We needed something immediately for our daily function. I was referred a book by a friend and very quickly was using the bucket technique espoused so eloquently by Sir Joseph Jenkins in his timeless classic “The Humanure Handbook”. He isn’t really a knight, but is absolutely deserving of the high honours of the planet & society. http://humanurehandbook.com
The bucket system has it’s limitations though. Several key problems arose. Firstly was the labour of making the compost and the necessity for each batch to go well. Then there was the issue of visitors who were not familiar and quite uncomfortable with the concept, we wanted people to be accepting of humanure composting, and that wasn’t going to happen by throwing them in the shallow end of a shit bucket. The last was that it is illegal to have such a system and that was an argument that we didn’t want to have with the local council.

So we continued to brainstorm ideas, research and experience composting toilets around the area. We are lucky, this is one of the pioneering areas of the concept. There are a lot of examples and several generations of design as the flaws were worked out.
We like to think visually, so I made a mind map.

We finally settled on the double concrete chamber batch model. It’s key feature is that the owner never need come into contact with raw material. When one chamber is filled, it is sealed and left until the other is full. This can take over 18 months for two people, by that time the ingredients are well decomposed. From above it can be made as respectable as any flush toilet room and it is very unlikely that the user is exposed to their deposit as the chamber is dark (this can be a limitation for those that like to inspect). Finally if it is adequately sealed and the final product is buried council is quite happy.

With all our requirements met, we set about it. We acquired the plans from a local fellow named Ray Flanagan, who can be contacted at rayzor.flanagan@gmail.com. They are very comprehensive and we can highly recommend getting them. He has given me permission to post this sample image.

Next we called around for local builders who were familiar with the design. I ordered the materials listed in the construction plans and had them delivered.

For the next step of this project see Composting Toilet in the Systems Page.

I kept records of the materials and their cost. It is separated into the two phases of the project, the composting chambers and the timber frame.

Once the chambers were complete and we had overcome the difficulties of floating the slab we were onto the upstairs section, or as I came to know it the toilet house.

First I drew up clear plans using the only construction technique I was familiar with “post & beam”.

I took these to a friend, who told me that the post and beam was unnecessary in this case as the wall frames could hold the roof up (& down). So I redrew the plans, this time including the option to connect to the house via a covered walkway.

Unfortunately these plans lacked the detail needed to actually build them. At this point, I’d had enough of drawing and redrawing and decided it was an excellent opportunity for me further develop my skills in the free 3d modelling software called Google Sketch-up http://www.google.com/sketchup .
I’d tried sketchup once before, but the time wasn’t right and i’d got frustrated at the process of learning something new and felt that I could draw it quicker.
I used the software to make it as I wanted it and then could alter the design easily. I initially sketched out the model to be roof style neutral.

From there I added the more complex gable style roof as a new layer.

Upon looking at the images, I decided that the gable roof would add too much complexity to the initial build and any future effort to join it to the house via the covered walk way. So I removed that roof and added a simple shed style instead.

Now that I was happy with the design, I added the necessary detail in order to build it.

With that in place we organised for some local carpenters to come over and help us put it all together. www.woodtex.net
See the Compost Toilet in Systems for more details of the construction.

Here are the costings for the upstairs toilet house.
Toilet Hardwood Timber Frame House with Colorbond Roof

Shortly before the session began, Robyn Francis and I sketched out a rough timeline and the key areas to cover:
Project Open Day Planning Process

The process got off to a slow start, as is often common after lunch. To bring the people back into the space Robyn started singing and others quickly joined in. This icebreaking process is an area for me to strengthen.

Once we were together I opened with some of the previous Open Day experiences and observations that I had made. I projected photos of some of the presentations & displays from past students.
This set a context for others and provided a space to impart some of the lessons that had been previously learned.

We then moved outside and setup butchers paper with the key areas.

Key Areas
The key areas were:
- Theme
- Activities
- Logistics
- Promotion

I instructed the group to walk around each of these areas and write their ideas down. There was some confusion with the theme sheet, in a future process, it may be worth exploring the purpose of the theme in the beginning. The rest were evidently self explanatory.

“Practical Solutions for Eco-Friendly Living & Design” was the outcome from this sheet.

My role during this process was to answer questions that were brought up, encourage everyone to contribute to each of the areas and manage the time.
When we were nearing the end of the time allocated it appeared that people where moving their focus from the task and more toward conversations about the things written. I then gathered the group back together and we moved around each sheet and had someone read out all the things that were written.
Some things were added, some removed and some explained further during this process.

Target Groups

Next we moved back inside the classroom. With the sheets now on the ground in front of us we discussed the target groups for promotion and activities.

Kids and schools was raised as a group to be targeted. Robyn discouraged this and told the story of a year when some kids went through the orchard and pulled off every piece of fruit from the trees, the gardens’ next six months supply of citrus. As well as the importance of being aware of the hazards that exist in that gardens such as the dams.
Tracy told the group about last year’s “kid’s tent” that was setup for those families that came with kids and how that worked quite well.

The class explored the kinds of people that would be interested while Robyn and I wrote them on the whiteboard.

Target Groups:
- future students
- past students
- community activists
- local community
- environment centres
- land owners
- people interested in transition
- health care workers
- gardening groups
- families
- foodies
- survivalists
- school teachers
- uni and tafe students
- older people (able/mobile)
- local politicians
- local business

Aims & Objectives

I asked the class to form groups of three and handed out a six post-it-notes to each group. I instructed them to write out what they thought might be the Aim’s and Objectives of the day. They were given 5 minutes. When the time was up, a member of each group read out one of their post-it’s and stuck it on the board. If any other group had a similar note, it was stuck next to it. This was repeated around the class until all the notes had been stuck up.

True to the permaculture principles, the event has many functions.

- Raising community awareness & connection
- Education
- Fun environment
- Offering solutions ie: answering questions
- Fundraising
- Setting to be workable
- Promote Permaculture, Principles & Practices
- Maximise ticking off of SKOPE sheets

It serves to make the wider community aware of Djanbung Gardens, Permaculture College Australia, and Permaculture itself.

Raising money to cover the expenses of the day as well as fund projects and equipment to further the Aims of Djanbung Gardens.

It is also a key vehicle for many competencies for the APT students, providing them with the opportunity to engage with the community, communicate permaculture principles & practices and their application as well as gain confidence and experience with public speaking.

The event is also a an opportunity to demonstrate their organisation and management skills.

Area’s of Responsibility

The planning process provided a space and a brief for the students to establish what the key areas were to encompass. From the butchers paper the students were able to narrow down with some guidance from myself and Robyn what the roles and tasks were to be.

These key roles were then voluntarily self-assigned a co-ordinator from the group based on their ability and interest. Others also indicated their willingness to support them, or particular skills that they could offer.

Strategic Plan – Caroline, diploma students
Secretary – Rotating
Promotion
Social Networking – Tracey
Desktop Publishing – John, Bel
Radio & Community Bulletin – Caroline, Lynne
Face To Face – Bel, Hilary
Press Release – Tracey, John
Site Co-ordination – Shannon, Veg
Rosters – Shelley
Signs – Bel
Static Display – Vicki, Tracey
Canteen (menu, prep, deliveries, baking) – Ben
First Aid – Nick, Seb, Guy, John, Vicki, Bel, Janelle, Michelle
Program Co-ordinator – Lynne, Bel, John, Caroline
Kids Activities – Sal?

From this information I created a time line and published it on the permaculture.com.au forums ready to guide the next meeting.

I was satisfied with the work done by the group and my facilitation. We achieved all the desired outcomes on time. The group were active in the process and I feel there is a sense of ownership of the results and commitment to their roles & responsibilities. I look forward to following through with continued planning meetings and the day itself.

Costing of Process

The materials required are:
Large Format 600×850 sheets of flipbook paper – $38
Enough Pens for Everyone – ~$12
Total: $50

Variable Costs:
Hiring of Facilitator – 4 hours @ $30/hr – $120
Rental of the space – 5 hours @ $10 / hr – $50

For a total cost of around $220 depending on variable factors.

Project Swag House Materials List

I found during each build that there was a stage where things looked really ugly, as if all you had done was waste a lot of time, money and made a huge mess. I came to recognise and enjoy that moment, it meant that soon things would look better and work would again seem to get traction.

The building process changed me.
When I first started building I would chronically over estimate. Whether it was a quantity of materials or cut on a piece of wood instead of aiming for exactness, I would add a bit. Sometimes a lot. With materials I would justify it to myself by saying something along the lines of “the delivery fee is the same, so a few extra spares are better value” or “I can always cut a bit more off but I can’t add any back on”.
My initial planning was often quite good and those extra, unnecessary items would remain unused first becoming clutter, then waste. Those bits of wood would need to be cut again, wasting time and interrupting my flow. It took a quite a few lessons before I readjusted my sights for as close to exact as I could get it and then focus in to hone that, instead spending time dealing with the excess.
It takes time for skills to catch up with new intentions but the pile of leftovers has been getting progressively smaller as projects go on.

Some surplus items are more durable and useful that others. In this composting toilet build, excess concrete blocks quickly found their way to other jobs (such as keeping timber off the ground). The extra unnecessary bags of cement went off and were good for a fraction of their potential. I drilled a hole into them and dyna-bolted a right angle bracket to form a weak footing for a shed.

When you are self building it is possible to enter a timeless state of being. In this state you are focused entirely on the task at hand, each activity effortlessly flows into the next. Mind and body are in harmony and my will is able to be realised in earth, stone and wood. I would see a clear image of what I wanted to do in my mind and then the steps required to get there.

There are a few conditions that I found inhibited this flow state.

The running of a generator or petrol motor.
Mixing concrete by hand is exhausting, heavy work. Using the petrol mixer greatly sped up proceedings and reduced the callousness of the work, but increased the rate that ingredients needed to be collected from their respective sand, gravel and cement piles as well as further loading our senses with the noise and fumes of the machine. Once the power system was connected, an electric mixer made the process far more enjoyable.

I am yet to order a truck of cement but I look forward to the opportunity to do away with the mixing process entirely.
There is a certain honour in taking time and expending effort into something that has cost the earth a lot to provide, will last many decades and is responsible for holding the entire structure together. That being said, mixing concrete would be my least favourite of the many and varied jobs on the building site.

Accurate assessment of the scale of the works makes the process as clean and easy as it can be. For patching, a bucket is fine. For mortaring the wheelbarrow is often enough because of the pace of the process. Once you start pouring more than a half a cubic meter of foundations a mechanical mixer becomes worth its while. When you get to 3 cubic meters, or a decent sized slab then it is worthy of a cement truck load.

When mixing larger quantities of concrete it is very important to take the time to set up the space. It is easy to see the difference from our initial attempts at foundation mixing to the more recent.

The use of power tools greatly speeds up work. I found electric saws and drills did not distract my own mental focus as long as they were connected to our solar power system (although I am sure that they are to those around me).

Unfortunately our most powerful drill at full torque load which is required when driving long batten screws into hardwood would overload the inverter and require us to use the generator.

I found it much more difficult to maintain my personal rhythm with the generator on, it was difficult to relax and the team was more prone to be irritable or impatient with each other and the work. I felt an extra pressure to get the job over with so that I could turn it off again. There is a numbing of our sensitivity and that sensitivity is essential for the detailed, quality work standard that we wanted.

There is a recognised tension between speed, cost and quality.

Material Selection
One of the Permaculture principles is use and value renewable resources. There is a good range of natural building materials, and often there is one that is uniquely suited to a particular site. Timber was my first choice in most cases. It is a renewable resource that is warm, durable, workable, modular, transportable and beautiful.
I like earth buildings but saw their vulnerabilities in the subtropical conditions near Nimbin. One local natural building we inspected had mud wasps raiding the earth bricks for their own homes. Our sandy soil was not suitable for it either, a particular balance of sand & clay is required. Tons of raw material would need to be brought on site and oversized foundations need to be made.

For the poles we were able to use trees that were felled from our block. It was extremely satisfying to have such a close circle from felling to final use. The trees were selected for their suitability, solar gain to the house & gardens and proximity for moving. Some of the trees were also a considerable risk to the existing assets, so a local tree climber was employed to put a rope up and ensure that they fell exactly where we wanted them.
Green round timber is very heavy and the trees that best fit the bill were Grey Iron Bark, among the hardest and heaviest of all.

Timber lends itself well to future extension being easy to cut, drill and bolt on to.

It has limitations in lengths and spans. Lengths from our local mill were a very good price up to 4.5 m. Beyond that meant longer waiting times and higher price per meter. Maximum timber spans are set by the Australian Standard Building Code, they are shorter than the equivalent dimension in steel.

For dimensional timbers we chose to use untreated, green milled native hardwoods from Hogan’s Mill in Kyogle. The availability & affordability of these large dimension hardwoods will vary greatly with the area.

Another key consideration in their selection was the full product life cycle. Other competing building products become toxic waste at the end of their usable life, such as treated pine & laminated beams.

The use of recycled timber was considered but we couldn’t justify the time it would take to source the materials and prepare them for reuse. If upfront capital was less available than our free time then this option would have been more closely considered. We did investigate it, visiting and questioning Keber in Murwillumbah who offer high quality recycled timber, but found the price difference not able to justify the advantages. Recycled timber also tends to be much harder to drill and saw than green timber, this is already a big factor in using hardwoods.

Roofing
Colourbond steel was the most available & affordable roofing material. It seems to have surpassed zincalume and galvanised iron. It is widely available from a selection of suppliers in Lismore. Hurfords Steel was our supplier for half our projects. Some other tin for the sheds was acquired piece by piece from Nimbin Building Supplies, it was new offcuts or seconds that came in various lengths at a much better price.

Seconds and offcuts vary from recycled roofing in that they don’t already have holes drilled for the roofing screws. Recycled pieces are mostly suited to wall cladding, covering other materials or other lower order uses where full integrity isn’t required. If it is all you have available be sure to lay it so the holes are on the high point of the channels and then seal them with silicone.

For the deck roof we chose our first “hi-tech” material in polycarbonate. We did this because of the desire to maintain direct sunlight entering the house from the north east.

The latest generation poly carbonate promises to correct some of the shortcomings of previous clear roofing materials such as brittleness over time, clouding, yellowing/browning & flammability. It also comes with a lifetime warranty. The true test for it will come with time and inevitably the time will come that it becomes landfilled plastic waste.

One of the limitations of using polycarbonate, and most clear roofing products is that they are not strong enough to stand on like a regular metal roof. When I next use the material again I would definitely compromise the amount of light entering and alternate between colourbond and poly sheets so that the roof is still mostly traffic-able for ease of cleaning and palm frond removal.
It is also possible to get various grades of light and heat permeability, I chose clear for the greatest transmission of both. This isn’t normally recommended but our site is special in that come mid-summer it has tree cover for all but a couple of hours, preventing overheating. The roof is also very high and the room is quite breezy.

Site Management
It is important to keep the building site as clean and organised as possible. Constantly spending time looking for tools, materials or ways through the site makes for a very expensive and frustrating build. When working with other people, make sure all your tools are clearly marked and be consistent and insistent that things are put back where they belong. A good clean workspace to grind, sharpen and oil tools such as chisels and chainsaws is well worth the effort, working with blunt tools is difficult, dangerous and very frustrating.

Just as important as the physical site is the mental site. Have a good clear plan with the necessary steps of the process, mistakes can quickly compound if a step is skipped over or a mistake is made. Such as not double checking the string lines before digging, and assuming without making sure that the holes are in the right spot before pouring the concrete.

Good communication skills are a critical tool to have in the toolbox. Maintaining goodwill and trust amongst all the people involved in the build is very important for things to flow smoothly. It allows for people to look out for one another, another perspective is very helpful in seeing potentials arise before they become problems.

Building while overly tired, stressed or intoxicated is inviting an accident and never saves time. Mistakes need to be fixed and injuries can take a very long time to heal. Thankfully I was blessed by clear lessons from those around me and have not been injured any more seriously than scratches, splinters and sprains so far. A friend cut himself very badly using a grinder without a firm two-handed grip.
With that in mind, this is physical work and a bit of fatigue is inevitable and signals to the body that it needs to build muscle & stamina. It is quite natural to feel tired after a long days work.

Reflection
I found that building as close to standard practice as possible makes a much easier build, especially when working with other people. Our substructure is very ordinary, straight lines, squares, standard lengths etc.

When it comes to the components that you actually see and touch to we put the extra time and effort into working with natural materials in their raw form or adding custom details. This pattern adds a uniqueness, magic and character to a building that we found to be the most endearing features. It also goes a long way to bringing the new structure into harmony with its environment.

Using round timbers and natural stone does take extra time to work around the inherent irregularities. However once the job is done those frustrating elements transform into the most beautiful features.

Building is exciting, amazing and empowering. The absolute best part is when it is finally over however and you can clean it all up and start to live in the new space you have just created.

1.0 Edited 24.8.2010

One of the very magical things about living in a place for years is that the plants that you like start to grow.
Through a combination of selective watering, planting, weeding, feeding, experience & loving attention we slowly impress our influence on the landscape.
Some plants die in this process, but on the whole our domain is growing to support us. We are cultivating our customised micro-climate.

If you would like to know more about me personally, try Facebook.

The most effective means to control invasive species has to be taken on a case by case basis.
The use of herbicide was quoted by a local bush regenerator as amplifying the effect of human interaction one hundred fold.

A person working with the health of the system in mind can effect a huge change, this is sometimes necessary when an over dominant species has halted the natural phasing of the forest.
However;
Indiscriminate spraying of herbicides has a massive environmental cost it can destroy fertility in the soils and undermines the natural processes. Persistent herbicides remain and are concentrated up the food chain. Run off can pollute water ways. Particular products and additives, such as the surfactant used to stick round-up to plants has known toxic effects on frogs.

Plant identification and understanding are the greatest of assets. Knowledge of the land and its history can give a clear perspective on whether the regrowth is beneficial for soil re-balancing or if needs intervention.

This was the focus of our ABT.
Plant identification is an art that notes the features. Many plants do not differentiate enough when young (and most easily controlled). Leaf shape and colour, flower, fruit, structure, smell, root system and location are all used to make a positive identification.

If you are unable to identify a species, a pressing is made, details are noted and can then be sent to a herbarium for them to catalog.

A very effective and efficient way of identifying plants is to find someone that already knows a great deal. Plant varieties and species can be very localized, so the more experience your assistant has in the same area, the more likely you are to get a positive identification.

Some Jargon
Native : These are plants that are indigenous to the country
Endemic : This is more specific, plants that are indigenous to a particular area.
Naturalised : These are species from elsewhere that have adapted to a new area and made it home.
Successional Phasing : A forest develops in phases, first come the grasses, then fast growing woodier, taller species. Then pioneer trees.

One of the critiques of Permaculture is that it encourages the introduction of new species to an ecology. The ramifications of bringing in new species are often far-reaching and little known. Many out of control species are garden escapees.

This is Yarrow, used as a superb compost activator.

Some topsoil was bought and trucked in to the trust without seeing the source with it came a whole soil seedbank that contained some of the most noxious weeds to the area.

Nutgrass and Castor oil plant are two that once established will run and are next to impossible to fully eradicate. We heard stories of nutgrass seed being introduced in the tracks of hired machinery.

This is a native tobacco bush, often regarded as a weedy species it actually acts as a nursery plant for the next phase of successional growth.

There are many different grass species in the area. The local rule tends to be if the cows, roo’s or horses won’t eat it, it is a weed.

One of the techniques for plant control taught to us was the cut, scrape and paint.

The Cut!

The outer layer of bark is quickly scraped away revealing the green layer where the plant transports the nutrients around

It is then painted with the herbicide. Once the plant is cut, the vascular system shuts down very quickly. It is in this time that poison must be painted on to be effective.

This particular species is on a government list that controls the most noxious weeds. Land owners are obligated by law to control it on their property.

The permaforest trust is on a 100 acre title, only the top 10 acres are certified organic where plants are controlled by hand. The remaining 90 acres are controlled with the use of Round-up (Glycosulphate) a relatively benign, short lived and extremely widespread herbicide produced by Monsanto.