Natural Building Workshop/Crash-Course (October 3rd-7th, including the long weekend) hosted by benjamin at @narara.ecovillage, NSW

**Use earlybird discount code EARLYCOBBER valid until 2 weeks before we get building

We are looking for volunteers to learn about and share in the experience of completing some walls in our mostly recycled house. Over the five days we'll be getting the chance to build using the light-straw-clay technique, cobbing in the wattle-and-daub technique and some wall shaping/rendering with either lime (external) or clay renders (internal).

Join us in our journey of building a natural home and get a taste of how (and why) to build insulative and thermal mass walls. In this five day workshop we will come together and complete a few different sections of the house whilst learning about the light-straw-clay and cob-wall building techniques which are low-cost, safe to install, non-toxic and sustainable building solutions. Apart from enjoying the work and camaraderie, there will be opportunities to discuss and learn about other aspects of the build such as building with recycled materials, solar-passive design, water saving and healthy home design choices.

This is an opportunity to immerse yourself in a project with other natural-building enthusiasts and learn how to do it yourself. There is also the possibility to stay in the Ecovillage and enjoy the land, water, fresh air and get a taste of community living.

The exact schedule/timetable for which technique we'll be doing for any particular day will be decided closer to the event and may depend on numbers, resources and weather but i'm envisaging two days of cobbing, two days doing light straw-clay and one day rendering (rendering will be Wednesday). This event is (mostly) undercover and will go ahead rain, hail or shine.

The Hosts: Benjamin is the owner-builder for the project. His professional skills are completely unrelated to building and believes building a healthy home is within most peoples skillset. You can see what we've been up to so far @naturebuildsnarara. Carly (@getgroundedhealth) is a holistic health and nutritional practitioner with a background as a medical doctor specialising in psychiatry.

Dates: Saturday 3 October until Wednesday 7 October, 2026. The working day starts at 8:30am and finishes about 4:30pm. This can be flexible to your needs, but otherwise we appreciate you being on time. If you're camping or staying in the Ecovillage and keen to arrive on the Friday you are more than welcome.

Where to stay: There are local accommodation possibilities including home-stays, hotels and camping at the village. Please let us know if you’d be interested in any of these these options and we’ll put you in touch to arrange. Sorry, but we cannot accommodate dogs or other pets.

Your contribution of $100 for the full 5 days, $70 for the long weekend or $25/day (earlybirds get a 10% discount by using code: EARLYCOBBER - valid until 2 weeks before we get building. Discounts are also available for NEV or NELN members, students and repeat attendees - ask benjamin for the discount code) helps to cover a generous morning tea, good sized shared lunch, snacks, coffee, a selection of foraged and normali’tea(s) and some safety equipment.

Food will be vegetarian and gluten free (but ask us if you need any special arrangements, if too niche we might ask you to BYO). Some safety equipment will be provided but we ask you to bring appropriate footwear, gloves and hearing protection/glasses if you have them.