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

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Location

  • Victoria, Australia

Anam Cara Homestead

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

Need
  • Forming Communities
3 weeks ago

Looking for: people building relational capacity, with a view to community

What’s here now: An intention, a framework developed over five years, and a programme running in central Victoria to find people to build with. No land, no group, no timeline. The question this is organised around: What makes a community of people living together sustainable over decades – where people enjoy being there, conflict is low, and the conflict that does arise gets handled in ways people value. The distinctive premise is capacity before formation. Most communities form first and build relational skill afterwards, usually under pressure. This one proposes doing it the other way round: people build the capacities first, and the group forms from people who have them. That includes a working idea about collective capacity – that a group has a ratio, and below some threshold it can’t metabolise its own conflict and starts consuming itself. Roughly: in a group of twenty, perhaps three or four with high capacity, most in the middle, and very few without. Untested, and something this project exists to find out. Governance: Sociocracy, with the intention of testing it meaningfully at scale rather than adopting it nominally. What’s actually happening: A three-week residency at a property near Castlemaine, and a practice group running before it. The medium-term aim is twenty to forty people at a rented facility. The long-term aim is a support hub sharing the framework more widely. What I’m looking for: People who want to build this capacity seriously, and who might eventually want to build something together. Not necessarily people who want to live here – the current property probably isn’t the long-term site. Happy to hear from anyone this resonates with, including people already in community who’d rather share what they’ve learned than join anything.
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
4 weeks ago

Unit C-2, Woodard Lane Cohousing — Olympia, WA

Join Olympia’s first and longest-running cohousing community, in a quiet West Side neighborhood 1.6 miles from downtown, backing onto a forested ravine along Schneider Creek. Unit C-2 offers 1,904 SF. Two stories, 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, and a bonus loft room on the main level. It can be lived in as one spacious family home — or split into two independent living spaces, each with its own kitchen, entrance, and effective soundproofing. Great for multigenerational households, live/work arrangements, or an owner-occupied half with a rented or shared half. Upper level: bedroom, full bath, bonus room with built-in loft bed, and an open kitchen-dining-living area with a deck facing the forest. Lower level: 3 bedrooms, full bath with dual sinks, second full kitchen, laundry room, and a second patio. Features: 2 full kitchens, radiant floor heat, stained concrete floors (bamboo upstairs), double-pane windows, bolted keyed entries at both levels, dedicated laundry, concrete patios facing the ravine, shared parking with 18 EV charging stations.   Ownership includes a Common House with a guest room, full kitchen, gathering space, and kids’ play area; a shared vegetable garden; a wood shop and bike storage; and wooded grounds with a stream path and central Green. Monthly dues are $799, covering all utilities except internet. Established in 2010, Woodard Lane is home to ~40 residents across 18 homes, with shared meals, work parties, and genuine neighborliness. Learn more about Woodard Lane Cohousing  We’re looking for a buyer who wants to participate fully in community life. $630,000. Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or text: 360-789-7587.
Offer
Need

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