SHARED, BUT STILL YOUR OWN
As some of you know, I was fortunate enough to build and watch a community flower on my farm in the south-west of Western Australia, from 2015 until it came apart around 2023. It was an extraordinary experience. It taught me and a lot of other people a great deal, it woke me up to plenty, and it showed me how many good people there are in this world.
It was a flash of unity through the divisive years of COVID, and it started a vision of another way for people to live — communal, shared, but still with privacy and the freedom to come and go.
The trouble with the council taught me as much as the good years did: the zoning rules, the legislation that quietly prevents communal arrangements from existing at all. There are also a lot of false beliefs about what community living is, and those caused problems with the surrounding district. All of it is a lesson in how to do it properly next time.
Community living does not just provide somewhere to live. It provides common purpose, friendship, sharing, working together, lower costs, and real healing for mental health — among a good deal else.
And it is not a rarity. Retirement villages run on much the same model, just restricted to the over-55s. So do mine camps and offshore rigs. So, for that matter, do prisons: communal spaces, private rooms.
We are in a housing crisis. Billions are being thrown at it and it is the number one issue for many Australians — but the solutions on offer are always the same two: more houses, more apartments. It is time we discussed other ways of living and other ways of filling the gap.
What Mindful Earth taught me is that this is a normal way to live, and a deeply rewarding one. It needs saying that it is not for everyone. But it suits a lot of people, and right now it is barely legal to attempt.
We need to start the discussion, build demonstration projects, and show how it is done.
This is an important part of Sovereign Australia policy: rebuilding community, rebuilding family, healing mental health, and uniting the country. Community Towns are central to it.
Housing Solutions Part 1 — Rural Communities →
Housing Solutions Part 2 — City Communities →
The policy — Community Towns →