Helping Australians Build Better Homes for a Changing Climate

You can join a passionate and values-driven community and help grow an industry that encourages Australians to build greener while we reduce our carbon footprint with smaller, earth-based solutions. 

What is the project?

Hi, my name is Rachel, and my mission is to develop a platform and network hub that can help anyone across Australia access information and resources to help them and their communities build naturally and design smarter homes built to the varied Australian climate. We can all see that as energy prices are rising, households are starting to think about ways to make their homes more efficient. Likewise, as house and land prices go up, more people are looking to take some of the expense out of their build by doing it themselves, and/or move rurally to live simpler and closer to nature. City dwellers too are asking for clever ways they can retrofit or renovate to make their homes more sustainable, and many are looking to natural building solutions but often find it too difficult or get told they can't do what they know they want to!

Taking on building projects, of any size, can be complex, and full of hurdles.

Natural Building Australia is looking to be the first and only nation-wide website and in-person business for professionals and punters looking to get dirty and more hands on with their homes. This campaign is going to raise capital to build the network and develop a platform that can be made available to anyone thinking about making their homes more green, and more responsive to the seasons and weather.

Combining a directory of trades and skills, an interactive map of opportunities around the country, feature articles and webinars, courses and a resource hub, Natural Building Australia will be the one-stop-shop for building smarter and with alternative materials. If you have ever undertaken a building project, especially one that is a bit left-of-centre, you appreciate how isolating it can be. You need support, insight and even hands-on help!

Why is this needed?

If you haven’t heard of natural building, it’s also known as green or environmental building. It's basically a way to use readily accessible local materials such as mud, straw, stone, timber, recycled materials and natural plasters as central to a home, studio or backyard shed/space. The sky is the limit as you can build anything from natural materials! It also extends to the use of tyres, hemp and even tiny houses depending on the situation. Australia has a long and proud history of earth building, but this tradition has often been sidelined, or forgotten, in the rush towards easy and cheap housing solutions!

Making up just a small percentage of annual home builds, it's clear there is a growing desire for less carbon-intensive building materials, but a few things are holding it back! Firstly, accessing information on earth building accross Australia is hard and can be confusing or conflicting! Secondly, existing research is beginning to date, and often only represents one type of building modality. Thirdly, there isn't a whole lot of data being undertaken to allow it to compete with conventional building practices. Lastly, there's a whole industry now devoted to pseudo-green solutions, that aren't actually that sustainable when you think about using the earth beneath your feet!

In one article from 2015, an engineer from the industry complained that more people don't build with rammed-earth due to a lack of knowledge of the benefits, and an underregulation of alternative building materials! Making up only 13% (around 40k annually) of the total house builds, owner builders are a small but passionate and growing community. And sadly after 40 years, The Owner Builder Magazine has closed, leaving a big gap for people looking for opportunities and insights from those already building differently. 

This sector would benefit from greater co-operation, and co-ordination and in order to generate an active and vital building community, it neeeds a responsive and relevant network hub and platform. Currently there is no central directory, platform or events listing to help people find projects or workshops or even just reliable resources to help them get their project moving forward. This is largely because much of the industry still operates at the margins and by word of mouth, and people working in the industry are too busy to spend time on-line getting the word out there! 

Considering earth homes have been around since humans first began creating shelter, it's time to give all modalities a bigger platform, help grow the industry and make it a legitimate and competitive part of the building and housing landscape. To help make this a growth industry, we must first unite the people, businesses and knowledge already in it to showcase what ordinary Australians can do to make their homes greener and better to live in!

Together we can make things easier for people to take on greener alternatives, to encourage more people to adopt and the industry can continue to grow!

What are we asking?

This campaign will be running for the month of March 2023 and hopes to raise $10K start-up capital to help build the website and platform. The funding will help cover initial start-up costs and allow for discounted access for the first 12 months while it grows. 

You can help by jumping on as a SEED member, which comes with 1 year of perks and bonuses for you, your family, organisation or your business. Or you can provide a one-off donation for a good cause that could use some help! 

You can also help by spreading the word to people with an interest in building, and building differently. If you know builders, architects, designers, planners, surveyors, engineers, solar suppliers, draftspeople, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, permaculturalists, educators, or any other association or trade groups that have an interest in owner or natural building and would want to hear about this idea, please share the campaign!

About me:

My name is Dr Rachel Goldlust, and I am a passionate natural building instructor, permaculture designer and off-grid consultant with over 15 years’ experience in Australia and overseas. I am also an environmental educator and workshop facilitator, a qualified town planner and an environmental historian fascinated by all things alternative living and eco design.

After watching interest in this industry rise and fall over the years, I could see that in order to keep traditional skills alive and encourage people to think about the materiality and the types of homes they want to have, we need to keep pushing this industry as a vital way forward for a more sustainable, climate resilient, future. 

After years making informal connections, it's time to raise the bar! I am uniquely placed having worked for government, councils and private clients and can now help build a network to benefit everyone by bringing the information, connections and businesses together. With extensive experience, contacts, and resources up my sleeve, it’s time to share my knowledge, and the accumulated experience of many people across the country with ordinary Australians so we can all recognise the benefits of building housing that are of and from the environment. 

Many people are afraid to take on building projects themselves, especially women, and often-times are confused or intimidated by the planning, building and design industry. I think we each have the capacity to decide the kind of home we want to live in, within our budgets so we don’t have to be forever in debt, and that uses the resources we already have around us an in our communities. It’s taken ten years of working in and for this industry to see what it needs, and that is why I am here asking for your support to get Natural Building Australia off the ground.  

What can this site/network do for you?

Have you ever heard of WWOOFing?  The Willing Workers on Organic Farms started out as Working Weekends on Organic Farms - a way of giving people access to farm knowledge and skills, and as a way of connecting farmers and homesteaders to the labour they need to help get their farms running and ticking off major project goals. That movement began as an informal network that has grown to 1000s of participants worldwide. Starting with humble beginnings, WWOOFing is now a way of experiencing the world and vital in bringing attention to organic farming. 

Natural Building Australia can likewise connect those with the knowledge, with those seeking it.  It can foster a community of shared values, ethical businesses and a mentality of Do-It-Yourself that is going to be vital in a resource-constrained future. This is important because:

• We know that the way we build is inherently unsustainable. 
• We know that using imported materials, higher use of concrete and other nasty pre-fabricated imports is putting pressure on the planet, and making more unhealthy spaces for people to reside in.
• We know that Australia has extreme weather that needs housing that is attuned to the environment.

We all want homes that are better for us, and for the planet, and this project is an important first step to build the nework, and the capacity for the related industries and associations to grow and become major players in the building scene.  

This may be a distant goal but every project has its baby steps, and those already involved in the Australian natural building scene would love to see the industry grow and continue to support them and the growing number of people looking for sustainable (and not greenwashed) solutions.   

If you're a business, supplier or trade association...

You can benefit from joining the network to help grow your business, get updates in our newletter, find new clients or attract people to your association, tap into people working in related industries, and join a community that cares about the environment and wants to see this industry grow!  In the future, Natural Building Australia has the capacity to be an all-of-industry association that can lobby for changes in planning, the building code, and help educate local governments on green building design and materials. To become an agent of change in this industry, you can help make this happen!

If you're a newbie or about to start your project...

You can benefit from the resources, advertise your future project, learn from tailored online content, access the directory of events and the regular newsletter so you can reach new networks.  By joining the natural building community you can find out what you need to know, who you can contact to help get your project moving, and where to find answers to those tricky questions!

All of this needs you to get involved so please consider making a pledge and help Natural Building Australia grow!

Stay Tuned for Crowdfund Specials over the next Month - and Please Share Widely to get this idea out there!

What's the ask?

Budgeting for a new project is challenging - it can feel a bit like 'how long is a piece of string?' Your contribution will go toward the set up and the initial (12 month) running costs of the Natural Building Australia website.

NBA wants to provide a reliable and valuable service for first time users and reduce the cost (to have as much not behind a paywall as possible) and this means getting support for running costs for the first 12 months to get it off the ground, to be able to attract subscription and business support that will then help make it accessible to the general population. 

Reaching beyond the campaign target will go towards further developing the business, including providing material support to developing a podcast that will run alongside the website.

To grow the network, we need a website with multiple operational functionalities. This is going to cost. To attract participants and memberships, the website needs to have multiple offerings depending on if you’re a professional looking to engage clients, or a first-timer looking for basic information. This means building a slightly more detailed website that also can be interactive with social media and built in a way that allows it to be regularly updated to keep it relevant to industry and the public.

Web building $6,000
From an online survey conducted in July 2022, these 4 items were highlighted as the most important or valuable for a proposed site devoted to all things natural building:

1. A verified directory of trades and professionals to consult for building projects
2. An interactive map/calendar of opportunities for workshops across Australia
3. Resources page with detailed information on how to do things yourself
4. News page with updates on what’s going on within different modalities/industries/organisations

Thus, with an intended launch date of April 2023, we will be able to have a website that has:

• Backend database
• User registration
• User profile and registration page for upcoming events
• User's profile for finding clientele or meeting new communities
• Web hosting (mailing list and registration data)
• User testing, tweaking, maintenance for the next year

Business costs: $4,028
To build a business that will attract visitors from multiple industries and will be eye-catching requires designing a catchy brand and logo. It also needs mailing programs, content production programs and organisational programs to help the website and business run smoothly. All of these, for professional accounts, cost money.    

Branding and logo design: $2,000
Software (Mailchimp ($101p/m), Canva ($18p/m)  (1212 + 216)): $1,428
Domain hosting, domain privacy, SSL registration, business registration, wordpress themes: $600  
Pozible service fees 5% x 10000: $500

Total $10,528

Stretch goals may be added: anything extra will go towards developing other arms such as a podcast and YouTube channel.

Stay Tuned for crowdfund special offers from our friends and partners over the next month - and share widely to get this idea out there!