Wanted - Financial assistance to seed a permaculture village

Discussion in 'Jobs, projects, courses, training, WWOOFing, volun' started by ecodharmamark, Jun 18, 2006.

  1. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    Dear Fellow Earth-carer/s

    Do you dream of investing in a long-term, ecologically sustainable permaculture project? Would you like to see your money put to work creating an entire eco-village? Would you like to be at the forefront of an exciting and inspiring project that will eventually see up to 500 hundred people living, caring, and sharing in a fully functioning community - all working towards an end goal of self-sustainability and personal/community peace and harmony?

    Then this offer is for you!

    The deal: You will need to provide the start-up capital in order to secure a suitable site. Depending on the bioregional factors, this site could be anything from 5 to 5000 ha. and in an urban, regional, rural or remotely-based environment. The options are endless.

    Further, you will need to provide financial assistance to those that require a 'foot in the door'. Housing, clean food and water, and a safe and comfortable living/learning environent are the dreams of many. With your help you can make these dreams a reality.

    You could become a greater part of this community by living on the site, or you could remain a more distant contributor, the choice will be entirely yours to make.

    What is in it for you? Fame, prestige, financial gain? Highly unlikely. But there is always the chance that this venture could provide you with something much deeper than all of these things combined, something that your inner being has been in search of for a long time - Satisfaction.

    If anything in the above interests you, in any way, please do not hesitate and contact me to begin the process of turning our dreams into reality.

    Respectfully and sincerely yours,

    Mark Chesterfield

    [email protected]
     
  2. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Mark..


    What do we have to do to sign up?


    floot
     
  3. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    Yes Id like to Invest In Permaculture also


    Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee


    Tezza
     
  4. andyo

    andyo Junior Member

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    Seriously.

    Here... have my dole cheque. Really.

    Could I leave the burbs behind ? Has it been too long ? Am I addicted ?

    Reciprical thoughts out loud in text on screen.
     
  5. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    Hello Good People,

    My apologies for not responding sooner. I have been out in the field for the past week and have not been anywhere near a computer.

    Floot: I am not asking for anyone to sign anything. At this stage of planning what I am asking for is expressions of interest. Should you wish to know more about the project you can communicate with me via this forum, via my email, or via our Intentional Community (IC) forum. Thank you for your interest.

    Tezza: We would love to have you on board as an investor - time or money, makes no difference (however it is your knowledge and your willingness to share it that we are interested in at present). We would be grateful for whatever you would like to share. Communication with me is possible via the above means. Thank you too for your interest.

    Andyo: Thank you very much for your most generous offer. I too exist (financially) by the means of a fortnightly welfare payment, so I know how genuine your offer is. However at this very early stage of planning what we need is ideas, and I know that you can help us a lot in this regard. Thank you for your initial interest in the project and please feel free to join us at:

    https://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/icdg/index.html

    A note to all: It is almost imposible for the average wage-earner to secure enough capital in order to purchase a piece of land, much less someone who is dependant upon government welfare payments. It is for this reason that I make the request for financial assistance towards purchasing land. The idea is to build a permaculturally-designed/inspired community from the ground up, but in order to do this we need the ground. We could rent/lease the property, but we would then be subject to a fluctuating market and fickle land-owners. Security is what we require. The title could be held in trust with a core group of individuals named as trustees (MO - Multiple Occupancy style). Financial and non-financial core-group members could be named as trustees. All the details would be dependant upon local council regulations and the consensus-derived decisions of the core group, and after consoltation with appropriate legal advisors.

    Many years of observation and contemplation have been put into this project already by a growing band of people. Will you join us? Your ideas will be given the utmost of consideration and respect. Together you, me and the rest of 'us' can become 'we'. And when the time does come to purchase the land for our IC, your money (if you have any at all) will be most welcome too. But should you not be able to contribute to the community in a financial way, then your other fine attributes will certainly be highly regarded.

    Somewhere there is someone ready to provide us with the financial means to begin the property-purchasing stage of this project, but there is still much to be done concerning pre-planning and the building of potential community-member numbers. Feel free to join us at any time.

    Yours in permaculture,

    Mark Chesterfield.
     
  6. Hi all,

    I am a long term wwoofer on a 13 acre permaculture property in the Yarra Valley, Vic.

    The owner is a permaculture teacher (amongst other things), and is interested in having people living on the property as somewhat of a community... though all the existing abodes are full atm.

    There is interest in building more accomadation, and i am sure that for the right people there would be the possibility of buliding your own accomadation.

    I have been living there for 1 year, as have another 3 people.

    Drop a line if you think you might be interested, Chris
    [email protected]
     
  7. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    Hello Chris :)

    Thank you for your interest and response. Your current situation sounds very interesting and I encourage you all to continue to strive for your goals.

    Here in Central Victoria, we plan to start the building process of our IC in concert with local planning laws. Of course this means that we are going to have to push the boundaries of those laws on a daily basis. Indeed, we may even have to convince council to change some of its laws.

    Composting toilets are still almost unheard here, and this is in a local government area that has less than 2.5% remaining potable water in its storages! We are also contending with the fact that we have yet to receive less than half our yearly average rainfall (500mm, of which we have only received 200mm to date). With all this you would think that waterless, composting toilets would be mandatory inclusion in all new developments.

    You can begin to see the challenges that we face, however we believe that we are up to the task. So-much-so, that I plan to go back to university in 2008 and study towards becoming a professional planner. I figure that with profesional accredetation backing us, we stand a much stronger chance of implementing truly eco-sustainable designs, and more importantly, having them recognised by all levels of government as the way of the future.

    Local planning is where the boundaries need to be pushed in terms of permaculture design getting a foothold in mainstream development. For years I have done 'my own thing' (composting toilets; blackwater recycling; building all manner of sustainable, waste-nuetral, low in embodied energy structures, etc.), and all outside of local planning laws. This has been good for the environment, but in terms of educating the wider community, it has been a process that has gone on mainly without notice. By addressing the planning requirements of Council, indeed altering the very way that Council thinks in regards to the planning and development of human spaces, we hope to change our little part of the world and pave the way for others to follow.

    Thanks for the offer to come WWOOFing. Unfortunately I have already made plans for the 4-weeks I have spare this year. Maybe next year.

    Cheerio, peace and love to you all,

    Mark.
     
  8. kathleenmc

    kathleenmc Junior Member

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    Hi Mark,

    You can do it! It is being done with this mob....

    https://www.bend.org.au

    This project was started by a group of local people, with no money only the incentive, to build a permaculture orientated village a few years ago and it now has D.A approval! Things are finally starting to come into fruition! If you want to know what they came up against, how they accumulated the funds etc, just contact them. You can download a lot of info from them as well.

    Keep up the good work. :D

    kathleen
     
  9. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    G'day kathleen :)

    Thank you ever so much for the link-in to BEND. Isn't it great that they have already achieved so much? I'm in the process of reading the available documents provided on their site. Great stuff! BEND's work to date reminds me a lot of the Fryer's Forest eco-village (see link below) with regards to the planning processes. Oh, how exciting it is!

    https://www.holmgren.com.au/html/Fryers/fryers.html

    Our local council has only just today sworn in our new Mayor. The coucil website lists her interests which include "...sustainable planning and development" (see link below for full page).

    https://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/Page/page ... Id=721&h=0

    The future looks bright for sustainable development in Central Vic :D

    Cheerio, and thanks again, kathleen.

    Mark.
     
  10. kathleenmc

    kathleenmc Junior Member

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    No worries mate, goodluck with it all.

    We have indeed had a bit of input from David H about Fryers experience as well as Robyn Francis and Jarlanbah's experience. The Management Statement was developed with stategies gleaned from those experiences.

    You might find some support with council from Michael Mobbs from the sustainable house project as well.

    https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au

    I'll keep this forum informed on the project as things develop.

    We've just had a celebration about attaining the D.A and I was suprised to learn that it all started in 2003 with two friends (women) with one saying flippantly "I have this dream about an ecovillage" and the other friend took her seriously and organised a meeting over it! Just goes to show how an idea can become an actuality.

    :lol: Kathleen
     
  11. Foxywhiskers

    Foxywhiskers Guest

    Very interested in knowing what I can do to assist

    Hello Mark.

    I am extremely inteerested in becoming an active person in assisting this dream to fruition. I have spent much time looking at other eco-villages such as Crystal waters and so on on the net with a dream to be involved. Ironically when I came across your forum today i discovered you are also from Bendigo. Physically I can assist in these early planning stages and have many environmentally friendly suggestions.ie no domestic animals etc..to contribute. Financially my assistance is rather restricted however with ideas and labour, I think i can be a valuable member of an innovative team. Please personally message me and assign me a role in this great group endevour, I was so excited to find this thread. Its part of my ultimate dream :wink:

    Thankyou,
    Paula
     
  12. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    Hello Paula and Everyone with an eye on this thread :)

    An update:

    I've been accepted into LaTrobe University's (Bendigo campus) Bachelor of Urban, Regional and Environmental planning course. It's a brand new course, designed to address the shortfall of multi-disciplinary planners, especially in regional areas:

    https://www.latrobe.edu.au/planning/undergraduate.html

    Of course the above means that I'm tied to a rather heavy study-load for the next four years, but that has not diminished my dream of helping create sustainable community one bit. However the focus of where this will all begin has shifted a little. For example: I'm now looking at being part of a large (up to 12 individuals?) co-housing complex, probably located somewhere in the sub-urban locale of Bendigo, near the Uni and a public transport point.

    This is where you may be interested in helping, in the very early stages of planning, Paula. However is not up to me to "assign" roles to anyone. If this is going to work then we all need to be part of a team, with an equal appreciation for the valuable input of all. There is no room for power imbalances in a fully-functioning, truly sustainable community.

    I'll be PM-ing you, Paula, very soon after I post here. I'll provide you with additional details about the work that a few Bendigo people have already done with a view to making our shared dreams a collective reality.

    Peace people, may your day shine and your lives be filled with happiness.

    Mark.
     
  13. Nathan Edwards

    Nathan Edwards Junior Member

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    Mark, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread it looks very interesting. My partner and I purchased a 10 acre block in Castlemaine in 2005 and although my focus is on the development of that block and I am for the time being financially tied to it I am very interested in IC as I did my first PDC in crystal waters in 92 and have always known that eventually the culture will shift toward those type of communities.
    Having said that I am in the process of looking into starting something similar with members of family and friends up North so info is a resource at the moment
    Peace bro.
     
  14. RobWindt

    RobWindt Junior Member

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    Go for it Mark, planners with a clue are in very short supply.
    FWIW, i have some wonderful resources on sustainable settlement design that i would be happy to discuss and share with you, ranging from rural planning guidelines to various eco village DAs
    This booklet was put together by Peter Cuming and the team at Sustainable Futures along with Robyn Francis, well worth having
    https://www.bookshop.nsw.gov.au/pubdetai ... cation=297

    Cheers
    Rob
    https://nakedmechanic.blogspot.com/
     
  15. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    Hello Nathan and Partner :)

    Yes, what an inspiring place Crystal Waters has become. I first visited there in 2002. I was given a lift by the partner of one of the founding members who picked me up whilst I was hitch-hiking into the village. We talked at length about village life and the politics that drives it. I think this was when I first become interested in IC as a very real alternative to the mainstream. During the next few days I WWOOFed my way around the village and got a real taste for IC life. Since then I have visited many IC's right around Australia and have had the very great opportunity to see first hand (at various stages) the the birth of quite a few. Also I've had the great privilege to visit some of the older, very well established IC's.

    Good luck with your ventures in both Castlemaine and "up North". I think one of the challenges we face as planners, designers and developers of IC's remains the need to balance structure with flexibilty in terms of the people we gather around us. Herb Seal's book Alternative Lifestyles: A study of communes, intentional communities, group marriages and other non-nuclear families (1974) continues to provide me with a thorough basis for this understanding. In it he strongly argues that we need to find the balance within our chosen social structures. Whether we chose an open-type, or the more conservative co-operative, or even as you suggest an IC based on the exteded-family model, they all have one thing in common; the need for balance, and the ability to remain dynamic.

    Cheerio for now, and may peace and happiness be yours to keep,

    Mark.
     
  16. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    Hello Rob :)

    Thank you for your continued encouragement, and nice to hear from you again.

    Yes, Robyn Francis' work gives me great inspiration. I'm studying the model she used in Nimbin Village (see link below) for I believe that this community will stand the test of time.

    https://www.rosneath.com.au/ipc6/ch07/francis/index.html

    Another developing IC that I'm particularly interested is the creation of David Holmgren and Su Dennet: Fryer's Forest (see link).

    https://www.holmgren.com.au/ (then click on Fryer's Forest Ecovillage)

    This venture is close to me and was a source of great inspiration during the 2005 Bendigo PDC.

    Thanks again, Rob. Yes, I would like to accept your offer of sharing in your vast wealth and knowledge of all things IC. Just as soon as I get the hectic start to this year out of the way I'll be in touch.

    Cheerio, and may goodness and peace forever shine in your part of the world,

    Mark.
     
  17. RobWindt

    RobWindt Junior Member

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    "Robyn Francis' work gives me great inspiration", you're not alone there mate :) The cultural mapping component of her eco village design course was a real eye opener and encouraged me to study community development in more depth. She was also gracious enough to let me photocopy the complete development application for Jarlanbah, amongst others.
    We will catch up when the time is right and I look forward to it

    Cheers
    Rob
    https://nakedmechanic.blogspot.com/
     
  18. Foxywhiskers

    Foxywhiskers Guest

    I guess I will be meeting you at Uni then! Lolz. Doing the same Degree..
    Cheers!
    Paula
     
  19. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Hiya,

    Can I jump in here and ask what sorts of careers you two can forsee at the end of your degree?

    Where do you want this to take you?


    cheers

    floot
     
  20. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

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    G'day floot :)

    In my case, I believe my current course of study will lead me to a further course of study. I think I will always have one foot in some sort of learning environment, and the other out in the 'field' (testing the theories) for the remainder of my life.

    Career wise? Simple! I will use my knowledge to plan, design and build better community. Much the same as what I do now, except on a much larger scale.

    Over-heard a good one today - my first day of a brand new course: "We live courtesy of an ecology, not an economy!"

    Cheerio everyone, may peace and happiness burst forth and shower us all with its loving-kindness.

    Mark.
     

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