'They have huge TVs': New generations are moving into communes

Hannah Pearl was born and raised in one of Australia's first and oldest intentional communities.It's a place where people share values and land, and support one another. A commune is a type of intentional community. She loved the experience so much that she is raising her children the same way."I feel very deeply connected to this place, and I would really want my kids to have that same feeling of community," Hannah tells ABC iview's Back Roads.That sense of community, lifelong friendships and immersion in nature are the mainstays, but Hannah's vision for her family differs from the one her mother helped create more than 50 years ago.Hannah's children are the third generation to live at Tuntable Falls. (ABC iview: Back Roads)As the foundational members at the Tuntable Falls Coordination Co-op age, Hannah's generation is forging a new path in the communal living space, ditching the "rough" ways of the past and finding equilibrium.An affordable lifestyleTuntable Falls is one of the many intentional communities that were created in the 1970s in Nimbin, northern NSW, off the back of the Aquarius Festival, started by a group of Sydney university students who wanted to create an Australian version of Woodstock.After the enormous counter-cultural event, people looking to forge a new path bought cheap land from struggling dairy farmers and formed new communities.The 1973 Aquarius Festival brought counter-culture to Nimbin's doorstep. (Supplied: Harry Watson Smith)According to Tuntable Falls, it began with 40 people who pooled their funds and contributed a $200 share to purchase 80 hectares of land.Now, the co-op boasts 687 hectares of land and 280 shareholders, who are residents and members who hold or rent sites.The Lismore City Council says Tuntable Falls is one of 76 intentional communities in the region. Others include Bodhi Farm, Gondwana Sanctuary and Dharmananda.The Tuntable Falls Coordination Co-op consists of farmland and rainforest. (ABC iview: Back Roads)Hannah's mother, Megan James, joined in 1975, paying $200 to own her share of Tuntable Falls."A share is still $200, but there's a $5,000 joining fee on top of that," she says.But with many long-term residents and few dwellings, readily available houses can be hard to come by.Tuntable Falls doesn't just accept anyone; you also need to be a good cultural fit."You have to live here for at least a year, and you have to be vouched for by 10 other people," Megan explains.Intentional living can be a cost-effective arrangement, particularly in the Northern Rivers, where there are ongoing housing and rental shortages. In the Lismore region, the median rental price has risen 8.1 per cent year-on-year and now sits at $670 per week, according to Domain's June 2026 rental report. The median house price in the region is now $695,000, according to Domain's house price report - 12.1 per cent higher than the same time last year.Lifelong commitmentAfter years of living abroad, Hannah returned to Tuntable Falls in 2022 and began building a house on the co-op's shared land."You can get a personal loan, but you can't get a mortgage because you don't own the land. So, if they needed to liquidate, they wouldn't be able to," Hannah says."The older generation, they dealt with that by building tiny little cabins out of whatever they could lay their hands on."Hannah's home is three times the size of her mother's.Before: Megan James's humble abode. . . After: Hannah Pearl's new build.. .Instructions: Use left and right arrow keys to control image transition Before and after imagesSLIDE Megan James's humble abode. / Hannah Pearl's new build."We don't want to live in tiny bush shacks like when we were kids. Sometimes there were no hot showers; you'd swim in the creek, just roughing it a lot," Hannah says."We're not doing it the super hard way."Her mother, Megan, has witnessed this shift in mindset between the generations."It's been a little disappointing in some ways," Megan admits."The younger people are more consumer-minded than we would have hoped. They build bigger houses, they have the internet, they have huge TV screens."Megan James has been an active member of Tuntable Falls for decades. (ABC iview: Back Roads)One longstanding drawcard is the community facilities, many that Megan helped establish in the early 1980s.There is a large community centre, a community hall, a fire shed, a healing centre and a school.Megan James raised her daughter, Hannah Pearl, at Tuntable Falls. (ABC iview: Back Roads)Hannah was a student at the Tuntable Falls Community School, and later worked there as an educator."All the friends that I went to school with, they're all still my friends," Hannah says."I can see my kids are loving it in the exact same ways that I loved it."It's an independent, parent-run early childhood centre and primary school that is guided by the values of environmental sustainability and community.Tuntable Falls community spaces include a school, community centres and fire shed. (ABC iview: Back Roads)Facilities are maintained through funds from an annual levy, Megan explains."It has risen from $50, 50 years ago, to $2,000 now, but you can work off half of that," she says."You get a discount if you pitch in."At her small house near her daughter's, Megan remains committed to living a sustainable life. Her water comes from a spring up the mountain, heating comes from solar power and she even uses a self-made composting toilet.Megan James says she's gone to great lengths to create a sustainable home. (ABC iview: Back Roads)It's important to her to be "self-sufficient", to not be "impacting the Earth in a negative way for my own needs".But Megan says aging is front of mind."A lot of people just slog it out as long as they can and will die at home," Megan says."Other people, if they've got a terminal illness or they're disabled, can use our Tuntable Healing Centre and members of the cooperative can stay there as long as they need to."They then have access to the community nurse, medical services — and they can have a carer stay with them."Despite what her daughter describes as "grumbles" from the older generation at new approaches, Megan knows the next generation holds the future for Tuntable Falls."My generation is dying off […] We really are very open to younger people."Stream Back Roads free on ABC iview or watch Thursdays at 8pm on ABC TV.