Episode 51: Australian Intentional Communities Conference

In an introduction to Australian 'ecovillages', we meet some of the key players in the Antipodean intentional community scene.

Held at Moora Moora in Melbourne during December 2013, this conference brings together people from intentional communities all around Australia. From rural ecovillages to urban co-housing; from elders with 40 years experience to newly-formed projects, people learn from each other and share knowledge and wisdom about how to live in community.

It's the first of our films from Australia and an introduction to the "scene" here. I hope you'll forgive/enjoy it's rather long running time! Some of the communities involved we will catch up with in later episodes.

Australia has a long history of intentional community. A resurgence of interest during the 1970's gave us communities which came together with strong environmental and social aims. Some of them are now more than 40 years old and have so much to tell us about living co-operatively on the land. That's why we are focussing our next longer documentary on how we can live together in harmony. We're looking at some of the processes and techniques which people have used to enhance communication and foster emotional and physical well-being within their communities.

This conference proved that the older communities had a lot in common. So it seems they have discovered a few things which work. The conference also heard from people in newer co-housing communities in the suburbs and we'll be taking a closer look at those, too. Not everyone can, or wants to live rurally and we need to develop ways to make communities sustainable in the city, too.

If you're interested to keep in touch with our journey, sign up to our newsletter or Facebook page and let us know about your adventures in community!

We don't have funding in place for any of these projects at the moment, and if you'd like to support our work, you can help with a donation or by buying a film on DVD or download. Thanks!