EARTHSHIP WORKING-BEE IN SA!
18-19 December 2021 - FREE EVENT!
Rego Form below - please register for catering purposes
Earthship Inman Valley (this is what we are building!) View of Greenhouse Atrium looking east.
Inman Valley, South Australia
- See an Earthship/strawbale hybrid under construction
- Have a go at rendering strawbale walls, tyre walls and bottle walls!
- Build bottle walls and make bottle bricks
- Tyre wall pack-out (mixing cob and applying it to the tyre wall)
- Cob stomping... mud glorious mud!
- Learn about Earthships and have a go!
- Food, water and campsite provided
EARTHSHIPS
Earthships are super energy and water efficient homes that are typically off-grid but can also be grid connected. This means little to no water and electricity bills plus the empowering feeling of self-sufficiency!
They are made with natural materials such as earth and straw and up-cycled materials such as tyres and bottles.
An array of amazing and beautiful design features integrate ingeniously to ensure that winter sun gets in and summer sun stays out, resulting in glorious indoor living conditions without the need for an air-conditioner.
A beautiful indoor food producing garden is also part of the typical (non-tropical) Earthship design.
Earthship construction methods are easy to do yourself so you can save money by putting in your own labour and only pay the builder to do the stuff you can't do. It is ideal for owner-builders.
Earthships are super energy and water efficient homes that are typically off-grid but can also be grid connected. This means little to no water and electricity bills plus the empowering feeling of self-sufficiency!
They are made with natural materials such as earth and straw and up-cycled materials such as tyres and bottles.
An array of amazing and beautiful design features integrate ingeniously to ensure that winter sun gets in and summer sun stays out, resulting in glorious indoor living conditions without the need for an air-conditioner.
A beautiful indoor food producing garden is also part of the typical (non-tropical) Earthship design.
Earthship construction methods are easy to do yourself so you can save money by putting in your own labour and only pay the builder to do the stuff you can't do. It is ideal for owner-builders.
workshop photos 2020 photo credits Martin Freney and Kim Kamo
THE WORKING BEE
October/November 2021, over four weeks, 25 students built the tyre wall and bondbeam!
Now the roof is up and glass is in.
Now it's RENDERING TIME! And BOTTLE WALLS time!
This working-bee is about giving you a glimpse into what it is like to be an owner builder of an Earthship and to introduce you to the Earthship concept and give you some hands-on experience so that you can evaluate how Earthship may be appropriate for you - if you are thinking of doing something similar one day, this working-bee will be a great way to understand what is involved with being an owner builder.
The specific activities we aim to tackle are listed above. Please understand that weather and numbers of participants may dictate how many of these tasks we can engage with.
The working-bee will also introduce you to like minded souls and enter the wonderful world of natural building!
It is intended for reasonably fit and healthy people capable of getting physical on a construction site.
If this is not your cup of tea then please consider booking in for a guided tour of Earthship Ironbank or a BnB stay.
Q&A Sessions
Opportunities to ask all your Earthship questions.
Free Camping
Free camping onsite is included to help participants who are not within easy driving distance (although you are very welcome to camp even if you are local). Camping is highly recommended but not essential.
Food
All food and water will be provided.
Drinking water will always be available.
Transport
You will need to provide your own transport, although you may be able to share rides.
There will be limited space for vans, buses, caravans etc, so please indicate this on your application form. We will fit in as many as possible!
THE VENUE
The construction site is in Inman Valley, South Australia, a 1hr drive south of Adelaide on the beautiful Fleurieu peninsula. It is a mountainous bush block with remnant eucalypt forest, scrub, large cleared areas and a couple of dams. There are plenty of places to pitch a tent. It is about 20min drive to the beach at Normanville.
THE STUDENTS
We are looking for open-mined, fun-loving people with the desire (and the capability) for some hard physical labour. Earthships can be built with machines (see here) or with people power. There is no right or wrong way to do it, but one great advantage of people power is that they are powered by a renewable fuel (called food) rather thank stinky, dangerous, non-renewable fossil fuels.
THE TUTOR
Charles Swain has engaged in the University of life completing multiple phds with many high distinctions (self marked). He has spent the better part of the last five years travelling Australia in a troopy with a dingo, building Earthships, cooking on a fire and living under the stars. The five years before that were not much more stable either, travelling the world, living in strange places and shaping perspectives from even stranger strangers. The most important developmental time perhaps spent in the shadows of South Africa. In 2015 after flying into Vancouver, buying a van to live in and driving the 10,000kms to New Mexico. He attended the Earthship Academy in Taos, New Mexico and has worked on a variety of Australian Earthship projects throughout Australia (SA, NSW, TAS). To say he enjoys a challenge is simply a way to cover up the fact that he downright refuses to take the paths already well travelled. He and his partner are currently living near willunga, in a 40 foot school bus, with four dogs.
THE HOSTS
Evie and Tristan are the amazing couple at the heart of this project. With the help of their young daughter they will be working alongside you, plus managing the camp site, camp kitchen and a myriad of other things!
THE DESIGN
Earthship Inman Valley is essentially an "open-ended" Earthship floor plan with a strawbale open-plan living space at the west end of the home - this is to capture views to the south and west which is otherwise difficult to do with other Earthship designs such as the Encounter and the Global Model. It follows all the usual Earthship design principles. This is a fully off grid building. And approved by the local council. See the floor plan and images below.
October/November 2021, over four weeks, 25 students built the tyre wall and bondbeam!
Now the roof is up and glass is in.
Now it's RENDERING TIME! And BOTTLE WALLS time!
This working-bee is about giving you a glimpse into what it is like to be an owner builder of an Earthship and to introduce you to the Earthship concept and give you some hands-on experience so that you can evaluate how Earthship may be appropriate for you - if you are thinking of doing something similar one day, this working-bee will be a great way to understand what is involved with being an owner builder.
The specific activities we aim to tackle are listed above. Please understand that weather and numbers of participants may dictate how many of these tasks we can engage with.
The working-bee will also introduce you to like minded souls and enter the wonderful world of natural building!
It is intended for reasonably fit and healthy people capable of getting physical on a construction site.
If this is not your cup of tea then please consider booking in for a guided tour of Earthship Ironbank or a BnB stay.
Q&A Sessions
Opportunities to ask all your Earthship questions.
Free Camping
Free camping onsite is included to help participants who are not within easy driving distance (although you are very welcome to camp even if you are local). Camping is highly recommended but not essential.
Food
All food and water will be provided.
Drinking water will always be available.
Transport
You will need to provide your own transport, although you may be able to share rides.
There will be limited space for vans, buses, caravans etc, so please indicate this on your application form. We will fit in as many as possible!
THE VENUE
The construction site is in Inman Valley, South Australia, a 1hr drive south of Adelaide on the beautiful Fleurieu peninsula. It is a mountainous bush block with remnant eucalypt forest, scrub, large cleared areas and a couple of dams. There are plenty of places to pitch a tent. It is about 20min drive to the beach at Normanville.
THE STUDENTS
We are looking for open-mined, fun-loving people with the desire (and the capability) for some hard physical labour. Earthships can be built with machines (see here) or with people power. There is no right or wrong way to do it, but one great advantage of people power is that they are powered by a renewable fuel (called food) rather thank stinky, dangerous, non-renewable fossil fuels.
THE TUTOR
Charles Swain has engaged in the University of life completing multiple phds with many high distinctions (self marked). He has spent the better part of the last five years travelling Australia in a troopy with a dingo, building Earthships, cooking on a fire and living under the stars. The five years before that were not much more stable either, travelling the world, living in strange places and shaping perspectives from even stranger strangers. The most important developmental time perhaps spent in the shadows of South Africa. In 2015 after flying into Vancouver, buying a van to live in and driving the 10,000kms to New Mexico. He attended the Earthship Academy in Taos, New Mexico and has worked on a variety of Australian Earthship projects throughout Australia (SA, NSW, TAS). To say he enjoys a challenge is simply a way to cover up the fact that he downright refuses to take the paths already well travelled. He and his partner are currently living near willunga, in a 40 foot school bus, with four dogs.
THE HOSTS
Evie and Tristan are the amazing couple at the heart of this project. With the help of their young daughter they will be working alongside you, plus managing the camp site, camp kitchen and a myriad of other things!
THE DESIGN
Earthship Inman Valley is essentially an "open-ended" Earthship floor plan with a strawbale open-plan living space at the west end of the home - this is to capture views to the south and west which is otherwise difficult to do with other Earthship designs such as the Encounter and the Global Model. It follows all the usual Earthship design principles. This is a fully off grid building. And approved by the local council. See the floor plan and images below.
WHAT TO BRING
SAFETY GEAR AND WORK CLOTHES
CAMPING
Camping facilities include:
OTHER THINGS TO BRING
*optional
THE SCHEDULE
Sat 18 Dec 2021
9:30am - Morning Meeting, Safety Talk
9:45am - Construction session
12:30pm - LUNCH
1:00pm - Construction session
4:00pm - Worksite clean up
4:30pm - beach swims, exploration, rest, bathing, etc
6:30pm – DINNER
Sun 19 Dec 2021
7:00 am - BREAKFAST FOR CAMPERS
9:30am - Morning Meeting, Safety Talk
9:45am - Construction session
12:30pm - LUNCH
1:00pm - Construction session
4:00pm - Worksite clean up
4:30pm - Group photo, packup camp
5:30pm - roll out, head for home
SAFETY GEAR AND WORK CLOTHES
- Work boots
- Gloves (leather riggers gloves or ninja gloves are ideal)
- Work clothes
- Sun screen
- Sun glasses (and/or safety glasses)
- Hat
- Water bottle
- Change of clothes/shoes
- Camping gear (see below)
- NOTE: Any other PPE that you need will be supplied
CAMPING
Camping facilities include:
- toilets
- outdoor, covered, kitchen with water and electricity for phone charging
- 4G phone services (check your carrier's coverage map for Stockwell Rd Inman Valley )
- dam for a dunk or a wash
- trees - for hanging solar shower bags from (BYO)
- beach is 20min drive for a cleansing ocean plunge
OTHER THINGS TO BRING
- tent or swag
- ground sheet (tarp to go under swag or tent)***
- tent pegs and hammer
- warm sleeping bag
- warm clothes
- beach stuff (bathers, beach towel, Frisbee)
- air mattress***
- pillow
- towel
- toiletries
- torch and/or head torch
- solar phone charger***
- mosquito repellent***
- solar shower bag***
- teddy bear*
- midnight snacks*
- drum, guitar, didgeridoo, flute...*
- camping chair*
- any other glamping essentials such as coffee tables and LED lights*
*optional
THE SCHEDULE
Sat 18 Dec 2021
9:30am - Morning Meeting, Safety Talk
9:45am - Construction session
12:30pm - LUNCH
1:00pm - Construction session
4:00pm - Worksite clean up
4:30pm - beach swims, exploration, rest, bathing, etc
6:30pm – DINNER
Sun 19 Dec 2021
7:00 am - BREAKFAST FOR CAMPERS
9:30am - Morning Meeting, Safety Talk
9:45am - Construction session
12:30pm - LUNCH
1:00pm - Construction session
4:00pm - Worksite clean up
4:30pm - Group photo, packup camp
5:30pm - roll out, head for home
THE PRICES
This is a FREE event!
REGISTRATION
Please fill out the online registration form by clicking on the REGO FORM button below. We need your contact details and would like to understand a little bit about who are, what you like to eat, why you want to attend the working-bee etc.
This is a FREE event!
REGISTRATION
Please fill out the online registration form by clicking on the REGO FORM button below. We need your contact details and would like to understand a little bit about who are, what you like to eat, why you want to attend the working-bee etc.
QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions please email Evie - you will find her email address at the end of the REGO FORM.
If you have any questions please email Evie - you will find her email address at the end of the REGO FORM.