Tag Archives: Community

1’st in the series entitled – Make your own Rules By Karl Fitzgerald of ‘Grounded’ – Community Land Trust Advocacy. With Robin Clayfield (Crystal Waters Ecovillage, Qld), Megan James (Tuntable Falls, NSW) and Peter Cook (Moora Moora Ecovillage, Vic) Here’s a link to the website where there is the 1 1/2 hour recording to watch and also a written transcript. If you’re interested in Community design and living, particularly the design of governance and decision making, how to live and work together, intentional communities and villages, this is a great resource. Great initiative by Karl, and he will be doing more…  

A new documentary celebrating the past, present and future of Crystal Waters is just being released. It is possibly the most extensive exploration of an ecovillage in a documentary yet produced… I’d love to hear of other examples. In 2018, Crystal Waters, a world-first permaculture settlement and wildlife sanctuary, is now 30 years old – located near Maleny, South East Queensland. Given a UN Habitat Award in 1996, Crystal Waters is known worldwide for its permaculture related educational courses. Community members run monthly markets, bakery and cafes, bamboo and timber plantations, a fire brigade, cinema, even a cemetery. A visitor park offers cabins, caravan sites and tent sites. Over 100 dwellings and community buildings showcase diverse building methods – rammed earth, mud brick, straw bale and pole construction. The flow of the program entwines history and present views in a colourful and engaging manner. It may not answer all your …

Did you know you can design harmonious and effective groups who thrive towards their aims and purpose as a collective? Yep, it’s called Social Permaculture. And this is what Permaculture pioneer Robin Clayfield and social change-agent Erin Young are brewing for the SOCIAL PERMACULTURE WEEKEND on 18 & 19 May at Crystal Waters Permaculture EcoVillage, near Maleny in South East Queensland. This unique weekend is a rare opportunity to be guided in developing your social design fluency by applying the nature-based principles of permaculture. Using interactive and dynamic experiences, Robin and Erin will share with you insights to regenerative people systems and approaches contributing to happy and healthy humans on the levels of the individual, organisational, and societal. Various angles of effective social design will be covered, including group ecology, community governance and decision-making, group effectiveness, social space retrofits and confidence in acting for change. This course is for those …

Robin’s ‘Calendar of Events’ that she’s involved in this year include (known and confirmed dates)… ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ Creative Teachers, Facilitators and Group Leaders Course. Crystal Waters in SE Qld. 17th to 22nd February. Here’s the link to the FaceBook Event which has the poster with details in the Discussion section.  Being Woman… Gathering. SE Q’ld. 8th to 11th March. Ceremony and Workshop. Follow this link. National Labyrinth Conference. Canberra. 21st to 24th March with workshop on Ceremony and Ritual on 22nd March. Follow this link. PDC (Permaculture Design Course) at Crystal Waters Permaculture Village. April 29th to May 11th. Max Lindegger as primary tutor plus Richard Mochelle, Annaliese Hordern and with Robin Clayfield as special guest presenter. Here’s the link. The Sacred Union Labyrinth at The Planting Festival with Ceremonies, Workshop and Music to walk to. 3rd to 5th May at Woodfordia. Here’s the link to the website …

Both Robin and her partner Rob attended the annual Joining Gathering in September. Robin facilitated a powerful and transformative workshop entitled ‘Supporting Each Other to Shine’         and was able to contribute in a much lesser way than usual in the Ceremonies having mentored and guided other younger people to lead the Ceremonies, and lead they did so brilliantly. Both Robin and Rob were on the panel discussion about ‘Relationship’. A highlight of the event was Rob and Robin stepping up together in the Closing Ceremony to hold the energy of Staff and Basket holder for the next gathering. This means they care for the sacred objects that symbolize the Masculine and Feminine and together with a big circle of other wonderful people, organize the next ‘Joining’ for 2019 on the Spring Equinox weekend, held over 3 days. The venue and exact dates will be announced very soon for ‘The Joining …

The ABC was interested in the 30th anniversary celebrations of the formation of Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, one of the very first EcoVillages and the first Permaculture Designed Village in the world. The community held it’s 30th birthday party in July and the following article, which has an interview with Robin and her daughter Pele along with other residents, was one of the outcomes, along with a great cake and many shared memories. Click here for a link to the ABC Article that went on their website. Here’s a quote from the article – “An eco village on the Sunshine Coast was an experiment in communal living when it first started. Thirty years later the village is still thriving, and the rest of Australia is catching on to some of its pioneering ideas.”