Our work takes place on Darug & Gungungurra Country. We pay our respects to the Elders in our community who continue to fight for the health and wellbeing of Country and Community. Always Was, Always Will be Aboriginal Land.
Blue Mountains Community Land Trust is a First Nations and Community led organisation working towards secure and affordable housing for local people. We are committed to community led solutions to the housing crisis that enable stability and self-determination for those most marginalised by the housing system.
Photo: Tegan Geelie Rose
Our Purpose
- To steward land for the benefit of both community and Country.
- To provide secure, affordable housing and other community benefits.
- To empower First Nations individuals and communities through self-determination within the Blue Mountains housing sector.
- To nurture the wellbeing of our community through cultural revitalization and First Nations leadership and governance.
Our Values
- We value strong, stable governance and leadership.
- We believe in social justice, and aim to act with compassion, kindness, and integrity.
- We see housing as a human right and are dedicated to participatory action in changing the housing system.
- We have a deep commitment to community led action.
Our Establishment Committee. From Left: Douglas Belton, Julie Nelson, Genevieve Murray, Aunty Carol Cooper, Annabel Murray, Alison Barnes, Anada Jones
Also on the Establishment Committee: Nicole Kelly, Teddy Loveny
Photo: Teddy Loveny
Establishment Committee
Our establishment committee are a dedicated group of local community members and Elders with lived experience of housing precarity and a passion for change.Advisory Committee
Our Advisory Committee are an expert group of Elders, planners, architects, economists, and lawyers. They provide us with expert advice and pro-bono contributions to help with the progress of our organisation.Auspicing
We are generously supported and auspiced by Belong Blue Mountains. Belong provide a meeting space, administative support and a way for people to make tax deductible donations.
Stories are important to our work. The story of Darug and Gundungurra Elder Aunty Carol Cooper is at the heart of our work and should be the starting point, we believe, for how we address the housing crisis. Aunty Carol like other Darug & Gundungurra peoples have experienced dispossession of their homelands, racism and segregation but have also been displaced numerous times on their own Country. The family have had to move from house to house as the racetrack was built or as the roads were widened. This experience sits at the heart of long held vision for housing for her and her community.
Like her, Aunty Pip Smith and Aunty Kerrie Miller, both members of Walanmarra Artist and Friends who passed away in recent years, have stories that inform our work too. Aunty Pip’s artwork and poem are expressions of her lived experience and tells us of the critical importance of housing to our health and wellbeing.
Aunty Kerrie Miller attributes her lived experience of housing precarity as the foundation for her efforts and will to get the Community Land Trust established, knowing too well how housing is fundumental to health and wellebing.
With these stories and histories in mind, the progress of the Community Land Trust has been undertaken in a careful and considered way. Moving at the speed of trust as we call it and in line with Cultural Protocol is critical but takes time but when done right is enriching and empowering for everyone.
How We Began
Grassroots
We convened our first online meeting with Aunty Carol Cooper and Aunty Jacinta Tobin, joined by 20 community members, in 2021. We initially came together with a focus on women's housing but with Aunty Carol’s leadership we expanded our focus to a whole of community approach to housing. Aunty Jacinta underscored the essential role of self-determination and the right of her people to live and move across their Country, shaping our core values.
Community forums and an Australian first in housing policy
In 2022 we formed a committee to progress the establishment of a Community Land Trust and hosted a series of housing forums and public meetings to discuss the crisis and what solutions were available to us. These events built literacy and strong partnerships between the community, local organisations concerned about the housing crisis, local MP’s and Councilors.Blue Mountains Community Land Trust hosted a public forum and documentary film screening in 2022 with Walanmarra Artists & Friends
Working with Government and Community Partners
In 2022 & 2023 we met with local strategic planners and created an inter-agency network to tackle the housing crisis. We advocated to all levels of Government including submissions to key local policy platforms. Our advocacy was influenctial in some key inovations to the Blue Mountains City Council’s Housing Affordability Policy including, in an Australian first for Local Government:- the inclusiong of Darug and Gundungura housing needs as a priority;
- Aboriginal Community Housing Providers to enable Culturally safe and appropraite housing.
- A definition of affordability measured as 30% of household income and affordability that is affordable “into perpetuity”, meaning, forever.
- And the inclusiong of Community Land Trusts as a vehicle for affodordable housing.
Meeting with Council’s Strategic Planning Team. From Left: Prof. Louise Crabtree-Hayes, Aunty Carol Cooper, Genevieve Murray, Prof. Peter Phibbs
Sydney University Partnership
In 2023 we ran a series of co-design workshops with University of Sydney Masters of Architecture students to develop a masterplan for the CLT and understand community needs and how we could facilitate this through the Community Land Trust model. The students walked Country with Elders, Aunty Jacinta Tobin & Aunty Carol Cooper and created a Countermap of Country. They undertook a needs analyses and did a detailed assessment of available surplus land that could be repurposed for the Community Land Trust.Co-Design Workshops:
- Building literacy in the community of what CLT’s could do & how
- Created a framework for how BMCLT could move forward
- Helped us understand how a CLT could be integrated into the existing fabric of the Blue Mountains using surplus land.
A student project by Haziq Ashari for cluster housing co-located with local food production and bush food garden.
Collaboration with Walanmarra
In 2022 we began a collaboration with Walanmarra Artists & Friends, a First Nations women’s art collective who were deeply concerned about the housing crisis. They invited us to speak at Shelter, an exhibition of works by local artists about their experience of housing precarity. Aunty Pip Smith and Aunty Kerrie Miller, members of Walanmarra, were both artists in this exhibition and became an important influence in our formation and direction. They are both Aboriginal women of the stolen generation who worked tirelessly to fight for better housing for their community and who were key members of the BMCLT. They both attribute their lifelong experience of housing precarity as the key contributor to their chronic health conditions. Aunty Pip’s artwork, ‘Another Number, Another Statistic’ (2022) about feeling like just another number, another statistic when dealing with the housing system, and Aunty Kerrie’s Poem ‘Have you Ever’ will form the preamble to our constitution as decided by the community. Aunty Pip passed away in 2023 and Aunty Kerrie Miller in 2024. Both women were influential members of the Community Land Trust who pushed us towards land justice, housing justice and grounded us in a strengths based approach to advocacy and who continue to drive the direction of our organisation. We dedicate our work to them and their families and loved ones.
Research partners: Strategy & Impact
At the end of 2023 we entered into an historic funding and research partnership with RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research and secured a Strategic Impact Fund. The funding enabled us to undertake Indigenous led governance training led by Lisa WIlliams and Aunty Norma Ingram from Willing Creative for our committee and a series of On-Country yarns led by Aunty Carol in The Gully.From left (Front Row): Auntie Kerrie Miller, Aunty Bev Eaton, Aunty Carol Cooper, Anastasia Vickers, Aunty Norma Ingram
From left (Back Row): Claudia Roosen, Lu Forsberg, Annabel Murray, RMIT’s Prof. Libby Porter, Aisha Slee, Genevieve Murray, Sue Wildman, RMIT’s Priya Kunjun, WSU’s Prof. Louise Crabtree-Hayes,
The governance training enabled us to progress as an organisation from a strengths based approach and with a substantial resource to inform our governance and process going forward. The On-Country yarns led to broader inclusion of First Nations community members concerned about the housing crisis and led to us making important decisions about our constitution and the direction of our organisation.
Advocacy & Impact
In 2024 the community decided that the housing crisis was impacting the community and we needed our voices heard. Local organisations banded together and marched on the streets of Katoomba demanding action from all levels of government. The action had national coverage on the ABC National News and featured our CLT committee member Julie Nelson.The protest was led by the Blue Gums Choir singing their song SOMEWHERE TO LIVE. The song was written by a group of Blue Mountains locals who came together to give voice to their concerns about the local housing crisis. “A series of song writing and singing workshops were run by volunteers to bring people together and empower them through producing a song which they hope will continue to spread the message and raise awareness about the devastating impacts of housing insecurity and homelessness. This film is dedicated to the memory of Pippa Smith (1971 – 2023).
Somewhere to Live by The Blue Gums Choir ©(2023) All Rights Reserved. Video Copyright Brazen Films (Aus)2023 Music Copyright Lulu Malm (2023)
What is a CLT?
A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a way for people to share ownership of land and housing, keeping it affordable for the future. In this system, the CLT holds title to the land, and the building on that land is owned (or rented for a long time) by an individual household.
CLT’s bring a whole of environment approach to housing where our our ability to be safely and securely housed is seen to be key to our health and wellbeing. From an First Nations perspective, connection to Country and Kin are critical to health and wellbeing so access to secure housing as a critical part of the ability of stay health and connected.
Source: Diagram adapted from Reimagining
Indigenous Housing,
Health and Wealth:
The Necessary Ecological Response to
Unlock the Potential in the Indigenous Estate by Kerry Arabena, Chris Holland & Shane Hamilton
What do CLT’s do?
CLT’s provide secure and affordable housing options for low to moderate income earners priced out of their local community. They do this by embedding perpetually affordable housing into local neighbourhoods providing pathways out of subsided housing models for low income earners while also addressing the speculative pressures impacting housing affordability. CLT’s once operational, remove the need for government subsidies and provide a greater variety of affordable housing options for more people over time.
How do CLT’s work?
CLT’s act as long-term stewards of land, housing and other assets, ensuring they remain permanently affordable.
CLT’s do this by removing the cost of land from the cost of housing and paying this value forward to the future residents through restrictions on resale. The affordability of each CLT home is paid forward to each new tenant by capping the re-sale of any CLT home at a reasonable rate above the initial purchase price. Improvements made to the home by the occupant can add value, but the home is not sold at a price based on the local market value. If someone is renting a CLT home, rents are calculated based on 30% of a household income and are not determined based on comparable mainstream market rents.
Land & Construction
With exponentially rising house prices, the cost of land rather than the house or the cost of construction is the main driver of housing unaffordability (see table below). So by removing the cost of land from the cost of housing, affordability under the CLT model is achievable, and can be assured for future generations. Finding low or no cost land is crucial to the success of CLTs which takes a whole-of-community effort and the help of key partners.What are the benefits of the CLT model?
There are many benefits of CLT’s that have been proven against a variety of measures. These substantial findings point to the ability of CLT’s to meet a range of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and do far more than just housing. A report from the European CLT Network outlines the striking benefits of CLT’s that can:
- create 89% more sustainably designed buildings
- create a 71% reduction in resource extraction
- produce 75% less greenhouse gas emissions
- enhance biodiversity by 61%
- have 75% more efficient use of land,
- stimulate sustainable innovation by 82%
- create an 86% increase in support for environmental sustainability
- create increased environmental awareness among residents (64%) and among policy makers (82%)
(Statistics from the European CLT Network)
Governance & Leadership
CLTs are not-for-profit organisations open to anyone in their geographic area. They use a tri-parte governance structure that shares leadership equally between residents of CLT homes (1/3), local community members (1/3), and a team of advisors or experts appointed by the other members (1/3). This tri-parte structure has been proven internationally to provide long term stabilty for CLT’s and strong and stable governance. CLT’s are characterised by active voting memberships that include, but are not limited to residents of the CLT’s homes.CLT’s are based on the idea that locals know their own needs and how to activate their community’s resources. And we believe that Traditional Owner leadership on matters related to their land is critical to a just transition and to our collective wellbeing. Blue Mountains Community Land Trust is unique in that we are working to establish a governance model that ensures Darug and Gundungurra Traditional Owners and local Elders have a voice in what happens on their Country and have the ability to be self-determined in the location and design of their housing.
Land Stewardship
In the spirit of an Aboriginal land ethic CLTs steward land for the collective benefit of community and Country working against individual ownership models that exclude the most vulnerable and drive up housing prices. As a culturally appropriate form of ownership CLT’s can also facilitate the re-matriation of land for Traditional Owners and become a vehicle for the self-determination of safe, secure, and affordable housing that is community controlled and governed.
“CLTs reimagine the fundamental components of land and housing to offer a proven solution to common challenges we face in achieving a just transition: affordable housing, development that respects planetary boundaries and agency through the central participation of low-income residents.”
Source: European CLT Network
We have some exciting opportunities taking shape in 2025. In January we joined forces with WIld Plant Rescue in a campaign to Help Save Clairvaux. Led by Elders and with strong community support we are proposing a Pilot Community Land Trust project at Clairvaux. We want to help keep these important sites in community hands and work towards a community-led vision for the sites.
Governance & Incorporation
The importance of a culturally specific CLT constitution that embeds Edler leadership and governance has no legal precedent in the Australian context. We are working in partnership with Wilya Janta and Michael Limerick to raise funds for a process to embed Two-Way law and governance into our Constitution. To do this we will engage Indigenous Governance expert Michael Limerick to develop a strong and transparent governance structure for the organisation through an inclusive and co-designed process.
Establishing Strong Partnerships
Strong working relationships with local organisations, local, federal & state governments, and key stakeholders is key to our success. In April 2025 we convened a Housing Round Table with key Government partners and Stakeholders. The state government have established a working group to help progress our establishment.
Understanding what the community need
In 2026 we will be holding Wisdom Gathering Yarning Circles led by Wiradjuri Academic and registered nurse Alison Barnes to help understand the housing needs of the community. This will involve a series of focus groups that help us understand what housing people want and how this can be achieved.Community Meeting at Clairvaux to begin the campaign to Help Save Clairvaux. Elders Aunty Carol Cooper, Aunty Bev Eaton, Uncle Ed Walker, members of Wild Plant Rescue, Blue Mountains Community Land Trust and supporters.
There is growing interest in the Australian context for solutions to the housing crisis that do more than housing and are responsive to local needs. There is a increasing evidence base both locally and internationally for the effectiveness of CLT’s in a just transition and with the growth of the international CLT in the last 5 years there are a wealth of resources for inspiration and education.
Emerging CLT’s in Australia
The Australian Community Land Trust Network was established in 2024 to advocate for and support the growing Australian CLT Sector. BMCLT are among the few emerging CLT’s in Australia breaking barriers and taking on the challenge of change. Other CLTs in Australia include: Click here for a map of the CLT sector in Australia.
Australian CLT Resources
For more resources about Australian CLTsInternational CLT Organisations
For more resources about international CLT organisationsFirst Nations & Other International CLT’s
For more resources about First Nations & other international CLTsImpact & Systems Change
For more resources about the impact of CLTs and system change
Volunteer & Committee Roles
If you would like to get involved as a volunteer or are interested in becoming a member of our committee, please fill out the following form.
Volunteer & Committee Sign Up Form
Newsletter & Events
If you would like to keep informed about events and updates please follow the following link to sign up to our newsletter. We are working towards housing for local community members and will make announcements about our progress through the newsletter as opportunites come up. So, if you are in need of long-term secure and affordable housing and live in the Blue Mountains area or have cultural and community connections there please sign up for our newsletter and we will keep you in the loop as opportunities arise.
Newsletter & Event Subscriber Form