Take me back to 1973 and the time around this festival. Why did people want to
escape the cities? Disillusionment and
desire and and pragmatics, like as a
cross-section of the community
particularly young people who were
disillusioned with the way society was
going. Now we've had the Vietnam War,
they felt that society was too money-driven
and conservative and so on. So they
desired to live in other ways and where
are you going to do that? Well the
pragmatics came in, in that the northern
rivers and the dairy industry had fallen
over. Banana plantations had fallen over, the land was was cheap and then
the Aquarius festival happened and it kind
of catalysed it. And that's when, Carly,
you decided to stay is that right?
Oh security in numbers of course we are
moved to the same region. Lee, what was
the motivation? Though I mean from your
perspective, I suppose as a historian in
this aspect to build their own houses.
What was the genesis for the growth of
these sort of self building communities?
For some it was about that,
living communally. So that's where the
multiple occupancies emerged because people were wanting to experiment with
collective forms of living that they
weren't able to do elsewhere and also
more of an emphasis for other people was
just to live autonomously to not be
systems dependent to be off the grid and
to be more sustainable although the word
wouldn't have been used so much at that
point. And was there a significant
building experience at that time, do you
think Lee? Again it was a real range
because some some of the people that
went up there were architecture dropouts
trained as architects or architecture
students. Others were completely
naive, so you had a real range of
experiences. OK, what were the sorts of
structures that we could see in this
area? Initially lots of tents and
caravans and pole structures and so on
moving into when people started to build
themselves more permanent homes the
domes mud brick housing stabilized earth
the domes often very concrete
timber a lot of timber that was taken
from site early experiments in recycling
and salvaging although the salvaging of
whole buildings that were then
recomposed and reassembled as houses
alright you're living in a dome which
you built in at this time as well what
does your dome look like it's a ferrous
image shell it's on top of a cliff it's
it's in turpentine forest older
turpentine forest it doesn't have a road
it's invisible from the air so it's
using a site that was of no value which
is something we've learnt possibly from
Sydney don't do anything on valuable
real estate and also we're trying to
keep off agricultural land because we
didn't have much of it it was a very
steep an infertile valley and gardens
were precious and why build a dome what
was the motivation for that for you ah
in a forest things fall down from above
it's strong and it doesn't burn terribly
well because it's a cement she'll also I
didn't need to know much building so you
built this yourself everybody built
everybody's house in the particular
region I'll decide I was influenced by
several people from the rush cutter Bay
cruising Yacht Club actually it was that
all because i had the yachting
experience got intriguing experience and
furosemide hull experience okay quite a
fashion at that time oh and what about
for you because i know that you are an
architect and you moved to this area in
the late 1970s as well we actually loved
the rain forest area and we seriously I
wanted to learn how to design passive
solar buildings for the subtropics you
can extend the range that lee talks
about from just disillusioned and drop
out it actually extends to people who
were altruistic and believed in
designing better cities we were working
in sydney on the glebe during the
Whitlam years we're actually trying to
create functional communities and we're
very serious about it it wasn't just sex
drugs and roll we're actually trying to
build a future for our children did you
think that you were doing something very
different though at the
yes of course but our experience
included living in melanesia Polynesia
and you Guinea Indonesian Co building
wedding houses in Vanuatu and
documenting that as a research thing so
architecture is a very broad range and
and our influence was with indigenous
people and it moved us away from
mainstream North Sydney architecture
practice how did the community get
together did everybody drag without
serious now at each other 10 20 people
would get together and polls were very
accessible in a lot of durable hardwoods
so starting your network with your
neighbors and a big day would be
arranged and everyone would come with
their gear and knock a few chickens on
the head and few beers and in a day
you'd have the structure would be up
with 20 people it's sort of like a barn
raising how long did it take to build
your dome carhartt took about a year of
meshing and weaving of the steel and
then a great big spaghetti day happened
and 18 people turned up through 10 tons
of mortar all over it and and it's there
standing today yes for some the dome had
it that space had a spiritual content to
it there was a space of the universe in
a less spiritual way it was also just it
wasn't square you know someone actually
not square here quite literally not
square but also not square in the sense
of being too conservative so for some
people if you were going to move into
this area and do things differently you
didn't want to just build yourself an
a-frame chalet but also it was the the
lectures and and the work of buckminster
for only is it time in a day with him in
1970 at Sydney Uni and he was
inspirational so he blew our socks off
here is a 2 year old with a bullet bald
head and he just spoke like a machine
gun and we were hung onto every word it
was just amazing his concept of minimal
space great yogurt spaces yeah
meditation it's a good way but each
house that you assisted with you helped
build you learn more and more so you
shared building techniques you shared
ideas how did those ideas get shared
around collie what was straight
experience of seeing
we'll build things and get things right
and get things wrong and you know
participatory design academically where
you collaborate and you do experiential
learning and you and you learn on the
job even if you think your professional
and you've got knowledge you actually
have to start again and work with the
materials at hand because we used mostly
recycled and on-site materials so we
were actually experimenting with local
materials on site materials rather than
going like now going to a big warehouse
and getting a semi loaded materials
describe your home Owen well the river
house is an octagon with the mezzanine
and the roof were actually experimented
with shingles in a forest that had fire
hazard and we ended up learning how to
do ferro concrete very well we helped
other people learn how to do cuz it you
could mold the gutters and shapes and it
was free form you couldn't experiment
with the experiment on the dunny you
know and then you work on the house and
we experiment on ourselves and then
other people so it was all experimental
and it was lovely to be able to work in
the round and off outside of adequate
what about the reactions from the local
community what was happening there at
the time oh it's a nightmare harassed by
well terrified of the police and the
council the corporate body was trying to
get everybody to make things as low-key
as possible so as not to draw fire we
had demolitions and we had in major
police invasions and it was all quite
nasty and what about things like even
getting the power on and plumbing and
for it to always stand yeah okay
building inspectors and planners I've
got on very well with them because
essentially you needed to deal with
structure safety and health and if you
get that well detailed and well they
actually like the fact that you were
innovative the area that was difficult
was proving to them that dry composting
toilets and reed beds and water
management systems that weren't
traditional
were healthy and we had to prove that so
we set precedence there and they thought
you could only do that on 100 acres in
the bush if they built well they
actually are sustainable well I came to
the project because I had been doing
work on like his alternative
architectural practices contemporary
alternative architecture practices and
realizing that this stuff had been
happening at our own doorstep in the 60s
and into the 70s the more that I
researched the more interesting i found
the material and the more admiration I
came to have for the people that
actually did it required so much
dedication so much time and effort and
these people were really here kind of
path breaking in terms of sustainable
building practices defining moment was
trekking up the side of the hill
barefoot through the mud to reach
Carly's dome which was our first visit
that's pretty special it's certainly
worth a look at and I do thank my guests
for joining me here on by design it's
wonderful to meet you lease tickles her
win favor and Carly McLaughlin thank you
so much for coming in and dropping by
thanks for thank you
are in your world unfolding
