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Bundagen Co-operative Ltd

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Mission: Bundagen community is a rural land sharing co-operative and wildlife sanctuary. We see our community as having essentially a caretaker role for this piece of coastal land and aim to create only low impact development.

From www.ic.org/directory/bundagen-co-operative-ltd/:

Bundagen is an intentional community established in August 1981 with three guiding principles:
social harmony;
environmental responsibility;
and economic independence.

We are a rural land sharing co-operative and wildlife sanctuary. We see our community as having essentially a caretaker role for this piece of coastal land and aim to create only low impact development. Regeneration of native vegetation in environmentally fragile areas is a focus, as is an emphasis on organic gardening.

THE LAND
Bundagen Co-operative owns and manages a total of 313 hectares of private property on the mid-north coast of NSW, just south of Coffs Harbour.

Bongil Bongil National Park forms all our boundaries including a headland and ocean beach. Bundagaree Creek runs through part of the land and we have two freshwater lakes.

A percentage of our land has high environmental value, approx 50% of which is protected and managed under a formal Conservation Agreement. Our land sits within the Gumbaynggirr nation.

THE PEOPLE
There are approximately 180 members, of whom about 110, with their children, are living in the twelve village areas. Bundagen is independent of mains water, sewerage and electricity. We rely on dams and rain-water tanks and use alternative technology, such as solar power and composting toilets. All residents pay a weekly levy which finances the community’s needs including shared equipment such as a tractor and fire tanker. As well, we have a library, food co-op, meditation space and community house where a café is held each week. Villages each have their own areas of interest; some share a common bathroom, gardens, mowers, trailers or water pumps. Apart from meetings and regular working bees, café and the beach, members come together to play volleyball or soccer, for yoga, chi gong or to sing, play music, or to meditate. We have an active weeding group and land care projects underway. There is also a playschool in the renovated dairy bails where our youngest residents get together each week. Older members now meet to plan for ‘The Last Resort’.

DECISION MAKING
All decisions are made on the land. We aim at reaching consensus but have our own form of modified consensus. We have monthly community meetings, which deal with everyday matters, and four general meetings a year to address major concerns. Bundagen newsletters keep members informed of our evolving agreements, topics of debate and all hatches, matches and dispatches. A group of fifteen annually elected co-ordinators, meet monthly and take responsibility for specific areas of administration such as secretarial, treasury, legal liaison, environment, membership, building, fire, water, roads etc.

MEMBERSHIP
Each member, whether resident or non-resident, has an equal parcel of shares in the Co-operative. Membership gives the individual access to the land and a voice in decision- making. The right to build and reside on the land is decided by community agreement. Our legal structure, as a rural co-operative, means that the community owns all improvements on the land rather than individuals holding freehold title.
MEMBERSHIP IN BUNDAGEN IS CLOSED

HISTORY
In the early 1980s, a development company planned to buy two farms and bushland at Bundagaree Head for a tourist development and golf course. Local environmentalists, concerned about the loss of valuable forest, secured the first options to buy and called for support. Bundagen was initially formed as a company and it asked for individual loans of $3000 from those hoping to prevent the development. Meetings were held on the headland and in Sydney as the dream of saving the land spread quickly through alternative networks. When the purchase price was realised we bought the land and soon after added a neighbouring property. The legal structure of the company was then changed and Bundagen Co-operative was formed. Those who had made the loans became the first shareholders. Some came to live on the land while others remained as non-residents, many living in Sydney.

In the 1980s, there was some turnover in membership however the community consolidated as village areas were settled and the sanctuary areas protected. An adjoining parcel of land was eventually also purchased. Here, sand extraction had left two freshwater lakes fringed by littoral rainforest. In the 1990s we campaigned for the neighbouring state forest to become national park rather than developed for housing and we celebrated when Bongil Bongil National Park was declared. Bundagen also seeded the establishment of two new intentional communities on the mid-north coast of NSW. In 2010 we finally secured much of the community’s forest under a formal conservation agreement.

After thirty years we know and love the land well. Our villages provide stable and continuing homes and our orchards and gardens provide us with fresh organic food. Some who came in the first years with small children, now have grandchildren growing up here. We have a burial area and take pride in managing the end of life rituals as well as the births.

Living on community can also be hard work. It is not just maintaining our own water and power and communication systems, or the battle with weeds, it is the work of getting along together which can be both exhausting and rewarding. Our decision-making and conflict resolution processes often seem cumbersome and we tweak at the edges as they slowly evolve. Bundagen might be seen as a microcosm of the macrocosm, with all the dramas of the wider world played out on our small stage.

Address
Physical Address
Bundagen, State
Australia