Picture: Mark Frecker
 

Michael Young is used to getting his hands dirty.

A registered builder for more than 25 years, the Eltham resident and Nillumbik councillor learnt his trade under the guidance of Alistair Knox, a pioneer of mudbrick building in Australia.

Knox made mudbrick building synonymous with the Diamond Valley. I was a pimply faced 18 or 19-year-old when I started working with Alistair Knox, Cr Young said.

It was very hard to be alongside Alistair Knox and not pick up an enthusiasm for mudbrick.”

Mudbricks rustic look was popular with Eltham home builders looking for an alternative to the prefabricated houses that dominated Melbourne's suburbs in the post-war years.

But in 2004, mudbrick builders were sent reeling by a new state law that threatened their industry. They formed the Nillumbik Mudbrick Association in response, with Cr Young as president. New, narrowly defined State Government environmental ratings tests did not give mudbricks a fair chance, so association members set out to change the situation.

It was an ironical situation because mudbrick is quite possibly the most eco-friendly house form you can imagine, Cr Young said.

Four years of intensively lobbying the Victorian Building Commission and State Government, including Eltham state Labor MP Steve Herbert and Planning Minister Justin Madden, led to a breakthrough.

New testing software developed by the CSIRO and released last September restored the reputation and, more importantly, official recognition, of mudbrick as a green-friendly building material.

It was a big success for the Mudbrick Association and a signal for Cr Young that it was time to step aside as president, which he will do this month. It's a fantastic example of how a small community group can get things changed at a Government level, he said.