Who we are.
We are an association of people who either own lots, have built houses on, rent, or are guests of Community Title (C.T.) or Multiple Occupancy (M.O.) properties around the Northern Rivers of NSW.
Communities have been forming and evolving in our region since the 1970’s. Earlier support groups, focused on issues of importance at the time, such as converting from MO to CT. The NRIC emerged in early 2021 to facilitate discussion of issues affecting communities, to advocate for their continuance and evolution, and to negotiate with relevant authorities as required.
What is an Intentional Community?
An ‘Intentional Community’ is formed by people with a common interest, who intend to live together as a community. The legal structure may be urban, such as co-housing, company, or strata title. If rural, it may be Multiple Occupancy or Community Title.
Typically, an intentional community operates according to a set of legal rules devised by members of the community conforming to State and Local Government requirements, which incoming members agree to follow.
Why Communities
In the past few decades, Community Title and Multiple Occupancy properties have been a bastion of alternative living and a redoubt of ecological/sustainable values. They have made a significant and positive contribution towards:
The provision of affordable & innovative housing for people on low and moderate incomes.
Creating a strong sense of community connectedness, fostering wellbeing resilience.
Protecting and enhancing the environment, with MOs and CTs only permitted on land with marginal agricultural productivity, and conditions of approval requiring biodiversity restoration and regeneration.
Improving health, wellbeing, and quality of life, with housing designed to encourage communal living and maximise the use of remaining land for agriculture, reforestation, or recreation
MOs & CTs in Byron Shire
There are some 60 intentional communities within Byron Shire. They generally fall into the following categories:
MOs: It is estimated fewer than half of the long-standing MOs in the shire did not convert to CT and remain as MOs.
MO2CT: About 25 established MOs embarked on the MO2CT process from 1998. See background to this process below
New CT: CTs in the Byron Shire are a mix of properties where (a) the planning provisions at the time allowed CT immediately, as well as (b) recent projects, where the process inexplicably required a property to attain MO approval and could then immediately apply for CT approval.
MO to CT: Background
When the Byron Rural Settlement Strategy permitted (October 1998), a substantial number of existing approved Multiple Occupancies in the Byron Shire chose to embark on the challenging and costly process of converting to Community Title subdivision.
In a CT, lots have individual title - as opposed to a share of a common title - and are privately owned meaning, amongst other things, that bank finance is available. Members each share the cost and maintenance of the common lot, which, depending on the location and geography, can include the construction of the private internal roadway, power lines, agricultural and/or food growing areas, significant environmental repair and regeneration projects, creeks or rivers, even, in some cases, bridges and farming equipment.
The conversion process
During the conversion process, which, being a pioneering effort took up to 13 years, each converting community was required to update all infrastructure to contemporary Council standards. Buildings, roadways and onsite waste-water systems needed to comply with the latest Australian standards. Each community updated its Neighbourhood Management Statement (NMS) - essentially the by-laws - to comply with NSW State legal requirements, as well as providing an approved Bush Fire Management plan.
Commitment to social and environmental responsibility
Only an enormous investment of time, money, and energy by committed, dedicated community members enabled these communities to obtain ‘Community Title’ status.
To this day, the exemplary environmental repair work on our communities, for instance, has paid dividends in terms of sequestered carbon and soil improvement, not to mention the visual enhancement of the shire.
On the side, residents on Byron Shire CTs have evolved ways of dealing with both internal and external challenges: the “human” interface, facilitating resilience both within communities, and the wider society of which they are part.
All this make Community Titles one of the more socially and environmentally responsible settlement structures in the region.
Lismore City Council has recently inserted enabling mechanisms in their planning provisions to allow MO2CT also. Only a couple of communities have taken up this option so far.