The house that Jan built

摘要

I get the feeling Jan Hall is as far removed from the stereotypical seventy-year-old as you can get. Perhaps my perceptions are limited by too much social conditioning, but I don't imagine many women of Jan's age building a functional mud brick home with their own hands. In doing so, Jan has not only created an impressive tribute to sustainable living, but has also saved a degenerated patch of old farmland in Castlemaine and brought it back to a healthy state.rn"Well, it just happened by osmosis really," she says. "I was living in Kerang (in a mud brick house) and I kept coming down to visit my daughter, to help her with the building of her mud brick home over that way." Jan points to a nearby block where her daughter Lisa lives. It was during her trips to Castlemaine that Lisa drew her attention to the disturbed land next door. Excessive sheep-grazing had left the environment in need of rehabilitation and Jan's daughter was disappointed by this.