Sharing is caring: The bright pink property home to chickens, goats and bees, and a family of three

Hannah Moloney’s home is painted a radiant pink for the simple reason that it sparks joy, and joy is something that’s prized and encouraged on the 3000-square-metre South Hobart property she shares with her partner Anton Vikstrom and their daughter Frida Maria. 

Joy helps fuel the good life the family is committed to living as they tend their terraced permaculture gardens and care for the resident chickens, ducks, bees and adored milking goats.

The property is less than three kilometres from central Hobart but it’s become the thriving urban farm Moloney always knew it could be. As the landscape designer behind Good Life Permaculture, who was herself raised in an inner-Brisbane herb nursery, she knows that cityscapes can double as productive food hubs.

“I love being able to show that to people as well,” she says.

Her home might sound like an idyll of self-sufficiency but for Moloney it’s all about community. “We actually don’t promote people being self-sufficient as it’s a huge amount of work and unrealistic for most people,” she says. “Rather, we aim for and promote community sufficiency, where together we can all help produce food and resources we need for our bioregions. Working together is always better.”

What that means, in a practical sense, is Moloney and Vikstrom use the house and garden to make positive changes in areas like food security and housing affordability. Their orchards, edible food forest and herb gardens are designed to produce much more food than the family needs, so the extra bounty can be passed on to friends and the wider community. 

Feeling that their home had the potential to house more people (without actually wanting to live with more) the couple built a separate residence in the available space under their home, using second-hand materials. 

“Because there’s quite a severe housing crisis in nipaluna/Hobart, we just rent it [out] for very, very affordable rent because there are so many people desperate for secure housing here,” Moloney says. “I have a certain level of privilege, so I have more capacity to think about that, and act on it. I think the more privilege you have, the more responsibility you have to have a crack at supporting other people as well.”

Living a lifestyle that reflects their values has been the couple’s goal since they bought the 1925-built timber house in 2012. It was “very cheap for where it was” but under-insulated, up on a block steep enough that walking upright was a challenge, and with no driveway.  

Moloney says she’s “an impatient person” but has stuck to a modest budget and gradually chipped away at improvements including insulating the home, replacing the old roof and flaky lead paint, and adding sustainable features like solar panels, a rainwater tank and a composting toilet (in addition to the traditional bathroom). 

The gardens have come a long way – the terraced design was excavated into what had been an almost vertical area of grass, now a fruitful system based on permaculture principles. (They eventually bought the block next door in 2016 and built a driveway – but built the garden by lugging materials up by hand.)

In 2020, the couple finished building a separate garden office made from local hardwood timber, after working from their spare bedroom for years. Vikstrom recently co-founded The Good Car Company, connecting Australians with electric vehicles.   

Moloney says there’ll always be more to do, but “there’s also a profound acknowledgment that what we have is amazing as it is, and we happily keep projects on the go, gradually improving things as we can”. 

Sticking to their commitment to live within their means and only taking out a mortgage small enough to repay with one part-time income are decisions Moloney calls “a huge asset to enable us to live the way we want to live”. 

They’ve kept costs down by cultivating their own skills too – Vikstrom built both the rental house under their home and the home studio with friends’ help, and Moloney maintains the permaculture gardens. 

“A lot of the things we do here, people [ask] how did you afford to do it, and I’m like, ‘Oh we just do it ourselves,’” she laughs. “The disclaimer is it’s not a perfect garden, there are always patches that are bordering on out of control.” 

Not everyone has the capacity to build their own dwellings or plant extensive gardens, but Moloney would love to see more people embrace growing at least some of their own food – the kitchen bench or balcony will do fine – to reap the health benefits, bolster the local fresh produce supply – especially with recent disruptions due to the pandemic, floods and bushfires – and for the simple joy of it. 

“I think the more we can do things that spark joy the better, because the more joy we have in ourselves the more capacity we have to do good in the world.”