We're planning to go to holidays!! Besides national parks it would be great visiting some of the "green-alternative" Australia. Does anyone know permaculture villages, eco-projects ect. which are interesting for a visit (and were visitors are welcome)? It should not be too far - we're living in Brisbane, and I don't want to spend my holiday in the car. We still have not decided if we go north, south or west.
Well, Crystal Waters is the original Permaculture/ecovillage, but does it really embody permaculture principles? There are heaps of places in Northern NSW, too many to list, although there is probably a list somewhere. You could do worse than visit Robyn Francis' Djanbung Gardens and Jarlanbah ecovillage in Nimbin ( you could use that as a springboard to other places in the region). The Permaforest trust up in the Barkers Vale(?) area of the Border Ranges is supposed to be pretty happening these days. Lovely national park too.
G'day hedwig There are literally thousands of 'green' place to visit around Australia and a fair percentage of them are centered on your local area. A mere couple of hours drive from Brisbane (especially south) will have you traveling through some of the most wonderful alternative towns and communities that you could ever imagine existed. Some of my favourites that spring to mind on the north coast of NSW are: Tabulam, Barkers Vale, Kyogle, Nimbin, The Channon, Goonengerry, Lismore, Whian Whian, Mullumbimby, Bangalow, Murwillumbah, Chillingham, Eungella, Stokers Siding, Tyalgum, Uki and of course, Byron Bay. Could I suggest that you join up as WWOOFers? This way you will get to meet some fantastic people and be warmly welcomed into their homes and their communities. Some of the most wonderous things I have ever experienced happened as a result of being a WWOOFer. Often you get to see 'secret' places that only the locals know about. Many WWOOF hosts encourage you to bring along children should you have any, and most practice permaculture/organic gardening/biodynamics. Have a great holiday, hedwig. Cheerio, Mark.
the greenest areas in northern nsw are: (and these days they are totally alternative to the millions of hectares of cleared "developed" land) Border rangers national park (make sure you have a map and compass, go off the track for a short while and sit down and do some breathing) Nightcap and Mt Nardi (around nimbin/channon area) also if your coming from brizzy .. check out binna burra/springbrook/o'reially's ... oh oh and Mt Cougal (eastern part of springbrook) has a spectacular view (best done before sunrise) of mt warning and the whole caldera that once was a massive shielf volcanoe 23 million years ago yes this area of the world is pure magic is only going to get better, more regenerated, more appreciated and more respected by the people definitely reccomend checking out robyns set-up in nimbin (https://www.permaculture.com.au) i beleive tuesdays is open to the public but just check the website lots of earth connected people in australia doing there thing ... leading by example and making pathways for a sustainable and clean green yummy organic future have fun and don't forget to spend some time in nature just breathing !
great! and everything is not far away from each other. Is this the permaculture-region of Australia or is this the normal dense of ecovillages? It's pretty much to visit- too much for a fortnight. Which places are a MUST? Good to visit without planning forehand a lot, phoning , booking...? I think we want to learn something about water management, compost toilets , and visiting permaculture gardens. Teh Wowoo.. (o idea how to spell and pronounce) seems great, not for this holiday because we want to travel a bit around seeing some of the region, but hopefully we will have another holiday! (and this should be planned a bit in forehand- we're four)
Definitely, northern new south has a higher concentration of this sort of thing, perhaps than anywhere else in the world, but people are doing it everywhere... I don't know what this tewowoo you speak of is... :?
I was surprised to read on the front page of PRI the other day that over 3/4 of the certified organic land in Australia is in Queensland. Of course, that's calculated on total land area, not the number of businesses...I guess organic beef production etc which require larger tracts of land may be a factor in this statistic.