Case Study.
WITCHCLIFFE ECOVILLAGE
Thereʼs magic being conjured in Witchcliffe, a little town near Margaret River, Western Australia. Not black magic, but green, as Witchcliffe Ecovillage grows out of the red soil to become Australiaʼs most sustainable community…
More than just 350 new homes, Witchcliffe is the promise of a resilient future and a better world. Located on the traditional lands of the Wardandi people, Witchcliffe is a massively ambitious project, grafted onto an old town, with aims to become 100 per cent self-sufficient in renewable energy, water, and organic fresh food production.
Once complete, thereʼll be eleven residential subdivisions, or “clusters”, comprising of three different allotments to really drive diversity. These include larger blocks, compact cottages, specific allocations for short-term accom, and rental housing co-operatives for over 55s, among others. Thereʼs also several commercial, mixed use, agricultural and tourist subdivisions.
Zooming in, each cluster gets its own community gardens, powerpack or household batteries, electric vehicle chargers and meeting house. Back on common ground, thereʼs playgrounds, backpacker accom, and a village square complete with its own pub. Trying to ensure everyone gets a fair share, 15 per cent of the residential lots are dedicated to affordable housing, coupled with an eligibility criterion to make sure they end up in the right hands.
INTERVIEW WITH
WITCHCLIFFE CO-FOUNDERS
MIKE HULME + MICHELLE SHERIDAN
Why build Witchcliffe Ecovillage?
It was about building the most sustainable human settlement we could in this day and age, within an affordable framework. There's no point being highly sustainable if it wasn't going to be affordable for the local community. And we're very proud to say that about 50 per cent of our buyers have been local.
We wanted a really functioning village, which meant it needed to be diverse in its age groups, and socio-economic circumstances. We come to this more as ecologists in many ways than urban planners, in the sense that in diversity there's strength. Our mantra is the triple bottom line, which is environmental, economic, and social.
Keys to success?
We'd have to say there's two main ones. First, patient capital. Very, very patient capital. There's $65 million invested in this project before any homes are built, and realistically, over the life of the project, the internal rate of return is too low for most developers to be interested.
The other key ingredient was our commitment to see it through. There were many times over the ten years of getting approvals where we thought, "Let's just retire!" We moved down to Margaret River with the kids to give them a better life and to be able to chill out ourselves after working very hard for a long time. But we ended up getting so disappointed with what we saw happening within the development industry. Also, how a lot of the artists and creative people within the region were leaving, because they couldn't afford to live there. It was all these cookie cutter subdivisions, some of which ruled you couldn't even pick up an old weatherboard and move it to a block to make a small cottage. They had these minimum building sizes and all sorts of rubbish.
What makes Witchcliffe different?
One of the most important ingredients to Witchcliffe, which is mostly overlooked with most so-called sustainable development, is the food component. To have enough land to be able to grow your own food, and for the community to grow their own food on site, and to be able to design and put that together in a context that works, is huge. If the community garden isn't straight out the backdoor, it's not going to happen. You need to be able to walk straight out into your veggie patch. Next thing, you're having a cup of tea and a chat with your neighbours. It's this infrastructure that brings people together, as well as enabling food production. We talk about the footprint of cars and houses, but food is insane. The average family's shopping trolly in Australia has 70,000 kilometres in food miles. That's crazy.
How did you manage affordability?
In WA we don't have a requirement for developers to include affordable housing. What made it possible in Witchcliffe was that we were rezoning rural land to residential, so as part of our commitment, we factored in 15 per cent of the whole site would be an affordable offering. To get the Shire to come on board with that, we limited some houses to 100 square metres, so we could subdivide some 2,000-square-metre lots. They're ideal for a two-person household and we included 55 of those throughout the whole village.
Because there's no way of controlling how people access those in terms of eligibility criteria, we set our own. Basically, looking at the average income, you don't want anyone spending more than 30 per cent of their income on their mortgage or their rent, particularly if they're below a certain income level.
The other thing that was very important for affordability, which is often not picked up, is affordable living costs. If we could significantly reduce living costs by producing our own energy and storing it in batteries, using microgrids, and getting water from household tanks and our own dams, it makes all those things much cheaper.
If we were connected into mains water over here, they sell it at something like $4.50 a kilolitre. Within the ecovillage, it's 50c a kilolitre, and that money goes back to the ecovillage commons. That's been used for the depreciation of the infrastructure: the pumps, pipes, and everything associated with getting that water from the dam.
We believe that true sustainability is about trying to live simply and lightly in a way that best conserves and regenerates resources for future generations to enjoy.
Major challenges?
In terms of the planning process, when you say you want to build the most sustainable community possible, all of a sudden there isn't any standard boxes to tick from a planning context. Standard planning in WA is basically cable wiring energy, pipe-in water, pipe-out sewage. Everyone jumps in the car to go to the supermarket and work. And 10 per cent public open space. That's sort of a standard residential subdivision in Australia. When we talk about wealthy countries like Australia achieving our climate objectives, everything needs to be completely rewritten in many ways. Everything is based on highly unsustainable methods, engineering, and lifestyles.
Part of the problem is that policies are often written to deflect responsibility from the people making decisions. That means if anything's new or different or innovative, it takes a really bold planner or policymaker, and the people making the decisions in the departments to actually tick off, because they don't want to be responsible. And all this is in WA, a place with a great sustainability strategy for the state, but which doesn't get applied by local government. We were the first structure plan and scheme amendment that was actually in line with all of the high-level policies, but because it wasn't business as usual, it was so hard to get approved.
We wanted a really functioning village, which meant it needed to be diverse i age groups, and socio-economic circumstances. We come to this more as ecologists in many ways than urban planners, in the sense that in diversity there’s strength.
Any unexpected benefits?
If we ever get a bit dispirited about how hard this is, and how hard we're still working, we pop along to a community event and just see the joy that's moving around the community. They're helping each other out. They're building their IKEA wardrobes together. They're looking after each other's children. They're swapping things. They're sharing. They set up a little cooperative bulk foods distribution. They've got a feed-it-forward waste food program going. They've set up a permaculture group that meets regularly. There's home-schooling once a week. A "Witchcliffe Expert's Club" that meets and they get someone from the community to come and teach them about something like beekeeping. All of this is spontaneous, as opposed to a developer coming in and saying we're going to have these community activation events. It's about putting in the right infrastructure and the places where people will gather and talk and form their own organic community. Not us.
A wonderful thing is we prioritised the building of community in our planning. We really thought how this place could work for the community in the future. We put a lot of thought into our governance by-laws, making it easier for the community to make decisions. As a result, the community that's formed in those clusters already is extraordinary. It's heart-warming and beautiful to watch.
THE BREAKDOWN
ENERGY
Using the latest technology, Witchcliffe is a model of renewable energy generation, which will produce as much solar energy as it consumes from rooftop PV panels, batteries and microgrids, as well as fast-charging electric vehicle stations throughout the village. Carefully planned orientation of lots, clever house designs that maximise solar capture, and efficient appliances, have a big impact on reducing energy consumption, too.
WATER
Managing water by copying natural ecosystems: where it's collected, used, and cleansed using natural biological systems, and then reused on site. Mandatory rainwater tanks for every house required to supply all household needs. Stormwater collected in surface features that mimic natural ponds and streams. Run-off from roads collected in swales, which provide biofiltration to remove pollutants, and directed via reconstructed streamlines through the community gardens to the dams.
FOOD
One of the village's most important sustainability features, growing food isn't only the most sustainable way to ensure fresh, healthy, and nourishing produce, it's also efficient and cost-effective. Not to mention the social benefits. Each residential cluster surrounds a productive community garden, and the village is surrounded by small-scale intensive farms. The whole thing is organically managed with all water required originating on site.
BUILDINGS
All homes undergo mandatory thermal and life cycle assessments during the design phase to understand their running costs and embodied energy (total carbon emissions). This really highlights the intention that all of the homes end up carbon-negative, meaning they will remove more carbon from the atmosphere than they add during construction and operation. There's also a big focus on the use of natural, sustainable building materials.
ENVIRONMENT
Although degraded by clearing and historical agricultural practices, all remnant bushland has great habitat potential and has been set aside as conservation zones, to be rehabilitated for future residents to care for and enjoy. With rehabilitation of conservation zones, habitat planting throughout, and responsible management of domestic pets, the village is set to become a place where endangered local fauna species can flourish.
COMMUNITY
By bringing together a diverse group of people who share a common commitment to environmentally-responsible living and the permaculture principles of “earth care, people care, and fair share” they've provided the foundation on which the community is being built. Residents share a common desire to live more lightly and responsibly on the planet, no matter their age, race, gender, sexuality, religion, or socio-economic status.
AFFORDABILITY
Nicknamed "groupie lots" these are designed for a sustainable small home with low ongoing living costs, suitable for people with a lower asset base or income. "Groupie homes" are limited to a 100sqm total floor plan and 1-3 people. The intention is to create opportunities for those who might otherwise miss out on being a part of the village. Potential buyers answer a series of questions to qualify.
GOVERNANCE
Having a village commons company, and individual strata companies to manage each cluster, meant well established management structures were essential. These were regulated by state laws, but because the village is founded on principles of cooperation, tolerance and inclusivity, the community is encouraged to lean heavily on communication, mediation, and decision-making models to run the place. Other alternative governance models suggested to the community include sociocracy and deliberative democracy. ▲