Our Land | Our Plans | Site Design | Site History
Our Land
Brougham Street Cohousing acknowledges the custodians of the land on which we will be living, working and playing, the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation.
In April 2021 we secured our beautiful property Brougham St Eltham. Previously a cafe, shop, and landscape design business; it is a stunning 1.6 acre property in the lush green strip of Eltham.
The property originally featured 2 large buildings at the front of the site with reclaimed timber accents, as well as a heritage listed mud-brick cottage and shed. Other features on our site include an array of beautiful trees, and a flood plain to the south of the property containing two small lakes.
The beautiful Diamond Creek is 100 metres down hill from our site. The creek was originally known in Woiwurung Language as “Nillumbik” which may have meant “Red Earth”, “Good Earth”, or “Resting Place” and is now the name of the local area of Nillumbik Council.
Our homes
3d render – our future homes
We are proud to be working with DKO for our architectural design, and Realm Studios for our landscape design. We have a planning permit and are heading towards construction.
Some of our considerations whilst developing these plans have been: using the “Eltham Style” gable roof line as inspiration, reducing development impact by ensuring that new builds have minimal eye line access from the road, keeping as many trees as we can, preserving as much undeveloped land as we can for community enjoyment and environmental preservation.
With this in mind we are aiming to create:
- An intergenerational Cohousing community
- 20 homes for approximately 45 residents plus a shared common house and heritage listed mud brick studio.
- Well designed high quality homes with high environmental performance. We are aiming at NatHERs 7+ stars with Gold Standard Liveability for those who require it.
- A mix of dwelling sizes from 1 beds through to 4 beds
- Homes at cost (targeting a saving of circa 15% less than the market value)
You can watch an 18 minute walk through of our site here.
If you have specific questions or concerns about the project please see our FAQ page.
Site design
From our town planning submission – Oct 2022
Before
After
Note the exact dwelling types and layout design may have adjusted slightly over time.
Front view Fly-through
This 3D render shows the proposed street view of our property, including perimeter parking, and native landscaping.
In alignment with our environmental stewardship values we want to limit our vehicle pathways to keep as many trees as we can. With this in mind we aim to minimise car ownership (potentially exploring carshare options), and focus our vehicle parking to the perimeters reducing invasive driveways on our communal green spaces. Our use of native grasses and trees will obscure street view access to any parking, retaining the bushy Eltham aesthetic we love.
Common Areas
The mud-brick cottage and surrounding garden will remain the central point of our site and will also be common use space available for use by all residents.
We are only building on 30% of our land area. The remaining 70% is held in common through strata title leaving lots of space for open areas, productive gardens and a beautiful cottage garden around the heritage mud brick studio. The common areas also include the studio, our large common house and even a heritage listed mud brick shed.
Dwellings
The dwellings are all townhouse typology and range from four bedroom to single bedroom. Most are three bedroom or two bedroom with a utility room.
The internal floor plans of these dwellings are still being finalised.
Landscaping and gardens
We plan to have a productive veggie garden as well as landscaped community garden space.
The above images are digital renders by our landscape architects REALM Studios.
Site History
Our land is rich with history and we are constantly researching and learning more about our property and the surrounding areas.
Traditional custodians
Brougham Street is located in Naarm, which is the land of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. The local language is Woiwurrung.
“The Wurundjeri People take their name from the Woiwurrung language word ‘ wurun ‘ meaning the Manna Gum ( Eucalyptus viminalis ) which is common along ‘ Birrarung ‘ (Yarra River), and ‘ djeri ‘, the grub which is found in or near the tree.“
Wurundjeri.com.au
Brougham Street Cohousing is privileged to be living on Wurundjeri land and is in communication with local elders. We will be consulting with the Wurundjeri People at various points of our journey.
1894
Above is a beautiful painting by Walter Withers which depicts the bridge across the creek and the land on which we will be living as it was 125 years ago. Our land is immediately behind the cottage in the painting.
Heritage Listed shed and cottage
Our mud-brick cottage and the adjacent shed (pictured above) were built in 1969 by Peter Garner. Peter was in his mid teenage years at the time and from what we understand he went on to build similar structures at Montsalvat artists community. Both the shed and the cottage are deemed historically significant because they are associated with Arthur Munday, Peter Garner, Lenore Garner and the Montsalvat artists’ community.