A visit to Pigface Point

An alternative lifestyle educational site

Affluent, industrial consumer society is unsustainable. It is only possible for one-fifth of the world’s people to have that way of life because they are taking and rapidly using up most of the world’s resources. We must move to very different ways. Pigface Point is being developed as an educational site that will introduce people to these themes, especially the existence of workable and attractive alternative ways.

Some of the main themes illustrated at the site are:

· Low dollar and resource living costs per capita.

· Self-sufficiency, do-it-yourself, home-made things, living simply.

· Various alternative technologies, such as windmills, garbage gas, water wheels, solar panels.

· Gardens, animals, poultry, sheep, goats.

· Various arts and crafts.

· “Non-alienated” labour; collapse of the work/leisure distinction.

· The sort of neighbourhood workshop we should have on every suburban block.

· Overlaps; e.g., how the garbage disposal problem can solve the fertiliser problem.

· Environmental connections; ecologically appropriate ways.

· Some Permaculture themes.

· Recycling, using local waste material, scavenging.

· Rough but adequate standards; things that are convenient and functional but not elegant. Cheap and simple things are often quite good enough.

· The crucial importance of local economic self-sufficiency.

· The way neighbourhoods could be redesigned.

· The new economy we must build.

· Above all, to show that the required simple and self-sufficient way of life could be highly interesting and rewarding. Many people mistakenly assume the “limits to growth” case means we must make sacrifices and reduce our “living standards” in order to solve global problems. They do not realise that The Simpler Way could provide a better quality of life than most people experience in affluent society.

Some other things observable:

Two mills driven by river tides, bee hive, mud bricks and earth built animal houses, pelton wheel, 4.5 metre water wheel, teaspoon turbine, home-made windmill on 17 metre tower, an $8,000 house, home-made garden pots and columns, pedal-powered grinder, a 5 ha wetland, landscaped leisure-rich areas, models and displays showing the way ordinary neighbourhoods could be revised and greened to make them highly self-sufficient.

Please note that Pigface Point is not a community. Council zoning permits only two houses on the site. Many projects are incomplete and progress is very slow because all should live, but to have displays, models, etc which point towards the sorts of changes that will have to be made in our settlements, in our economy and in our technologies in order for our society to become sustainable.

How to get there

Parking area is small; please come by train if convenient.

By train

Fast trains take about 26 minutes, leaving Central half hourly. Take the East Hills Line Exit East Hills station on the right hand side, i.e., west side. After leaving the station turn left,i.e~ south. After 50 metres turn tight, to west, into Maclauren Ave. Walk 200inêtres to footbridge over river. Turn right immediately into bush track. 500 metres to Pigface Point. Total walking time from station is approximately 12 minutes.

By car

Either drive to the East Hills side of river and walk over the footbridge, or drive to the site via Canterbury Rd which becomes Newbridge Rd at Sankstown Airport, Milperra. Turn left into Nuwarra Rd. At end, two Kin, turn left into Heathcote Rd. After 3 Km turn left into Sirius Rd, at The Sanctuary estate sign, just after Williams Creek. If using the M5, take Heathcote Rd. exit i.e., South Coast exit.

The visit is on. hail, rain or shine, but if you can’t come let us know so we can notify you when the next one is to be held.

Suggest you bring mosquito repellent, hat, raincoat.

Please arrive on time or you could miss the tour!!

Ted Trainer

C/-Social Work, University of New South Wales

Kensington 2052

PH 02 9385 1871(w) MB 0407 011 149 f.trainer@unsw.edu.au