My first WWOOF experience in an intentional eco-community was to be at the Wolery which, at over 30 years of age/existence is Western Australia's oldest intentional community. It is situated about 15 kilometres out of Denmark in South WA. Our first placement here was with a family of two parents and three kids who have lived at the Wolery for approximately six years, making them some of the community's newest members.
On the Wolery you can buy and own a house, but you cannot own the land (or land titles). They are the third owners of their house, which is a North-facing passive-solar design made of wood and mud-brick. The internal walls are made of mud-brick, with the externals made of timber, which gives it the appearance of a weatherboard house from the outside. This configuration of materials is used so that the timber can better regulate the temperature of the mud-bricks and therefore house.
This house-site is also surrounded by permaculture gardens, which were designed and first built by the house's second owners, who were also responsible for building the mud-brick walls of the house. This couple still live on the Wolery, but in a different and smaller house as they are now in their 60s and felt the size of this first house to be beyond their needs, and more suited to a young family. Much of the productive gardens of this property are well fenced to prevent the numerous kangaroos that roam the Wolery from pillaging the crops. Other house sites at the community growing fruits and other food-baring trees have also had to create completely netted gardens so to also protect them from birds, but due to the choice of plants at this particular site, this level of protection is unnecessary.
Unlike many of the houses at the Wolery this one does not rely on solar heating of water. Although the owner-occupants would philosophically prefer to have solar as opposed to mains electricity heated water, they have deemed the option untenable due to the size of their family and its hot water needs (e.g. showering, clothes washing etc.) and the fact that despite the house being North-facing with clear day-long access to the sun, there just isn't enough sunlight in Denmark over winter to provide them with the heating they feel they need.
Information technology and/or information system (IT/IS) applications and needs were limited in this household, as are they in the Wolery in general. For voice communications all houses use landline and mobile telephone technologies and infrastructure only. On top of this this particular house has a PC which is primarily set-up for sound recording in their home music recording studio, but which also has dial-up connectivity to the Internet, but this functionality is all outside any needs and requirement of the community.
As further background to the community in general and subsequent individual household IT/IS needs, the community is comprised of 15 households. Most of the householders work outside of the community, and as such the community has no external commercial enterprise (e.g. producing a product or resource for outside markets), nor is it big enough to sustain internal job functions (e.g. a backer that bakes only for internal community members).
The community has a central community centre which is used for community meetings and functions (such as fortnightly pancake breakfasts and weekly table-tennis competitions). The centre also houses the community's food co-op. Dissemination of information pertaining to upcoming events and the coordination of activities such as the monthly community working bees is done by way of an externally fixed blackboard and internal pin-up notice boards. It is therefore the responsibility of individual community members to regularly visit the centre and check the various message boards for upcoming activities and issues of importance. As the centre is also the central pick-up spot for all postal mail (as the community has only one postal address for all households) this expectation and its willing execution is not overly problematic.
We spent one-and-a-half weeks with our first WWOOF hosts at the Wolery. We wanted to spend more time at the Wolery, so we organised time and work with other community households before leaving the community for a few days break.
Although our initial plan upon our return was to base ourselves in our van at the Wolery Centre and farm ourselves out on a daily and ad-hoc basis to different households - as many had expressed interest in having small jobs, but feared they didn't have enough work to host us for a week - this did not eventuate. This failed plan was attractive for two reasons: firstly, it would allow us to stay at the Wolery even if no one host had the work or resources to cater for us, and secondly, and most importantly, it would give us exposure to a far greater number of Wolery households, and therefore a greater diversity of opinions and a more holistic understanding of community life on the Wolery.
But upon our return we discovered that one of our prospective hosts in fact wanted most if not all of our remaining time at the Wolery to assist them in completing a fairly major project. So this couple became our hosts for the next nine days. This couple was in compete contrast to our earlier experience at the Wolery: they were a couple in their 60s, and who were not particularly participatory in community life - which in itself was of interest, because why live on and in an intentional community if you're not interested in 'communing'?
This disinterest in communing therefore led to this WWOOFing experience within the Wolery to be rather isolating. Other community members would drop in occasionally to see what we were up to - which for me was building a solar-passive workshop for piano tuning, and for Molly, working in their private permaculture gardens - but largely we felt as if we were existing somehow detached from the greater community despite our geographically central position within it.
The social dynamic between the couple hosting us was also uncomfortable, though we were able to glean from them reasons for their attraction to community life and the Wolery. They had spent much preliminary time researching and investigating different communities in Australia and Canada, but ultimately, rather than subscribing to some fundamental eco-objective or philosophy, their attraction and decision seemed more driven by a sense of old-world safety that could be realised by living within a small community: a now reoccurring consideration and intent.
The oppressive and divorced environment that we now found ourselves in was wearing, and we quickly found ourselves wanting to move on within the community. Although valuable insights were gained into how and why community membership could fail at a philosophical and physical level of acquiesce and application, these lessons were quickly recognised and realised, and after nearly two weeks with this host and despite the workshop still needing some finishing work, we now wanted to further explore active membership rather than complicit disassociation.
But before taking-up with another host we again took some time out for ourselves to unwind, debrief and recharge by leaving the Wolery for a few days in our van to camp along nearby beaches. And in particular, Cosy Corner.
Upon our return we found two hosts, but as we had now been at the Wolery for a little over a month, and had other communities within Denmark that we wanted to spend time with, we decided that we could only commit a few days to each host.
Our first host was a recently separated mum with a grown-up child living away from home and the community, and one school-age child living with her. Her ex-husband coincidentally lived with another intentional community within Denmark that we hoped to stay with.
Despite our hopes that this host experience would prove to be a positive one - as all our preliminary interactions alluded to - it again was not. The work we were set was all menial and unpleasant in nature, and clearly just stuff she didn't want to do herself - and therefore she did not participate in the activities herself (i.e. WWOOFer exploitation: a common phenomena I would soon learn). Not an ideal situation for getting to know someone. Further complicating this was the fact that for the short time we were there she was also out at night, so this further stymied our ability to learn much about or from her.
What we did learn however was that this was again a case of someone joining a community with hopes and expectations of what a community and it's members could do for her rather that what she could do for it: that is, she hoped that a community environment and its membership would result in more resources and less work for her (which ideally it can if managed and administered properly) without actually wanting to be particularly active or contributory within it. The fact that this was not the case was a source of much resentment and complaint for her, without ever recognising that she was a major contributor to this failure in a both a micro and macro sense.
We quickly then capitalised on our initial offering of a short, fuzzy and somewhat ambiguous time-frame - a contingency 'out' that we had now learned to factor into our host negotiations should things not work out - to move onto our next and final host within the Wolery.
Our final host at the Wolery was another recently separated mother with four young daughters. However, her former partner still lived in the community. Although we were initially sceptical of this host situation because of the kids, and the fact that it might have turned out to be nothing more than a baby-sitting gig (which is why one of our host selection criteria was 'no young children', though this was obviously poorly executed at the Wolery), it turned out to be one of our most enjoyable, informative and rewarding WWOOF and community experiences in WA.
Not only was this final host at the Wolery an absolute wealth of information about the Wolery - and one that clearly recognised both the benefits and pitfalls of intentional communities due to her own experiences and circumstances - but also on communities in general, having spent much time working and living within outback indigenous communities. It was here that I certainly, as someone new to this trip, study and anthropological discourse, learned the most - good and bad, general and specific - about the mechanics, considerations and concerns of intentional community and its successful realisation within its members.
The fact that this was the most delightful family unit, and that an onset of bad weather had meant there was little opportunity for work, but plenty for coffees, board games and in-depth conversations.
After our short time with this host we left the Wolery to spend some time alone with each other (again, mostly at Cosy Corner) before heading of to our next planned community in Denmark: Living Waters. However, while camping we were notified by our contact at this community that they were as yet unable to take us as they already had a full quota of WWOOFers, and not enough work to go around. We then seized upon this opportunity to return to the Wolery, and to our last hosts there while we waited for Living Waters to accommodate us. More coffee, more conversation, more fun... what a way to end our time at the Wolery.
Some interesting observations of the Wolery:
On the Wolery you can buy and own a house, but you cannot own the land (or land titles). They are the third owners of their house, which is a North-facing passive-solar design made of wood and mud-brick. The internal walls are made of mud-brick, with the externals made of timber, which gives it the appearance of a weatherboard house from the outside. This configuration of materials is used so that the timber can better regulate the temperature of the mud-bricks and therefore house.
This house-site is also surrounded by permaculture gardens, which were designed and first built by the house's second owners, who were also responsible for building the mud-brick walls of the house. This couple still live on the Wolery, but in a different and smaller house as they are now in their 60s and felt the size of this first house to be beyond their needs, and more suited to a young family. Much of the productive gardens of this property are well fenced to prevent the numerous kangaroos that roam the Wolery from pillaging the crops. Other house sites at the community growing fruits and other food-baring trees have also had to create completely netted gardens so to also protect them from birds, but due to the choice of plants at this particular site, this level of protection is unnecessary.
Unlike many of the houses at the Wolery this one does not rely on solar heating of water. Although the owner-occupants would philosophically prefer to have solar as opposed to mains electricity heated water, they have deemed the option untenable due to the size of their family and its hot water needs (e.g. showering, clothes washing etc.) and the fact that despite the house being North-facing with clear day-long access to the sun, there just isn't enough sunlight in Denmark over winter to provide them with the heating they feel they need.
Information technology and/or information system (IT/IS) applications and needs were limited in this household, as are they in the Wolery in general. For voice communications all houses use landline and mobile telephone technologies and infrastructure only. On top of this this particular house has a PC which is primarily set-up for sound recording in their home music recording studio, but which also has dial-up connectivity to the Internet, but this functionality is all outside any needs and requirement of the community.
As further background to the community in general and subsequent individual household IT/IS needs, the community is comprised of 15 households. Most of the householders work outside of the community, and as such the community has no external commercial enterprise (e.g. producing a product or resource for outside markets), nor is it big enough to sustain internal job functions (e.g. a backer that bakes only for internal community members).
The community has a central community centre which is used for community meetings and functions (such as fortnightly pancake breakfasts and weekly table-tennis competitions). The centre also houses the community's food co-op. Dissemination of information pertaining to upcoming events and the coordination of activities such as the monthly community working bees is done by way of an externally fixed blackboard and internal pin-up notice boards. It is therefore the responsibility of individual community members to regularly visit the centre and check the various message boards for upcoming activities and issues of importance. As the centre is also the central pick-up spot for all postal mail (as the community has only one postal address for all households) this expectation and its willing execution is not overly problematic.
We spent one-and-a-half weeks with our first WWOOF hosts at the Wolery. We wanted to spend more time at the Wolery, so we organised time and work with other community households before leaving the community for a few days break.
Although our initial plan upon our return was to base ourselves in our van at the Wolery Centre and farm ourselves out on a daily and ad-hoc basis to different households - as many had expressed interest in having small jobs, but feared they didn't have enough work to host us for a week - this did not eventuate. This failed plan was attractive for two reasons: firstly, it would allow us to stay at the Wolery even if no one host had the work or resources to cater for us, and secondly, and most importantly, it would give us exposure to a far greater number of Wolery households, and therefore a greater diversity of opinions and a more holistic understanding of community life on the Wolery.
But upon our return we discovered that one of our prospective hosts in fact wanted most if not all of our remaining time at the Wolery to assist them in completing a fairly major project. So this couple became our hosts for the next nine days. This couple was in compete contrast to our earlier experience at the Wolery: they were a couple in their 60s, and who were not particularly participatory in community life - which in itself was of interest, because why live on and in an intentional community if you're not interested in 'communing'?
This disinterest in communing therefore led to this WWOOFing experience within the Wolery to be rather isolating. Other community members would drop in occasionally to see what we were up to - which for me was building a solar-passive workshop for piano tuning, and for Molly, working in their private permaculture gardens - but largely we felt as if we were existing somehow detached from the greater community despite our geographically central position within it.
The social dynamic between the couple hosting us was also uncomfortable, though we were able to glean from them reasons for their attraction to community life and the Wolery. They had spent much preliminary time researching and investigating different communities in Australia and Canada, but ultimately, rather than subscribing to some fundamental eco-objective or philosophy, their attraction and decision seemed more driven by a sense of old-world safety that could be realised by living within a small community: a now reoccurring consideration and intent.
The oppressive and divorced environment that we now found ourselves in was wearing, and we quickly found ourselves wanting to move on within the community. Although valuable insights were gained into how and why community membership could fail at a philosophical and physical level of acquiesce and application, these lessons were quickly recognised and realised, and after nearly two weeks with this host and despite the workshop still needing some finishing work, we now wanted to further explore active membership rather than complicit disassociation.
But before taking-up with another host we again took some time out for ourselves to unwind, debrief and recharge by leaving the Wolery for a few days in our van to camp along nearby beaches. And in particular, Cosy Corner.
Upon our return we found two hosts, but as we had now been at the Wolery for a little over a month, and had other communities within Denmark that we wanted to spend time with, we decided that we could only commit a few days to each host.
Our first host was a recently separated mum with a grown-up child living away from home and the community, and one school-age child living with her. Her ex-husband coincidentally lived with another intentional community within Denmark that we hoped to stay with.
Despite our hopes that this host experience would prove to be a positive one - as all our preliminary interactions alluded to - it again was not. The work we were set was all menial and unpleasant in nature, and clearly just stuff she didn't want to do herself - and therefore she did not participate in the activities herself (i.e. WWOOFer exploitation: a common phenomena I would soon learn). Not an ideal situation for getting to know someone. Further complicating this was the fact that for the short time we were there she was also out at night, so this further stymied our ability to learn much about or from her.
What we did learn however was that this was again a case of someone joining a community with hopes and expectations of what a community and it's members could do for her rather that what she could do for it: that is, she hoped that a community environment and its membership would result in more resources and less work for her (which ideally it can if managed and administered properly) without actually wanting to be particularly active or contributory within it. The fact that this was not the case was a source of much resentment and complaint for her, without ever recognising that she was a major contributor to this failure in a both a micro and macro sense.
We quickly then capitalised on our initial offering of a short, fuzzy and somewhat ambiguous time-frame - a contingency 'out' that we had now learned to factor into our host negotiations should things not work out - to move onto our next and final host within the Wolery.
Our final host at the Wolery was another recently separated mother with four young daughters. However, her former partner still lived in the community. Although we were initially sceptical of this host situation because of the kids, and the fact that it might have turned out to be nothing more than a baby-sitting gig (which is why one of our host selection criteria was 'no young children', though this was obviously poorly executed at the Wolery), it turned out to be one of our most enjoyable, informative and rewarding WWOOF and community experiences in WA.
Not only was this final host at the Wolery an absolute wealth of information about the Wolery - and one that clearly recognised both the benefits and pitfalls of intentional communities due to her own experiences and circumstances - but also on communities in general, having spent much time working and living within outback indigenous communities. It was here that I certainly, as someone new to this trip, study and anthropological discourse, learned the most - good and bad, general and specific - about the mechanics, considerations and concerns of intentional community and its successful realisation within its members.
The fact that this was the most delightful family unit, and that an onset of bad weather had meant there was little opportunity for work, but plenty for coffees, board games and in-depth conversations.
After our short time with this host we left the Wolery to spend some time alone with each other (again, mostly at Cosy Corner) before heading of to our next planned community in Denmark: Living Waters. However, while camping we were notified by our contact at this community that they were as yet unable to take us as they already had a full quota of WWOOFers, and not enough work to go around. We then seized upon this opportunity to return to the Wolery, and to our last hosts there while we waited for Living Waters to accommodate us. More coffee, more conversation, more fun... what a way to end our time at the Wolery.
Some interesting observations of the Wolery:
- An Us and Them divide between the South and North residences, with residence on one side of the road being more elderly, affluent and educated than the other;
- A lack of physical community infrastructure (e.g. no shared gardens or other infrastructure other than dam water);
- A resurgence of community spirit driven by the return of the Wolery's second generation as they returned to the community after time spent in the city for study and/or work.
1 comment:
Very interesting read!
Thank you for sharing.
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