Alison grew up in Melbourne and was fortunate to spend many long hours riding bikes, exploring rock pools, making cubbies, and greeting koalas outside the back door on holidays with her family at Phillip Island. These experiences inspired Alison to love and care for ecosystems, and drew her to environmental activism from her early 20s. Her subsequent career in mental health nursing reinforced her underlying commitment to also being present for people, and underscored the importance of care and compassion in daily life.
Concerned about food and community resilience in the face of climate change she moved with her son to Bellingen around 2010 to immerse herself in a small, environmentally and socially active community where she transitioned from working in community mental health to community development roles, with community gardens as a focus to support wellbeing.In 2023 Alison pursued a long-held dream of spending time at Plum Village, travelling to France to participate in a retreat, then staying on to volunteer as a Happy Farmer. The depth of the kindness, generosity and nourishing practices that she experienced there were life changing and she wanted to find ways of keeping this alive on her return to Australia. After hearing that Br Tenzin was living nearby she made contact and a fruitful collaboration began. From there she has partnered with Br Tenzin and Bev Sibthorpe to realise a dream they all share to set up a small intentional community based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, and to live regeneratively, growing food, caring for country, and building community.