Our Home in the Bush

When we're not out 'in the field', we live and work from our mud-brick, solar-passive home, set in peaceful bushland near the central Victorian town of Castlemaine. We chose this location because of our desire to be in a quiet natural setting that gives us the inspiration we put into our work. Our home is a contemporary solar-passive design, which is cool and airy in summer, and cosy and warm in winter.

Our 'Backyard'

Our 'backyard' is 120 acres of old-growth box woodland, with heath and poa grass understory - a precious bush remnant in what was once the world's busiest goldfield.

Our woodland property is relatively undisturbed, and we share it with koalas, sugar gliders, wallabies, and dozens of huge old trees, many of which likely pre-date white settlement in Australia. Around the house we are visited by a variety of native birds that are indigenous to these forests, including painted button quails, chestnut-rumped heath-wrens, swift parrots and the rare powerful owl.

This photo is out our office window.

Our Garden

We plan to revegetate the area immediately around the house with native understorey plants found in our local area, including daphne heath and red-anther wallaby grass, which are prime habitat for our quail and heath-wrens.

Sarah has also established a small organic vegetable garden, utilising the 'no-dig' approach, building up beds with lucerne straw, household compost and chook poo. We have compacted clay soils here that require gypsum and a bit of crow-barring to open them up, allowing moisture and roots to penetrate and eventually build healthy soil.