Jasper Hall Permaculture Farm

Do you want to experience community-inspired living in a stunning hinterland setting?
Jasper Hall is an amazing landscape and community farm in the heart of Upper Coopers Creek, nestled between the Nightcap and Whian Whian National Parks in the Byron Bay hinterland.

The farm was the first in the region and extended all the way to Federal village, which used to be called Jasper.
According to the traditional owners, Jasper Halls’s history extends back to indigenous times when the swimming hole was said to be a birthing place and the big flat a meeting ground for the men.

The essence and the strive however remain and more than ever Jasper hall tries to redefine itself, a process that is ongoing. We intend to learn from the past and apply this gift to our future.

we are a small group of people and families, trying to survive better by living together. Supporting ourselves, growing more food and maintaining our orchards, bamboos and rainforest is a big focus. We are also looking at reintroducing farm animals to complement our organic growth, which is just starting up again.

In the last few years, we have been working on our water supplies (fires and food growing), improving our energy self-sufficiency, sustaining our infrastructure of dwellings and resources and maintaining the farm in general.

It was a tough few years with fires, hail, floods and viruses. But we are still here!


As life goes in circles, so has the farm seen many changes.

FOOD
Currently, there is only one little veggie growing area on the farm. A number of residents are keen to grow more food and we have now additional water from our newly lined farm dam.
We are planning to get it going to feed ourselves well then commercial it.

INFRASTRUCTURE
Our infrastructure is aging but maintained and we have some great dwellings and tools here on the farm.
Resources are organised and plentiful and we have a fantastic workshop, equiped to run the farm and machinery

We are aiming to set up a 8 KwA solar system which will supply most of our energy need around the main house and workshop.

The outbuildings, our geodesic dome and the various other structures sustain a small hamlet and as such we are trying to establish a village hub for our valley.

Another business we are in developing is tiny houses on wheels constructed from our reclaimed timbers and bamboos. We are currently building a big shed for those purposes.

BAMBOOS:
We hold around 100 mature bamboo species which create a buffer between our top 20 acres of agricultural flat land and the 7 gullies which form the Upper Coopers Creek escarpment. On the northern side of the creek are the fabulous Qonding cascades , a huge swimming hole with 7 little cascades.

We are also keen in media projects, website development and community development in general. We have tons of data and good computer systems.

At the moment there are not many people working on the farm and we are clearly in need of manpower. But there is no rush, so step by step we are rebuilding, maintaining, renovating, and slowly expanding and finalising the infrastructure needed to sustain the hub we are creating.

Jasper Halls’ vision is to offer our land and infrastructure to the creation of a village hub, for our group of friends and family and our wider valley community. This is what this place has always been, indigenous and frontier heritage and as of late 25 years of alternate community culture and living together.
Due to Upper Coopers Creek topographic situation and its relative isolation, with only one little road leading into our valley, we endeavour the creation of a “one stop shop community hub”. We aim to provide various goods and services, whilst bringing together a team of professionals and volunteers. Jasper hall tries to attract participants to develop co-ventures like tiny houses building, mechanical repair services, market gardening, bamboo resources and building materials, Venue and workshops, Landcare and Bush regeneration, Market gardening, Nursery services, Food drying

Furthermore we see a need in the valley for coordinated emergency relief work, transport, food and emergency services, care for the young and old…as well as Repair, maintenance and building services.

A big vision, may be you want to be part in it.

Andi Islinger traveled the world, started a farm in the Amazon, lived in an intentional community for 7 years in Nimbin, then started Jasper Hall in 1996 with a few friends. From 2011-2018 he lived in Asia Mod, Andi's wife, originally from Thailand, joined Jasper Hall a few years ago. She is running the day to day logistics and administration as well as organising and coordinating the volunteer aspects. For the past 30 years we have had over 3000 volunteers on our community farm. Jasper Hall is an egalitarian community, based on earth values. Volunteers are part of our extended family, we usually work with them and have fun together.