CURRENT MISSION

Help create a sustainable (livable for all) world

ABOUT ME

gardener, bush poet, sustainability consultant, environmental designer, film maker

PHILOSOPHY

the earth is my home and my church - we are like fleas on a dog

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Kaya, moorditj maam, moorditj yorga, wandju wandju.
(Noongar for : hello good man, good woman, welcome together).

I am 64 and have a lot of life experience so far.

I run 3 different non-profit organisations from my house :
1. Sustainable Urban Nutrition (SUN) www.sunoz.org.au : an urban food project I prefer that people staying at the house are at least interested in this sort of thing and ideally prepared to participate by helping out (not compulsory).
2. ANTaR WA - we work for 'justice rights and respect for Aboriginal people
3. Secretary of the Australian City Farm and Community Garden Network

This keeps me quite busy so whether I can spend time with CSers depends on what I have on and whether they get involved in what I am doing at the time.

The house is a shared house with most people being younger than me so there is usually someone else here who can help host you as well.

I host people for 3 days which gives them time to get to know Perth and get things like bank accounts, tax file numbers etc organised - after that they can either help around the property or on my projects for an hour a day and/or pay rent.

There is often an empty van available and we have some camping gear as well.

You can check me out on FB (https://www.facebook.com/john.mcbain1 )
and my YouTube site (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMvLJXrYCONFnQnXz823Ggw?view_as=public)
and you can check out SUN at www.sunoz.org.au
Some of the latest SUN media (updated June 2017) :
1. Ale from Argentina, SUN/FUN! https://youtu.be/Y1fJ_GpIcFE
2. How SUN works. https://youtu.be/sqvH6JgP-Uc
3. SUN for Aboriginal communities. https://youtu.be/tsxFTNyeW-A

My address is 188 Canning Highway in South Perth and there are 910 bus route stops at my front gate (stop number 10336 from Fremantle & 10233 from Perth).

For much of the year we have SUN busy bees and bbq on Sundays, starting about 2pm and bbq about SUNset - https://www.couchsurfing.com/events/sun-busy-bee-and-bbq-south-perth

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE
I have never been a CS guest.
I have slept on a few couches in my time, and in places where a worn out flea ridden couch seemed like upper class living.
Now I sleep in a bed and accommodate others.
Have surfed in a yacht thru bass strait in a force 11 storm tho.

Interests

life, living

• dogs
• culture
• design
• dining
• running
• gardening
• yachting
• camping
• communications

Music, Movies, and Books

Mine, mine and mine!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

saw my son born
the sunrise over the Meekong river
eucalptus blossom being eaten by cockatoos and falling on me like rain

Teach, Learn, Share

Australian and Aboriginal culture and language
sustainable living
How to travel safely in Australia
Media of all sorts - I mainly use an iPhone with an external mike for filming/photography.

Countries I’ve Visited

Brazil, Canada, England, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia