Join our forest home where music, nature and community meet in Newham, Victoria, Austalia

Detalhes

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  Descrição

  About Us ❤️
  Hello! I’m Charlotte - a musician, composer, and facilitator of creative singing and movement. I live with my playful 3-year-old son, Henry, and our gentle Cavoodle, Willow, on a beautiful bush property surrounded by forest and wildlife.
  
  Our home is a creative family space that welcomes artists, travellers, and friends who enjoy living simply, connecting deeply, and sharing music, dance, art, nature, food and laughter.
  
  Just down the road, we have a music and dance studio where we sometimes host community events, creative gatherings and cultural exchanges. We’re gradually growing a small, intentional community centred around creativity, mindfulness, connection and care for the land.
  
  The Exchange 🌻
  We offer a flexible rhythm of shared help and time off. This isn’t about strict hours or ticking boxes - it’s about balance, communication, initiative and mutual care.
  
  We can negotiate the arrangement that best suits both our rhythms at the time of your visit:
  
  Option 1 — Food + accommodation
  🌞 Around 4–5 hours a day, 5 days a week, with food and accommodation included.
  *(This can sometimes depend on our capacity to provide extra food that month.)*
  
  Option 2 — Accommodation only
  🌿 Around 2–3 hours a day, 5 days a week, with you buying and preparing your own meals.
  
  Days and times are flexible, and we can work around your energy, study, travel plans and other commitments.
  
  What You’ll Help With 🪴
  Our “help” is really about being part of family and community life - practical, creative and sometimes playful.
  
  Depending on your skills and what’s happening in our home, this might include:
  * Simple cooking and meal preparation
  * Cleaning and tidying shared spaces
  * Gardening and light outdoor work
  * Playing with or spending gentle time with Henry, usually while I’m nearby
  * Preparing our studio and retreat spaces for workshops and events
  * Helping with practical household tasks
  * Optional creative contributions such as music, art, photography, writing or community ideas
  
  We particularly value people who are **independent and proactive** - people who feel comfortable noticing what needs doing, finding things for themselves and taking initiative without needing constant direction.
  
  Confidence with cooking, cleaning and practical household tasks is a real bonus.
  
  Spanish is especially welcome! 🇪🇸🌻
  I speak **only Spanish with Henry**, so if you’re a Spanish speaker and are happy to speak Spanish with him whenever he is home, we would be incredibly grateful.
  Spanish-speaking visitors can become a really special part of his language world.
  As an added bonus, if you enjoy translating children’s books into Spanish, there may be a little of that to do too!
  
  Other languages are very welcome as well.
  
  Helping on camps, where I lead groups in body-based improvised singing, may also be possible in the future. Our camps are currently on pause until sometime in 2027.
  
  We also love welcoming people with their own interests and skills -whether that’s permaculture, music, yoga, crafts, cooking, photography, languages or mindful living. We’ll find ways for your gifts to fit naturally into daily life.
  
  Accommodation 🏡
  You’ll have a private room and/or small caravan, with access to:
  * Shared kitchen, bathroom and laundry
  * Wi-Fi
  * Musical instruments and creative studio spaces
  * Bush trails
  * Swimming spots
  * Campfire areas
  * Plenty of space to rest, create and enjoy nature
  It’s simple, cosy and very peaceful, with beautiful forest and starry skies all around.
  
  Practical Bits 💡
  * We’re in a peaceful rural area with **no public transport within walking distance**.
  * I go into town most days and can often offer lifts.
  * We’re around **15 minutes from Kyneton or Woodend**, both of which have trains, cafés, shops and other amenities.
  * We’re a **strictly non-smoking home**, with no illegal activity or drug use.
  * Couples and small families are welcome to enquire.
  * Spanish speakers are especially encouraged to apply!
  * Henry is generally at home **Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays**. On the other days he spends a large part of the day at kindergarten, daycare or with his Uncle.
  
  A little travel bonus 🚗
  If you stay with us for a longer period, we may be able to arrange for you to use a family car for travel, work or study, provided you are **25 or older** and meet the relevant insurance requirements. 😊
  
  What You’ll Experience 🌈
  Living with us might offer:
  * Connection with a warm, creative family and local community
  * Space and time to explore your own art, music or personal practice
  * Shared meals, song, dance and laughter
  * Quiet time and connection with nature
  * Invitations to community events, music sessions and workshops
  * A chance to experience a slower, rural Australian way of life
  * Opportunities to share your own culture, language, skills and stories
  
  We live **slowly-ish** — I do have a toddler! — but with a strong value on kindness, creativity, communication and connection.
  
  We like “help” to feel more like a **shared rhythm of living** than a job.
  
  Our Ideal Guest 🌿
  You might be a wonderful fit for our home if you:
  ✨ Love children, nature and creative living
  ✨ Enjoy a balance of quiet time and connection
  ✨ Are respectful, responsible and open-hearted
  ✨ Are comfortable living simply and sharing space
  ✨ Can work independently and notice what needs doing
  ✨ Feel confident with cooking, cleaning and practical tasks
  ✨ Want to contribute something of yourself - language, art, music, laughter, culture or stories
  ✨ And, especially, **speak Spanish and would love to share it with Henry!** ❤️
  
  We’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for someone kind, trustworthy, communicative and willing to participate in the rhythm of our home.
  
  Interested? 💌
  If this sounds like your kind of place, send me a message introducing yourself - who you are, what you love, what you’re interested in, and what draws you to this experience.
  
  We can then arrange a friendly WhatsApp video chat and get a sense of whether we might be aligned. If it feels we are aligned, we can organise your visit!
  
  A Gentle Trial Period 🌱
  We begin with a two-day trial stay when someone first comes to us.
  
  We think this is a really important part of creating a good exchange - it gives both you and us the chance to experience what it’s actually like to share a home together, rather than trying to work out compatibility through messages alone.
  Sometimes people simply don’t quite mesh - and that’s completely okay! We want everyone who stays here to feel comfortable, respected and at ease, so we give ourselves permission to notice honestly how the arrangement feels for everyone.
  If either of us feels that it isn’t quite the right fit, we can part on warm and respectful terms, without anyone feeling that they have done anything wrong.
  Where we can, we’ll also do our best to suggest other local hosts, work-exchange opportunities or affordable accommodation in Melbourne so that you’re not left without options.
  Our hope is that the trial feels less like an assessment and more like a gentle “let’s see how we fit into each other’s rhythm”. 🌻
  
  We are looking forward to hearing from you!
  
  Warmly,
  
  Charlotte, Henry & Willow 🐾

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  Tipos de ajuda e oportunidades de aprendizado

  Projetos artísticos

  Prática de idiomas

  Ajuda em projetos ambientais

  Ensino

  Jardinagem geral

  Projetos DIY criativos

  Cuidar de animais

  Ajuda em fazenda

  Cuidar de crianças/atividades criativas

  Criar/cozinhar refeições caseiras

  Ajuda a cuidar da casa

  Manutenção geral
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  Interesses

  

  Autodesenvolvimento

  

  Artes performáticas

  

  Música

  

  Idiomas

  

  Desenho e pintura

  

  Jardinagem

  

  Camping

  

  Ciclismo

  

  Yoga/bem-estar

  

  Fitness

  

  Atividades ao ar livre

  

  Naturaleza

  

  Dança
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  Oportunidades de intercâmbio cultural e aprendizado

  Creative music and movement is something we specialise in and can share about. We live in an area that has a lot of Old volcanic rock, my parents live down the road, and my mum especially is very interested in native plants and they are part of the local Landcare group, and very knowledgeable-there are beautiful walks and places to visit in the area

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  Projetos que envolvem crianças

  Este projeto pode envolver crianças. Para mais informações, veja aqui nossas diretrizes e dicas.

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  Ajuda

  We are open to a combo of things- may change depending on when you come!!….Childcare, Cooking, cleaning, gardening, basic home care tasks: gutters, weeding, planting, dishes, a sweep and a mop would be amazing! Cooking. Doing laundry! Help getting studio more beautiful and home! Gardening help!

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  Idiomas

  Idiomas
  Inglês: Fluente
  Espanhol: Fluente

  Este anfitrião oferece intercâmbio de idiomas
  I’d like to practice Spanish
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  Acomodação

  Room in a home with a bed and bedding, or a caravan and studio

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  Algo mais...

  Hanging Rock and Mt Macedon and Turpins water Falls are near by

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  Mais alguns detalhes

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    Acesso à internet

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    Acesso à internet limitado

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    Temos mascotes

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    Somos fumantes

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    Pode hospedar famílias

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  Pode hospedar nômades digitais

  Good Internet

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  Espaço para estacionar campervans

  Lots of space

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  Pode aceitar animais

  Well trained and socially good dog

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  Quantos Workawayers pode acomodar?

  2

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  Meus animais / animais de estimação

  Willow

Segurança do site

Converse com Workawayers que já visitaram este anfitrião

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