An introduction to the Crystal Waters Eco-village

For the past week our class spent time at the Crystal Waters permaculture village. The goal of this trip was to experience life with as little impact on the environment as possible. My preconceptions about the village were similar to the movie, The Village. Wood huts, no lights or water, scary creatures outside, etc. The scary creatures part was right; there are 12 types of poisonous snakes that inhabit the area around the village. However, I realized they were as scared of me as I was of them. Living within nature is not something I am used to, but it was a good experience. Creatures crawled or hopped all over the place, including some kangaroos, but after a couple days it didn't bother me anymore. It was great seeing the Roo family everyday, although the last night we stayed we had Roo for dinner and I felt a little guilty (tastes amazing though). Living with little impact on the environment has certain implications, such as conserving water and power, and having an open mind when it comes to the ecology of the area. In order to reduce the impact, the community has to put up with certain annoyances, such as flies. Which, by the way, were incredibly annoying. However, the result is a safe, honest environment for people and animals. I asked the most obvious question; "How many people have been bitten by a snake here?" And the answer, with thirty years of history, was none. I wasn't as shocked as I thought I would be, but I realized that living with nature might not be as bad as it seems.
           The most important thing I took away from our visit was the nature in which these people lived. Our host often mentioned a stereotype that people would place them in; hippies. These people live with adequate light, power, running water, good food, etc. They are far from the "tree hugger" stereotype, but they still live within the constraints that nature has provided for the area. Now, I don't suggest that everyone live exactly as they do, for that would just be an impossible statememnt. I would suggest, that people consider more thoughly the impact their actions have on the earth. If you know me at all, you know I am far from a tree hugger. But, the efficient use of the resources around us has always been a concern of mine, and if more people were aware of their impact, their costs would be lower, and we could reduce our usage of water, power; etc; and still have an extremely comfortable quality of life.

Crystal Waters Eco-Village

Week Two has us in an eco-village called Crystal Waters, an hour and a half outside of Brisbane. Brisbane is an hour’s flight north of Sydney, so the heat is pretty intense. When we got off the plane I thought I was in Phoenix. The drive here was beautiful, and we saw a lot of the more rural areas of the country. The road we took crossed the top of a mountain, and we could see valleys on either side, and off in the distance was the ocean. I’ve never seen anything like it, and the landscape here is just incredible.

As for the eco-village, I was honestly expecting something out of The Village (wood huts, no power, and evil monsters). In reality the place is quite modern, and reminds me more of summer camp than anything. The bunkhouses are nice, and we have easy access to water and such. The hike to the eating area is pretty far, and the first thing we saw when we got here was a giant python. Apparently all the snakes here are very poisonous, so that was a little creepy. But, there are also kangaroos and wallabies that hang out near us all the time. I could pet one if I wanted, but I think it might take my face off. They’re cute though, and don’t care how close we are, even to their babies. There aren’t any pets in this place, but with kangaroos bouncing around all the time I don’t think you’d need a dog.

They say there are about 250 people living here, but I’ve only seen maybe two. The village is run just like a housing development, and people run their businesses from their homes for the most part. They also do a lot of school tours like ours, and educate people on the different aspects of running an eco-village. There’s a lot of interesting stuff we’re learning, and much of it could be applied to housing in the US as well. We’re here for two more days, and I'm interested to see what we’ll learn. 

Hunter Valley

So today we left Syndey and went about 2 hours north-ish to Hunter Valley, which is a huge wine producing area in New South Wales (which is the state we're in apparently). It's beautiful but oppressively hot and humid...probably close to 90 degrees. We also saw a bee that was the size of a small bird which was a little unsettling. It'll be nice to be away from the busy-ness of the city for awhile. Syndey is probably the biggest city I've ever seen, and we drove almost an hour before we even got outside of it. Crazy; and the suburbs sprawl out to something like a hundred square kilometers. Never seen anything quite like it. Also, I'm tired of paying for wifi. This country apparently doesn't believe in anything being complementary, so everywhere we go it's a huge struggle to find internet. Welp, going to find food now!

First Week

It's hot here. Which is awesome because back in Seattle it's probably 30 and raining like always. Being in Australia isn't a huge difference though. Everyone speaks English of course, although some woman today said she didn't understand my accent, which was funny because I couldn't understand her either...

Seeing landmarks like the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge is pretty incredible, and I'm so thankful that I could be here because I know it's an opportunity I will never have again. The weather is a bit like Seattle in the summer (except it's actually warm), but the sun is a lot stronger and we have all been burning every day. I have three layers of sun tan going on right now and they're all different shades and shapes.

We discovered really quickly that the people here aren't especially friendly, mostly when they're driving. I think they would hit us if they could. Also, the prices here are insane. A soda is like 4 dollars at 7-11, and food and clothing is twice as much as you pay at home. Basically I'm hungry a lot. We're leaving Sydney soon so maybe I'll end up writing this more, who knows. Everyone says ciao here when they say goodbye, even though it's not Italy...

Ciao Mates!