[permaculture-oceania] Hello, not all's rosy when it comes to opinions on ecovillages

[Russ Grayson]

I report this story at length so I can include quotes of responses. It is
not a brief read, so the time-poor might delete now.

Why I report the matter is because it sheds a little light on how some
people, ecologically-minded people in some cases, view ecovillages. As
Permaculture plays a not-insignificant role in the popularising and
designing of these places, their responses could indicate their attitude to
the design system as well.

In the original article, I focused on only one ecovillage although I
mentioned others. The commentators restricted their responses to that one
establishment.

ECOVILLAGES - NOT UNIVERSALLY REGARDED AS SOLUTIONS
Ecovillages have received a generally favourable press over the years but
the rosy view of these new settlements is, obviously, far from universal.

A brief divergence: Some years ago on an ABC website, I found my website
listed as the source of a 'contrary' viewpoint on ecovillages by a woman -
name long forgotten - who had produced an ABC radio program, I think it was,
on the subject. Contrary viewpoint? The article was supportive. All I
mentioned in the article she cited was that the only thing holding back
ecovillage development was the difficulty residents face in finding
employment in rural areas. That is hardly surprising, and it is not only
ecovillage residents that experience this but other rural residents as well.
Made me wonder about the people the ABC hires these days. Clearly, her
exposure to current affairs must have been limited if she found my simple
reservation to be a contrarian statement.

To the present day, though, and to the responses to an article I wrote in my
column in Online Opinion, a national public affairs journal. The theme of
Online Opinion is current affairs commentary so feedback, sometimes
critical, sometimes supportive, comes with the territory. It can at times
verge on the bizzarre, such as when some right wing, Christian
fundamentalist loony tunes once attacked something or other that I had
written. This is typical of their response to other writers - attack the
messenger. To be fair though, that type of response is not restricted to
fringe sects - it is found among secular groups as well.

The article this time was about South Australia's Aldinga Arts Ecovillage
and the responses suggest that even some who live environmentally
sustainable lifestyles do not put much credibility in the ecovillage as a
solution to sustainable living. The good thing is that, unlike the
above-mentioned ideological fringe dwellers, their responses focused on the
subject matter and did not attack the writer.

The first reponse was supportive: "Thanks Russ, informative article...
For greenfield developments, Aldinga sets a high standard, but most of
Australia's housing stock is a sorry hodge podge of ecologically illiterate
architecture, and we have to adapt current buildings to lower energy use and
mixed uses. David Holmgren has a nice paper on this at
http://energybulletin.net/5104.html ."

Then there began a conversation of critics: "Not a long term solution for
anything, merely an alternative lifestyle hub", wrote one calling
him/herself 'Realist'.

"Not even an alternative lifestyle, just a re-packaged commercial feel good
box houses sub-division," wrote 'Alchemist', who continued...

"An eco villages, fits in with the environment, enhancing it rather than
restricting it. This subdivision would be sustainable if everyone had grid
feeding solar/wind power, fully recycled water/sewage, and didn't blot the
landscape. To do that, you have to build in the ground, so the environment
can continue around you. A bush fire will wipe out all those plastic houses,
unlike earth covered ones. Townhouses, a return to the 19th century with
common gardens for the peasants and small boxes piled on top if each other
to live in.

"Just another bunch of feel good latte sippers boosting their egos in
fantasy land. Bet they use plastic wrapped, prepackaged processed foods,
wonder what do they do with their rubbish ecologically...

"This afore mentioned village is no different to other advertised
sub-divisions with high promotion and low sustainability.

"Our house is earth covered, uses passive solar heating and cooling,
maintains a 22-25deg temp all year round. Wind and sun provides 24v power,
thats inverted for the workshop. Our sewage produces methane, heat and
compost, water is cycled 3 times before returning to the environment. Lots
of our food is grown in an attached glass house, our backup generator
(workshop Business) runs on biodiesel, as does our vehicles... In the next
two years, we will be growing all our own biofuels. Even our 15.5
motorsailer runs on biodiesel, has solar and wind generation. We use
biodegradable paints and oils. We don't use processed packaged foods, nor
chemical cleaners as natural products do a much better job. We have very
little rubbish, mostly recyclables", wrote Alchemist.

Perseus then entered the conversation: "All nice, feel good stuff but just
another form of new age property development. I assume the project was
situated on former farmland and would be much more impressed by a more
inclusive plan that enabled each existing landowner to add one additional
house lot to the existing holding (rg: this was a reference to restriction
on landuse by the Queensland government that I have edited out for space
reasons). 

"Gosh, 10,000 litre water tanks, every farmer does that already. Recycle
grey water, catch runoff in small dams, big deal, every farmer does that as
well. Once again, one cashed up dude from the city gets to make a motsa from
one large development while the rest of the community gets to watch. And
then put up with all the bull$hit from the new settlers who regard any
change to the surrounding properties as a threat to 'their' view."

Alchemist: "This current article seems designed to give the impression of
alternative progress, when all it does is support the status quo of
continuing to destroy the environment and pushes the use of non renewable
technologies.

"I post on this site to observe the veracity of the proponents of theism and
economic rationalism, sadly there is very little and the slaves remain
slaves."

Wildcat, joining the conversation: "Alchemist, I thought to have a more
detailed look at Aldinga and found it to be very much as you said. It didn't
take me long to realise that with it's multitude of rules and regs, plus the
exorbantant price of buying and building there, it simply wasn't for me.
What you have seems ever so much more environmentally friendly and
sustainable."

Above, I've edited out stuff extraneous to the point at issue but have not
changed the statements of the conversationalists or altered their sequence
of presentation. The information for the article was gathered in March this
year down at Aldinga Arts Ecovillage, through which I was shown by Stephen
Poole and Lynda McCarty and from an interview with Stephen Poole, a South
Australian Permaculture designer and WEA organic gardening trainer and a
director of the ecovillage company.

The real name of the respondents is not recorded on the website, nor is
their place of residence (city or country), but I detect a rural bias in a
couple responses. 

One respondent degrades his response with anti-urban and childish
name-calling in his reference to "latte sippers". That's like city folk
calling rural people 'country hicks' and avoids the probable reality that
the respondent's happy family country lifestyle, underground house or not,
relies on city people using whatever goods and services he produces. As Fred
Pearce wrote in New Scientist recently (16 June edition), modern living
means that there is little difference in the lifestyle impacts of both urban
and rural dwellers. Clearly, Alchemist has made considerable effort in
making his rural lifestyle ecologically sustainable and should be
congratulated for doing so, however translating his model to the city would
probably be economically unachievable to all except the rich. Also, comments
about "plastic houses" and lack of enbcironmental sustainability and the
like display a lack of knowledge of the actuality at Aldinga.

Despite these reservations, the responses are interesting and worth
distributing for their feedback value. When I worked in a radio newsroom, we
assumed that every response to something broadcast represented at least 100
people with similar opinions. We also knew that it is mainly people with a
grievance who call, not those who are happy with what they heard. I wonder
if those assumptions translate to online media?

.................................
For those interested, the original article appears as published in Online
Opinion below...

ALDINGA - NEW SWETTLEMENT IN AN OLD LANDSCAPE
By Russ Grayson - posted Thursday, 8 June 2006

Stephen Poole is realising his dream. It's been a long-time dream, over a
decade to date, but it has survived the disappointment of a false start. Now
it has gone from promise to reality. In doing so, Stephen's dream might just
show us a better way to live.

Stephen is not a stereotypical business director. He isn¹t tall, doesn¹t
wear a suit and wears his hair long to his shoulders. Nor does he drive a
prestige car: for Stephen, his 4WD ute is more appropriate. He could easily
be mistaken for one of the surfers who patrol the Gulf of St Vincent
shoreline in search of the perfect swell. Catching waves is something
Stephen does on occasion, but his prime motivation these past few years has
been getting his pet project off the ground.

Originally, the dream was a shared one. It began well over a decade ago when
a group of like-minded individuals, wanting somewhere to settle, got
together and talked about the possibility of developing an urban-like
settlement in a rural area. Practical people rather than dreamers, they
wanted the advantages of urban living with space for a little primary
production.
   
A town called Burra, long since past its heyday as a mining centre, looked
promising. Burra offered the advantages of cheap land reasonably close to
Adelaide.

Plans were drawn up and the project was publicised - attracting interstate
interest. This new village was to be an example of how people could live on
the land while improving it and, for some, deriving at least part of their
livelihood from it. The idea was to create a new type of settlement that
brought together the advantages of a village with the best in modern
environmental design.

But Burra was not to be. A new government introduced policies which ended
plans for the village.

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
Swiss-born Max Lindegger used to talk about combining rural living and
village life back in the 1980s. He espoused much the same ideas as Stephen
and like him went on to create it. By late in the decade, residents were
starting to move into Crystal Waters Village, near Canondale, in the hills
of the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Environmental design was an important criteria for the planners and
architects behind Crystal Waters and other similar developments, hence they
soon became known as ³eco-villages².

The next development of its type was Kookaburra Park, near Bundaberg.
Jalanbah followed, a smaller development near the northern NSW town of
Nimbin. The eco-village was at last an Australian reality: a new way to
enjoy rural life that was substantially different to life in a country town.

By the time the Burra project began there was already a number of
ecovillages planned or in existence around the country, and there was much
to learn from their experiences. This Stephen Poole did.

FINDING ALDINGA
Although Burra failed at the hands of political policy, and although they
were disappointed, they weren¹t completely discouraged. Stephen and his team
decided to persist with their dream and search for an alternative site.

Eventually, they discovered Aldinga. They approached council with their idea
for a village only to learn a group of artists in the area already had a
similar idea. Council thought it might be worthwhile talking to the artists.
This they did. The outcome was the Aldinga Arts Eco-village - the ³Arts² in
the name recognising the presence of the artists.

THE PLACE
The highway from Adelaide passes through countryside the colour of dried
grass. Most people describe this as flat country: others, noting the land¹s
rise and fall, might call it undulating. Whatever description, a low range
parallels the highway through this part of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It forms
a natural boundary separating the coastal plain from the lands beyond. Here
and there the range is topped with open forest but the coastal plain along
which the road takes the visitor has a paucity of trees and gives the
impression of land cleared long ago to make way for grazing animals and
walnut orchards.

The Fleurieu Peninsula is a long finger of land that projects southwards,
and it is here where the turnoff to Aldinga Beach is, about 45 minutes from
Adelaide. Aldinga is one of a series of coastal towns stretching back
towards Adelaide to form a ribbon of development along the foreshore of St
Vincents Gulf.

The road to Aldinga Arts Eco-village passes through the undistinguished
looking town and leaves it via a long, straight road that passes a new
subdivision. Here, Stephen slows the ute and explains how the streets have
been constructed with no regard to the free solar energy readily available
in this mediterranean climate. It will mean years of high energy bills for
residents.

It's a different story when we reach Aldinga Arts. Here on 34 hectares of
north-sloping land the streets follow the contours of the terrain, allowing
houses on the 152 lots to be aligned towards the sun. A total of 16ha is
devoted to residential development and about 44 per cent of the site is set
aside as community land and common facilities, including the small
pocket-parks with young fruiting fig, quince and persimmon trees.

All the houses have solar water-heating - reducing the cost of energy
consumption. They must, according to village by-laws, store a minimum 10,000
litres of water to cope with hot, dry summers and with drought. Sensibly,
most houses store about twice that volume.

There is a diversity of housing options to suit Australia¹s changing
demographic. Lots of 650 square metres for larger families, and 450 and 200
square metre lots for smaller households, will soon be complemented by the
construction of the village's first townhouses.

The village is financed through the sale of lots - Stephen says about 30 per
cent of total sales were made before work started. Infrastructure
development has been made in advance of housing construction and in the
three years since building began, many of the lots in stages one and two
have been sold and built on. Stage three was recently released and already
two houses have been built and occupied. There is a market area and
according to Stephen, markets will eventually be held more frequently than
every quarter.

Conserving water in the landscape is a priority and a drive through the
village discloses wide drains lined with rock known as rip-rap. These take
winter's rainwater to storage in the small dams seen throughout the village.
As the weather warms through the summer, the dams become muddy wetlands, the
water being held in the soil.

Aldinga Arts is two kilometres from Aldinga Beach - the sea can be glimpsed
between low headlands from the higher parts of the village.

At present, a 12 hectare area accommodates the village's sewage treatment
system, the treated wastes will be used to irrigate a wood lot. Eventually,
the farm area will house an education centre and livelihood opportunities,
such as the planned community kitchen. Already, one family is planning to
make use of the kitchen as part of its livelihood mix. They hope to purchase
organically certified produce from local farmers and process and bottle it
in the community kitchen. Their market will be specialty retailers in
Adelaide.

Another resident is planning to take advantage of passing traffic by
developing a site at the entrance to the village as a cafe and bar. Stephen
explains that the village will also feature artists' studios and performance
space.

DEMONSTRATING RENEWABLE ENERGY - THE HEIJ HUT
Elizabeth Heij, with her husband, bought a lot at Aldinga Arts and built a
state of the art, modern house of modest size. Upstairs is Elizabeth's
office - she teleworks for the CSIRO. In her front yard is a vegetable
garden that yields fresh, organically grown herbs and vegetables for the
household. The side yard conceals two buried 10,000 litre water tanks. Water
is also harvested from the garage and greenhouse roofs and stored in
above-ground tanks.

Not only is the home's roof insulated against the hot South Australian
summers, so too are the walls which consist of what Elizabeth calls a
³reverse brick veneer². On the outside is rendered blueboard; inside which
is air-cell insulation - it's like bubble wrap mounted on rigid panels. The
hollow-core concrete bricks, rendered in a pale yellow reminiscent of the
dessicated-looking countryside seen through the window, are on the inside.
With the exception of those carrying conduit, the hollow cores have been
infilled with concrete to increase their thermal mass and hence their
ability to insulate the interior of the house from the heat of the summer or
the cold of winter.

Utility rooms, such as laundry and bathroom, have been placed on the western
side of the house, further insulating the main living areas from late
afternoon sun in summer. On the sunward side, the eaves are of just the
right width to admit warming sunlight into the interior as the season moves
into winter. There, the heat of sunlight is stored in solid, thermal mass
floors which release the heat energy as the evening cools, reducing the need
for supplementary heating.

Elizabeth's house is no McMansion - it is of modest-size and is a
high-performance dwelling suitable for two. Whether in the heat of summer or
the cool of winter her house is comfortable, and unlike those unfortunate
homes in that subdivision closer to Aldinga, Elizabeth's attracts much lower
energy bills. In fact, the energy authority pays her for power derived from
the array of photo-electric panels on her roof. Elizabeth is data-logging
the thermal performance of her building to assess its year-round
performance.

A COMPACT MELANGE OF HOMES
Aldinga Arts Eco-village is a compact melange of architectural styles but
common to all is energy and water efficient design. As well as reverse brick
veneer, houses are made of building materials such as timber plank,
galvanised iron, timbercrete - a sawdust and concrete brick - and the
economical, but durable, rendered straw-bale. Architecturally, they are of
modern design, reflecting the type of people who live in the village -
middle-class professionals and service workers, artists and tradespeople.

The eco-village is close to job markets, specialist services and the
big-city amenities of metropolitan Adelaide, including the suburban train
network which terminates only ten or so kilometres away at Noralunga Centre.
Aldinga Arts is also close to Aldinga township and the beach. It
demonstrates in a most practical way that affordable, energy and water
efficient housing of differing size, suited to the full range of modern
Australian families, does not need to result in urban sprawl but can offer
the benefits of private home ownership in a village-like atmosphere.

For Stephen Poole it has been a long journey from Burra to Aldinga, a move
away from the drylands to the sea. But Stephen is not yet ready to move onto
his lot in the village - he still lives in town.

Every now and then, though, when driving through the village, he stops his
ute at his vacant lot, gets out and, fittingly for someone who likes to
catch the occasional wave, looks towards the blue waters of St Vincents
Gulf, just over a kilometre away.

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Russ Grayson has a background in journalism and in aid work in the South
Pacific. He has been editor of an environmental industry journal, a
freelance writer and photographer for magazines and a writer and editor of
training manuals for field staff involved in aid and development work with
villagers in the Solomon Islands.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RUSS GRAYSON
journalism, online content production, photojournalism, instructional
manuals, media services for overseas aid

PO Box 1045, Manly, NSW 1655 AUSTRALIA
info at pacific-edge.info
P: 0414 065 203
www.pacific-edge.info

TerraCircle international development team, Oceania
www.terracircle.org.au

Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
www.communitygarden.org.au
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^