Cohousing-L Mailing List: Narara Ecovillage Update

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

A wonderful article in the Guardian last week on Narara Ecovillage in Australia 
on the Central Coast. In 2012, Narara was a gleam in a few eyes and for many 
years the community consisted entirely of those who had the gleaming eyes. I 
got connected because they were looking for a governance system that would 
connect several cohousing communities inside an ecovillage. At the time, as I 
remember, the thinking was that an ecovillage needed to have about 500 people 
to be close to self sustaining. Obviously too large for the traditional 
cohousing model. But with sociocracy the communities could easily function 
individually and as a whole without getting confused about who was in charge of 
what.

Lyndall Parris, pictured in the article, was the connector — and for years we 
would connect perhaps once a year in either the cohousing or the sociocracy 
context. We had lots of long drinks at conferences discussing all of this as if 
it would be accomplished momentarily and how it could work socially. The last 
time I saw her she was "aging out” and standing down from the intensive 
development and going on a long boat trip on the Nile or something. So I was 
happy to see her in this article alive and well and living in Narara.

A very thorough article discussing all the dimensions of cohousing with 
examples from around the world. Happy to see that cohousing has even come to 
Tasmania. (I head about the Tasmanian devil, a carnivorous marsupial that only 
lived in Tasmania, in a book of German fairy tales of the old style— written to 
terrify adults and now pretending to be for kids. It was the ultimate demon.)

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/23/i-dont-want-to-live-alone-co-living-community-and-affordable-housing

Narara’s homepage:
https://nararaecovillage.com/

Their master plan called for 150 homes built in 3 stages. Stage 2 is 70% sold 
out.
https://nararaecovillage.com/masterplan/

Sharon
————
StrongNeighborhoods.info
https://strongneighborhoods.info