Hi Guys, I'm looking at establishing permaculture principles to my property in the the South West of Australia and was wondering if there is anybody else doing the same thing in the region? Cheers
Hey How are You Im here in the South west,Now all we need to know is what part of the South west you are...Its a big area after all... Im here In Broomehill which is about 150 klms from albany and 20 klms from Kattaning.allways looking to meet others in our area,there are a few of us down here,not many but a few that i know of. Lets have some more details etc and we can go further after wards Tezza
happy new year and all that stuff to everyone. great to hear of new people interested in the whole permacuture thing down south. im in redmond which is in a triangle of albany, mt barker and demark. we are in the middle of setting up our gardens at the moment . busy planting and extending of animal friends. we have 10 chichens and 2 rosters now. we are picking up a goat and kid and some duck this week.(can t wait) that as soon as i finish the milking stand. welcome to the area Lowden Boy........
Denmark has permaculture eco-village at https://www.livingwaters.asn.au/ I also did the Great Southern Tafe's Horticulture course when I lived down there - its in organic production.. and incorporates lots of permie principles Good Luck
South west Check out https://www.rosneath.com.au for what we are doing on the ridge between Dunsborough and Yallingup
hi warwick is Rosenhealth chemical free ? ie do they allow termite treating of homes ? and I see no mention of keeping animals ? and what are the restrictions on construction materials for houses ? we may have to consider a communty but so far havent found one that is chemical free ........ I dont want to live that close to a house that has been termite treated we need to milk our goat and grow our own veggies or I will starve :lol: :lol: and we need to have a totally chemical free house which is not possible with straw bales or if it has timber in it frosty
Chemical free straw bale house? G'day Frosty, Can you explain why a strawbale house is not chemical free? Or a timber house? Cheers, Mark
Hi mark I didnt mean to say it definately isnt - ( I dont know enough to be sure ) I just cannot see how the shire would allow it not to be termite treated if there is anything that termites can eat ......... building regs are very restrictive and they are much more concerned with laibility than health we had battle to be allowed to build without spraying and it was only because we have no structural wood or any materials that are not termite resistant ........ ours is steel frame with Colourbond cladding I know there are alternaties like Termimesh but even the company says you need to check round the house it you see termites do something ..... he wouldnt tell me what you could do without using poisons and I suppose you could use CCA treated pine but that of course is very toxic :evil: do you know much about straw bale ? I admit I dont but one thing that bothers me as well as the above is what do you render with ? can it be just concrete or is it plaster ? because now days plaster contains plastic additives which would not be suitable for someone like me who is very chemically sensitive frosty
Strawbale Houses G'day Frosty, I am trying to get to grips with the termite issue and strawbales myself; have recently visited a lady at Northampton just north of Geraldton who has built in strawbale (with a timber frame) and the result is magnificent. Their choice of termite protection was to leave 120-150mm of the concrete slab edge visible all round the outside of the house because the only guarantee is regular visual inspections to see whether the termites are trying to get into your place. That said, most species of termites do not eat straw anyway (although my father frequently reminds me that termites in NW WA eat concrete railway sleepers, so some species are not at all discerning!). My preference is non-chemical and the visible slab edge/frequent inspection option is looking good, although I have read about a product called "Granite-Guard", that uses some form of external barrier of granite gravel and dust, through which the ants will not go, apparently. We have pleny of wandoo on our place too which is not the termites 'meal of choice' either, but it is exceedingly dense and consequently difficult to work with, plus I don't know enough about the engineering side yet as to pole size etc for the buildings we want. I think the upshot is that if you want to avoid chemicals, then there has to be a commitment to check whether the termites are moving in - this is equally applicable for wooden framed houses on stumps, termi-meshed places and so on - my appreciation is that the chemicals remove this 'burden' because no self-respecting termite wants to go where the nasty chemicals are, and chances are, neither should we! As for the renders, you should avoid the use of concrete renders on strawbales because it does not breathe and there may well be an accumulation of moisture inside the walls which can lead to deterioration, mould and so on - most strawbale methods involve some facility at the base of the wall to allow any moisture condensing inside the render to drain away but with an earthen or lime render, there is some movement of air through the render that allows this moisture to evaporate. Most renders are now earthen/lime renders for this reason. You do not need to use plaster on the internal walls either; the render performs equally well there too, although common sense needs to be applied to internal surfaces such as the bathroom and kitchen that may be subject to wet use - perhaps some mini-orb or laminex as a splash-back? We have recently looked to alter our design to separate the bathroom from the main 'house' to allow us to reduce the size and complexity of the house and to simplify the bathroom situation - zincalume sheet lined walls sound like a great waterproof option for around the bath/shower! Still working on that.... For some insights into strawbaling, try https://strawbale.archinet.com.au which is the website of Huff 'N Puff Constructions at Ganmain in NSW - John Glassford wrote the strawbale chapter in the recently updated Earth Garden Building book. I am still learning about it, but suffice to say my technical skills are such that the simplicity of strawbale is very appealing - plus the cost issues if you are able to do much of the work yourself! I hope this is of some help to you - I appreciate your circumstances are considerably more restricted with regards to chemicals etc than most but I would think strawbale is a viable option for you. Cheers, Mark
thanks Mark gives me something to think about ....... I had presumed strawbale would use plaster but I would be careful about the termites dont eat straw thing :twisted: ........ they do eat cardboard and where hubby worked they ate the paper off gyprock even though the place had been treated !!! the problem to me with the inspecting for termites option is what do you do if you find them :shock: :shock: we actually have that problem now ........ we built a front verandah out of second hand jarrah and later closed it in ......... but one of our pieces of jarrah must have been karri and now has termites in it ......... its not easy to replace because it is the main beam ! we have tried borax and vinegar but they are still here :evil: the only option seems to be eventual demolition of the whole thing and replace it with steel we know steel is not a sustainable product but so far it seems the best option compared to termite troubles we have mini orb in the kitchen and bathroom now but it is too hard to seal in the actual shower ......... we have a fibreglass shower cubicle but have to change that so I can just "wheel in" and are thinking of stainless steel sheets folded in the corner ........ it will need to be 2 sheets high but if well overlapped should not leak I could see damp course being difficult in strawbale ........ we fought the shire and eventually they allowed us to have a stainless steel flashing set into the concrete hope you were ok in the flood ......... we keep thinking next move we may head up Geraldton or Greenough way ....... but a lot of those Greenough blocks are very low lying :shock: regards frosty
i don't mean to advertise on the forum but here's something i came across for timber problems - BFA organically certified and protects against rot, termites and seals in chemicals of treated timbers. haven't used it myself yet, don't know a whole lot about it. (i've got nothing to do with this company - just thought it might help) https://www.cooeeproducts.com.au/
