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SomerVille Ecovillage™ Personal Stories
Christophe Bouyac
This was a life changing event, and without going into too much detail since becoming involved with SomerVille I have made many new friendships, some with people twice my age and I have learnt many things. But most important to me is the encouragement and support I have received from people in this community in living my dream.
My Story - Neil and Sarah Robertson
In 2003, we were off again and spent two weeks touring the South island of New Zealand. We especially loved Nelson which is New Zealand’s sunniest spot but is still far less sunny than most of Australia. Back in Darwin, I was getting tired of travelling in to the city every day to work for a multi national IT company where calls were logged via a help desk and I only rarely met clients face to face. On the way to work one morning I was knocked off my motorbike and my leg was broken in three places. During the eight months my leg was in plaster, I also suffered a blood clot in my lung which put me in hospital for longer than the broken leg! I think the universe was trying to tell me something about my direction in life! Still in 2003, I booked myself onto a Permaculture Design Course and still in a cast and on crutches, travelled to Bendigo (Victoria) and completed the two week residential PDC course at Gravel Hills Gardens. It became clear that the ecovillage was the solution we had been looking for and I started searching the web for possibilities. We made a list of desirable features of possible locations (“close to the beach”, “somewhere I can find work”, “close to family if possible”, “somewhere established so Hannah can benefit now” etc) and used the list to compare the possibilities. Rosneath Farm rated highly so it was back onto a plane in January 2004 to go and check out Western Australia. We met with Warwick and Gillian Rowell, were shown around, and were very impressed with the progress at Rosneath. Warwick then explained that there was a legal wrangle where the land owner was effectively blocking any new sales and that he could not sell us a block even if we wanted to buy one. We returned to Darwin in shock as we had pinned all our hopes on Rosneath Farm. It was back to the drawing board. We had dismissed SomerVille Ecovillage™ early in the search as it was still forming and we thought Hannah would be in school before we could build a house at SomerVille . After rechecking progress on the web site, the SomerVille Project started to look pretty good. It wasn’t close to the beach, but they had an enterprise plan (no one else had that!), and Sarah had family not too far away. The more we compared, the better it looked. After checking with Paul Antonelli that there was still an opening, we decided to commit to SomerVille . Paul describes a telephone conversation (that I have long since forgotten) that apparently goes something like this: Neil: “Can you explain the procedure for how we contribute financially to the project?” Paul: “But you haven’t even seen the land yet.” Neil: “That’s OK, we’ve done our research and we’d like to go ahead.” I think this was the conversation where Paul’s dinner went cold while we chatted. Sorry about that Paul. Within three weeks we had a loan funds cheque in the mail which was promptly accepted. Within three months we had sold our house, tidied up our affairs in Darwin, travelled down by car from the Northern Territory and rented a house in Mundaring. Once we saw the land and met SomerVille Community members, we felt more and more vindicated that we had made the right decision and were relieved we did not end up at Rosneath Farm. Hannah is now nearly 6 and we still haven’t built our house yet – but this is OK! We moved to Chidlow 14 months ago and feel that SomerVille is already a Community. Of course, we still look forward to being able to build our home on the land and living at SomerVille !
What happened was that a few dreamers/planters needed some proactive drivers. Nothing came out of it. The idea got tucked away in my dream bag. I went off and continued with my life, doing a range of jobs and eventually became a parent. Being a parent changed everything. No more gypsying, no more arty late nights. Lots of doors closed for a while. Including the one that opened onto earning good money again. So I parented. And will keep on parenting my son for the rest of my life. I like him. It is good. My dream returned with the presence of the child. Even more so now it was imperative to find the dream place so that he could grow up in a huge, safe environment where we had security of tenure. I had also become tired and grumpy about poor house design. I heard about the SomerVille project when it was embryonic. It sounded just what I was hoping for. I came to Mt Helena for a workshop with Max Lindegger in 2003. That was IT! I was sold. Within a week I had a rental house in Chidlow and in three weeks had moved up from Busselton. Over the three years I have been actively involved, I have learned a great deal about myself and my family. We have had changes in fortune and great abundance and generosity showered on us. (For example we were loaned by friends the $12 000 needed to secure an option on a block - interest free). I have seen, again, what can be created by people joining together for a common purpose. We have nestled into the community of the Parkerville Silver Tree Steiner School. I have become a part of a network of folks at SomerVille who appreciate creativity, peaceful resolution, communal childcare opportunities and good cooking. How wonderful that we also share appreciation of good house design, worms and their work, organic food and community buildings. Sometimes over the past three years I have found SomerVille Sundays to be overwhelming I would go home with too much buzzing in my head and many unanswered questions. There may have been many conversations about huge issues – wood fires vs gas, wet composting toilets vs dry or dogs and cats vs peace and no poo. Some of the issues we would discuss would bring up an emotional response from me. Because there was so many people out there on a Sunday, it was not always the place to try to resolve questions and feelings. Processing it at home alone was not much of a choice either. I discovered recently to my great relief that there is an avenue for discussion which has me moving into the next century in using technology. I clarify my thoughts onto a computer document before I send them on, via email, to the correct person in the three 'bubbles' of care that form our structure. (land care, economic enterprise and social groups). These busy people can look at my ideas; complaints and offers at their own pace and respond with other members of the 'bubble' before 'talking' with me. I aim to keep on using this process. Hopefully I can grow into a person who provides accurate knowledge and valuable networking possibilities to the 'bubbles'. Right now the priority is getting a well paid job, probably in my profession as a physiotherapist. Inspirational thoughts abound at SomerVille and one of them is to 'follow one's passion'. I will try to find a job as a physio who assists with graceful movement, teaches about worms and recycling, tells stories really well, facilitates group dynamics and draws amazing things- oh yeah and plays a mean fiddle! Regards to all - Stacey wormgirl@sev.net.au
My Story - Angela Williamson and Chris Doonan
After much consideration we decided that we wanted to live in New Zealand but as we didn’t have enough points to be accepted as migrants thought Oz wasn’t a bad second choice!!!! We also knew that once we became citizens here we could go and live and work in NZ anyway – in through the back door so to speak! So we wandered the country for a while – a year in Sydney, a year in central Queensland, back to Sydney again for a couple of years then our first real time living in Perth – all the time looking for the perfect combination of 5 acre block by the beach in a lovely community that was less that an hour from a city centre so Angela could work and which we could afford with only one salary (Talk about searching for Shangri La!!) Chris had always been into the idea of sustainability, he’d grown up on a farm and had run a landscape gardening business and knew a fair bit about companion planting, organics and a bit about perm culture through his own study. Angela had spent a bit of time at Findhorn and comes from a very large, close and extended family and had worked in community development for many years so had a strong sense of community and the strength that comes from belonging to something really solid. It was about 2000/01 when we met Serena and Jamie Abblett who were very early pioneers of SomerVille with the Antonelli’s. The first word we knew of it was when Chris called Serena to ask them round for tea and she said that they were meeting with the Antonelli’s to develop a plan for this Ecovillage idea that they had. We had already had a look at Greenacre down at Rockingham so were intrigued by the idea of the development and asked her to keep us in the loop. (It was also around this time Ixaka arrived and joined us on the journey!) Before anything substantial actually happened we had decided to head off to New Zealand - partly because we were still searching and partly just to check if it was somewhere we really wanted to be. While in Auckland we looked seriously at three Ecovillage developments. One on Waihiki Island, one a couple of hours North of Auckland in a rural area and one which was an urban development in suburban Auckland ( more like a co-housing development) None of these were the right fit for us. One of them was so disapproving of what Angela did for a job that we were clear we wouldn’t actually be accepted – it was a very off putting and strange experience. All this time Chris had been keeping a quiet eye on the development at SomerVille and we began to think that maybe WA was home after all. We came back in October 2003 and very quickly organised to meet Paul and get the low down on the development and were immediately sure that this was what we had been looking for. Some of the things that were really important to use was that the community was built around developing shared commitments and ways of making life work rather than absolute positions which didn’t allow the community to grow and develop and people joined. We also really liked that there was a degree of intelligence and reality around managing the money. We’d both been around organisations and communities who thought that somehow ‘everything would all just work out – somehow” There was a great balance between passion, commitment and community involvement and just good business sense in getting decisions made and getting things done. In the past couple of years we as well as everyone else in the community have had to try to “keep the faith” around this balance. One of the challenges of being part of community is dealing with no having things go your way sometimes and having the grace to accept that. I hope we are learning well!!
So what’s next – well Angela has never in her
life lived in the same house for more than two years - so having
declared that I’m home – what’s next? The adventure of creating
and building something that will really make a difference to the
planet and play and important and dynamic contribution in
showing people that they can live well and be satisfied to their
souls only when other are equally well nurtured. My Story - Carol and Mike Fuller
We endured hardship and disappointment, we embraced opportunity and joy, for life has a way of winding its way around the mountain so we can grow and learn. It stretched us in ways we didn’t think possible, showing us views that took our breath away, and jewels appeared in places that were completely unexpected. The beauty found in chronic illness, fulfilment borne of constant struggle. Our children grew into independent adults, each with their own dreams, each following their own path. We now know they have their own struggles to endure and will find their own special treasures and we rejoice each moment with them. The need was still great to find our special place. We resumed the search in earnest five years ago, looking around the Southwest, but nothing was quite right. Our dream still eluded us. Then, a chance meeting at a sweat lodge in our own area, with a charming man named Dominic. We had finished a lovely shared supper and just before he left Dominic handed out a flyer to anyone who might be interested. It was about an idea, a dream. It was our dream. So we went along to a meeting and listened to passionate people talking about our dream. It was wonderful and we both knew it was something we had to be involved in. At the time we were deep into poverty consciousness and didn’t have two cents to rub together. So we got an advance payment from Centrelink, bless them. Sold a few things and before long had enough to open the door to our dream. The dream weaving continued and the land appeared. The money was raised in a miraculously short time. Synchronicity stepped in and started to move to our beat. Or perhaps it was always dancing and we were just discovering its rhythm. The hard work and dedication of the core group had begun and we, along with many others, were swept along on a high tide of courage and passion. We have recently chosen the lot where we will build our home, the home we have always seen in our dream. There is a level of excitement and anticipation as the village approaches realization and we prepare the land for its transformation. As we prepare ourselves for our great change and progress towards a greater harmony and fulfilment. The last four years have been an inspirational journey, a journey of connection, a journey of expansion. We see the growth in others that matches our own and we all share similar dreams. But the collective dream is shaping to be much greater than our individual ones and now we are inspired to move far beyond our initial vision. We are changing our world. My Story - Aaron Boultbee & Debbie Targett
We have been together for four and a half beautiful years and it was over a year and a half ago that we heard about some fair in a community, out in Chidlow (wherever that was) that was all sustainable. It seemed like our cup of tea so we pottered off in our Kombi to meet up with a group of our friends who were performing there that day. Aaron was missing for half the day, I could never find him. Meanwhile, I was chatting to people at the natural therapies stalls. Upon finding Aaron he said he was off on a tour around the place. “OK, but I’ll stay here” I said. So I found Faye Read and talked about Birth, my new interest. What seemed like hours later, a wide eyed Aaron returned saying “We should really look into this. You’ve gotta come for a walk!” I rolled my eyes thinking ‘How amazing is a yellow shed, a rundown cottage and an orchard?’. I didn’t get it. Another one of Aaron’s crazy ideas I thought. But because I love him I went along for the ride and here I am, inspired and excited along side him with our beautiful daughter Juniper, who joined us five and a half months ago. She laughs and squeals when out at SomerVille in the fresh air, she loves the trees. Recently I have adopted Aarons trait of coming up with crazy ideas. We tear through business ideas week after week in preparation for living in the community. House plans and ideas (did I mention the sea containers?) come in one door and out the other. We are a bag of worms when you get us together on a hot new idea. We love it! We cant wait to be up there and living our dreams. We are really enjoying the journey and making new life long friends along the way. We are looking forward to our dreams growing into a beautiful forest. Thank you all! We love being apart of SomerVille , you make it all worthwhile. My Story - Brett & Adelheid Davies
We hadn’t been on the lookout for an ecovillage at all, in fact we were quite ignorant of the whole concept, when we boarded the SomerVille train in mid-early 2002, before the land was secured I happened to attend a Chidlow Progress Association meeting, where a new Chidlow resident called Paul Antonelli stood up and talked about this very interesting village plan for an area not far from Chidlow. A few weeks later Brett and I checked out the first open day on the land and really liked what we saw and heard. SomerVille looked like a way of staying in our beloved Chidlow environment AND live in a whole community of people with whom we suspected - already on this first day of meeting - we would have a lot of common ground. A couple of days later Brett, as he frequently does, took off for a long overseas work trip and left me with some decision making. When Brett came back I told him that we have committed loan funds to SomerVille . He was a little surprised yet perfectly OK, thank goodness! Not long after that he started having fun mapping all of SomerVille and more recently he has had even more fun getting soaked in red wine, being one of the chief wine makers of the new “Chateaux SomerVille ” label, which is getting better every year (“can only get better” said only people, who know nothing about wine making and have ruined their palate drinking inferior wine from down south). We have lived on our 5.5 acres near Lake Leschenaultia since 1987, and both our children have grown up here. When we moved here, our son Tilman was 2 years old and a year later our daughter Olivia was born. Brett’s geological work has always taken him away from home a lot. Having no family and no real community nearby (SomerVille would have been perfect!) I always made a point of spending a lot of time meeting friends and worked only part time (as office geologist) until about 3 years ago. Then, in April 2003, a job offer (in my new field of IT, I had completed part-time external studies) came up and I started fulltime and fairly demanding work in the city, for the first time in more than 16 years - I seem to be doing things in reverse order to everybody else! Brett and I came to Perth in 1985, for Brett to start a job with the Geological Survey of WA after completing his PhD at Townsville (North Queensland) University. Tilman was 3 months old at the time and I had not completed my PhD when we moved from Townsville to Perth – I took all my rock samples with me, knowing full well that I would NOT complete that PhD! I had moved on somehow, took up recorder and flute and went to ‘Meet a Mum’ meetings. Brett and I have lived in Townsville from 1981 until 1985, both doing post grad studies in geology at Townsville Uni and also working as consulting geologists. When I first arrived in Australia from Germany as a post-graduate, my English was broken (having learnt really useful languages like Latin and classical Greek at high school) and I remember one occasion where I couldn’t understand all the funny jokes and stories filling the geological excursion minibus on the endless trip from Townsville to Central Australia, but luckily of one the guys (Brett!) seized the occasion and tried out his formidable school German skills on me to the extent of completely losing his voice the next day – and the rest is history!
Paul’s and Dominic’s PP presentation covered all questions I may have had, and I was also quite taken by the delicious muffins afterwards! While talking with Paul and Mecthild Moes in the car park, I thought that if they were the type of people going to be living at SomerVille , I was very very interested. And I’ve been heavily involved, and excited, and learning ever since! Even to the point of being an Ecocom committee member for two years. The SomerVille Ecovillage™ is already attractive, and it doesn’t take too much imagination to visualise many intelligent and passionate neighbours enjoying a new green paradise in harmony with nature and her finite resources. What a WOW!! The year 2008 will be so rewarding, with our own community building, the first residents creating beauty and comfort with a small footprint, and entrepreneurs setting up businesses and providing employment to meet our everyday needs. The members who regularly join the many gatherings in SomerVille are already my friends, and I believe that our relationships can only get better, so bring it on!!
Unknown to my parents, they sent my sister and I to a high school smack bang in the middle of one of the most violent and drug ridden suburbs in Sydney. My sister toughed it out but I couldn’t cope with constantly having to be on my guard and fight to keep my lunch. In year ten I transferred to a nearby country school which was a bit better. By that time I had been to four different primary schools and three different high schools. Major life changes were pretty standard by then. I found my place with a decent and pretty close group of mates, although I always felt like an outsider and struggled to be appreciated. I was pretty good at science and maths so when high school finished, I applied for a Bachelor of Applied Science majoring in Coastal Management at Southern Cross University in Lismore, northern NSW. After some letter writing and promoting, I was finally accepted and deferred the degree for a year to earn some money labouring. During that year I had my strangest job yet packing boxes with practical jokes, costume gear and sex toys for a company called Weirdo Imports & Distribution. University was fun, a bit too much fun as I remember. My degree turned out to be everything that I wanted and more. It was based in the environmental sciences but included subjects on cultural heritage, economics, law, land use planning and a final integrated project to tie things together. With Lismore being in the hills just inland from Byron Bay, I had my first real taste of an alternative lifestyle, without all the hype and stereotypes. I hope the little hippy communities that were dotted around the hills of Northern NSW are still alive today. With all that to distract me plus the beautiful waves and girls at Byron Bay, it was a miracle that I finished my degree at all. My parents moved back to WA half way through my final year of university so when I finished it was big decision time: stay in northern NSW, move back down to Sydney, or lob over to WA. In the end it was my family and old roots in WA that won out. Bunbury was to be my new home, but not for long. My first professional job with the Water and Rivers Commission didn’t work out so I ended up working for the Dolphin Discovery Centre in Bunbury for a while. For a few months I was the Swim Tour Operator, taking visitors on a boat out into the bay and leading them into the water for an interactive experience with wild dolphins. It seems like a dream and I gotta call it the best job I have ever had. After two years in Bunbury I got the travel bug, probably inherited from my parents. I bought a round-the-world plane ticket and took off for 10 months to Thailand, Britain, Italy and Canada. That trip is another story in itself so I won’t elaborate. Lets just say it was cultural, challenging, unsettling, uplifting, soul-searching and a real eye-opener. When I left I thought my eyes were already pretty open, surprise surprise. I feel that my spiritual journey began in Canada during my trip and has continued to this day, with a few hiccups and turns on the way. On returning from overseas, the choice to expand my consciousness and perspective led me to Perth in 2003 to pursue my environmental career and meet new people. The self-development experiences of Ascension, The Grail and Avatar have helped me to better direct my life, relationships and behaviour. I spent three years in Perth cutting my teeth in the harsh world of corporate environmental consultancy before something else hit me just this year. I fell in love with a beautiful woman, found my dream job coordinating the Environmental Management Plan for SomerVille Ecovillage™ , and made a commitment to purchase a lot at SomerVille . Right now there is nowhere else I want to be. That is my story in a nutshell. I hope you gain something from it. Sincerely Andrew Hemsley
As a farmer’s daughter, I grew up
milking cows, rounding up sheep, picking apples and a range of
stone fruit, shooting parrots and pigeons (in those days, this
was okay: my father’s rifles were part of the furniture, and
brought meat to our table on a regular basis), climbing trees,
driving the tractor (after the draught-horses had been
superseded), making jam and preserved fruit etc etc. All without
electricity, at least until I was in my teens. Pets included
sheepdogs of course, lambs, poddy calves, kangaroos, a mopoke, a
possum, a crow, a pink-and-grey galah … other wildlife were
foxes, dingoes (the traps were something to have bad dreams
about), snakes, blue-tongue lizards, and according to my
paternal grandmother, a bunyip which lived in ‘the black hole’,
a murky swamp which we were strictly warned to stay well away
from!
Years have passed. I no longer
qualify for the ‘young adults’ group, I am my own boss, I am a
mother, the value of my home has risen adequately, and I won’t
give away my dreams for anyone so easily anymore. I still wonder
sometimes if I’m on the right track, especially when I haven’t
visited for a few months; but as soon as I drive down the
driveway again, I breathe deeply, exhale fully, and know.
After a few years all of a sudden we
decided to go back to the Netherlands to live. Sold everything
and went via Canada and England back home where we bought a
house in desperate need of repair. After 2 years of renovations
we sold the house and moved to Perth. A friend of ours wrote
very promising stories about this city on the west coast. And
indeed we are very happy here, especially when we found out that
there was an ecovillage to be set up in the hills. We went to
the first meeting and were there to view the land for the first
time. As the setting up was all going to take a little time we
decided to sell our house in Darlington and travel around
Australia for a while. We thought that when we get back we would
be able to start building. It did not quite go that way as Paul
was taken on as landcare co-ordinator at Somerville in April
2004. We had to go back so that he could start his job.
The journey that led us to
Darlington probably began in Zambia. Dave was working on one of
the open-cut mines on the “Copperbelt”, and was impressed by the
way that one of the miners had developed a small farm into a
modest market garden. It was amazing to see all of the basic
veggies and herbs in abundance around the house. It just seemed
as though the red soil would support the growth of anything that
was planted. But the best was yet to come, and that was
strolling around, picking veggies and herbs, and preparing a
meal with them. Just thirty minutes from growing strongly in the
earth to being transformed into a Kurdish curry, how fresh is
that! Dave was hooked, and started his own veggie garden in the
grounds of 29-East Second St.
Later on, when I thought about buying a home (which I hadn’t always thought I would as I grew up in rentals), I really, really hated the idea of living in isolation in the outer suburbs. I was inspired by ecovillages that my best friend introduced me to when she and I went on a holiday down south one year and decided that I would like to live in one. It seemed a bit impossible though because I worked in the city. Anyway, then my mate bought a house by herself and (possibly in a moment of guilt at giving up on the dream of living in a community together), subscribed me to the Somerville email list without even asking me. So I started getting these emails which I occasionally read, but mostly deleted. And that went on for about a year until the first fence sitters evening was announced, just around the corner of the office where I worked in Subi - which I took to be a sign from fate that I needed to check this out. And of course, the minute I heard the story I knew I had to be a part of it. And so I am!
I’ve had a blessed up-bringing. My parents have taught me many things that I hope to bring to the village. Humility is one thing, and with that respect and caring for the world we live in. I am now working for the Wilderness Society, in the fight against injustice against the environment and the world we live in. I am also studying herbology under Dipaunka Macrides http://www.theherbalist.com.au/. He uses his knowledge to help and heal the beings we are with plant medicine and shares his knowledge. In time I hope to do the same. I am also a very spiritual person. When I was 16 I had a raven follow me home from school. He hopped from tree to tree keeping a fixed eye on me. He is still with me today and lives in the tree behind my house. I can tell him apart from all the other ravens because he had one white feather on his left wing. This was quite auspicious so I looked up the ravens' meaning, and it was all about magic and exploring the dark or unseen areas in my life. And it has led me on a path of shamanism and magic that guides and protects me and fills my life with beauty, love, fun and healing through trial and acceptance. I hope that I can share my spiritual flame with any that burn with the same fuel that keeps my light burning bright. I feel the village will be a place to love, share and be who I want to be without judgement or disillusionment. A village built to explore the boundaries of humanity and beyond. To provide a place for others to come and experience a loving community with strength, light and vision. AHO,
It wasn’t long before we were together again. Once Meggie graduated high school we fled to Guatemala to escape the pressures of having to conform in getting a university degree for entrance into the successful workers world. Instead we were seeking a soul education, we had a strong longing to travel the world working for projects that assisted people in need. Our travels led us to many countries and we met many people along the way who have changed our lives forever and become part of the tapestry of experience that is our lives so far. Then suddenly we were visited by a friend, our unborn son. We decided that Australia would be the best place to be while Tenzin was young. When we arrived we found a perfect place by the ocean to live not too far from my parents’ house. Tenzin was born at home in March 2006. We no longer could travel so instead many of our friends began to travel to see us. All year we had visitors and we began to thoroughly enjoy cohousing. Community had never been more important in our lives than at the time we began our family. We realized that if it takes a village to raise a child, you want that village to be a beautiful and healthy place. One day, when we were at a beach side cafe Tenzin began to smile at a man sitting by himself. When we went to talk to him he said that he saw a light in Tenzin that really connected to his heart. After walking along the beach together just a few times we became close friends with Brent and he eventually came to stay with us. We shared stories and learnt about each other’s lives. During one of our conversations Brent mentioned that he recently heard through a friend of a friend about a place called SomerVille where people were creating an ecovillage. The friend’s friend was Julia Humphreys. After reading about SomerVille and talking about ecovillages for a few months we finally visited in May 2007. Everything sounded great. We loved the ideas that had been dreamt up and were very enthusiastic about the project but meeting the SomerVillians was going to be the deciding point for us. Through 2007 we met many people who were committed to the project and it wasn’t long before our hearts had made the final decision to make Somerville our future home.
We began to develop friendships with
some of the families of SomerVille. One of the families we
became close with was Julia and Isaiah. This year Julia and
Isaiah came to live with us at our beach house in Marmion. We
are now thoroughly enjoying a successful co-housing experience
and our 2 year old boys seem to love it even more than we do. It
makes so much sense to live this way to us that we have decided
to buy one single block together in SomerVille and build a house
designed for both of our families. The planning of our home has
been an exciting phase and we are finally getting some clear
visions of what will work for us. For now though we will remain
in our beach house. With our doors always open for whoever would
like to stay with us.
A change was needed. So the first
part of that was we moved to the hills, a beautiful house on a
big block and not a neighbour to be seen anywhere! That wasn't
right either, it was too isolating for such a social creature as
Paul. We started exploring the idea of buying a big block with
three other couples, Dom and Vida, and my sister Faye, were part
of this. But in the end that didn't eventuate. It was also
around this time, September 1997, that the previous business
came to an end. Paul began to explore what was next with good
friends Mark and Diana Broome. It was during this period that we
were involved in ,at different times, property settlements,
establishing a website Quolkids – Quality of Life for Kids,
project management, property inspections, and IT consulting. At
the time is seemed like a range of unrelated opportunities. As
it turned out they created an amazing experience and knowledge
base for the ecovillage and property world we were about to
explore and make our future. |
