This article is a summary only of the podcast conversation “12. Balancing Collective Living with Individual Ideas”. Listen to the full episode on Spotify podcasts or Apple podcasts, and go here for the relevant links mentioned in the podcast, or read on to enjoy the photos and summary of how balancing collective living with individual ideas works within an eco-village.

Balancing Collective Living with Individual Ideas

Living in an intentional eco village such as Shepherd’s Ground has an overarching common goal of living smart and simply. Based on a rural property outside of Maitland NSW it would seem that the challenges of living a lighter footprint lifestyle would be the same for everyone. However, even though there’s the common goal of living sustainably, there’s plenty of scope for residents to individualise what sustainability means to them.

Sally Maguire, resident of Shepherd’s Ground Farm & Village shares her insights of what it’s like to live in an eco village, also known as a land share community.

The Move from Sydney

Living in Sydney’s bustling Inner West, Sally and her family yearned for nature and space. Their frequent camping trips and a rewilding experience with Gina Chick (before she became famous), prompted their desire to build a hemp home at Shepherd’s Ground.

Not quite at the completion stage, the first COVID lockdown of 2020 prompted the family of four to move into their hemp home earlier than expected.

Choosing Shepherd’s Ground rather than a stand-alone hobby farm was an easy decision for the family.

They knew that being city folk with zilcho farming or rural experience that they had the trust and support of their neighbours in the village to share the skills and knowledge they lacked.

Building a House

Having no renovation or prior house building experience, the family dived deep into how to build a home – from hemp. Visits to other hemp homes and conversations with architects and builders put them in good stead to build. They also had the support and experience with the three other hemp home owners in the village.

Keeping the building supplies local, the hemp came from a hemp mill in the neighbouring suburb of Dungog. The village resident appreciates hemp’s value as a construction material. It has amazing insulation properties – with temps 5 – 10 degrees lower than outside air temps – is fire retardant, pest resistant and water vapour soluble, meaning no mould.

I think that most people want to tread lightly on the earth. So we’re all looking for how that represents itself in our lives.

Baseline Understandings

The village property is one hundred percent off-grid, which means there’s no access to sewerage services, mains water or electricity. These are utilities you take for granted in urban areas.

Water

Each home in the village have a couple of is a large water tanks. Regardless of how the water gets into the tank – either by rainwater, or bought during times of limited rainfall – a minimum water amount is needed in the tanks for fire protection.

As there’s no sewage connection, used water becomes grey water, therefore absolutely no chemicals can go down the pipes. There are no exceptions to that rule, as the grey water filters through reed ponds. If fed chemicals, the reed ecosystem would be killed, therefore wouldn’t operate effectively to be reused for watering garden beds.

Sewerage Alternatives – Composting Toilets

For newbies using a home composting toilet, it brings a stark realisation that we are used to having water power our toilet system. All it takes is one literal simple step back to read the toilet rules, and you’re good to go! No lingering odour, no flush and no announcement to the rest of the household that you’ve just been to the toilet!

Electricity

Living in an off-grid community means that every household is powered with solar. An idea that’s yet to come to fruition is the concept of having a car trailer’s worth of solar panels as a back up power source. Because when you run out of power, there’s no power.

How does Sustainability Look Different to Everyone?

Sustainability is a concept that means something different to everyone. And when you’re in a collective, it’s different again. Sally believes that having a staunch, one hundred percent approach to particular sustainability principles is unsustainable. She encourages leeway, giving space for allowing some things to not fully align with your ideals.

Houses

When the Grounds first established, hemp houses were predominantly built on the property. But as the community evolved, there’s greater recognition, therefore diversity, of what a sustainable house design means. The village now includes a passive house, a prefab house, and houses that use sustainably sourced timber.

One house currently under construction, will be featured on Grand Designs Australia. Every single element of that house has been thoroughly researched and chosen for their sustainability elements.

Gardening

One home owner’s retaining wall is made from large concrete blocks. These were sourced as an excess building supply from building sites outside the village that now have a reuse purpose. Using products like this saves these things from going to landfill.

Instead of relying on off-farm inputs – such as chicken manure – Sally recommends learning to make do with what you already have.

Composting

Composting well has been a massive learning journey for Sally’s family. Thanks to the village’s “Composting Queens” for their knowledge to help Sally’s family get into the right swing with composting. The village excels at composting and the cycle of reuse. To the point that the green waste Council bins never need to be collected!

The big conversation in the village is how to use the 277 acres in a way that gives back to yourself but also gives back to the earth.

Challenges of Living Sustainably

Like a lot of things in life, Sally recognises the biggest challenge in the village is communication and education. Conversations are ongoing, as people are always learning, and gaining new skills and ideas. Having different perspectives and additional information makes it easier to pivot and adapt to change.

A hot conversation topic is around waste. For some people, takeaway foods are something that would never happen for eg due to the food miles, the plastic containers. On the other hand, there are people who are parenting and work full time. And takeaway meals are a definite option at times.

Collective Efforts

Sally reassures us that you don’t need to live in a hemp house to make a big difference. Keep your eyes and ears open to look out for opportunities wherever you can. All it takes is a little bit of co-ordination, organisation and perhaps a tiny bit more effort.

Doing something by yourself is a really big goal. Give yourself some leeway and find opportunities to work with others. Keep “community sustainability” – prioritising the collective good whilst respecting individual needs and the planet’s limitations – in mind when wanting to make a difference.

There are a number of collective efforts they do that are just as achievable in your neighbourhood, including buying in bulk, and growing what you can.

Bulk buying

Buying in bulk from places like Honest to Goodness and Organic Feast in East Maitland reduces food miles and becomes a more economical purchase. Beyond food, there’s opportunity for buying other things in bulk, like mulch, firewood or building products from places like Saddingtons.

Grow Some Things Well

Know that you can’t grow everything you need to feed your family, but you can grow some things well. Find someone who grows complementary produce so you can swap or barter. If you still have excess fresh produce, sell it at places like the Slow Food Earth Market in Maitland.

Impact Beyond the Gates

As a collective, participating in Sustainable House Day is a way for Shepherd’s Ground to share with the broader community their knowledge, and the concept of living in an eco-village.

Yes, their community is made up of sustainably-minded people, but they’re also part of the broader circle of influence of the Greater Hunter Valley and Newcastle area.

Scope for greater impact aims to go beyond sharing the excess produce and open village days. An option is to have a village blueprint to easily promote more collectives like Shepherd’s Ground. It would include the frequently asked questions and pros & cons of a village lifestyle in the one document and help bust the myth that “sustainable eco villages are for hippies”.

Golden Tips for Living Sustainably

Sally has positive, reassuring words about living a sustainable lifestyle… “living sustainably isn’t about perfection. It’s about doing what we can do at that time and how we can make a difference, taking little steps along the way”. From our conversation, here are some valuable tips for living sustainably:

Take interest in and learn from other people
Refrain from judging other people’s decisions and actions
Reflect on your actions, those of others and combine the two to work out how you could do it better
Sustainability looks different to everyone
Compost your scraps
Develop your own minimum principles and core values – such as sourcing things from a 50km radius. Some values are non-negotiable, such as grey water usage (see above).
Learn how to make do with what you have
Don’t feel like you have to do your sustainable actions alone. Find opportunities to work with others. Do something complementary.
Reuse or repurpose building supply seconds, samples or surplus stock

Learn how to adjust your lifestyle and you can live the way that everybody else lives. And I don’t know, for me, it just makes me feel better about my own personal footprint that I’m doing what I can to keep it small.

Sally, Shepherd’s Ground

The ReNewy Living Podcast was recorded on Awabakal country. I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and waters in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region of New South Wales.

I hope you’re feeling more confident about doing better for our people and planet by taking a start where you live approach to living sustainably. If this episode has spurred you into action, please feel free to share it with your friends. It would mean the world to me!

Listen into the stories and voices of this story here at Spotify podcasts and here at Apple Podcasts… And you can also sign up to my regular emails here… I look forward to sharing more stories with you next time.

12. Balancing Collective Living with Individual Ideas

Links from the Podcast Episode

Shepherd’s Ground Farm and Village – Smart, simple rural living at Butterwick (Maitland) NSW
Gina Chick’s rewilding business Wild Heart
Grand Designs Australia – catch up on ABC iview or read the Grand Designs Australia webiste or subscribe to the Grand Designs Magazine here… #isubscribe #affiliatepartnership
Honest to Goodness bulk buying group
Organic Feast wholefoods market and cafe, East Maitland NSW
Slow Food Earth Markets First and third Thursday of the month, Maitland NSW
Saddingtons building supplies
Sustainable House Day is an annual event for you to explore inspiring homes