We are offering an opportunity to stay in a Tiny house in the Wilderness and learn some off-grid, Backwoods Self-Sufficiency and Self-Reliance.
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| Looking out from the farm over the Tarkine wilderness |
We are looking for people (preferably under 45) who want to learn to walk lightly on the
earth on our 200 acre ex-plantation block next to thousands of acres
of the Tarkine wilderness.
We are starting the world’s
first Sustainable Community Farm™ to save rare plants, animals and
trees, grow organic food, do long-term sustainable forestry and live
with respect for nature.
Most of the farm is being planted to forest to combat climate change by
bringing rain with some of the land being left for animal grazing and
food growing. Come and grow gardens and plant trees with us – make a
difference in the world!
Who we are doing this for?
Anyone who wants to make a difference in the world but primarily for people without a lot of money or who want to learn to live on less money. It is greed that is the main problem in the world not poverty. Even poor people can be greedy. Our experience is that when you learn how to live within your means then you are happier. It doesn't take a huge income to be happy.
Training:
We teach Good Heart Living™ which
is our own version of backwoods self-sufficiency and self-reliance . The
ongoing training will equip you with skills for living in the
wilderness and re-wild your heart for living in nature.
Learn about:
- Self-Sufficient Gardening™- Grow your own food and be Self-sufficient. Learn how to grow Organic Vegetables, Soft fruit (Berries and Currents), Orchard fruit and Nuts.
- Foraging and Wildcrafting
- Plants for Healing: Plants for First Aid and Country Herb Lore (Lisa also teaches Backwoods Herbalism™ and Community Herbalism and sometimes takes herbal Apprentices but they are separate courses. Ask her if you are interested in this)
- Cooking and Preserving
- Cottager Economics™. In this unit Gavin teaches a different way of looking at your livelihood and how we could change the world if we used the power of our pockets. Budgeting from a Homesteaders and Smallholders point of view.
- Business
- Basic Carpentry
- Building
- Composting and Mulching
- Recycling and Upcycling
- Appropriate Technology
- Animal Keeping
- Organic Market Gardening
- Organic Orcharding
- Berry Farming
- Flower Farming
- Crafting (including Forgotten Arts and Crafts)
- Spirituality (the farm is next to the Tarkine rainforest - a great place to reconnect to nature)
- Self-Sufficient Farming™(including How to use a Scythe, Sickle and Brush hook, How to grow small-scale grain crops and maincrop growing). By hand, without machinery!
- Wilderness Survival (it is a good idea to learn some of this if you plan to venture into the Tarkine wilderness next to the farm)
- Hunting and Fishing
- Basic Self-defense course suitable for beginners (by qualified instructor). Learn how to defend yourself and your loved ones.
- Long-term Sustainable Forestry
- Conspiracy Fact™: Learn the true bits of history that are often erased, left out or changed. This unit will put your life in perspective and inform you what is really going on!)
- Conservation
- Real Sustainability™: Our version of sustainability, not the Australian governments, the UN or big business.
Our courses run with cycle of the seasons so what you learn depends on the time of year you are here.
We award a Good Heart Living™(Month) certificate on successful completion of a month. eg.Good Heart Living™(April)
In the Good Heart Living™ certificates we teach one class a week plus there is also
practical work and projects to complete. Start times for these vary with
the seasons.
Tuition cost is included in the rent!
We award a Good Heart Living™[Season] certificate on successful completion of a season. eg.Good Heart Living™(Autumn)
Camping Accommodation while learning here:
Park your own self-contained tiny house/van.
Campsites available for your own vehicle.
$70/week.
We also have some camping plots available for lease with some basic vans already on for rent:
Betsy
Up the top of our hill we have a plot with “Betsy”, our little (12ft) retro caravan on it. Sleeps 2. Betsy has a small veggie garden next to her. The track to Betsy is hike-in only but a beautiful 400m gentle walk through the pines.
$75/week.
Rosie
We have a plot near our drive with “Rosie” on it. Rosie is a tiny, tiny house on wheels – a bit like a small gypsy wagon with a pot belly fire. Rosie only sleeps one person (and you can’t be too big!). This plot has a herb garden with a small rose garden out the back.
$75/week.
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| "Rosie" |
The Bumblebus
Near the drive we also have our bus ,“Bumblebus” (named from the bumblebees that fly inside from the garden) which is set up as an off-grid tiny house with a wood fire, solar power and shared organic veggie patch. Sleeps 2.
$100/week.
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| Inside the "Bumblebus" |
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| Bus garden |
With each camping plot there is an attached shared area of forest to care for.
All stays: No running water – bucket
water in. BYO
sleeping bag etc. No poison chemicals to be used inside or out.
Grow your own good organic food. Some organic produce and wholefood available
for purchase. Some firewood is included in the rent. No electric power bills and no water bills! It is collect your own and make your own or do without. We will show you how.
Our farm is in a remote area in the mountains 20 minutes to Waratah and as we are in a cool temperate rainforest here it can be cold and wet and can snow.
Everyone who is here has to work at growing food - we all have to eat. Learn how to grow your own food in our training gardens and grow food in your plot to provide for yourself. On the last farm we were 100% self-sufficient and we are working towards that again here.
In return for
cheap rent we expect that people will do at least 2 hours/day doing
tasks that need doing around the farm. In order to grow your own food you will also have to work in your own garden plot.
Some of the chores you may have to do include tree planting, fencing, growing food,
seed saving, foraging, wildcrafting, preserving, crafting items, repairing tools, weeding, mulching, mucking out animal pens, feeding animals, and building
animal pens or shelters (depending on season).
You must be healthy enough to do the work required to grow food. We are fair
but there are times when jobs just need to be done. As on most farms
sometimes the task is a bad one and you just have to grit your teeth and
get it done. The usual farmer’s way is to laugh about it later and we
have lots of funny stories to tell.
No GM vaccines to have been taken within the last 2 years
please as we are an organic farm and against genetic
engineering.
Our lifestyle is closest to indigenous
peoples and peasants which we see as the most sustainable. We eat
meat - seeing all life as sacred - animals and plants.
No
drugs. Sorry no dogs (no fences yet). Lots of wildlife.
If
you have dreamed of being off-grid this is a great opportunity to
rent some land in a community in a forest away from the cities. This
is a chance to live the good life.
We do not
do or allow permaculture or regenerative agriculture here (both based on systems theory*) and do not
work with the government which sees nature as a resource.
We don't see nature as a system or a resource to be plundered but we see nature as sacred and a gift to be protected.
We practice Good Heart
Living™.
Teachers:
Lisa McAndrew (Good Heart Herbalist) is Australia’s
first community herbalist.
Gavin Edwards (The Self-Sufficient Farmer™) who has over 50 years food growing experience.
(Founders of Australia's first Sustainable Small Farm™)
Contact
To book in:
could you please tell us a bit about yourself by emailing Lisa at Good Heart Farm™
email: goodheartfarm@proton.me
or ghfarmtas@gmail.com
or ph 0459 263 525 (text only - we are on the edge of reception!)
*Systems theory was invented by Count Ludwig von Bertalanfy, a nazi scientist who escaped justice after WW2. Regenerative agriculture is promoted by the Rockefeller Foundation who supported the nazis and eugenics. Permaculture and Regenerative agriculture are both promoted by the Australian government.
A condition of being
here is that you have to abide by the rules of the community and make satisfactory progress in the Good Heart Living™ course. All
stays are subject to availability and approval.
Offer available until 30th November 2025. We reserve the right to change this offer at no further notice.
©
Gavin Edwards 2025. All rights reserved. No part of this document may
be reproduced without prior permission from the author.
Good
Heart Farm™, Good Heart Living™, Community Farm™, Sustainable Community Farm™, Sustainable Small Farm™
are common law trademarks of Mama Earth Pty. Ltd. ACN 146 054 828.
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| Looking out towards St. Valentines peak |
