Autumn tree with golden leaves under a clear blue sky at Anam Cara Homestead.

Anam Cara Homestead

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Forming
  • Social
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2019

What we do

Nestled among the mountains of the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Anam Cara is a 50 acre farm that is home to a small group of radical humans living on the land, restoring connection with country, and working to heal both as individuals and as a collective back into right relationship with one another and with the natural world. Our inspiration and style of living draws from the wisdoms of the communities of the Findhorn Foundation, from our Celtic ancestors, from our Indigenous First People’s ancestors and from the living Earth herself. We are also deeply influenced by Vedic philosophy and the Yoga traditions.
Anam Cara is an Irish Gaelic phrase that loosely translates as “soul friend”. The Anam Cara relationship is one of sacred depth, and is founded in connection, authenticity, humility, trust and respect. Here at the homestead we seek to cultivate Anam Cara connections with one another, with our guests, and with all of the creatures, trees and rocks and non-human life that share this beautiful place with us.
Living life immersed in the Australian bush brings us close to the natural forces on a daily basis. We live consciously in rhythm with the cycles, the seasons, and the weather. We practice daily meditations, singing and rituals that restore and uphold our connection with Spirit. We live wide and deep expansive lives at Anam Cara!
Our vision for this community and the homestead is to live in as eco-friendly and sustainable way as is possible whilst co-creating, journeying, and remembering a more harmonious and sacred way of being human.
Anam Cara is a place of healing, growth, visioning and enacting our way out of the predicaments of Modernity. Anam Cara seeks to create a bridge between the old world and the new.

Our Mission

To live in a eco-friendly and sustainable way whilst co-creating, journeying, and remembering a more harmonious and sacred way of being human.

  • Purpose
  • Social
  • Activities
  • Farming
  • Education
  • Experiences
  • Others

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2019
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2023
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 2 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
6

How to join

Anyone seeking residency needs to complete the four Anam Cara Experience Weeks as a prerequisite. This gives you a chance to see whether our lifestyle suits you, and also ensures that all residents have gone through a process of learning certain inter-relating skills by the time they become full residents. This is important because creating community in the modern world is hard! We all come with different agendas and perspectives as well as differing woundings and traumas. When these woundings intersect without skilful holding, heaven can very quickly become hell!
If you have arrived with us via work exchange and decide that you are interested in residency, you would still need to book in for the Experience Weeks at some point in your stay. We also require you to complete our Conscious Relating Retreat. If your long-term guest-ship and temporary residency applications are successful, all of these undertakings can be spread out throughout both of these periods to diffuse the costs.
There are three stages to residency, and in order to begin the residency process, you will need to have stayed with us for a 12 week period – either as an Anam Cara Experience Week guest, a volunteer, or a combination of both. At the end of this period, you will be invited to speak with each existing resident individually, followed by what we call First Attunement.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

We’d love to invite you to be a part of this project. Every guest at Anam Cara is considered a valued co-creator with wisdoms and knowledges to share with us. There are several options available for visiting Anam Cara as detailed on our website.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • Consent-Based (Sociocracy)

Decisions proceed unless someone has a reasoned objection.

Governance structure

  • Sociocratic/Circle-Based

Organized in circles or domains with distributed authority.

Conflict resolution approach

At Anam Cara Homestead we seek to attune to each other in making necessary decisions. In practice, this involves a mix of sociocracy and eldering (see our website for further details).

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Regular fees: $500
Labor: Yes (25 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
At Anam Cara Homestead we work together for about five hours a day five days a week. In addition, we contribute to costs of shared meals. There are no other rental, dues, fees or expenses charged for residents at Anam Cara Homestead.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Swimming pond or pool, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • Approximately all meals

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

Dietary type

  • Vegetarian Only

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Community activities and engagement

  • Transition Town (post-petroleum and off-grid communities.)
  • School, Educational Institute or Experience
  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • WWOOF'ing, Guest Farming
  • Festivals, Conferences, Events

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Substance use occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Mixed adults (few or no children)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a single individual, couple, or Family Trust

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Self-produced energy

  • 33 - 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    48 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Victoria, Australia

Anam Cara Homestead

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
5 days ago

Co-housing Unit For Sale in Portland Oregon

Light-filled 976 sq ft, 3-bedroom, 1-bath end unit in Columbia Ecovillage, Portland’sestablished cohousing community in the Cully neighborhood. With windows onthree sides, this ground-floor home gets natural light all day, even onPortland’s grey ones. The open living and dining area has warm hardwood floors and flows into akitchen with solid wood cabinets and granite counters. The dining roomwindows look straight into a native vine maple — a wall of green from springthrough fall. There’s good storagein the unit, plus an extra storage space in the community storage building.A ductless mini-split provides efficient heating and air conditioning, andthe plumbing was fully replaced in 2026. The primary bedroom has a full-width closet behind a sliding barn door; thesecond bedroom’s closet sits behind a pair of French doors. The thirdbedroom has no closet, which makes it a flexible room — guest room, office,or playroom. Step out the sliding glass door onto your own covered patio, which opens onto the community grounds: organic gardens, personal garden plots,greenhouses, a grape arbor, a bamboo grove, native plantings throughout, andtrees everywhere — including a truly massive old black walnut. The orchard alone is a reason to live here — to name a few:apples, pears, plums, figs, mulberries, chestnuts, walnuts, grapes,blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, in several varieties each. A75,000-gallon rainwater catchment system keeps it all watered through thesummer. Kids have a playhouse, sandbox, small soccer field, a favorite climbingtree, and a parking loop where bikes can circle but cars can’t; adults havea workshop, garden shed, fire pit, quiet space and big community porches. The common hall is the heart of the village: a commercial kitchen anyresident can use, a kids’ play area, pool table and ping pong, and asoapstone stove that burns every winter evening. Residents can reserve it forevents for almost nothing. The historic farmhouse has guest rooms owners canbook for visiting family (about 30 nights a year). Shared laundry rooms(three washers and dryers) come with indoor drying racks and outdoorclotheslines, and there’s a craft room and a trade room where things you nolonger need find a new home next door. Potlucks, communitymeals, work parties, and acres of safe space for kids to roam makethis a rare chance to own a home and a neighborhood at the same time. Built in 1973 and fully remodeled in 2008–09 for energy efficiency and healthy indoor air — metal roof, HardiePlank siding, and standard community-built finishes throughout. Nothing to update, nothing deferred. The $522 monthly HOA coverswater, sewer, and garbage, plus the roof, siding, exterior paint, and allstructural maintenance — and it’s what pays for the grounds, the common hall,and everything else described above. And it’s close in: Cully’s cafés andparks are a short walk or bike ride away, the rest of Portland’s food,music, and neighborhoods are minutes beyond that, and the commute downtownor to the airport is easy by car, bus, or bike – 3.7-acre grounds with organic gardens, personal plots, greenhouses, native plantings, and mature trees (huge black walnut)- Orchard: apples, pears, plums, figs, mulberries, chestnuts, walnuts, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries- 75,000-gallon rainwater catchment feeds the gardens year-round- Workshop, garden shed, fire pit, quiet space, community porches  
Need
  • Forming Communities
2 weeks ago

A call for pioneers, trade-builders, and the four Elemental Elders to construct our first cooperative village prototype.

Intake Open: Flagship WE Network Village in Clubb, MO Call for pioneers, trade-builders, and 4 Elemental Elders to construct our first cooperative village prototype. WE Network is opening ground zero in Clubb, Missouri—our living model to build trade shops and train leadership teams for nationwide village rollout. We are building a self-sustaining, salvaged homestead ecosystem operating as a parallel society alongside existing systems. Bring your own living setup (tents, micro-campers, trucks, schoolies, tiny homes) to secure your lot within the co-op village. The 3×3 Exchange: Mental, Physical, & Spiritual Maintain your lot via our 3×3 exchange (3 hours/day, 3 days/week = 9 hours total): Mental: Classroom teaching, strategy, skill-sharing, and village instruction. Physical: Hands-on labor building active land and shop projects. Spiritual: Participation in our weekly Friday Fellowship Fire Circle. Trade Shops & Lot Placement Every member contributes directly to our local micro-economy: Trade Holders: Set up your specific service shop for the co-op. Transitioning Members: Assigned a trade lot to focus on constructing the physical shop structure. Weekend Operations: Retail open Saturdays and Sundays. Mid-week is reserved for building and life. Priority Intake: The Four Elemental Elders We are recruiting four foundational Elders: Earth Elder: Land, soil, livestock, permaculture, and natural materials. Air Elder: Building structures and Eco Junk waste-to-material upcycling. Fire Elder: Spiritual health, Natural Law, body healing, and Fire Circles. Water Elder: Resource flow, food storage, bookkeeping, and services. How to Apply 👉 Visit fffc.wtf to submit your intake request today.
Need
Offer

Update to a Public Profile

  • Log in
  • Go to your profile page
  • Toggle on the "Add my profile to the directory"
  • Save your profile

Information

Communities

A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

Plus Community Membership

  • Find people with Profile Match
  • Access to your community listing statistics
  • Create Discussion Groups
  • Access to our affiliate program
  • Member badge on your community profile
I am an official member of this community
Disclaimer
I affirm that my information is accurate and I am authorized to manage this listing
Foundation for Intentional Community FIC Member badge logo.

Free Plan

Free Membership
Free

Intentional Advertising

  • Subtotal

    {{ currencyFormat( pricing_summary.total_amount ) }}

Icon representing community connections and collaboration for intentional communities.

Plus Membership

We’re introducing new Plus features — including community reviews, Profile Match, and unlimited Needs & Offers posts — while keeping most of FIC free for everyone. Membership costs less than two coffees a month. 

  • Find communities with Profile Match
  • View detailed reviews about communities
  • Create free listings in Needs & Offers
  • Plus Member resources in CommUniversity
  • View communities detailed reviews
  • Plus Member badge on your profile