Stay in a strawbale house with beautiful views near Riddells Creek, VIC, Australia

Infos

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  Description

  Your own BR, bathroom & lounge. Flexible hours
  
  Riddells Creek is a semi-rural town in Victoria, only 1 hr by train or car to Melbourne city centre & 40 mins drive to Melbourne airport . We are a semi-retired couple in our 50's (Wayne and Michelle) who work part time, some days from home. See @5acresandabarn for photos of our everyday life here.
  We built our "farmhouse" style home with verandahs all around, 20 yeras ago, on 5.5 acres with beautiful views over our dam to the hills. The walls are strawbales, plastered in lime render.
  Our 2 daughters (29yo and 21yo) have moved out, so one end of the house is now available for workaway guests (1-2 bedrooms, main lounge with view, main bathroom with view, own entrance).
  We have a great lifestyle, enjoying relaxed meals on the deck in good weather.
  In MARCH, we'll be picking and enjoying our own tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchinis. We enjoy cooking, making jams from fruit from our orchard or quince paste to go with cheese. Recently we made lioncello with our lemons. Sometimes we make fresh pasta, gnocchi, foccacia.
  We love travelling - weekend drives locally, beach holidays or overseas (Italy is our favourite and we are going in April/May 2026). We enjoy having friends and family over to share good food and wine.
  There are many native animals and birds to see at our place (kangaroos and parrots often visit) and many outdoor activities you can do (bike rides, hikes). There are also incredible natural attractions to see in the area (waterfalls,mineral springs). The nearby towns are wonderful to visit and have great shops, galleries, bars, restaurants and local farmers markers. The Macedon Ranges is famous for nature, food, wine. We love showing people our area and if we have time, we will take you to our favourite places or help you plan daytrips nearby or to Melboune.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Pratique d’une langue

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général
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  Centres d’intérêt

  

  Dev. personnel

  

  Événements/vie sociale

  

  Dev. durable

  

  Culture

  

  Films et télé

  

  Bricolage / artisanat

  

  Dessin et peinture

  

  Jardinage

  

  Blogs

  

  Cuisine et alimentation

  

  Photographie

  

  Menuiserie

  

  Livres

  

  Architecture

  

  Nature
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  If you are interested in how we designed and owner-built our strawbale house, we would be happy to share our knowledge. We are very interested in passive house and sustainable building design.
  Wayne built our house, barn, pergola, chicken house, wood-fired pizza oven, garden structures, dining table etc so can share skills depending on projects happening.
  Michelle loves cooking, gardening and growing flowers (she ran a kitchen-garden program at the local primary school for 7 years) and you are welcome to help / cook with us sometimes.
  We only speak English but are happy to help you practice your English if you wish to.
  We are going to Italy in April-May, so would love to learn some Italian in March (or June-August 2027).
  Happy for you to join us for dinner / we may have friends over.
  You may meet our daughters and thir partners if they come by. We sometimes cook in a woodfired pizza oven in the garden (that Wayne built) or enjoy a BBQ outside, in good weather. In winter, the house is warm inside (the strawbale walls provide great insulation and we have double glazed windows) - and we love making comforting meals to enjoy by the wood fire.

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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 would negotiate with you when you do jobs, to fit with our help / free time and your plans to explore.
  It will be relaxed with plenty of time for you to sightsee. (eg: if you stay 4 days: help for 2 days, 4 hrs p/day and have 2 full days to yourselves).
  One or both of us would probably do or start tasks with you, if we are not at work.
  
  Any MONTH: Help before / after meals (load / unload dishwasher), do some dishes, wipe benches etc. Some basic help around the house. Eg: vacuum (we don't need our house to be perfect - but we prrefer to cook or be in the garden than vacuuming or dusting). Check chickens (4) have water, give feed every few days, collect eggs, let them out in the morning & lock them up at night. Maybe some painting.
  
  MARCH 2026: Gardening tasks (weeding, watering, mulching vegetable garden and other garden areas), cutting back plants, sweeping / raking, loading / emptying wheelbarrow.
  
  We are getting ready to sell in Oct-Nov 2027, so we may need help cleaning out our shed.
  
  JUNE / JULY/ AUG 2026: Wayne will be limewashing the outside strawbale walls which he may need help with. Probably some still outside garden jobs (eg: mulch before spring). Maybe some painting.

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Italien: Débutant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  We would like to learn some Italian. Currently speak a few words only. english is our only fluent language
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  Hébergement

  1-2 bedrooms (QS beds), large lounge with TV (great view), large bathroom with shower, own entrance. Good for a couple (1 bdrm) or 2 friends travelling together (a bedroom each).
  If you have a caravan / campervan, there is space to set up and power available.
  Not suitable for camping.
  We will provide food for you to make your breakfast, lunches.
  We will provide dinner each night and probably eat together most of the time. We're open to you making a meal for us if you'd like to, or feel free to go out some nights if you want to. We eat mostly mediterranean type meals (not much processed food), vegetables, chicken, red meat, fish, eggs, dairy so if you are vegan or vegetarian, our meals may not suit you.

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  Autres infos...

  NON-SMOKERS only.
  Riddells Creek Train station is a 20 min walk / 5 min drive.
  We could pick you up / drop you to the station if we are free.
  See website visitmacedonranges.com.au for inforamtion. We also have lots of info / brochures here

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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 can talk when you arrive about what needs to be done and be flexible with when you do tasks, as long as you do you fair share of helping us (eg: if you stay for 4 days, do some jobs 4 hrs p/day for 2 days and have 2 full days to yourselves).

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  Power available. Flat gravel area to set up

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Mes animaux

  

  4 chickens

Sécurité du site