Building

By Klara Marosszeky | Managing Director Australian Hemp Masonry Company Over the past few months, we’ve been working with Hemp Central in Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand and Venture Taranaki on the North Island to deliver training for hemp builders, owner builders and community. It’s the second practical workshop organised by Tanya Simmonds in Wanaka in the past 2 years and the Taranaki workshops have been the culmination of months of conversations following various Hemp industry events in Australia over the last year and a half. We’d trained a few builders from New Zealand who’ve come over to Australia for workshops and supplied a few houses over there in the past, but at that time there was no suitable building-grade hurd available in New Zealand. That’s changed dramatically over the past few years. With farming becoming more regionalised, Ashford processors now in both locations and with more builders getting trained, a small solid hemp building industry is being established. Given our long-term interest in supporting capability in Indigenous communities, it’s been very rewarding to work alongside Venture Taranaki as they build the capacity in their community to address their social housing needs. Community members from other neighbouring Maori groups visited and attended the Taranaki workshops. We’ll continue to support their emerging trainers until they are well underway, and our input is no longer needed. “We have the same interest in building capability in Aboriginal communities and hope some similar opportunities emerge,” says Klara.