GENOA - Rosneath Farm

Nearest town: Dunsborough
Location: 33 39 S 115 03 E
Adults: 16 Children: 7.
Wwoof host: yes
Property size: 143.7 ha
Date started: 1996

Community History and Structure:
Still in the early days of implementing an integrated village/farm, with 37 of 70 strata lots still available, averaging 1700sm. These are clustered, as part of a permaculture design for many intensive land uses, and the preservation of 150 flora species, 170 bird species, wet lands, etc. WA's Strata Title Act provides a conservative and proven legal structure.

Community Energy sources and use:
Rosneath Farm is a non-reticulated village, so each house is independent, with its own solar power system, costing about $10,000 with a 50% subsidy. A back up generator on a trailer is shared. We share as much transport as possible, and look forward to further minimising fuel use through more and more food production and socialisation on site, without being too insular.

Community Glue, spirituality, celebrations:
We hope to be tolerant and ecumenical - "Your spiritual development is your affair". We have solstice parties, slab parties, verticality parties, roof on parties, Friday after work parties, birthday parties, AGM meeting weekends, and monthly Council meetings. The dam provides a huge social focus in summer. Shared child care provides more glue. Children attend local government, Steiner, Cof E and catholic schools.

Food, Water, Shelter:
More and more organic food is being grown, depending on the expertise of people buying into Rosneath. At the moment, herbs, salads, some bulk foods, and poultry. Plans for vines, larger scale potatoes, maybe alpacas.. We now have our own bakery on site! German, wood fired, biodynamic flours.. yum! Six of our eight houses to date are mainly straw-bale and stucco. Water is from rainwater tanks, collecting water off house roofs.

Outreach:
Main avenue for outreach is through our extensive web-site www.rosneath.com.au. We also do brochures, newsletters, guided tours, courses, and receive a good press coverage. We do guest lectures and presentations, and write extensively, to share and learn. We sponsor "Focus on the Future" lectures for the local community when heroes like Jill Jordan, Trudy and Max, David and Su, and Declan and Margrit visit us. We offer scholarships and internships for serious students of sustainability.

Work and Economy:
We live in a Shire that has been among the fastest growing in Australia for five years, and this looks set to continue. The local economy is vibrant and expanding. But there are few bureaucratic, 9-5, career path jobs in the area, so several of our residents commute to Bunbury (50 minutes), others work in Busselton (20 minutes).

On site, we have many opportunities, mainly focussing around house building. Seven of our proprietors were involved in building the bakery. Much economic interchange is through our own LETS scheme, and our own employment services company, which administers ALL the legal and financial aspects of multiple employers and multiple employees with the minimum of hassles. 20% of the lot sale price goes to building infrastructure on the property, under the control of the proprietors.

Accommodation for visitors:
Guest house, spare rooms, caravans, for family, friends, wwoofers, and interns.

Warwick. H. M. Rowell M. Sc., B. Comm. Hons, Dip. Perm. Des.
Rosneath Farm
P.O. Box 250 Dunsborough 6281 Western Australia
Management Consultant.....Permaculture Designer

Rosneath Farm is an eco-village development in south-west Western Australia. It is at an exciting stage; the first houses for residents and the first village infrastructure are being built over the first six months of 2000. About half the 84 lots are sold at this stage.

Rosneath Farm is one of many eco-village developments around the world, many of them part of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). Our design has built on the ideas, experiences, and problems of many of our predecessors, and we hope in turn to contribute to the development of even more eco-villages.

What makes Rosneath Farm special is its tremendous location, and its timing. We are the first to use a new Act of Parliament designed to enable villages like this. The Strata Title Act provides a wonderful framework for our other design elements such as Permaculture, Pattern Language, alternative technologies, LETS, cluster development, co-housing options and special zoning. We believe they are all necessary for designing a lifestyle for its residents which is sustainable in many ways.

Warwick Rowell in his garden.

Rosneath Farm is also unique in that it is designed as a village, not a community. We see two factors as crucial in achieving this. One is that this village (like the vast majority of other `natural' villages) is populated by a very wide range of people. The second is that people can leave the village easily; there are no restrictions put on people's ability to sell up and move on, for whatever reason.

The current position is that we are about to have our second strata company AGM, and we have three owner builders cooperating to save costs as they go through the process of building. The first guest house is nearing completion, and the next big infrastructure project will be the first building in the northwest corner, which is zoned for tourism and education purposes. Tree planting will continue, with species that are resistant to kangaroos. The major priority here is extending our fuel wood and furniture wood copses, and establishing the windbreaks around what will be tropical areas adjacent to the two chinampas in the NW corner. All this alongside another list of `before the rains start' — we're starting to feel the seasonal imperatives.

If you want more detail about the development, please look at our web site, or contact us directly. If you have already looked at the web site, and feel you want more information, the next step is for you to write or e-mail us with a specific question, or to plan a visit.

Rosneath Farm is not like an ordinary property development where you can get a site map and drive around and look at lots. This is for three reasons; one is that, as you can see from the web site, there is a huge amount of design that underlies the layout, and to look at the pegs in the ground would give you no idea of these concepts. Secondly, the common property is private property, and we are intent on preserving that privacy for residents. Thirdly, as the people who are dealing with serious enquiries are also the people who are doing the development, we need to plan our time so that the infrastructure building can proceed as quickly as possible.

So if you want to visit, Open Days are held on the second Sunday (and the subsequent Monday) of each month. Then you can be sure of receiving our full attention for about two hours.

A special invitation: If you have a building trade, want to do quality work, and are sick of the general cost cutting and cut throat approach, you could think about coming to Rosneath Farm. We have seventy house lots in total, and plans for probably around twenty other buildings on site. We could well be building for the next ten to fifteen years. Spending the rest of your working life at Rosneath could be a nice way to round out your career as a tradesman; walking home for lunch, contributing to the basic design and building, as well as helping people modify their buildings to meet changing needs, and living amongst buildings you have built.

2003 Update: