Last weekend we ran an Aquaponics workshop in the middle of a landfill site. But a landfill site with a difference. Kimbriki is a strange little valley on the north shore of Sydney that is at once apocalyptic and regenerative. It’s a landfill site, it’s a massive composting operation, and it’s a recycling center. With added fish!
The aquaponics setup is within the gardens of the Kimbriki Ecohouse, which sits like a little oasis in the middle of a cataclysm of large machinery, trucks, noise, and the refuse of Australia’s largest city. What a nice place to spend the weekend. No really, it is.
Kimbriki Ecohouse and Garden. 100% recycled everything.
Nick and Ashar checking out the Ecohouse garden. Lots to touch and lots to play with.
Following on from our first Aquaponics workshop in April which produced some great DIY aquaponics system designs, this workshop saw another 24 or so people come from all over to sit down and figure out how to make DIY systems that produced fish and vegies with very little inputs.
Charlie, the head teacher of our workshop, and the brains behind both our Alexandria bathtub aquaponics system, built an aquaponics system for Kimbriki last year, using recycled materials. This build involved a small boat for a growbed and a gorgeous pond in his signature style for the fish.
Both the Kimbriki system and our Alexandria Park aquaponics system features in the above video. It’s a nice little overview of Charlie’s particular approach to aquaponics, re-purposing and recycling materials into beautiful, productive systems full of fish, vegetables and herbs.
Resources
- Install of aquaponics system at Kimbriki Ecohouse (with a boat for a growbed)
- Install of aquaponics at Alexandria Park Community Center (with a bathtub for a growbed)
Thanks once again to Charlie from ecolicious, and also to Pete Rutherford and the team at Kimbriki Ecohouse for inviting us to run an aquaponics workshop in your brand new oasis. Cheers also to Ecofilms for the above video.
I live only 5 mins from Kimbriki and go there almost monthly with E-Waste and vegetation. They have made some massive changes over the years and its no longer the stinky big pile of garbage it used to be.
I have driven past the Ecohouse several times and didn’t realise it was ok to visit. I will take my daughter up there this weekend as it looks gorgeous (and we have more vegetation and E-Waste to drop off.)
Thanks for the post!!
no worries – yeah that’s how we discovered the Ecohouse – we just walked right in! It’s open to everyone anytime (the garden is, at least). A large portion of our tinyhouse at Milkwood is being constructed from Kimbriki’s recycling center 🙂
any comments about fish?
er, ok… fish! they are tops. and tasty too. What do you mean, Iona? The fish in this system are silver perch fingerlings, as outlined in the video…
Kimbriki is my local tip – we’ve been going there as long as I can remember and now my kids love it, even though they can ‘t scavenge like we used to when we were their age 🙁
The EcoHouse and attached gardens are a continuing source of inspiration and ideas (and cuttings if I must be honest!) My kids love the idea of using old dinghies as garden beds – so simple!