A good time was had by all at the wonderful 2008 GreenTECH green build, design and technology show where John Glassford was an invited guest speaker, shows such as these are a terribly important gathering of some of Australia’s greatest ecological minded builders and enthusiasts!

From the GreenTECH website

Thanks to Burkes Backyard for recommending our services!  Thanks also for helping bringing attention to strawbale construction methods.

Burkes Backyard website

……”Seeing this building coming from a nation that has a history of killing local flora and fauna for their immediate needs with no thought for the future is very refreshing”

Aboriginal elder Aunty Norma Shelley

The truth window, displaying a portion of the 300 or so bales sourced from the Leeton area for the project.

(Smithfield MP Ninos Khoshaba, Liverpool MP Paul Lynch, Aunty Norma Shelley, Mayor Nick Lalich and Cr Del Bennett cut the ribbon.)

Some young chaps from James Busby High School play the didge at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

A view form above of the partially constructed straw bale building.

Internal walls, displaying the straw bale design.

A view of the final product…wonderful!

We will continue to update this web site with any relevant straw bale building information that comes to hand. In order to get the best out of visiting our site use the drop downs on the left hand side of the page.  This will give you further areas to research e.g. under workshops you have the following areas to look at:

Here are the members of the class of 100 in front of the Bed and Breakfast Jumbo Bale in Ganmain.

NEW CUSTOM WORKSHOP

Straw Bale Workshop # 103

March 7th - 11th 2009

NUBEENA TASMANIA

We are very happy to announce that we will be back in Tasmania again.  Our client has an exiting community hall to build using our latest methods of erecting walls and the use of render.

Plenty of theory, power point presentations and good discussion assured.

More details as soon as possible.

Sunrise in Tasmania

Valhalla Winery Whagunyah Victoria.

BUILT IN 2007.

Now officially opened see Valhalla web site below:

Valhalla Wines

“With the help of Huff’n'Puff, Graham and her council team set about building the largest community-owned straw bale construction in the southern hemisphere. Named Nalawala, which means to “sit down”, the hall was officially opened in July with an exhibition of children’s art on calico bags.

“It’s one of the most holistic designs for such a small-scale building,” says Graham. “We’ve really looked at everything - energy, water and waste. The insulating factor of the strawbale is terrific so we were able to reduce the need for heating and cooling.”

The hall won Fairfield City Council an environmental award at the Local Government Sustainable Development Conference. And it was not just the walls that merited the honour.”

Straw is generally a waste product and is mostly burnt by farmers, causing carbon dioxide production and hence an increase in greenhouse gases. These gases are responsible for heating up the planet’s atmosphere.

Straw burning causes air pollution through smoke and particulate emission. For example:Every 1 million tons of straw burned releases 56 000 tons of carbon dioxide.

• In the USA 200 million tons of waste straw are produced every year. • Annual straw burning in California alone produces more carbon dioxide and particulate than all the electric power generating plants in the state combined. This air pollution has prompted the California’s Air Resources Board to initiate the process of prohibiting this burning.

California Agricultural Magazine, Vol. 45 #4 (July/Aug 1991)

It is estimated that during one year in New South Wales alone rice farmers burn over 600 000 tonnes of rice straw, releasing 30 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 2 000 tonnes of particulate directly in to the atmosphere. Clearly the potential is enormous • Using strawbales for building could be useful in the effort to control global warming and atmospheric deterioration. • Removal of straw from the rice fields would substantially reduce methane emission from microbial decomposition. • Building with straw could significantly reduce the demand for native timber in houses so prevalent in the timber-consuming construction methods of today. • Strawbale building eradicates the need to use paints and solvents that adversely affect the atmosphere and human health.

A reciprocal roof frame

If you built a conventional home that is one-third the size (say 130 square metres) of the madness described on the ‘Designing and building small’ page, out of conventional unsustainable materials, your building will obviously be far more sustainable. However, if you now choose to build the 130 square metre home from rubble trench footing, earthen floors, strawbale walls rendered with clay, and a roof made from bamboo with recycled corrugated iron, now you are talking.

Now if you decide to build several small pavilions and join them together with covered, and in some cases enclosed, walkways you will be able to use the low cost method of loadbearing strawbale walls. I would suggest that each pavilion is less than 50 square metres each.

You now need to look at what you need from a home. Without the use of a designer or architect you can start to plan your own home without someone else influencing your dream. Once you have established your needs then use a draftsperson or architect to draw up your plans for council approval.