Sustainable House Day 2025 (Narara Ecovillage)

Narara Ecovillage is partnering with Renew to host another Sustainable House Day.  It is an annual event that provides the opportunity to explore some of Australia’s most inspiring homes, and learn from the people who built them, and live in them.   Narara Ecovillage provides a great opportunity to see a variety of environmentally sustainable designs and construction methods on one site. 

The open houses this year are:

• The Hobbit style studio - natural build:  morning tours 2 & 3, then 1.30-2.30pm only
• Donna's Hempcrete house:  morning tour 2 & 4, then 1-2pm and 3-4pm
• Geoff's Hemp house:  morning tour 3, then 1-2pm and 3-4pm. Wheelchair accessible
• Heritage House - retrofit:  morning tour 1, then 2-3pm
• "Dorothy" - retrofit Queenslander (featured on Restoration Australia):  morning tours 3 & 4, then 1-2pm and 3-4pm. Partially wheelchair accessible.
  
• Candy's Earthship:  morning tours 1 & 4, then 3-4pm
• Karl & Annie's house - passive solar with hints for small space living:  morning tour 2, then 3-4pm. Wheelchair accessible
• Ecovillage community battery and switch room:  morning tour 2. 

Guided tours (morning only)

There are four guided tours of three houses each in the morning returning approx 11.30a.m.  Registrations essential.   Please arrive by 9am for tour registration.

Tour 1:  Heritage House, Candy's Earthship,  "Dorothy".  

Tour 2:   Hobbit style studio,   Donna's Hempcrete house,  Karl & Annie's house, microgrid battery and switch room. 

Tour 3:   "Dorothy",  Hobbit style studio, Geoff's Hemp house, 

Tour 4:  Candy's Earthship, "Dorothy",  Donna's Hempcrete house,

Open ticket (afternoon only):  All seven houses will be open but only at the set times above.  

Optional tours of the rest of the Village will be held at the end of the morning house tours and in the afternoon depending on demand.

Free talks

Two talks will be held in the Village hall (wheelchair accessible with assistance).  Registrations essential:

9.15 - 11.30 Retrofitting sustainably for energy efficiency and comfort:  Dr. John Shiel (sustainable building expert) and Kel Lupis (energy efficiency and thermal comfort) with visit to retrofit Queenslander "Dorothy"

1.30 - 3.30 Setting up Microgrids and Community Batteries:  Toby Roxburgh (online) (zero emissions consultant) and Dave Parris (Electrical engineer & member of NEV Power team) with visit to the Ecovillage's community battery and microgrid switch room.

"Neville" our community coffee cart is open for food, including lunch, until 1.30pm and coffee until 2pm.  Please pre-order lunches on the day. 
 

Enquiries to:  shd2025nev@gmail.com