Decentralised development: the Ecovillage at Currumbin

Abstract

The Ecovillage at Currumbin is a 144 lot development in the Gold Coast hinterland which employs a range of strategies to enhance the sustainability of the community. All the water was supplied by a combination of large (= 20 kL) rainwater tanks and recycled water from a clusterscale sewage treatment/water reclamation plant. Despite the high specific energy use of the household scale rainwater pumps, the overall household electricity use was less than a third of that of an average Qld home. This factor reduced to a sixth when total energy (electricity and gas) was compared between housing types Energy use of the sewage treatment and reclamation plant was = 1.1 kWh/kL, less than that of an equivalent centralised plant (e.g. Pimpama Coomera) reflecting the low energy systems used to reduce organic load (septic tanks, recirculating textile filter). With some minor optimisation, we believe the Ecovillage could be the first mainstream energy and water neutral community in Australia