Fryers Forest

Fryers Forest

Near Castlemaine in Victoria was started in 1995 by Su Dennett and David Holmgren were two of the original land purchasers.  They still keep connections with the community although they do not currently live on the community.

Fryers is a Body Corporate, set up under the Victorian Subdivision Act. That means residents hold a freehold title and the areas they inhabit are roughly one acre. The remainder is jointly owned and a community house is planned for the twelfth, jointly owned, non-residential block, but is not yet underway.

The main focus is native bush regeneration.

Lilly plaits Leelah's hair in the living room of their community built straw-bale house.

Anthony's house frontage:  The red render matches with the stark red earth in this area so the house blends beautifully with it's surroundings.  He is working on a small vege patch to the left of this photo and a straw bale surrounding wall was under construction!

Crafting personal touches to incorporate into the house structure.  Mosiac was very popular in this household!

Fryers forest, more than any community I have visited so far, has a relaxed feeling; It is a completely “expectation free-zone”. There has been the usual community conflicts concerning the bi-laws (eg. Speed limits, cats and dogs).  There are now "inside pets" allowed and a small part of the land houses horses. Here is a picture of an outdoor cat run which links to indoors, giving the cats some outdoor roaming whilst protecting the natives.

Even the eco-friendly loo has mosiac mastery!

The expectation-free atmosphere does not lead to any lack of community spirit. Community time is voluntary and involves more play than work.

Anthony (a talented barista) owns a kick-ass coffee machine and puts on “café” every few days, once a week, or whenever he feels like it. People come and make a small donation for their coffee. The only rule about café is "no talking community politics". This is a fantastic contributor to making Fryers work (in my opinion). What is essentially a ‘no gossiping’ clause maintains community spirit without breeding misgivings amongst those who don’t attend. There is no need to worry that people speak badly of you for not participating. 

The lack of these “expectations” at Fryers really alerted me to how common they are in community living. The feeling of looming expectations may be the mental construction of the individual (rather than others ACTUALLY thinking badly of them for not participating) however it still has the effect of making the non-participant feel isolated. This is a conundrum because surely the intention of Intentional Community is a commitment to participation. On the other hand, people often need phases of retreat from community during illness, loss of loved ones, relationship troubles, or simply a lack of energy for community participation. 

Some people wanting to live communally might find Fryers Forest too “hands off”; All of their communal activity is based around fun rather than work.* But the relaxed atmosphere here was a thing to behold.

Another example of great community glue at Fryers forest is their 2way radios. Every household has a 2way radio (to be used only in certain hours, not too early/late) which communards use to contact other members without having to pay for phone calls. Rather than being intrusive (as it might sound to some) this has the effect of giving a lovely daily overview of community goings on. Regular messages such as 

“has anyone seen Leelah recently?” 

and 

“yep, I saw her riding north past the dam about half an hour ago” 

and sometimes 

“I’m making a fruit cake and I need 1 cup of sultanas and cooking whisky, can anyone help me out?”. 

These messages were also ‘expectation free’ inviting participation but not eliciting it, it spurred silly joyful messages and constantly confirmed a feeling of being connected to the whole. Easy communication also had the effect of increasing resource sharing because it was so easy, people would often offer to get things from town for others on their shopping run. Tools and Wwoofers and energy was also utilised.

Fryers has a fantastic dam for swimming! The water level was down this year but it keeps the heat and is great for night time or in the rain swimming! 

The members of Fryers are self-employed or work in the local area.

Thanks very much to Ant and his lovely family who looked after me here at Fryers Forest I loved my time with you! They also took me to meet seminal Permiculture experts David and Su where I got to eat pasta freshly made from just milled wheat! Yikes! That's tasty sustainability!

David and Su run fantastic courses from their home in Hepburn Springs.  It is the most amazing example of sustainable living I have seen on my travels.There is also a section in this website detailing Fryers Forest.

http://www.holmgren.com.au/

*This was the phase that was happening when I visited but it of course, has not always been the case. During the building phases community members worked with each other daily (these times are thought of very fondly) and the same still happens but it is not an expectation.