Welcome to Tallowood School's hand-made houses tour page! We will have up to 20 'alternative/unique' homes, buildings and gardens on display. The tour consists of a two-day self-drive or coach trip around the beautiful Nambucca and Bellingen Valleys, visiting some really amazing places. The Owners/builders will be available to speak to you about the special aspects of their homes. This is a rare chance for you to experience an exhibition of skilled, handcrafted, individual constructions and constructors. Numerous travellers return to this event each year because they had such a great time in previous years. They also come to be inspired and informed by the many hand-made and interesting houses that are on display. We are grateful for everyone's support, as the tour is Tallowood School's major fundraiser for the year. Some of the Features of Houses & Gardens on the Tour include:
Interesting mud brick homes.
Fully recycled homes featuring hand-made furniture.
Solar design and passive solar living
Straw bale houses
Rock walls and metal work designs
Homes displaying beautiful lead light and amazing use of different local timbers
Buildings using steel frames, recycled tin and mud rendering.
Unusual built in artwork
Unusual gardens and water features
Composting toilets and rota loos
Practical & helpful advice on building your own home
And lots more!
How the weekend is run:
We are encouraging participants to purchase their Tour Books prior to the weekend as the tour is quite spread out and forward planning is advisable! (see below for purchasing details) Once you have purchased your booklet you will find information about all the houses, times they are open, descriptions and directions of how to get there - along with a map. Follow the instructions throughout the book to discover which houses are open on certain days, at certain times. This way you can plan your weekend and make sure you have enough time to visit the homes that appeal to you the most.
Most homes are either open for a four-hour period on Saturday morning or afternoon or Sunday morning or afternoon.
Opening times are: 9am to 1pm and/or 1pm to 5pm some homeowners have opened their houses for a full day. Opening times are displayed with each house description in the tour book. Please respect our owners and stick to the times displayed in the tour book.
There will be someone at Tallowood School all day Saturday till early afternoon on Sunday if you need assistance. Extra books will also be available for sale. (if we have any left!) There will be a full pictorial display at the school of all the homes and gardens on the tour. You will also get a chance to walk around the school and see the different building methods used on all the school buildings including a rota loo.
Picnic Lunches are available at Tallowood on Saturday to eat there or take with you. These are $8, which includes a gourmet wrap, home made slice and a piece of fruit. Tea and coffee will also be available.
Travellers Dinner - on the Saturday night at the school. Here you will get the opportunity to taste some yummy famous Tallowood cooking, listen to some interesting speakers on alternative building techniques and network with other participants. This dinner is strictly limited to 50 people (as we do not have any more room). The cost is $20 adults and $5 children under 12. First in best dressed so book early. Many of our sponsors provide accommodation for travellers so book early to avoid disappointment.
HOUSES ON THIS YEAR'S TOUR
Tallowood School
The school began at its present site in 1985 with a small group of parents scraping together second hand materials and volunteer labour to construct its first buildings, a converted railways accommodation unit and a mud brick toilet block. The school grew rapidly and in 1988 the parents built a new classroom out of sandstone blocks and timber with high ceilings, a loft, a small kitchen and office. The interior walls are a timber frame filled with a wattle & daub variation, made from sawdust and cement.
The third classroom was built in 1993. This time the parents chose to use load-bearing mud bricks with lots of windows and a high ceiling with crystals and bottles set into the walls. Beautiful leadlight windows designed and made by parents have been recently installed. The buildings are light and airy, made with natural materials, opening to the surrounding setting, providing a stimulating environment.
Our latest building has been constructed using steel framing, recycled tin on exterior walls and then mud rendered over the tin. The building blends in perfectly with existing classrooms. At the same time, we built a Rotaloo composting toilet with the same mud rendered finish.
Nambucca Valley Phoenix
You are invited to view the studios at Phoenix, which were built to provide facilities for artists with special abilities. They were designed, as a complex of four separate buildings linked by covered ramps with verandas to fit into the 'veranda post' theme of Bowraville. The buildings were constructed with prefabricated timber roof trusses, concrete block foundations, wall and piers to floor level with timber floors and decks. Mud bricks produced by artisans and community workers go from floor to ceiling. A colour bond roof lined with timber boards, 'whirly birds' and high ceilings keep an even temperature all year round. The roof has light windows to allow maximum use of natural light. Design emphasis has been placed on safety with wheelchair access. Admire the mosaic statues in the garden. The fourth studio and landscaping is yet to be completed. A complex such as this is unique in a Disability Service in Australia and a community asset for Bowraville.
Marion & John's Garden
Marion & John moved onto their dream property 5 years ago and have transformed a lantana plantation into a garden masterpiece! Both are very creative people with John having the expertise in landscaping and building numerous greenhouse and shed structures as well as metres of rock walls. Marion on the other hand has a very green thumb. With a combination of cuttings from friends, propagating her own seedlings and buying a few plants she now has multiple gardens. These include a broad cross section of native, ornamental, cactus, sub-tropical and various fruit trees. In fact, they are about to harvest their first coffee beans! Marion heavily mulches her gardens, uses all the grey water from the house and has a spring fed dam, which takes care of the rest. Marion also won the 2003 Bowraville Garden competition! They are presently living in a small cottage, which is surrounded by their beautiful gardens but John has grand plans to start on their dream home soon!
Penny's House
Hidden amongst 5 acres of trees are two dwellings. One, 'The Bails', is a demolished and re-built timber barn, with milking bail cow entry doors. Above is a double dormered loft, built with heavy old timber posts and beams (girders from a North Coast timber bridge). There is a fireman's pole for quick decent from the loft to the milking area. The external cladding is made from aged sawn boards from a defunct mill. They are hand nailed and laid horizontally. Internally it is lined partially with rusty corrugated iron. In the loft the board and batten linings, sanded lightly, are made from old fence palings. The other building - the main house- is actually a 1940s hay barn, removed and re-built. It is clad in old mini-orb externally. Massive timber slabs edge the verandah. The hardwood flooring from the barn was used to line the ceiling. The flooring is refurbished timber from an 80-year-old jetty. Great slabs of Oregon, once in girders in a butter factory were bolted together to form the kitchen bench tops. The sink is cast iron and the stove is an Early Kooka electric stove. The front door is an old railway ticket office door and the bathroom has old ex-railway toilet doors. The outside toilet is a composting 'Envirolet'.
Daniel & Alex's House
Recently moved up from Sydney, Daniel & Alex are in the processes of building a post and beam home using lots of recycled materials including old dressed telegraph poles. Natural edge, radial sawn weatherboard timber slabs, clad the outside of the house, which show the shape of the log, as placed on the wall. Straw board (easy-wall) infill is used instead of gyprock, which also acts to insulate the walls. A lot has changed since the photo was taken! This section has now been completed and is being lived in while Alex builds stage 2 - the main house - which is up to floor level with mudbricks being laid.
Steve & Sue's House
This home is a shared design adventure between Sue & Steve Gorrell. The design intent was to:
·create an addition that felt like 'it had always been there'
·to provide natural delighting and ventilation
·to play with stone, steel and timber, and water
·to give local craftspeople a chance to enjoy their skills
·to use recycled materials Recycled materials used include:
· Sydney sandstone quarried circa 1880 · blackbutt flooring recut from old boards ·oregon beams · blackbutt leftovers as kitchen cupboards, shelves · tallowwood posts from Bellingen tip. Rainwater is collected in tank on south side. All roof water then flows into terracotta basins, through gravel and onto grass/garden.
Fiona's House
This unique building is inspired by the traditional yurt of the Mongolian nomadic people. Externally clad in Western Red Cedar, this 12-sided yurt also features verandas front and back, and a charming 'top-knot' turret-style skylight. About 3 years ago, Fiona purchased her pre-fabricated home from Goulburn Yurt Works, who then built the components in the factory and brought them up to Bellingen in a truck. It took only 5 days to erect the structure to lock-up. Although the smallest structure available (5m central diameter), it can be easily extended at any time by simply adding more pre-fab walls! Whilst building materials used were all new, Fiona fitted out the interior with mostly recycled and second-hand items, including bath and basin in the bathroom, sink and stove in the kitchen etc.
Anita's House
This unique structure consists of a 5 sided first storey, with a 4 sided pyramid (scaled down from the dimensions of the Cheops Pyramid) on the second storey. Building materials comprise a combination of rock and wood, salvaged from the property and all over the valley. Homelands is multiple occupancy with 12 homes in all. A single header tank provides water for the whole community. Anita uses solar power and has a dry composting toilet.
Harry & Carol's House
Harry has built a very large grand house in more of a traditional style. Being a carpenter and inventor, just about everything inside the house Harry has made himself. This includes ALL the furniture in the house from recycled timber and iron. This is no mean feat considering how many rooms are in the house! Internal rock and wood features, an amazing iron, steel and stained glass balustrade are some of the other features. Outside Harry has built a one lineal km rock retaining wall, which is in completion stages.
Simon & Liz's Straw Bale House
This small pole platform straw bale house is one of the only council approved load bearing straw bale buildings in the Nambucca Shire.
The walls are rendered with mud and finished in a lime wash and the majority of materials used are recycled. The total cost of this house is less than $30,000.
They have been in the tour for the last three years and have now completed a second building - 3 bedrooms which has cost roughly $10,000 more. They have also completed a council approved composting toilet, separate bathroom, temporary bedrooms in the loft and an open plan kitchen & family room. Now also have established organic fruit & vege gardens.
Peter & Robbie's House
Peter is an architect and designed his mud brick home himself. Built in 1997 on about 20 acres of the beautiful countryside of Promised Land, this house shows how well alternative and conventional styles work together. The building is made from mud bricks, and Peter used concrete blocks in the wet areas. Features include separate office/studio, open plan living area, tiled floors throughout, high ceilings with exposed beams, and window/skylights in every room. The house was planned for maximum solar efficiency, so windows let in the sun in winter and not in summer, as well as lots of natural light all year round. Second-hand gothic style front doors and stained glass above them (done by a friend) are a stunning feature of this lovely home.
Freya's Studio
Freya's blue moon studio is clad with wattle & daub, also known as puddled-mud walls. The windows are recycled, as is the iron roof and verandah floor. The verandah rails are broomstick, befitting any good witch.
Fourty-two friends helped Freya build her studio 11 years ago. She dug the clay from under the house, which is on the other side of her ½ acre property. There are over 100 trees and an organic garden. She spends many peaceful hours creating textile art in the studio, many of her works will be on display.
Merron's House
This tasteful and immaculate mud brick home is situated on two acres with 240 degree views of surrounding valleys. The site was originally the area of the old Simpson's Ridge school.
The present home was built in 1996on a concrete slabe with compressed mud bricks and partly clad in cedar. Many different timbers have been used throughout the interiorincluding blackwood (sally wattle) ceilings, forest oak and rose gum walls, cedar windows and doors with recycled Oregon surrounds.
Some of the other features include envirocycle waste water system, solar hot water and beautifully maintained gardens.
Matt & Soli's House & Gardens
Inspired by traditional European buildings, the house, built about 20 years ago is constructed of wattle & daub, and was built without power tools using the original sticks and clay/straw method. Over the years, the owners have added to the house using a technique of cement added to clay mix and applied to wire netting within the frames. They have home made stained glass windows, solar power, an amazing sculpture garden with a 1.5km path meandering through it, a gallery and lots more to complement this home. Allow yourselves at least an hour to see it all!
Sally & Dirka's House & Studio
This secluded hideaway is nestled in the forest on 40 acres and is a great place for an artist retreat. Sally & Dirka live in a split-level, 4-bed room home, which has mud, rendered fibro walls and also partly clad with old sleepers. There is extensive use of recycled doors and windows with most of the work being done by themselves. Beside the house is the studio, which also has rendered mud walls over recycled tin. Sally is a brilliant artist so her creative works are displayed throughout the house, studio and gardens making this visit extremely interesting.
Rich & Tass's House
About 2 years agor Rich & Tass put up a prefab timber frame, 2-storey house and in filled the walls with mud bricks. Rich is still busy with the mud bricks on some of the external walls and Tass is working on a mosaic tile design in the bathroom. They have used many recycled materials including doors. One composting toilet has been installed and another is in the process of being built, with no moving parts - 2 chambers are alternated every 6 months or so.
This is another great chance to see a mud brick house in progress.
Ian & Maya
A totally unique structure with many fascinating features. The house is a 2-storey octagonal pole frame using bought, home-milled and salvaged timber from the property is used extensively inside for lining and furniture. Passive solar & wood insulation, combined with half stone & half raised timber floor make the house easy to heat and cool. Three different water heating systems are in place - solar, wood stove & a jacket within the flue of the wood heater - to ensure there is always hot water. Ian's passion is the garden and surrounding regenerated rainforest. Ian has a nursery and provides design and consultation for creating your own garden, with emphasis on perennial foods and medicinal plants.
To Purchase Tour Booklets
For the first time we are offering 2 alternative ways to go on the tour:
1.Self drive for the 2 days around the houses and gardens you have chosen to see. Cost: $50 per car (i.e. one book per car)
2.Take the coach! Be driven in the comfort of a 21-seat coach. Cost: $40 per book + $2 postage - SATURDAY ONLY! Cost includes a tour book, picnic lunch on both days and of course the hassle free way of getting to the houses. Bookings are essential prior to the weekend and the houses visited will be predetermined before the day.
To purchase your book or book the bus, please send a cheque or money order to: Tallowood School, 220 Bellingen Road, Bowraville NSW 2449 If there are any books left these will be available Tallowood School on the weekend Please remember, books are limited and to get the most out of the weekend, we really recommend that you get in early!
For further enquiries regarding any aspect of the tour, please contact: Tour Coordinator Niome Lawler Phone: (02) 6564 7948
Email: niomelawler@aol.com or Tallowood School Phone/Fax: (02) 6564 7619
Email: tallowood_school@yahoo.com.au or the old address - tallow@nor.com.au
Enjoy Your Weekend!
Hand-Made Houses and Gardens Tour
tallowood_school@yahoo.com.au
(old)tallow@nor.com.au
