Tucked away in a Belmont North cul-de-sac on Awabakal country live Dean Curtis and Natasha Honey.
Their place has been described as many things; an urban permaculture site, event hub and microbrewery, but it's also Dean's childhood home.
His parents, Yvonne and Daryl have lived here for 30 years after moving to the region from Canberra in 1987.
On almost half an acre, Yvonne and Daryl live in the three-bedroom house at the front of the block while Dean and Honey, as Natasha is better known, occupy the caravan out the back.
The Jayco Westport-cum-granny flat - an heirloom of sorts as it originally belonged to Dean's grandparents - is a recent addition.
Along with Bobby the schnoodle, four chickens and hive of honeybees, the four form a household living by the land management principles of permaculture. The property is an interconnected system.
The backyard has a cubby house that's been repurposed as a garden shed. It is surrounded by a food forest of fruit trees and shrubs. At your feet is a ground cover that mimics nature.
There are countless varieties of herbs and vegetables, but it's more than simply a kitchen garden.
"If you're just growing food without thinking about the land as a system, you get imbalances," Dean says.
"We're not just thinking about food, but water, medicinals and human needs like shelter and energy."
Of all the crops, the banana trees are the favourites. The recent bumper banana yield is a testament to the site's design.
"They are doing so well because we've figured out what the land is offering and where the sun will be strongest," Dean says.
Of the many social spaces, Honey's favourite is the caravan porch, which gets the morning sun. From here the garden is in full view, and constantly evolving as new beds appear and seasons change.
In addition to regular public workshops, the family also run Pura Vida Organics, a backyard kombucha operation. Brewed in the back shed using ingredients sourced on site and throughout the neighbourhood, the business also produces apple cider vinegar and fire cider, available online and at select local shops and markets.
After making small batches of kombucha for friends, Dean and Yvonne formed a business partnership in 2016, with the ambition of growing to the point where Yvonne could leave her day job.
As this goal was achieved, Dean went travelling and Daryl stepped in. With his experience running an electronic security business, Daryl brought greater focus and their sales rose.
"He's a bit of a spreadsheets man," Yvonne jokes.
With Dean and Honey returning from overseas in 2020, the family now work together across the entire operation, from harvesting and foraging ingredients, to making deliveries.
With an abundant food crop, solar panels, a rainwater tank and irrigation system for greywater, the household is quite self-reliant. Food waste is fed to their chooks or turned into compost. Neighbours even chip in their lawn clippings.
As close to a closed loop as they may be, Daryl is frank when assessing the role of their business in sustaining the house.
"The loop you can't change is you need cash," he says.
Not only have the four successfully managed to operate a business together, they have done so while cohabitating. This has required a focus on communication and openness.
Living together is managed through scheduled family meetings. With so much going on, the four set aside some time to discuss the business, consider aspects of home life that need to change and celebrate things that have been working well.
Daryl grew up with his grandmother living with him for more than two decades. The family has always embraced intergenerational living. Dean even considers the living arrangements as an extension of permaculture's whole-of-system approach to managing space.
"So much of the focus on permaculture is the visible structure, the land. I'm really interested in the invisible structures, the community," he says.
