Build-your-own Retreat Hut

(A story first published in Mandala, the magazine of the FPMT, in 2000)

When Frank Brock discussed with Lama Zopa Rinpoche his idea to do a long retreat, Rinpoche suggested he do it at De-Tong Ling.

On his first visit to the centre in 1997, Frank discovered there was actually no permanent retreat accommodation, so he decided to build his own.

This coincided nicely with the recently granted building permissions from the local council. Knowing nothing about building, and armed purely with the determination formed from his guru's advice, a healthy body and a sum of money that was just enough to build the foundations, he moved to Kangaroo Island and set to work.

first, the foundations

The first work was hard labour, cutting a track through the bush to the retreat house site and then clearing the site itself. Next a trench had to be cut in unforgiving ground to lay and connect water pipes, and then the spade work done to finish preparing the site after it had been levelled by machinery. Already Frank could see that more money would be needed, so he headed back to Sydney to work as a bus driver. He says driving a packed bus across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in pouring rain and rush hour traffic was a great developer of concentration! Armed with further funds both from this work and the generosity of some benefactors, Frank returned to begin building the mud-brick walls. In his absence the foundations had been poured and the concrete allowed to thoroughly cure.

mud-bricks - a slow business

Making mud-bricks, though simple enough, is very labour-intensive. The material needs to be sieved, mixed with water and straw, then shovelled into the mould. Then the bricks are turned several times, dried, and stacked. Kangaroo and wallaby footprints ended up on a few! Frank made about 3,000 bricks, which then had to be transported to the site - in the absence of appropriate machinery, a time-consuming and back-breaking task. This task alone took the best part of a month. Each brick weighed over 20 kilograms.

building the walls

Then came the construction of the walls. With the help of knowledge gleaned from a few books, they slowly began to rise. Frank says he got better as he went along. Experienced builders shake their heads over the fact that he didn't have access to a decent scaffold, and used an old, unstable ladder; and that the walls went up in early winter. Mud walls are particularly vulnerable to wind-driven rain (a frequent occurrence at this time of the year), and Frank, not wanting to gamble with the fruits of his work, usually wrapped the walls in black plastic at the end of each day. To his chagrin, the wind sometimes undid the wrapping, and the damage had to be made good.

the roof

Finally the walls were complete with tie-rods through them on which the roof could be bolted; window and door spaces had been created, nice and square. The apex of the two side walls, however, which were to carry the main roof beam, had mysteriously drifted out of line! Some quick thinking by Will Abram, an experienced builder and friend from Adelaide, who had come over to help put on the roof, soon fixed this up.

the finishing touches

So now the roof was on, with the windows and doors in place; it was time to go back and earn more money in Sydney. Returning to De-Tong Ling, over the next six months Frank, with help, was able put in the plumbing, the wooden floor, internal walls, and the kitchen. He had decided to render the walls in white clay, the best quality of which lay on the bottom of a big dam. Diving under the water with a shovel, he dug out the clay and carried it to the water's edge to be loaded into the front of a tractor. Wet clay is very heavy, and Frank needed a lot. It took a long time and a lot of aching muscles, but the result is very impressive.

Amongst the final jobs was fully wiring up a 12-volt solar power system - something for which Frank had no knowledge or experience. However he made the attempt, and to his amazement, it worked flawlessly. The house was now complete.

living with the result

Pioneering the building of the first retreat house at De-Tong Ling was not easy, but now living in retreat, with the house complete in almost every detail, Frank says he feels the difficulties were nothing compared to the result.