Miller’s Corner A socially and ecologically sustainable intergenerational co-housing community

We arrived in Mt Barker, South Australia in 1996 and loved the idea and joys of semi-rural living within close proximity to the town.  It was with great pleasure that we bought our house at 2 Dunn Road on a large block with views to a sheep paddock out the back and horses next door.  The house is a handcrafted two-story stone home which the original owner/builders had lovingly built.  Their life circumstances had changed and after a chance meeting with a friend of theirs we visited the property and negotiated the sale within a few hours.

Mount Barker developed around us and we came to realise that our little ‘oasis’ would unlikely remain so unless we found a way to preserve it.  Our fear was that if we sold, a developer would demolish our house to maximise housing density on our land.  Together we agreed that we were best to develop our property ourselves.  We believe in urban design which enables community and we believe in building more sustainable and climate friendly homes, and we therefore decided to demonstrate that designing houses and a housing cluster or suburb can be done differently.  Through conversation with family, friends and many others we formed our vision around a three-fold model of balancing the social, environmental and the financial spheres of our lives.  This let us to our vision of building a social and sustainable intergenerational co-housing community.

Over the last 10 years the project has evolved and grown into what it has become now.  Our first residents have moved in and further buildings are nearing completion (see photos).  With regular meetings we are moving forward with our governance structure and are excited about what the future holds.