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Our History/Past Events & Presentations

  • May 2010: Presentation: Latest on the project - download
  • March 2010: Presentation: “Latest on the Project” - download
  • January 2010: Lyndall and SCEV were featured in Prevention Magazine.
  • October 2009: Presentation: “Ecovillage development options and US study tour Sept ‘09” - download
  • September 2009 - 2/9/09 Discussion on the energy requirements of the SCEV at Narara. Led by Nicky Ison from the UNSW and the UTS Centre for Sustainable Futures, who is working on her thesis and developing a tool which will assist a community in determining how to most sustainably meet their energy requirements.
  • July 2009 – Presentation by architect John Sparks: How to design an ecovillage - download
  • May 2009 - Melissa Boo's permaculture plan for the Narara site - download PDF here (14MB)
  • April 2009 New website launched created by Margo Parris.
  • 2009 SCEV is seeking another suitable partner with whom to journey forward.
  • April 2009 New website launched created by Margo Parris.
  • Mar 2009 Lyndall made a presentation following a trip to the US and India. You can view or download the presentation on Cohousing and Auroville in India. Please click on the slide to advance.
  • Nov 2008 Onset of the global economic crisis and Greenedge are no longer able to work with us.
  • October 2008 - Ecovillage Economics Seminar presented by Paul Antonelli. You can view or download the PowerPoint presentation. Note that the file is a 5.1 MB PDF document.
  • May 2008 - Tena Meadows O’Rear from Virginia, USA ran a workshop on a dynamic governance method called ‘Sociocracy’.
  • Mar 2008 - An Expression of Interest on the Gosford Horticultural Research Institute at Narara was submitted. For an aerial view of the site, go to http://maps.google.com.au, and click on "Satellite"
  • 2007 - During 2007 we looked at approximately 60 sites, rating the land for ecovillage appropriateness.
  • Nov 2007 - An Expression of Interest on some Council owned land near Berry was submitted to Shoalhaven City Council.
  • Sept 2007 - Sydney Morning Herald Article
    Read the story on the SMH web site or see the scanned version. I guess this means that we have ‘gone public’ - so come on friends, help us get this project on the ground!
  • March 2007 – Presentation: ‘Ecovillages and Sustainable Community: Findhorn, Scotland." John Talbott gave this presentation. It was inspiring, entertaining and of great relevance to our project. John helped develop Findhorn, a world-first centre for modern sustainable community in the far north of Scotland. At present, he lives in Sydney with his wife Samantha Graham (and son Taran) and we are very lucky to have their interest and counsel.
  • Nov 2006 - The Sydney Coastal Ecovillage Launch event was held at the Greenwich Community Centre with a sixty strong crowd gathering to hear about the survey results and the vision for the project.
  • Sept 2006 – ‘let the games begin…..’

    Our company, Utopeco signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Greenedge Pty Ltd, the company taking Somerville forward and made an initial payment to use their systems and processes. The first survey went out to gauge a level of interest and help determine some parameters and a three day planning weekend was held in Sydney to map out the way forward.
  • July 2006 – our first survey was released
  • Nov 2005 - Lyndall left the workforce to work full time on the Sydney Coastal Ecovillage project
  • Oct 2005 - David and Lyndall met Paul Antonelli from Greenedge Projects Pty Ltd and decided they would take an ecovillage forward near the coast and Sydney using the developing Somerville systems and processes.
  • Two bits of wisdom governed the future direction:
    'don’t reinvent the wheel’ - Mick Boyce and ‘stand on the shoulder’s of others’ - Max Lindegger along with both domestic and overseas visits to numerous ecovillages, cohousing sites and intentional communities.
  • Nov 2004 - at the inaugural Ecovillage Designer’s Conference Heard at Crystal Waters, Lyndall heard Dominic and Vida Carlino give an account of the development of their ecovillage called Somerville outside Perth. The visions were almost identical.
  • July 2004 - the village website was launched with cartoon drawings by Wendy Bishop and the vision was now set down
  • Nov 2003 - David and Lyndall completed the Certificate in Ecovillage Design held at Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, Queensland.
  • 1999 - At her 50th birthday dinner Lyndall’s friends humoured her by allowing her to stand up with her flip chart and drawings and wax lyrical about the structure and activities of this virtual village in which she dreamed of living.
  • 1997 - Lyndall spoke to a group of woman in Cooma, NSW as an after dinner speaker – the topic ‘her dream’. Her secret desire was out!