Keith Joslyn

Alistair says of Keith Joslyn in his article 'Belief in Building' He is, without exception, the prince of earth-movers and land-sculptors. He started earth-moving at the age of about eleven, with the aid of a scoop and a pair of horses. He was about sixteen when I first knew him. By that time, he had graduated to a Ferguson tractor. Together we planned and executed land-movements for domestic building. We produced methods that have not been improved upon. Keith has a genius for shapes and levels. He made environmental architecture possible for me. On the other hand, I believe I gave him a structural understanding of the landscape we both love so much. Today we sometimes discuss those old days. Keith is now rich and prosperous. His capacity to work twelve hours a day for seven days a week has tapered off somewhat, but he has an ability to produce this in those he employs. It is only at the age of thirty-five that he is contemplating marriage. For the past twenty years, he has been married to his machines. Old age is common in the Joslyn family. Keith's father is ninety, and still drives a car. His grandmother died at nearly one hundred years of age. His own mother married after she was forty, and then had several children.

And again in 'Living in the Environment' It was pleasant to work once again with my old friend Keith Joslyn the earth moving contractor to form the site and store the soils. At the very beginning of my building experience it had been my privilege to discover him as a boy of about fifteen contracting earth moving in a Ferguson tractor. He had started the previous year with two horses and a scoop. We became dependant on each other as we discovered the relationship between good earth movement and environmental building. It has been a friendship and a regard that has continued ever since. Keith has made several fortunes from his work and now owns many machines and has become a tradition in his own time. When he started he was so poor he had to walk several miles to and from work, to save petrol. Now despite his business gains there is no better excavator in the whole business. He indeed created the climate of environmental earth moving in Victoria as we worked on those early sites together.