarkets, pub, library, business hub; Caloundra (25 minutes): beach town,
Large commercial centres: Maroochydore, Caloundra, Caboolture (30 minutes).
One hour to Brisbane.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We don't have fantastic broadband here (no NBN yet), but we get by! We can stream Netflix most of the time.
Space for parking camper vans
We don't have spare covered parking but have plenty of space for you to park a car or van.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (17)
We had a lot of… read more
We coudn't have wished for a better first workaway experience!
They are the most kind, loving, heart warming people and they made us really feel like home.
We did all kind of jobs around and in the house, but mostly garden work.
We learned a lot about gardening and shared our love for food!
Suella makes delicious dishes, so… read more
Grant… read more
They're both passionate musicians and outside of work I got to enjoy some great live music being rehearsed… read more
Photos
Feedback
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(5.0)
We had a lot of… read more
We coudn't have wished for a better first workaway experience!
They are the most kind, loving, heart warming people and they made us really feel like home.
We did all kind of jobs around and in the house, but mostly garden work.
We learned a lot about gardening and shared our love for food!
Suella makes delicious dishes, so… read more
Grant… read more
They're both passionate musicians and outside of work I got to enjoy some great live music being rehearsed… read more
They are so sweet and fun to be around!! The house is full of life and good energies!!
So much fun to sing random songs or make delicious marmalades!
It's a very busy and very fun place, you won't get bored over there!! =)
The work was fair and satisfying, never too hard =)
Thank you so much for everything,… read more
We're so happy we chose to spend our last days here before leaving Oz!
Being 2 permaculture enthousiasts, there's plenty to learn and do when helping out in the garden. It's fun to be around so many interesting edibles… read more
Unfortunately, John & I both became quite unwell while Takashi was with us, so we weren't able to work with him as much as we… read more
They gave me a great experience.
Suella and John gave us ukulele lessons, gardening, cooking, and bush walking.
They were very kind people.
When I got lost bushwalking, Suella helped me.
Suella taught me how to make compost and wicking beds.
She took me to the theater on my days off and we enjoyed it very… read more
We learned about sourdough baking, beginning from scratch with a fresh dried starter that Veronica brought with her. Her depth of understanding of the… read more
Both Yuko and Tetsuya have limited… read more
All the love for you both 🍀
During our 11-day stay, Suella and John were the kindest, most welcoming hosts we could have asked for. They were always happy to chat and share their experiences, and they made us feel right at home from the… read more
The work we did was varied, and Brendan and I both felt that we came… read more
You will work in a beautiful permaculture garden in the glasshouse mountains with a foresty environment, while at the same time hearing John play (amazingly) the guitar or any other instrument (he can… read more
I highly recommend !
