Zero carbon, high praise for Cape's Brendan Condon OAM

MULTI-award winning built-environment designer and environmental restoration authority, Brendan Condon of Cape Paterson, has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for service to conservation and the environment in today’s King’s Birthday Honours List.

Co-founder and managing director of Australian Ecosystems (AE) and Foodcube Urban Farms since 1997, he is best known locally for developing Australia’s first zero carbon housing project fronting Seaward Drive and Wilsons Road at Cape Paterson.

Formerly known as ‘The Cape Eco Village’, now simply ‘The Cape’, from controversial beginnings, the project turned a cleared grazing property adjoining the town but overlooking the spectacular Bunurong Coast and Bass Strait, into an eco-village of 232 home sites with more than half of the site dedicated to open space, where walking and cycling tracks meander past native vegetation, community gardens, parks, barbecue areas and water recycling projects.

As an environmental net-gain project, The Cape is committed to restoring and protecting its section of the coast and will have planted nearly 500,000 native plants by the end of the project, many of which are locally indigenous.

Now entering its final stages, with only 26 home sites still to be sold, the precinct already boasts hundreds of architecturally-designed, zero-carbon homes, nestled in a developing bush and wetlands setting.

Many of the homes have been built by local builders and designers, including Small Giants, Martin Builders, TS Constructions, Australian Ecosystems and The Sociable Weaver, who came along for the journey with Brendan and have now incorporated ground-breaking environmental features into the broad sweep of their own building projects.

From The Cape website:

“The vision at The Cape has always been bigger than homes. From day one, this award-winning community has been designed to support both people and the natural environment, restoring the balance of biodiversity on what was once a cleared cattle station.

“Today, climate-resilient, all-electric homes sit alongside restored wetlands, native vegetation corridors, and carefully protected wildlife zones. Across the site, rainwater runoff is captured and redirected through a network of swales, ephemeral soaks, and waterways, keeping the landscape green year-round and supporting thriving habitat even during dry spells.

“These features aren’t just functional, they’re thoughtful. From the outset, The Cape’s design team studied the movement of local wildlife and made space for their patterns. When it became clear that a local mob of kangaroos used certain parts of the site for daytime resting, the pedestrian path network was redesigned to avoid disturbing them. The result? Around 50 kangaroos still call The Cape home, moving freely through the neighbourhood each night before returning to their sanctuary by morning."

“It’s not just kangaroos who benefit. Over 140 bird species have been recorded here, along with echidnas, koalas, swamp wallabies, wombats, reptiles, and frogs. And it’s not by accident. Plant species were carefully selected to exclude environmental weeds and provide year-round food and shelter for native animals. There are no front fences, meaning residential gardens act as seamless extensions of the surrounding habitat. Streets are traffic-calmed to reduce roadkill risk, and cats are not permitted, helping to protect vulnerable wildlife.

“These design decisions, paired with a culture of care, are what make The Cape unique. Residents are active participants in this shared mission: keeping dogs on leash, using the designated off-leash dog park, and adopting small behavioural shifts that allow nature to thrive.”

The environmental and energy-saving initiatives put into practice at The Cape have become widely instructive in the development of other housing projects up and down the eastern states of Australia.

AE and Foodcube Sustainability projects have included:

• Athol Road Primary School Garden.
• Haining Farm Helmeted Honeyeater and Leadbeater Possum restoration project.
• The Cape Sustainable Estate, Cape Paterson.
• Cape Community Farm, Cape Paterson.
• Melbourne SkyFarm.
• The Sustainable Coffee Company urban farm.
• Tuvalu and Kiribati - Food Security Foodcube program.
• Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service Community Garden.
• Victorian Desalination Plant Ecological Reserve Landscape.

Brendan Condon’s directorships include:

• Co-Founder and Co-Director, Foodcube Pty Ltd (Formerly Biofilta), since 2010.
• Director, Australian Ecosystems since 1997.
• Co-Founder and Former Managing Director, Safe Climate Australia, 2009.
• Director, Regen Nurseries.
• Chairperson, Climate Positive, 2006-2012.
• Director, Run for a Safe Climate, 2009.
• Director, Melbourne Skyfarm.

Awards and Recognition include:

• Climate Action Award, The Cape, Sustainability Victoria, 2021.
• Landscape of the Year, Armstrong Creek, Connewarre Project, Landscaping Victoria Industry Awards, 2017.
• Use of Plants in the Landscape, Landscape Victoria, 2017.
• Landscape Management and Maintenance, Landscape Victoria, 2017.
• Natural Built Environment, Landscape Victoria, 2017.
• Excellence in Integrated Stormwater Design, Stormwater Australia, 2016.
• Excellence in Integrated Stormwater Design, Stormwater Victora, 2016.
• Featured Exhibition, Stormwater Harvesting System, BlackBOX Design and Innovation, Milan, 2015.
• Excellence in Overall Environmental Management, United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards, 2013.
• Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Awards – Industry Leader Winner, Climate Action: The Cape, 2021.
• Landscape of the Year, Armstrong Creek Restoration, Landscaping Victoria Industry Awards, 2017.