Jason Dash is the manager of Kindlehill’s building works. His has undertaken the daunting task of constructing and renovating a series of buildings that, if conventionally sourced, would cost way in excess of the available funds. Plus he is passionate, nigh obsessed, with keeping the building process as environmentally sustainable as possible. In short, he must source large quantities of material that is recycled, salvaged, substantially discounted or free. And somehow, he manages to pull it off.
When two Blue Mountains schools tore down some buildings to make way for the new works, Jason was at the demolition site and carted off sheets of corrugated iron that is now siding in the workshop and the roof of the main building veranda. Many tonnes of soil, the key ingredient of cob, was provided free and direct from the Lawson highway upgrade by the Abby Group.
The concrete was also given gratis, thanks to his links with Hanson Concrete in Lawson and Metromix in Katoomba who donate all their left overs to the school The hundreds of types which form the retaining walls and stairways were donated mostly from Fitzy at Katoomba Tyres and Springwood tyres.
Sometimes he secures materials through recyclers like Western Metal who found the steel beams and purloins now in the Spiral Shell and workshop, from razed shopping complexes in South Penrith and Belmont.
Other material is found on site. The octagonal posts for the workshop veranda were the pine trees, felled to make way for the new carpark, then milled on site by Michael Trickett of Able Sawyers. Another useful source is the Kindlehill community: John De Groot scored a gas heater for a song and Abby and Toby donated the combustion stove now in the workshop.
“I make it my business to know what’s going on”, Jason says of his network of suppliers he has built up over his many years in sustainable building. And certainly his suppliers are curious about his irregular modes of construction, some turning up on site to check out new developments. Compared to the waste and bad publicity that surround some stimulus package school projects, the work Jason oversees is an exercise in economy, community and innovation.
Kindlehill School is a K-10 Steiner School that sits on a hill above the Wentworth Falls Lake, in the Blue Mountains, NSW. We are an independant school working creatively and in a contemporary way, out of the foundation of Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy for education.
