Brenna Quinlan’s illustration of cool cupboard design, sourced from David Holmgren’s RetroSuburbia. A cool cupboard is a passive cooling storage solution — a ventilated cabinet positioned to draw cool night air and maintain lower temperatures without refrigeration.

Choosing the right property isn’t about market trends — it’s about securing a site that can actually sustain you in an uncertain future. This RetroSuburbia chapter by David Holmgren provides a framework for evaluating properties on solar access, water, soil, neighbourhood, and proximity to services.

Raise children who can thrive in an uncertain future — not just survive the education system. This RetroSuburbia chapter by David Holmgren covers practical skills, outdoor competence, home education, taming technology, and the principles that can help children become capable, self-reliant adults.

Build genuine household resilience by integrating animals that produce food, manage waste, and regenerate soil — right in suburbia. This RetroSuburbia chapter by David Holmgren draws on Melliodora, The Plummery, and EcoBurbia to show how small suburban blocks become productive micro-farms through chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, and quail.

Owning or occupying a home should strengthen resilience — not trap households in debt, isolation, or inflexible arrangements. This RetroSuburbia chapter explores unconventional ownership and co-habitation models as practical routes to affordability, resilience, and social richness.

Protect your home-grown food by working with wildlife, not against it — and turn your garden into a resilient, productive ecosystem. This RetroSuburbia chapter outlines how ordinary gardeners can reduce losses and transform wildlife pressure into ecological function rather than conflict.

Cut your transport footprint dramatically while rebuilding the local, low-energy mobility patterns our future will demand. This RetroSuburbia chapter by David Holmgren covers active transport, shared vehicles, bicycle infrastructure, and reduced car dependency, with real examples of households already living this way.

When fire becomes part of life, resilience isn’t about escape — it’s about design, preparedness, and neighbours who have your back. This free 44-page RetroSuburbia extract covers bushfire defence retrofits and household disaster planning across two essential dimensions of suburban survival.

Drawing from decades of experience at Melliodora and other suburban homesteads, this RetroSuburbia chapter shows how ordinary backyards can outperform industrial farms in productivity per square metre — while building soil, beauty, and self-reliance. Includes bonus chapter on seed saving and backyard nursery.

Healthy soil is the foundation of resilient living — fertile earth means abundant food, thriving plants, and lasting community health. This RetroSuburbia chapter by David Holmgren covers composting, mulching, green manures, soil testing, and managing contaminated ground, drawing on case studies.