A farming family in rural New South Wales have given Australia a rare look inside their unique 10-story house after an intrigued passerby’s video of the high-rise went viral.
The stunned stranger, who captured the footage from the main road, asked if they had just spotted an apartment building in the bush. The clip attracted over a million views, and the attention of the family who actually live there.
The “Girvan Tower” on Girvan Estate is believed to be the tallest private residence in the country and was built for the late Peter Grey over six years in the 1990s.
Andrea and Andrew Evans bought the estate for $779,204 USD in 2012, which was reportedly significantly less than the house cost to build.
The family now run Vast Harvest Permaculture – a completely self-sustainable food forest and orchard – across 400 acres.
James Evans, 21, told news.com.au they had been reluctant to show off the 10-story house on their own social media because they wanted to keep the focus on permaculture, but when a stranger’s video went viral, they changed their mind.
“Everyone was saying it’s a hotel and this and that, so [I thought] I may as well clarify the facts,” James said.
Another reason the Evans’ were hesitant to do a full house tour before now was to avoid people making the assumption that a 10-story house meant the family was sitting back and living a life of luxury.
“We’re nothing fancy. I drive an old HiLux and even if I had the money to buy a Lamborghini I wouldn’t, I would spend it on something that’s beneficial for the community and all of us because that is what we believe in,” James said.
The ground floor has the original red carpet, chandelier and pool, while the first floor, which is also treated as a “storage level,” has some gym equipment and what was an outdoor tennis court.
The third floor is James’ living area and bedroom, and the fourth floor is his younger brother Drew and his fiancee’s space. Both James and Drew are renovating their own levels.
The fifth floor is where the family’s kitchen is located, the sixth floor has the lounge room, as well as food storage, and the seventh floor is the parents’ room. Level eight is the office and level nine (or the tenth story) is the rooftop with an “observation deck”.
There are incredible views of surrounding farmland, all the way to Newcastle and the ocean on the horizon.
While the 10-story building is not apartments like many assume, the second floor has been recently renovated with the intention of being listed as a short term holiday rental on Airbnb “very soon”.
The Vast Harvest Permaculture business is not new to tourism. The family offer paid tours to visitors, including guided walks and tastings through the “food forest” and a farm-to-table meal. They also run workshops that include building birdhouses, cultivating mushrooms, and learning the permaculture technique of building swales on contour.
But they are ready to expand their offering by opening up a floor in their house to guests, building two additional tiny houses for accommodation, and starting buggy and horseback rides – with the goal of reaching more people to educate on self-sufficient living and healthy eating.
James said the best part about the unusual house was getting their own space, given the family work and live together.
“My dad is 60 and he works his butt off. I try and get him to go on holidays and he refuses to. He is like me, a homebody,” James said.
“I think I left this 20-minute area once in the last four months and that was yesterday.”
James says it’s not the 10-story house but their 24 mile food forest that deserves the hype. It has jack fruit, the largest tree fruit, and 15 different varieties of mangoes.
“Instead of it [the forest] producing inedible plants, it’s all edible plants. It’s something that doesn’t need human hands. It’s basically the Garden of Eden or Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory because everything is edible that you see around you,” he said.
“Some things obviously do need to be cooked like elderberries and things like that but it is designed to be a living garden that looks after itself.
“We let the bottom third of the fruit on the tree drop, we take the middle third, and the top third goes to the animals and the birds.”
Those animals are pigs, chickens and ducks. The family also mill their own timber on the property.
James plans to one day take over the farm and business, and never leave.
“I don’t just want my kids here and my brother’s kids here, I want my grandkids and great grandkids, all the kids here and build a future generation of sustainability,” he said.
The full house tour is available on Vast Harvest Permaculture’s YouTube channel.
