Working Meetings

Sustainable Living Festival, Melbourne Feb 20/21

One of ‘Sydney Cohousing’ objectives is to link up and form a working relationship with other cohousing groups & associations, on the national & international scene while joining the effort in establishing Cohousing Australia Association.

Iain Walker and Giselle Wilkenson are the founders of Sustainable Living Festival & Sustainable Living Foundation, one of the premier environmental groups in Victoria. Their web site, Intentional Communities Australia, aims to provide information and resource for cohousing and cooperative communities. We have contacted Iain to find out what’s happening in Melbourne. Iain suggested us to come down to Melbourne for the festival and meet some of the active people in the Melbournian scene.

So I took the night train to Melbourne to team up with the guys in the Cohousing Australia stall. I thought that it would also be a good opportunity to go to some of the interesting talks and workshops offered as part of the festival programme, such as Urban Permaculture, Transition Towns, Deep Earth and more. Some of key figures taking part were, Uncle Bob Randall [Traditional Owner of Uluru], John Seed [an Australian environmentalist & director of the Rainforest Information Centre. He is also a prominent figure in the Deep Ecology movement]. David Holgram [an ecologist, ecological design engineer, writer, he is mostly well known as co-originator of the Permaculture concept with Bill Mollison, and through the spread of Permaculture around the world ] and many others.

Eventually I didn’t go to most of the talks, as I found myself enjoying working and hanging out at the stall, helping the guys promoting cohousing and explaining to all the visitors what it is all about. The best aspect of coming down to Melbourne was getting to know all the wonderful people involved [all volunteers]: Giselle Wilkenson, SLF founder and president, Phil Bourne of Common-Ground intentional community in Victoria & Cohousing Australia, Robin Williams, the founder and Ted from ‘Pinakarri Cohousing’ in Perth, Toni, Nathan, Heidi of Cohousing Australia, Paris of Urban Coop, Peter Cook of Murra Murra community. The opportunity to discuss & learn from their experiences in forming groups & living in intentional communities was invaluable, so thank you all for a great weekend.

Finally a Special thanks to Iain for his hospitality, kindness and knowledge.

Our first open meeting

We would like to start by thanking the families, who joined us today in our first open meeting. One of the great aspects about the process of creating a community is meeting new people and friends joining our journey, asking questions and sharing some of their insights.

In our talk Gilo presented what cohousing is (a group of people choosing to work together in creating a community), why cohousing [well, because there isn’t any other model that allows a real social interaction, without imposing it), who we are (just people like you and me), our structure (consensus process we are all leaders), and what we have done so far. Jamie explained how we started, and shared with us his experience growing up as a teenager in Cascade Cohousing in Hobart Tasmania. Martin, our MC, skilfully conducted our presentation, and answered the questions.

We were happy to find among our crowd, Mr. Keith McIlroy Lane Cove greens counsellor, who shared with us some of his experience and wisdom, and would like to join our effort in creating\ developing a sustainable cohousing community.

And offcourse as in any cohousing community, we also enjoyed sharing food while getting to know our prospective members better.

If one are interested in joining us at our next open meeting please join us on the first Saturday of April [03-04] for our second open meeting

Open Meeting

come along to our next OPEN MEETING on

Saturday 27 February, 2-4pm
at Currambena Primary and Preschool,  205 Longueville Road, Lane Cove.



For more information

sydneycohousing@gmail.com

What is Cohousing?

Cohousing is a type of intentional community where a group of people have organised to create an alternative neighbourhood, an alternative way of living which based on mutual respect for each other and the environment.

Cohousing residents are consciously committed to living as a community. The physical design encourages both social contact and individual space. Private homes contain all the features of conventional homes, but residents also have access to extensive common facilities such as open space, courtyards, a playground and a common house.

The common house is the social centre of a community, with a large dining room and kitchen, lounge, recreational facilities, children’s spaces, and frequently a guest room, workshop and laundry room. Communities usually serve optional group meals in the common house at least two or three times a week, all varies according to the diverse individuals which form the community.

Cohousing communities are usually designed as attached or single-family homes along one or more pedestrian streets or clustered around a courtyard. And in a dense urban environment where land is usually very expensive Cohousing may take the form of a residential building.

6 Defining Characteristics of Cohousing

While these characteristics aren't always true of every cohousing community, together they serve to distinguish cohousing from other types of collaborative housing:

1. Participatory process. Future residents participate in the design of the community so that it meets their needs. Some cohousing communities are initiated or driven by a developer. In those cases, if the developer brings the future resident group into the process late in the planning, the residents will have less input into the design. A well-designed, pedestrian-oriented community without significant resident participation in the planning may be “cohousing-inspired,” but it is not a cohousing community.

2. Neighbourhood design. The physical layout and orientation of the buildings (the site plan) encourage a sense of community. For example, the private residences are clustered on the site, leaving more shared open space. The dwellings typically face each other across a pedestrian street or courtyard, with cars parked on the periphery. Often, the front doorway of every home affords a view of the common house. What far outweighs any specifics, however, is the intention to create a strong sense of community, with design as one of the facilitators.

3. Common facilities. Common facilities are designed for daily use, are an integral part of the community, and are always supplemental to the private residences. The common house typically includes a common kitchen, dining area, sitting area, children's playroom and laundry, and also may contain a workshop, library, exercise room, crafts room and/or one or two guest rooms. Except on very tight urban sites, cohousing communities often have playground equipment, lawns and gardens as well. Since the buildings are clustered, larger sites may retain several or many acres of undeveloped shared open space.

4. Resident management. Residents manage their own cohousing communities, and also perform much of the work required to maintain the property. They participate in the preparation of common meals, and meet regularly to solve problems and develop policies for the community.

5. Non-hierarchical structure and decision-making. Leadership roles naturally exist in cohousing communities, however no one person (or persons) has authority over others. Most groups start with one or two “burning souls.” As people join the group, each person takes on one or more roles consistent with his or her skills, abilities or interests. Most cohousing groups make all of their decisions by consensus, and, although many groups have a policy for voting if the group cannot reach consensus after a number of attempts, it is rarely or never necessary to resort to voting.

6. No shared community economy. The community is not a source of income for its members. Occasionally, a cohousing community will pay one of its residents to do a specific (usually time-limited) task, but more typically the work will be considered that member's contribution to the shared responsibilities.

Reproduced with permission from www.cohousing.org

Shared Values

  1. Community

•    A safe place
•    Open communication
•    Treat each other with respect, trust, and honesty
•    Nurture and care for our environment
•    Seek opportunities to collaborate and share
•    Respect each other’s privacy
•    Integrate with and foster ongoing relationships with the wider community
•    Consensus and democracy
•    Conflict-resolution
•    A happy place

  2. Sustainability

•    Social: culturally accepting, psychologically nurturing, socially responsible community
•    Environmental: ecologically robust, generational sensitive, flexible, continuous learning
•    Financial: economically sustainable, technologically feasible,
•    Operationally viable
•    Use environmental sustainable design principles [ESD]
•    Seek and use innovation

  3. Quality

•    Aspire for excellence.   
•    Aim for longevity

  4.  Affordability

•    Wise financial investment
•    Creative and efficient use of resources

  5. Diversity

•    Acceptance and understanding of cultural, economical, philosophical  and spiritual      differences

Land Searching

Finally we are at the exciting stage of land searching. Our search is focused on radios of 30 minutes drive to Lane Cove. The size of the land we are looking for is between 3000 to 5000square meters, which we believe is appropriate to develop a community of about 15 homes one common house and enough space for our kids to run & play.

This week Myung-Jin, Orit myself and the kids Tillie and Shiloh went to inspect a site in Turramurra. A nearly 6000m2 with only 1500 buildable all the rest was beautiful steep bush landscape, which was not really safe environment for kids.

I have also spoken to some council planners and set a few meetings with council strategic environmental planners. We hope to gain their support for our development and seek their advice and help in finding a suitable land. We also need to work out the best zoning criteria for this type of unique development.

The prices of land in this northern area of Lane Cove, Ku Ring Gai, Willoughby, Mosman and Ryde councils, will determine in the end the size of our community and the type of housing that we will be able to built, either town houses, terraces, duplex or single dwelling or an hybrid of those.
Any thoughts and ideas are warmly welcomed.

Living at Cascade Cohousing

In the early 1990s my mother bought a share in Cascade Cohousing in Hobart. At that stage, the project was well under way but far from completed. They had already bought the land and some folks had begun construction. On this site, the land slopes down gently from the road, then more steeply towards the bottom. The view over Hobart is great and in the other direction the mountain looms high. The area is suburban and sits about twenty minutes from the centre of town by bike.

As a seventeen year old, I was fascinated by the building process and even earned money by the hour varnishing and painting houses. There was a period of intense activity as many builders, excavators, tradesmen, labourers, etc, worked to build what they sometimes disparagingly called 'chalets'. The common house took much longer and was built with a great deal of sweat equity. We all had a hand in digging foundations and trenches (I still remember jack hammering my hands to pieces over a pernicious boulder), laying bricks, hoisting timber framed roofs, painting, etc. While it was interesting up to a point, it was also long hard work. I think this aspect of the project could have been given to the professionals and saved the members a lot of stress. On the other hand, we did feel proud of ourselves for having finally completed it.

Gradually, the muddy mess of a site was transformed with paths and landscaping into a pleasant space. The lower half of the site kept all the trees (also gained a fort and swing). One by one, people moved in to their houses as they achieved 'lock up'. Life began at Cascade.


I lived there on and off for a period of four or five years. I ate at common meals two or three nights a week where I caught up with all the folks. (Shamefully, I was the first to forget my turn to cook and instead had to order pizza). Usually however, the cook takes the opportunity to create something delicious. Other neighbours and friends also regularly join in the common meals and roster themselves on. Quite often I would baby sit for the many young kids who lived there, help with moving furniture, or pick up some shopping on the way home for a neighbour. But mostly I remember getting a lot of help from other people. In particular I often borrowed cars (I didn't own one), or got driven about.

In time we established a chicken coop and six or so vege patches. These things are healthy and fun. These days, my kids love to pick veges and collect eggs when they visit grandma. They also love playing with the other kids their age who live there. These kids appear to be caring and self-reliant. I've seen a bunch of them at the bus-stop in the mornings, waiting for the bus that will take them to the interchange and how the older kids will make sure the younger ones make it to school. And in the afternoons, the working parents roster child care duty which helps enormously.

Of course, eventually I moved out to be inner-city and experience independent living. Occasionally, I'd go to common meals (still do!). Life goes on. These days I live in Sydney and feel that this approach to living would be really appropriate for the urban experience.

Sydney Cohousing Vision/Values Statement:

We envision a cluster of 10-20 homes comprised of individual private residences as well as a large amount of shared common land where children can play safely away from vehicles. The buildings and layout are designed to encourage community and neighbour interaction. The development would be self managed by the residents, it would be inclusive and it would aim to include a broad spectrum of ages and interact with the local community. The buildings will be designed using sustainable and environmentally aware principles, as well as being energy efficient, economical and ecologically sound.

We aim to build a space for everyone to enjoy, which may include vegetable gardens and chickens on the shared common land. While families and individuals can enjoy their privacy they can also participate freely in many aspects of community life. Common facilities such as a common house would contain a kitchen and dining room, where there can be shared meals on certain nights of the week, and participating residents will help with the preparation, cooking and cleaning up of these meals. Guest rooms, laundry, and other facilities that reduce the footprint of the individual units, for example a garage and workshop may be included.