The idea of this project is to build an Ancient style farm/small village in rural Queensland or NSW, Australia, which follows as closely as possible the mode of operation of a Roman latifundium 2000 years ago - as described in extant Ancient sources such as the books of Cato the Elder, Varro, Columella and Palladius.

A “latifundium” was a farm, but significantly more than our modern farms; it was also a mini-village for everyone employed there (usually dozens of people) and was as self-sufficient as possible. The enterprise produced its own food, made its own clothes, most instruments, building materials etc.

In our case, we also aim to incorporate a tourist/educational element, where an important part of income will be derived from visitors who want to learn about or experience the Ancient lifestyle.

The farm will also serve as a basis for experiments in sustainable, ultra-organic agriculture which is also efficient in our modern conditions.

The project will provide lifestyle benefits to its members, but will also be a normally running for-profit business returning dividends, so it will be both a lifestyle and financial investment.

The end result will combine three major parts:

  1. Ancient farm (as authentic as possible) for the benefit of tourists and researchers.
  2. Visitor part (tavern, Roman villa, workshops, shopping complex) for the attraction of tourists and the generation of cash.
  3. Residential part where members will be able to build their residences (permanent or just holiday houses), separate from the rest so that members can enjoy the tranquillity of an Ancient-style villa while also benefiting from the proximity of a full-service tourist centre where they will be completely at home (literally true, as they will own it and actually live there).

The needed steps towards that goal are:
* get a community of interested people together
* agree on long-term outcome we want
* do a feasibility study (financial, legal etc)
* create business plan
* write up a prospectus
* sign up shareholders
* buy land, convert it to Ancient farm
* build Ancient-style buildings on it
* go into business

If the above sounds like something you want to participate in:
* join the OS Dreams site
* join the Roman Latifundium in Australia project
* once there - discuss, agree on actions to follow, do it.