For sale now at Jindibah Intentional Community

If you would like to find out more about how to join this intentional community, and whether there's a vacancy, please complete and return our Application Form

An overview of what it means to join 'Jindibah Intentional Community'

‘A community for compatible people, consciously embracing a sustainable vision’ 

When buying into an intentional community like Jindibah, unlike buying into a suburb, you have the opportunity to meet all your neighbours before making a serious financial commitment. 

We recommend you take the time to meet people already living on the land and find out for yourself what it’s like to share this property with others. Please call us on (02) 6687 2244 to make an appointment.

Meanwhile, you might like to take a look at our Vision and Philosophy, to see if what we have here would suit you.

If you decide to proceed, you’ll be purchasing an average 1.85 acre lot within 113 acres (lot sizes range from 6,124m² to 9,139m² within 45.99ha), sharing established community facilities and infrastructure - such as the paved internal road and original rock walls - and working with others managing the business interests of the original Fowler family farm - such as running our cows.  

As well, find out how we operate our Environmental Enhancement and Management Plan (EEMP), the tailor-made guide approved by Byron Shire Council, which we follow for the ongoing restoration of the natural environment and re-vegetation of our property. So far we’ve planted more than 8,000 local rainforest trees in this 10-year project.  

Even though this area is sub-tropical, as a protection against bushfire, we’ve had a Bushfire Management Plan developed by Val Hodgson, the Captain of the Goonengerry Rural Fire Service. That way, we are well prepared in the event of bushfire.  

The community is run according to a Neighbourhood Management Statement (NMS) that’s a collection of by-laws, or rules which have evolved over the years since 1996 that we’ve been operating as an intentional community. As a Community Title property, it also incorporates State Government requirements.  Because we are structured as a Community Title, bank mortgages can be obtained in the normal way. 

We’ve had an ‘English Language’ version of this legal document put together, which, we find, offers a clear introduction for incoming members.

We suggest that before committing to a purchase, incoming parties meet with our solicitor, who can explain any details of the Neighbourhood Management Plan, so they can join the community with a full understanding of what’s involved. 

Now we’re at Community Title stage, we work closely with our accountant to manage the administration required by law to operate the Neighbourhood Management. So we pay and record budgeted operating costs approved by our Neighbourhood Association.    

Three or four times a year, the community runs half-day Living Together workshops, which focus on inter-personal relationships, rather than the business side of running the property. Our aim is to find a realistic, workable balance between meeting our personal needs and contributing to a shared vision for the community, (the ‘me’ and the ‘we’). Run since 2002 by an experienced external facilitator, the workshops help us find the way to co-exist harmoniously developing mutual respect and trust, while acknowledging our differences.

Buying a share in a community such as Jindibah isn’t merely a financial exchange, like simply purchasing an investment property in a suburb. Nor can this intentional community be compared with a community title estate established by an external developer, of which there are several examples around the Byron Shire. There, you buy a serviced lot on a ‘greenfields’ site, build your home, move in – then start establishing a ‘sense of community’.

At Jindibah, there is an already established community running a farm business (beef cattle), with a considerable range of valuable, existing community assets. These range from the creek-side 1950s community shed or meeting hall, to the community office in the roadside cottage, the cattle yards, the dairy bails/tractor shed, and a farms-worth of such equipment as the tractor with bucket, slasher, seeder, quad bike, etc etc.  

Originally the Fowler family bought this land, setting up a dairy farm here in the early 1900s. Harry Fowler, born here in July 1904, was very community minded, and with his brothers, created a swimming hole in Sleepy Creek in the 1920s, where hundreds of local children were taught to swim. Until Harry was in his 80s, many community-oriented activities - like scout camps, pony club meets, even pop festivals in the 1970s and 80s - were held on the land.  

We have built on that community spirit through 17 years’ experience here working with each other and developing our own sense of place for this specific parcel of land.  

That’s our history, which we acknowledge and appreciate. Members of our community are also facing the future with eyes wide open by progressively building up the resilience to be able to deal with life in the time of climate change, the global financial crisis and diminishing (or costly) energy resources. Ask about our passive-solar designed, energy-efficient houses, contemporary waste water disposal systems and water storage, our  134 solar panels, plans/dreams for aquaponics, hybrid, electric or alternate energy vehicles, orchards and vegetable gardens…  

At Jindibah, our community is like an ongoing DIY project, where you invest in a different way of living, where you and your particular life skills can make a valuable contribution, growing – in every sense - with the rest of us.