Max Lindegger had a good idea - why not,
he proposed, set up a community that brings
all of the benefits of life in a village
as well as sound ecological design? It
just so happened that he was setting up
such a place in the hills behind Queensland's
Sunshine Coast.
The idea sounded a good one. He talked
about how, as a child in his native Switzerland,
he would walk to the village bakery to
buy fresh bread. So why not recreate that
possibility in Australia? After a few
years of proselytising, Max's village
was set up. It became known as Crystal
Waters but it would take nearly 15 years
for Max to be able to walk to the local
bakery to buy his bread.
Now, with more than a decade and a half
of existence behind it, is Max's rural
village a model that could help revitalise
rural Australia?
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So what's different?
There was something familiar with Max's
idea, something that took me back to the
1970s when parts of the Australian countryside
saw an influx of city youth searching
for a new way of life. The 'intentional
community' - rural settlements based on
the cooperative, land-sharing model -
were an outcome of this minor demographic
shift. While many collapsed or faded away
as residents sought livelihoods elsewhere,
some still persist today. These were the
more organised, more socially cohesive
communities.
Crystal Waters learned from the experience
of these early intentional communities.
The project was set up in a professional
manner and, unlike many of the earlier
land-sharing communities, Crystal Waters
offered freehold title to residents, not
simply a share in the land.
Max and his collegues went out of their
way to get their proposal through their
National Party-dominated rural council.
They wanted to appear as mature people
interested in a new form of rural development,
so they produced a comprehensive landuse
plan that was based on ecological design
principles and which ensured there was
room for both development and natural
systems. Their houses were to be adapted
to the subtropical climate, take advantage
of solar energy and would be energy efficient.
Wastes would be dealt with on-site. These
ideas appealed to the emerging environmental
consciousness of the time and earned the
project its environmental credentials,
leading to Max's village model became
known as an 'ecovillage'. Crystal Waters
gained council approval.
Making the leap, creating livelihoods.
As Crystal Waters attracted people ready
to make the leap from city to country,
potential residents knew that developing
a livelihood might be a challenge. Those
with appropriate skills envisioned making
a living from home while others with experience
in government or service industries thought
they could find employment in the nearby
town of Maleny.
Morag Gamble and Evan Raymond confronted
the livelihood problem when they moved
from Brisbane. With backgrounds in landscape
architecture and community work and qualifications
in coastal management, life was frugal
at first and involved short periods of
working in the city. But they had plans
and set about developing a livelihood
as providers of residential courses, one
of which focuses on the design of ecovillages.
With Max Lindegger, Morag and Evan have
now tapped into an international tertiary
education market involving a number of
overseas universities, whose students
spend time at Crystal Waters as part of
their studies, and which recognise their
courses.
"This summer we launched an internship
programme for university students of various
environmental planning, design, management
and science courses. We arrange short
workshops for international groups of
public-policy makers, architects, planners
and the like who come looking for inspiration
and guidance," Morag says.
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Thanks to the success of their courses,
Morag, Evan and Max have set up Crystal
Waters College which is housed in its
own energy efficient, solar powered building.
This year, Morag and Evan have been invited
to teach at Schumacher College in the
UK. Max went on to develop a livelihoood
as a consultant in ecovillage design and
his work has now taken him overseas. A
few years after setting up Crystal Waters,
Max was hired to design a new ecovillage,
Kookaburra Park, near Gin Gin in south-east
Queensland.
Two other people successful in developing
livelihoods are Francis and Jeff Michaels,
one-time Sydney residents with a background
in horticulture. They built a house overlooking
one of the water storage dams at Crystal
Waters and, in a building next to the
house, set up a small business, Green
Harvest, specialising in mail-order horticultural
supplies. Unexpectedly, Green Harvest
became so successful they had to hire
another Crystal Waters resident to help
process the orders.
Jalanbah was a later ecovillage on the
edge of Nimbin in northern NSW designed
by local woman Robyn Francis and Maclean
planner Peter Cummings. Established in
the early 1990s, Jalanbah won the approval
of the local council and was cited as
a desirable type of development for the
future. More recent and similar developments
include plans for the Aldinga Ecovillage
near Adelaide and, south of Perth in Western
Australia, Rosneath Farm, which is already
underway.