However, ... to placate the neighbours, council has decided to prosecute over the illegal erection of temporary dwellings . We are waiting to see who they intend to prosecute. At the same meeting of 16/12/98, council agreed to the naming of the Bryce Young Reserve --- land donated to the council!!!
Here are some links to things that have happened and grown in 1998.
Meanwhile it pays to reflect on earlier dreams ...
Eight members remained at Herrnhut when Krumnow died. Collapsed and sold in 1897 after 44 years operation.
The school closed in 1933 and the last resident died in 1955. A tourist facility and museum exists at the site now.
By August 1893 twelve members remained after many members had joined New Australia, Paraguay. Ended in 1907.
Organised by William Lane,
220 Australians sailed on 16 July, 1893 on 'The Royal Tar' to settle
in Paraguay. The
Articles of Association guaranteed freedom of 'thought, religion, speech
and leisure and in all matters whatsoever' and wealth was to be shared 'without
regard to sex, age, office or physical or mental capacity'. Disputes would be
settled 'in equity by an arbitrator mutually agreed upon between them'. Domestic
work would be collectivised, with 'co-operative laundries, cooperative kitchens,
co-operative kindergartens and co-operative sewing rooms'.The original settlement changed from communal to individual ownership in October 1896. At the breakaway group at Cosme,the commune persisted. By 1899, Cosme had its own tram system, printing works, sugar mill, workshops, and dining room. It had a social life with plays, and literary and political discussion groups.
William Lane became increasingly conservative and mystical and settled in New Zealand in 1899.
In May 1901, Cosme had 84 members. John Lane, William's brother, left in July to garner recruits
for Cosme, his steamship fare paid by the ever-optimistic Paraguayan government. He enrolled 7 adults in England and 18 in Australia after an epic journey across the country by bicycle and train.
Private ownership was instated at Cosme in 1909. New Australian descendants remain in Paraguay, and Cosme is now a farming village.
Murtho, organised by John Birks along the lines of New Australia was the most utopian. Murtho and Mount Remarkable were not initially dependent on government support.
The others depended on government support and were composed of impoverished, unemployed people. The Act which established these Village Settlements was repealed in 1902, the groups were disbanded and the land sold as small, private farms.
Pitt Town: 500 people (100 households), mainly unemployed Sydney workers on 800 hectares. By October 1894, Pitt Town had 1800 fruit trees, 18 000 grape vines, cleared 200 hectares for agriculture, erected 65 kilometres of fencing, and dug 16 dams, with a sawmill and church and 120 small houses. Ceased in June 1896 with 7 settlers.
Mizpah, March 1894: 156 people, 'doing remarkably well .... The ground is very well adapted ... for various kinds of agriculture. Five acres have been planted with corn, and six with potatoes. There are six wooden dwelling houses, and two stores, a bootmakers shop, a little committee room, butchers shop, fenced-in stockyard, and blacksmiths shop. All the wives and families of the settlers have ... settled down to their new life.... The spirit of comradeship had been greatly strengthened by the fact that all the men were members of the Salvation Army ... Many of them had been out of work for eighteen months'. Woolloongabba Exemplars, April 1894: 'have already some three acres cleared and being planted. We have spanned one creek with a bridge, and are completing another bndge between Eumundi and Lake Weyba. By this means in a few days we shall find an outlet to both Gympie and Brisbane for our fish. In the near future it is quite within the possibilities for us to be our own shipowners, by which means we would have all the markets on the eastern seaboard open to us. We have a spirit of cheerfulness and fortitude that gives evidence of "grit" and good promise in the future'.
Nil Desperandum: 30 families, 'six horses, two ploughs, two drays, 140 sheep, harness, agricultural implements etc.... The group possesses ... twelve acres of cleared land eight of which have been fenced, ploughed, and sown, five cottages (good substantial buildings), and numerous humpies. Every member of the group has a garden and vegetable plot ... The group work nine hours per day in gangs ... As most of the members ... are hard-working and in earnest, the writer looks upon the success of the group as assured'.
The Queenslander [newspaper], June 1895: 'average human nature is not the material for a millennium yet; and those who fondly dream of Utopia must be content to live in dreamland. [Members] started full of faith with enthusiastic belief in the possibilities of communism [butt jealousy, envy, strife, and all uncharitableness have sprouted like weeds among the wheat of good fellowship.'
Dissolved in mid-1896. 83 ex-members selected a total of 12,954 acres of the land.
One of the Finnish ex-utopians: 'Kurikka liked women, and women liked himÑbut their husbands had different ideas about it, and the confused love affairs caused much friction.
Kurikka: 'Persons who live together should be discouraged from having sexual relations with each other [and] the father of a child should be a man who has not resided with the mother'.
Dr Dalziel left Kyneton for Jerusalem in 1909 where he died awaiting the 2nd coming and the community dissipated.
Fisher died in 1913 and New Jerusalem dissipated. Descendants remain on farms in the Wickepin area.
MaryKnoll: 250 hectares, 60 kilometres south-east of Melbourne, joinery and screen-printing businesses. Members were expected to work part-time in paid employment, part-time on their individual small areas of land, and part-time for their community. Maryknoll, although less communal than when founded, presently has 45 families [1995].
Fred Robinson: awaited the arrival of "the Space Brothers" to build "light centres" on earth. for a utopian order to earth based on sharing, creativity, harmony, co-operation, Universal Brotherhood and positivity.
30 members in 1973. Fred Robinson and Mary Broun ("The Discerner") were promoted as visionaries for the new era of Aquarius.
Name change to Universal Brotherhood [mid-1970s] and then The Homestead [1986]. 2 families remain [1994].
