Narara Ecovillage - Narara, New South Wales

Ryan V.

We need more of these communities around Australia. Also less red tape for tiny homes….

Brad W.

Was fortunate to attend a regular open day yesterday.
Some excellent examples of unique 7.5 star residential construction and a perfect location.
Best aspect was no fences but pathways between properties. Replication of earlier times when communities had to work together to prosper.

Phil ?. M.

Great place to meet some super friendly eco aware people and has a very unique forest walk where if you are lucky you may even spot ca fire fly or two

Mark J.

We are new prospective residents. It's early days, but I am filled with hope, building a sustainable village lifestyle on 100 years of physical (Western) infrastructure and 20 years of social infrastructure. All our experiences thus far have been entrancing, neighbourly and lovely.

Tai J.

Lovely place. Inspiring architecture and community showing early signs of a successful collaboration of eco aware humans living cohesively.

Candy at the coffee cart is extremely friendly, helpful and provided a delicious lunch.

Thanks 👍

Josiani O.

Beautiful and cosy Ecovillage. Here I had the opportunity to e increase my knowledge about Tiny Houses and also to have a visit on a pretty and new tiny house 🙂 people there are really welcoming. Here is a good and peaceful place to know more about sustainability and community living 🌿😊

Pablo M. M.

My young family and I had a very disappointing and hurtful experience as members of this "eco" village and are relieved to be out.

OVERCROWED RETIREMENT VILLAGE

The majority of members are retirees and several only have a second or third home at NEV. In the over crowdedness of this place, there is constant contradiction, personal and collective drama, plus - following the sociocratic (socio-crazy?) ideal - lots and lots of talking without getting much done. If one either is not able, or not willing to spend most of one's free time, including weekends, in meetings, this place is unsustainable.

CONSTANT CONFLICT

More so, the broad umbrella of "'eco' is the only 'value' shared by members. It means something completely different for each member and is neither enough to unite people for a common vision, nor to form the base for conflict resolution. And conflict, living on top of each other like they do and plan do to more and more, arises every moment of every day.

For our family it was one exhausting, draining and extremely deceiving experience. I can't even imagine what it will be like once stage 2 is completed: Hundreds more people living in tiny houses with no fencing and narrow streets, no privacy, no rest, no escape. There is no psychological testing, nor sociological screening to become a member, so you could be living near a child abuser, alcoholic or other delinquent but only the almighty "board" will know about it. This lead to a situation where one of our young children was kicked, smashed and hit by another member who is still part of the project. Due to fear of negative media coverage the case was put under the carpet, we were strongly 'advice' not to include the police and bullied out of the project.

STRUGGLING FINANCES

Last but not least, the founder is an accountant basically managing a residential development but with a "hippy" coating over it. In order to be financially viable, NEV heavily relies on some effluent members who can afford to provide loans to this project in return for a very attractive interest rate. Talk about generating other viable revenue streams have been around for a long time, but with constant conflict and disagreement between alienated and disconnected members, and with the long endless discussions following sociocracy, anything is close to impossible.

Organic F. A.

It is a very interesting ecovillage.
It is still under development, but we look forward to its future development！