Endings & Beginnings

As we come to the end of 2016 it is a time of celebration and new beginnings for Bindarrabi. 
Finally in August we completed all the legalities and the negotiation for the Access Agreement with National Parks. In September we had a celebration and were honoured with a smoking ceremony by our local indigenous custodians, the Githabul. This was a moving and heartfelt ceremony as Carol Shantal from Bindarrabi outlined the vision of Bindarrabi, then Doone Wyborn on behalf of Bindarrabi Community and Rob Williams on behalf the Githabul unveiled a plaque at the entrance gate.










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This was followed by the smoking ceremony with the intention of cleansing the land and bringing good spirits to the land and our activities. Jennifer Williams sang a’cappella one of her own compositions “Warriors’  and moved many of us to tears. Many comments were made as to the meaningfulness of the ceremony to peoples Hearts.


This was followed by much feasting and music into the evening as we enjoyed each others  company..


On the Sunday morning we planted ‘new beginnings ‘ with a planting of 50 sub-tropical trees and fruits on a site we call the Summer Palace, an area up the slopes of Mount Bindarrabi above the frost line. We look forward to seeing which plants do well there.


And so we enter 2017…….


In the wider world 2016 has certainly been a year of disruption with Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, power shifts between the east and west, climatic events, significant deaths and continuing political inertia in Australia.


So here at Bindarrabi we are continuing to work towards living a new story. We are looking forward now to plantings of perennial food and species that store well. We are developing a coco yam patch, many more fruit trees, and experimenting with various melons and gourds. We are delighted to have Vinnie Fraser joining us. He has had considerable success in establishing a perennial food garden plus having a passion for heritage chooks.


We will continue on with our shipping container conversion to a tiny house. This has led us to being open to people from the tiny house community who may be interested to do a project on the land and to placing their tiny house here for a negotiated period. 


The big project this year will be the building of stage one of the fire safety house. We need to have this completed at the same time as any new house is built. So that will be fun! More skills to learn.


Hopefully this year will bring more people interested in establishing a new life at Bindarrabi. We look forward to new inspirations, connections and progress towards establishing a viable ‘new story’ of a more sustainable and self-reliant way of living.

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