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00:03I was just wondering would you like some poetry I would love some poetry all right so I'm going
00:09to drop the word about the turd from the first to the third to the beast of the bird and
00:13how
00:13absurd for our sons and daughters that we keep on flushing our turds in their water it's a toilet
00:20I'm MC Fisi and that's my C rap MC Fisi that was amazing they're a bit different in El Dorado
00:31this time back roads heads up the highway to Victoria's northeast goldfields the little
00:41town of El Dorado is big on charm and community spirit
00:48but don't let that fool you scratch beneath the surface and you'll find some pretty radical ideas
00:56like recycling human waste it's a hot one yeah
01:02and living in haystacks that's good hun or even teepees they thought oh god here comes the hippies
01:16I'm Mif Warhurst and I'm here to find out what makes this town of El Dorado so different I'm looking
01:22forward to getting my hands dirty and seeing how the dream of alternative living keeps the lights on
01:45there's gold in them there hills or at least there used to be El Dorado was built during the gold
01:53rush
01:53we might have to go over a bit hun but these days a new breed of pioneer is calling the
01:59area home
02:02I'm on my way to meet a couple of them on a small farm just outside town
02:08beautiful look at that like a bolt one that's fantastic perfect
02:20hello you two hey Mif what on earth is going on here well we're building a house out of straw
02:27do you
02:27want to come have a look I would love to thank you this is the steel structure wow Sam and
02:34Katrina
02:34Anderson are self-building their dream home and like the first little pig they're finding that
02:41building with straw has its challenges we're not anxious but we have to get it done before the rain
02:47comes and the the mice and the my rodents in yeah why straw I just love the idea of living
02:55in
02:55something so natural and the insulation values of straw is just extraordinary the walls are made of
03:05jumbo straw bales not the little ones you usually see once they're rendered they'll be almost a meter
03:12thick long-term this will be so beneficial for not only us but for other people coming into our home
03:20they'll be able to see how sustainable and and how cool it is during summer and how warm it is
03:25during winter and that the heating and cooling bills will just be zip it's all part of a dream to
03:32tread
03:32on the earth lightly while being as self-sufficient as possible too easy right now we've got the solar
03:39panels on the shed so we are feeding into the grid eventually we'd like to get our own batteries and
03:46just
03:46be completely self-sufficient we have water here we'll have a big tank from the roof and there is
03:55something about living that way that I really love and it's a dream that's becoming more popular in
04:01these parts we do have a lot of eco-minded people in the community a lot of our friends who
04:07have got
04:07to know they're sort of quite alternative in their building I love this idea because I grew up in some
04:13really interesting houses for some part of it we lived in a tram a converted tram and then we built
04:20our own mud brick house so the straws very familiar because we used to mix the straw into the mud
04:25and we
04:25all made the bricks as kids and it was such a fun thing to do and I really genuinely think
04:30it's had a
04:31huge impact on what I've done with my work and you know how I've lived I want to see things
04:36come alive
04:36yeah fantastic yeah for Sam building is just a sideline his main gig is sculpture well this is
04:50brilliant this was definitely a fun piece to make so much recycled materials on this got the old tractor
04:57seat yep even got the old padlock from the grandfather's old farm love it we'll love it
05:07what got you started doing sculptures basically I had a motorbike accident and nothing like a near
05:15death experience to cement basically what you want to do in life prior to his accident in 2005 Sam had
05:23been making his living as a freelance shearer fencer and farm laborer I had a car go through a stop
05:31sign
05:31and ended up with in hospital for a little bit and an orthopedic brace for six months and then and
05:38then
05:38yeah so I obviously physically wasn't able to do the the physical work anymore which was required in the
05:44farming industry and so that's what you know helped my transition into art I was getting a little bit down
05:52on
05:52myself but I thought well why don't I just make a sculpture so I run my shoe my grandfather's old
05:58steel dump and saw some lovely shapes in the recycled materials and ended up making a goanna and then I
06:04decided oh I'll see if I can sell it and obviously was requiring an income and took it to a
06:10local
06:11gallery and it was sold in less time than it took to make this gives me the motivation get up
06:16every
06:16morning and get stuck into it it's that classic statement isn't it from the worst of times comes
06:21yeah I haven't looked back since
06:29in the 20 years since then Sam's art career has gone from strength to strength
06:37been able to recycle is probably one of the main drives for me being an artist we're at a point
06:44of
06:44time where we need to be thinking about recycling all the time and I feel like I'm doing my little
06:50part
06:50for the earth and also it's helping me out too with the all these beautiful shapes that I use in
06:56my
06:56sculptures he's now created over a hundred sculptures from recycled materials some of
07:03which he keeps here on his property wow this is impressive it's huge yeah it's huge all right the
07:10humpback whale it's made from heaps of recycled materials we've got some nuts and bolts as the
07:17barnacles and as you move to the eye that's actually made out of toe balls you've made something
07:23beautiful out of other people's trash really haven't you yeah basically yeah yeah oh it's very impressive
07:29wonderful Sam now plans to open the sculpture park to share his artwork and his message with the community
07:43I'm loving how Sam's embracing a modern interpretation of your nan's favorite saying waste not whatnot
07:53next stop off-grid living festival where Sam reckons I'll meet more locals looking to live sustainably
08:06the off-grid living festival was born in Eldorado in 2018 it's grown so large that the organizers have
08:14had to move it to bigger grounds half an hour down the road while these days some country fairs find
08:21it
08:21hard to draw a crowd off-grid attract thousands the person behind this shindig is Eldorado's own Kate Nottingham
08:36how are you going congratulations Kate this is amazing thank you yes it was all about from the beginning
08:42inspiring people to live more sustainably and with the off-grid theme so it could be off-grid power it
08:47could be off-grid
08:48water or it could be off-grid thinking you know like health and well-being taking your power into
08:53your own hands so ways that you can live greener we wanted to present sustainability in a fun way
08:58so often it's presented in a bit of a doom and gloom way and we wanted to show people that
09:03actually
09:03the future's pretty bright if we're all doing the right thing together Kate and her husband Ralph
09:09moved to Eldorado in 2014 after falling in love with a bush block we had gone from living in the
09:16city
09:17to really living in the country and with nothing we had a little bit of shelter but we really had
09:23to
09:23start everything from scratch and we ended up getting a big teepee to live in so we were living
09:28in there for a year and no power outdoor toilet outdoor shower and just a bed and an open fire
09:35in the
09:35teepee we loved it so much and we felt that we we loved the freedom and the happiness that it
09:41brought us
09:42that we really wanted to start sharing that with others and we started opening up the farm for
09:47workshops where people could come and get together and we would bring in other people to facilitate
09:51the learning those humble workshops were the seed that grew into today's off-grid living festival
09:59how did the locals take to you turning up and and living in a teepee holding sustainability
10:05workshop yeah I think at first they saw the teepee and they thought oh god here comes the hippies kind
10:11of thing but then Ralph and I made an effort to go to the local pub and meet everyone and
10:16pretty soon
10:16they realized we're you know fairly normal we had people offering us to borrow their tractors and
10:23showing us how you know those kind of mechanical things work and we had lots of people wanting to
10:27share their food and produce with us and I just love that small town vibe where everybody sort of knows
10:34each other and supports each other you found your people yeah we did yeah and your place and our
10:55love it
10:57love it
11:10I'm having a blast, but for me, there's one thing that can make or break a festival experience,
11:16and that is the Dunnies.
11:23As far as festival toilets go, this is a Rolls Royce.
11:26Excuse-ah.
11:30Unlike many festival toilets, these ones have nice pictures and, I'm happy to report, very little offensive smell,
11:38which means satisfied patrons.
11:42I'm told the man responsible for curating this pleasant experience is Hamish Skermer.
11:48Hamish, I hear you're the person behind these amazing looms.
11:52Yes, I am, yes.
11:53We like to make them look good as well as feel good and smell good, so yeah.
11:56What was the inspiration?
11:58For making these toilets, giving people dignity at events.
12:02I've been running my own event for many, many years, and that was it, is that portaloos don't give you
12:08that experience of good times.
12:09And I did environmental science as a student, and this just brought it all together.
12:14Events, science, composting loos, changing the world from the bottom up.
12:19What are the features of these loos?
12:21Well, I think the first feature is that we don't use any water or chemicals, and we make them clean.
12:26They're green.
12:27They're 100% compostable.
12:29We're turning the nutrients back to organic compost, and we hope to grow food with it.
12:34Oh, my God.
12:37Food?
12:38I've got to find out more.
12:40So Hamish has invited me to his family's block on the outskirts of El Dorado for a little lesson in
12:47environmental science.
12:49Long range shot.
12:51Oh!
12:59Anyone who's got a garden understands that the gardener or the farmer with the most manure wins.
13:06It's the ancient rule of life, and soil development in Australia, if you don't have manure, you're behind the eight
13:13ball.
13:14But people are a bit weird about human poo being put on the garden.
13:17Why is that?
13:18Is it because we haven't treated it properly?
13:20Well, yeah, I think largely, like, there's a really good reason why your bum hole and your mouth is separated.
13:27And that is because we're not supposed to eat turds.
13:31And I'm all up for no turd burgers.
13:34Like, I'll never put it on the menu.
13:36Well, that's a relief.
13:38Hamish's toilets rely on natural composting processes that kill harmful pathogens and break the effluent down into safe organic material.
13:47So, it's just accepting that we're part of ecology, not separate to it.
13:53Hamish and his family run a successful music festival on this property called Folk, Rhythm and Life.
13:59And it was that experience that led him to his pu-reka moment.
14:04Well, this is where it all started.
14:07This is the ground zero of the ablution revolution.
14:11Oh, my God.
14:11Where composting is a solution.
14:13This is the first festival composting toilet system in the world.
14:18Wow.
14:18There was no other festival to have 100% compost toilets.
14:22We built it over a few days with my dad and my brothers and some friends.
14:27And we really knew that what we had done was going to have local, national, international significance.
14:33Hamish created packable, portable toilets and started a business called The Natural Event.
14:40Pretty soon, his dunnies were gracing festivals across Australia.
14:45That's the saying, you can't polish a turd into a diamond.
14:48I'm like, well, you can.
14:49These are the sorts of nuggets I like finding.
14:53His next step was to take his simple technology overseas.
14:58So far, he has serviced some 480 festivals across 13 countries, including over 1,000 toilets at Glastonbury.
15:08He now claims to possess the largest pile of human excrement in the world, a mountain in the UK of
15:16some 350 tonne.
15:18Which begs the question, what happens to all that poo?
15:24So here's the pile of aged, matured, cooled compost myth.
15:31Yeah.
15:32This is an amalgamation of both our festivals, toilets and other events that we've done.
15:38And I'll just dig out a little bit.
15:39Yeah.
15:41Okay, so you can see that there's no definition.
15:44No smell.
15:45Well, there's earthy smell.
15:46Yeah.
15:47But that's it.
15:48And it's really just like any other matured, properly made compost pile.
15:53Yeah.
15:54Looks like any other mulch.
15:55Now, be game.
15:56Just feel that, because I want you to feel the temperature.
15:58See how it's a bit warm.
15:59It's a hot one.
16:00Yeah.
16:02But it's not a steamer.
16:04Not a steamer.
16:05No.
16:05No longer.
16:06No longer a steamer.
16:07Was a steamer.
16:07Ex-steamer.
16:08Ex-steamer.
16:09Oh, I love it.
16:09So, to me, it really is nine-tenths of it's in your mind.
16:13It used to be banana, then it was a turd, then we've composted, and now we're going to make basil.
16:23These days, Hamish's focus has changed to helping out communities in need around the world.
16:29The thing that does inspire me is taking this really simple technology into places where community members are actually affected,
16:38both in health and in happiness, with a constant lack of good sanitation.
16:442.6 billion people don't have toilets, where sanitation is a real impact on their health.
16:52Today, Hamish's passion is seeing how composting toilets can help at-risk communities and disaster zones.
16:59And look, the basics are this.
17:01Less transport, less chemicals, less water, more chance that the nutrients can return to the soil profile and potentially grow
17:11food.
17:12Hamish, you have changed my perspective on how we deal with human poo.
17:16Thanks.
17:16It's wild.
17:17Yeah.
17:18The next time you're at a festival, having a crap, think of me.
17:24Yeah.
17:26Oh, my God, yes.
17:31It seems that turning trash into treasure is a way of life in El Dorado.
17:45Every month, the local community runs a food share day.
17:49I've arrived just in time to check it out.
17:52And I haven't come empty-handed.
18:15Hello, Sue.
18:16How are you going?
18:17Me.
18:17Hello.
18:18Lovely to see you.
18:19Lovely to see you, too.
18:21Look at this incredible produce.
18:22Absolutely wonderful.
18:24Some amazing items today.
18:26Look, I brought some things.
18:27Brilliant.
18:27Some lemons and limes for you.
18:29I love it.
18:30Sue Phillips is a doyen of El Dorado.
18:33She's been helping out with food share for years.
18:37What is food share?
18:39Well, food share is the opportunity to bring people together, bring along their own produce that they grow in their
18:45own gardens.
18:46If they have excess, it's there for people to take.
18:49If they come along and they don't have those items in their house, they can actually come along and take
18:54whatever they like.
18:56You don't have to bring stuff to take stuff.
18:59It's all free.
19:00And it's a wonderful opportunity to get community together and chat and join in with one another and be supportive.
19:07It's an event, isn't it?
19:09It's amazing.
19:09For the town.
19:10It's great.
19:10It's an amazing little event each time.
19:13El Dorado isn't how to go.
19:16Not the kind that can be born or so.
19:19I'm loving how this unwanted produce is being turned into the chance to share and the chance to hang out
19:26together.
19:30Is food share an indication that the community is interested in ecology?
19:36Yes, people make sure that they don't have to send their food to waste.
19:41It's there for other people to use.
19:43If there are items that really can't be used, people will take them home and compost them.
19:47And we do encourage people not to use plastic bags.
19:50If we can, we're into paper bags and that sort of stuff as well.
19:54Yeah.
19:54I brought a plastic bag.
20:02Food share is also an opportunity for local community groups to raise much needed funds through sausage sizzles and cake
20:10stalls.
20:11The generosity in the community just touches my heart.
20:17It's just beautiful.
20:20El Dorado is golden.
20:23It's the place that just right.
20:36I'm keen to find out more about El Dorado's golden history, so I'm checking out the local museum.
20:43Welcome to the El Dorado schoolhouse and museum these days.
20:48What an amazing old building.
20:50And look who's here, my new best friend, Sue, who also just happens to be president of the Museum Association.
20:59So this is the main story about the gold mining history in here.
21:04When did the gold rush start here?
21:06About 1850, they did initially first find gold, but they didn't start mining it until about 1857.
21:13That's when the mining companies actually started to go in and do deep lead mining.
21:19And at that time then, the population started to build.
21:24And you can tell that because of the number of pubs that actually ended up being here.
21:30There were around 10 pubs, three newspapers, banks, butchers, general stores and blacksmiths in this bustling little town.
21:39But gold production dwindled in the 1870s and so too did the population.
21:46Today, just 382 people call El Dorado home.
21:51Only one pub remains and it also serves as both a post office and general store.
22:00These days, a new generation is moving into the area, drawn by its charms and the chance to live closer
22:08to nature.
22:20Andy Pye is one of those tree changers.
22:25He and his young family moved to El Dorado in 2021.
22:30Oh, well done.
22:33I just wanted to kind of deprive the kids of a fast life, really, and just give them the space
22:40to breathe, space to play.
22:44It sort of worked out really well, to be honest, because when we lived in the city,
22:49there'd be no way that the kids would just be, like, spending hours in nature and be fine with it.
22:56But just naturally, over time, it's just become the norm.
23:03Good job.
23:05Why El Dorado?
23:27Andy is a well-known painter, renowned for his landscapes.
23:31He's represented by a gallery in downtown Sydney, but likes to paint out in the bush.
23:39Today, he's in the hills just outside El Dorado and has very kindly invited me along.
23:49I don't know what I'm doing.
23:53It's a good start.
23:54I've never painted with oils.
23:57Really?
23:57No.
23:58OK.
23:59Isn't that weird?
24:00Like, my dad was a painter, but I never painted in oils myself.
24:02Your old man was a painter?
24:04Yeah.
24:04He loves it.
24:06I think it's the only thing that keeps him sane, to be honest.
24:11There's something tremendously freeing about being out in the elements and just creating.
24:16This is so fun.
24:18I can see why it appeals so much to both my dad and Andy.
24:23You get yourself stuck very quickly in a studio.
24:28Yep.
24:28And you miss the interaction.
24:32I can be painting one moment and it might rain a little bit, just a little bit on a hot
24:39day.
24:40And that tree in front of you will actually go pink in front of your eyes, you know, pinkish purple.
24:45Now, if you're in a city painting and you're not exposing your creative mind to the landscape on a regular
24:52basis,
24:53you're going to forget those things.
24:55You're going to miss them.
24:58How do you think your work's changed since you've been here?
25:02In the city, I felt like I was just creating the same picture over and over again.
25:07So now that I'm here, I've been able to just freely experiment.
25:13And that can do strange and interesting things to the pictures.
25:17I feel like for the first time, I don't have to think about the bush from a distance.
25:23I can be in it and I can observe it and let it fuel me on a daily basis.
25:31All right.
25:31All righty.
25:32Andy, this is awesome.
25:34Oh, stop.
25:35It's excellent.
25:36I love it.
25:37I love it.
25:37It's free.
25:41It's beautiful.
25:42I love those pinks in the back.
25:44Oh, thank you.
25:45I'm really happy though.
25:46Like, it's been, it's been the best thing ever.
25:49I can't wipe the smile off my back.
25:51Thanks for visiting.
25:52Thanks for, thanks for visiting.
25:53Thanks for taking me out here in this beautiful landscape.
25:55Anytime, Mith.
25:56Can I be an artist now?
25:58Can I?
25:58You are an artist.
25:58Can I pretend?
25:59You are a real artist right now.
26:12My time in this special part of the world is just about done, but I'm going out with
26:17a bang at the off-grid festival parade.
26:27I've had such a good time here in El Dorado.
26:29I've learned that it's a little town with big ideas.
26:33Some of them are spreading across the globe.
26:36I was bold enough to feel as though we could take it from our little patch here in El Dorado
26:42to the world.
26:44The dunnies that change the world.
26:46Yeah.
26:46I love it.
26:47Yeah.
26:48And some are bringing the world to El Dorado.
26:52It's bringing something new to the town and lots of tourists that come from all over Australia,
26:56so that's really exciting for a small town.
26:58Yeah.
27:00I've learned mostly, though, that you can be doing good for the world and for your community,
27:05but you can also have a good time doing it.
27:22Next time, I'm meeting the Shearers, a skill that supercharged Australia.
27:30The good old days, the best thing about the good old days, they're gone.
27:34I'm here to find out what's changed in a world where many now pursue careers.
27:39Teamwork makes the dream work.
27:41And some chase world records.
27:44So it's just a continuous pain barrier you've got to try and get through,
27:48and you just can't let it defeat you.
27:50The good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days,
27:51the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days,
27:53the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days,
27:55the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days,
27:55the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days,
27:56the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days,
27:56the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days,
27:56the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days,
27:56the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the good old days, the
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