Castlemaine

Just 30 minutes' drive away from the city of Bendigo is a tiny, artistic town called Castlemaine. I do not know much about the history of the town, but we deduced that like many regional Victorian cities it has someting to do with gold.

The reason we love Castlemaine is because of its proximity, and the people that calls Castlemaine home. They are a rather distinct community, in our humble opinions. I do not speak for all of them but they are more likely than not to sport hand-made linen, knitted shawls and colourful woolen caps or socks. They have a general preference for organic stuff. Most of them are vegetarians, if not vegans. This does not mean that they have an aversion to smoking weird & wonderful things.

They are well-versed in arts and crafts, many of them painters or scultptures themselves. Another distinctive feature is that they are quite the environmentalists. Not the Prius-driving type but the bike-riding, jog-to-work kind. But of course, this is all just a generalization on my part.

Recently, the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group organized an 'Open House Day' for visitors & enthusiasts alike to explore houses that features sustainable designs. It was a 1-day event that took place in Castlemaine. A total of 6 houses opened their doors and personal lives for us to scrutinize over their homes. Every house is unique and every stop we make, my wish list expands. Below are a couple of features which I think is worth spending money on / really interesting to have (in Victoria): -

Double Glazing

Have you been in a double glazed / triple glazed home? You would notice the difference immediately! Double glazing, to put it simply, is basically having two panes of glazing with an air space in between. It provides insulation for thermal and acoustic purposes. The winters here are quite chilly, and sometimes, unbearable (for a malaysian). Double glazing is definately a sound investment as at the end of the day, good insulation will help save your electricity + gas bill.

small horizontal double glazed windows in attic bedroom

North-facing glazing

One golden rule with designing homes around this region is maximizing North-facing windows / glazing. This is mainly to fully utilize the winter sun & daylight during the cold months.

Minimizing West-side windows

That was the external elevation of the house that caught our eyes. They have minimal openings on the side that I presume, is facing the West. But the main reason for this image was that D loved this facade, with the simple timber strips outlining the very basic form of a farm barnhouse. Which also brings us to the next point, Deep Overhangs.

rear of house - openings in the overhangs

We missed the deep overhangs / verandahs that tended to appear in tropical houses. Here in Victoria, they seemed to do away with the eaves. However, deep eaves / overhangs are really essential as an effective sun-shading devise, keeping the sun away from the house's internal spaces. Also a deep overhang may create a sort of in-between space, neither inside nor outside, like a verandah, or a shaded corridor.

their spartan kitchen

I think this Kitchen is really cute, small and unpretentious for a family home, although I may disagree with the colour scheme. However, I believe it is very functional and uncompromising despite its size.

rear elevation

I believe this is the North Elevation where they set out their courtyard. This image shows another must-have item (which are already enforced in the local regulations anyway) which is the solar panels. In addition to that, I really like their timber sleepers planter boxes. They look so rustic and I imagine they could be repositioned to suit the weather too. Pretty Nifty.

bathroom overlooking external area

Bathrooms / toilets with transparent walls used to be a trendy addition, and probably still is. Don't really fancy that.

Bedroom overlooking bushland

One of the timber columns looked like it came straight from the bushland itself. And private quarters (except for toilets!) facing a public realm has its own romantic notions, I think.

Laundry in the air

Lastly, this convenient, yet unconventional method of drying your clothes. Some of the houses have the luxury of a high, pitched ceiling. They usually install a laundry horse on a pulley system that utilizes the attic space to dry the clothes. The hot air that gathers round the high ceilings dry the clothes in no time at all. Space saving & convenient, yes, but rather unsightly?

Other features that I didn't have much time to dwell on are thick strawbale walls, mudbrick houses, compost bins, pot-belly heaters, rainwater tanks, etc., etc. are worth having a look. But the shock of the day was discovering one well-meaning greenie who went so far as to install a compost toilet inside his lovely home. Looks good, sounds great, smells like a million dollars ... worth of garbage. (No, I did not take a photo of that.)

Hatchery

Some time ago, D was seduced by the idea of having free range eggs. And so, he designed and built a chicken coop. It was not to be any ordinary coop for it must satisfy certain BCA (Best Chicken Aviary and Building Code of Australia) requirements.

eksoskeleton


D went on to create a hatching-indusive environment, cosy, fox / snake-free and mobile timber coop. It was framed out of plywood and timber studs.

joints

A right angled triangle was formed by portal frames and this was to protrude an approximate of 3 metres in length, divided into 3 equal parts. It is to remain lightweight as to enable the coop to be a mobile structure.

meals on wheels

Hardy rubber flexible wheels were fixed to the 4 ends of the coop with a timber extension. The mobility was an added on feature so that the occupants could have a different view whenever we feel they deserve it. Everyone gets a little jaded with the same views everyday. D has his own reasons for the wheels, but they are a little too technical for me to be bothered.

enclosure & entry

Of course, it wouldn't just be a skeleton of studs. One third of the coop's main structure is to be enclosed with plywood - for shelter, defence, privacy and the very important task of egg hatching. We have a feeling the chooks may like to lay their eggs away from prying eyes.

elevated apartment

The plywood is laid upon each other with small openings for ventilation and light. The enclosure is totally closed in and elevated from the ground because the chooks deem themselves of upper class society and must therefore not live close to the ground. A small, steep, 1 : 3 graded ramp is provided at the entry for the chooks to come and go from their 'apartment'.

Rear entrance

The rear panel is a hinged opening that allows us to open up the 'apartment' and do some spring cleaning for the occupants. Of course, it is also to enable the egg-collecting task. Inside, a snug box is prepared and the chooks will naturally know that they have to deposit eggs in the box daily. Fresh straw bale is laid throughout the floor of the 'apartment'.

minnaloushe & morrighan

Of course, the star of today's show are the layer hens themselves. They were given sophisticated names but respond exclusively to 'clucketty clucketty cluck' or to the rattling of their food basket. They eat anything from pre-packaged layer pellets, to (in order of favourite), apples, raisins, corn, vegetable offcuts, breadcrumbs, hash browns and insects. They also eat meat but it is best not to feed them with poultry lest it encourages cannibalism.

Morrighan

They are passionate about the rain, they love sand bathing, and they retire to bed as soon as the sun sets, be it 5pm or 8pm. Fortunately for us, we have a pretty amiciable dog who, although loves his KFC, gets along fine with the chooks, if not grudgingly.

close - up

Anyway, the sole purpose of us inviting the ladies to live with us, is for their eggs. How this works, I am unsure, because each and everyone of our visitor have different opinions in regards to the eggs. Some believe that the eggs should not exist without a cockerel. Some believe that if we don't collect the eggs, they will eventually hatch. Some believe there is a chicken-to-be in that egg.

free-range

We believe that as long as there are 2 beautiful round eggs waiting for us every morning, we'll be very, very happy ...