Introduction
The Gabalah project is devoted to the development of an egalitarian, secular, rural
intentional community on the land of Gabalah. No specific religious
or spiritual beliefs underlie the Gabalah project, other than the conviction that
we should all care for the earth and each other.
The prospective objectives of Gabalah Co-operative are
- Environmental Responsibility
- Social Harmony
- Economic Independence
- Social, Cultural and Environmental Education
A basic principle underlying the Gabalah project is self-help through
co-operation and the pooling of resources. For example, shares will be sold to
prospective residents to raise finance for community development.
Although government or external private assistance for development is welcome,
it does not form part of the plan at this stage.
Environmental Responsibility
Rainforest and wet Sclerophyll Forest is the natural cover
for the land. The area was cleared for dairy farming at the beginning of the
present century. The farm on which Gabalah Co-op is to operate is unique in the
area, in that it has substantial regrowth from its original cleared condition.
Many areas naturally suited to
rainforest growth are covered by Camphor laurel stands. Principal objectives of
the co-op are the removal of Camphor laurel and replacement by native rainforest
timber in an environmentally sensitive fashion, and the environmentally
responsible utilisation of rainforest resources. By caring for the environment,
we are all enriched.
Social Harmony
A variant of consensus decision making will be used in
the operation of the co-op to aim for maximum participation of members at all
levels of decision making. One criterion on which members of the co-op will be
selected will be preparedness to work for the development of the community as a
whole and acknowledgment that community needs may at times have to take
precedence over those of the individual.
Economic Independence
A first step towards this goal is the securing of
the use of the land by a suitable legal structure facilitating a low cost
development. The total capital raised by shares will be available for legal
costs in setting up and community development. Renewable resources will be used
wherever possible and existing ones will be recycled. The utilisation of
non-native timber resources on the property will feature heavily in the
development. New ways for the economic utilisation of our native rainforest
resource will be explored. This may include development of the tourism potential
of native Australian habitats and Australian social history.
Social, Cultural and Environmental Education
Gabalah's Resident
Artist Programme involving Australian artists working with aboriginal
themes and art techniques will bring experience with modern urban Australian art
to a wider community. From time to time Gabalah may operate educational workshops
and art exhibitions. The tourism potential of native Australian habitats and
Australian social history also has an educational aspect.
Background
During the last 10-15 years, the price of land in northern
New South Wales has been growing steadily to meet the demands of middle and
higher income earners seeking individual blocks of rural acreage for residential
purposes. This process has meant that groups of individuals wishing to purchase
former farms for the purpose of multiple occupancy have had to contribute
individual shares that are increasingly out of reach of lower income groups.
The whole concept of multiple occupancy is threatened, because individuals who
are capable of meeting the higher share prices are also looking to borrow from
banks in order to build their dwellings. But financial institutions are unwilling
to lend to individuals without separate title on collectively owned land. In
effect, the high cost of land excludes those who would derive most benefit from
economic and social co-operation.
For example, in the case of the 52 hectares of land under consideration by
Gabalah Co-op, Planning Policy No 15 stipulates a maximum of 15 dwellings. The
land is conservatively valued by an independent valuer at $290,000, so a minimal
share price required to purchase the land at market value would be $20,000,
leaving little capital for improvements such as roads, dams, waste disposal and
resource management. By contrast, one possible structure would enable a dwelling
site to be sold for $10,000 for a household of two members. The capital so raised
(about $140,000) would then contribute to improvements on the land and any other
activities that the co-op might wish to pursue.
The Gabalah Co-op initiative circumvents the present high cost of rural land in
northern New South Wales, formally at the expense of Objectives 2 (b) (i) and 2
(c) (ii) of State Environmental Planning Policy No 15 concerning multiple
occupancy. However, we believe that the legal structure will be in the spirit in
which the objectives were devised, that is, community members have an equal
relationship to all parts of the land, although the co-op itself will not own a
single allotment on which all members may have their principal residences [2 (b)
(i)].
Land Use
Gabalah Co-op will provide a resident artist's studio providing
free accommodation for a practising artist to work alongside a rural intentional
community. The Resident Artist Programme will be sponsored by Gabalah
Co-op.
Brisbane.
The 52 hectares used by the co-op will be the area on which the multiple
occupancy will operate. Up to 15 dwellings will be clustered in 3 village sites
on existing paddocks on this land. Other cleared areas will be set aside for
communal agricultural and
permacultural purposes.
Low Cost Housing
Natural and used building material will be the basis of low-cost dwellings at Gabalah.
Socialism in One Farm
Unlike many other intentional communities in northen New South Wales, Gabalah is not
isolated. It fronts a bitumen road with substantial traffic and it is a few minutes
by car from a school and shop. It is, in fact, a prime piece of real estate
that sits in an active farming community, many of whose members dread the
encroachments of "civilisation", especially hippies.
Residents of Gabalah should be sensitive to the needs of their neighbours to earn a
living out of agriculture and to their historic connection to the area dating from
the original European settlement at the turn of the century. Agricultural practices
in the area are unlikely to be environmentally friendly, especially with the cultivation
of bananas. There are probably residues of toxins in the soil of Gabalah itself.
Environmental direct action against the local community, as sometimes occurs in
intentional communities, is unproductive.
Footnotes
There is a great range of people interested in the practicalities of
community living.
A biographical snippet of the Australian scene appears in the book
"From Utopian Dreaming to Communal Reality" by Bill Metcalf, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1995. Representatives range from conventional academics of a persuasion towards social science and left politics, to devotees of imported Eastern religions and modes of thinking decidedly outside the Western scientific rationalist tradition. For simplicity, we shall call all such people hippies.
