APC Presenters

Rob is an illustrator and passionate gardener. He has been involved with Demeter Bakery in Glebe and Glovers Community Garden in Rozelle, Blue Mountains Community Garden, Permaculture (Sydney) North and a community garden at the Asylum Seekers Center in Surry Hills After completing his PDC with Rosemary Morrow in 1992, Rob volunteered in Cambodia running a horticulture program at a technical training school for men and women disabled by landmines. Rob’s illustration work includes Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow, The Compost Book by David Taylor and Posters for Randwick Permaculture Interpretive Garden with Fiona Campbell.

I’m Sumaidi Angale, Congolese by nationality. I am an orphan,  I lost my parents in 2005, now I live with my uncle here in Kakuma Refuge Camp, that is why I really like to work with the youths and help all my community members.

I am Professor of Environmental Mathematics at University of South Australia. I specialise in energy efficient house design, renewable energy and water resource management. I and my wife Chris Bryant give many public talks on environmental issues, and our garden featured on Gardening Australia in 2022, with the title of Mediterranean Mindset.

Kirsten Bradley is the co-founder of Milkwood, and the writer of 2 best-selling books. She teaches permaculture online and writes about permaculture skills, hope and everyday climate action. Her new book, The Permaculture Living Handbook, is out this September.

Annemarie Brookman is a permaculture educator and co-owner of The Food Forest. Passionate about food, urban resilience & bringing people together, she believes gardens and nature are connectors that help create a harmonious society.

John grew up on his family’s farm before studying and working in agriculture research. After becoming disillusioned with industrial agriculture, he changed his career path to work as an ecologist. Eventually coming to realise agriculture and ecology did not have to be at odds, he returned to farming. While running Heirloom Harvest seeds and Dancing Waters Farm he found his true passion in soil health, home food production and local food systems.

We are a global network of Permaculture educators and practitioners working to apply Permaculture in displacement settings. Started in 2016, Permaculture for Refugees has movements in four continents. We support refugees to become Permaculturlists and now (after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the war in Ukraine) Permaculturalists who become refugees. Our work has provoked an updated PDC curriculum as we develop innovative ways to teach, and update content relevant for a future of increased forced migration and disasters.

Prof. Tim Cavagnaro (Professor of Soil Ecology) undertakes research focused upon soil ecological processes, with an emphasis on the impacts of land management and environmental change on soil ecosystem services. His work focuses on soil microbiomes, ecological intensification, soil carbon sequestration and plant-microbe interactions. Urban agriculture is a key agrosystem about which Tim is passionate.

John has been an active member of the Permaculture movement for 30 years. Property establishment, eco-village design, PDC teaching and bioreginal development are areas of John’s involvement. He is the Director of his business Brogo Permaculture Gardens and currently the Chair f Permafund.

Angela is the CEO of Eat New Zealand, Aotearoa’s food movement. Angela owns The Food Farm in North Canterbury, a Permaculture property growing her own food and teaching others to do the same. She writes a monthly column in This NZ Life’s Lifestyle Block Magazine. She is also a NZ Food Waste Champion, a coalition determined to halve food waste by 2030 in Aotearoa, recognising the impact it has on climate change. She has a national profile in local food systems. She’s a believer in community sufficiency. She’s a communicator, a community-builder, an educator and food-grower.

• PDC Kinglake Ranges Neighbourhood House (2018 & 2019)
• Teach Retrosuburbia Course Castlemaine 2019
• Teach Permaculture Course on line Morag Gamble (Sept-Dec 2022)
• Small urban gardens

Tamar operates a small-holding enterprise, built on values of inclusive permaculture. Her property in southern Tasmania. She is a permaculture educator and disability advocate, working to promote inclusion of women and people with disability in small-scale, commercial agriculture enterprises. Say hi at: NiaraKipli@gmail.com

Chris Day from Every Day Sustainable Living and Cockatoo Creek Farm, has been growing food and actively participating in and teaching Permaculture and Sustainable living since early 2000. With a focus on productive edible landscapes in urban, rural and community settings, he designs and installs gardens to suit the individual site and client. He is passionate about the actions we can do together to regenerate community and the environment, for current and future generations.

Toad Dell (they/them/it) is an Irish/English settler living on unceded land of the Dharug and Gundungurra People. Co-founder of PermaQueer & board member of Permaculture Australia and are deeply committed and passionate about using permaculture education to help break up the hegemony and reliance upon cultural systems of violence.

Rayna Fahey is a migrant originally from Aotearoa New Zealand and has been involved in the permaculture movement as a designer, writer, and activist for over a decade. Her passions are systems thinking, social justice, and storytelling, and has woven a career across government, non-profits and small business organisations. She is an advocate for social, economic, and environmental justice and uses a highly strategic approach to communicate ideas in order to bring about positive change.

Martin Freney attended a Permaculture Design Course at The Food Forest in 1999 with his wife Zoe Freney. Over the following two decades they restored and Heritage Listed their bushland, built a strawbale house, established an orchard, and built South Australia’s most popular off-grid bed and breakfast, Earthship Ironbank. Marty designs sustainable homes and runs tours and workshops aimed at raising awareness of permaculture principles and the Earthship housing concept. He also teaches part-time at the University of South Australia.

We are a global network of Permaculture educators and practitioners working to apply Permaculture in displacement settings. Started in 2016, Permaculture for Refugees has movements in four continents. We support refugees to become Permaculturlists and now (after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the war in Ukraine) Permaculturalists who become refugees. Our work has provoked an updated PDC curriculum as we develop innovative ways to teach, and update content relevant for a future of increased forced migration and disasters.

We are a global network of Permaculture educators ansd practitioners working to apply Permaculture in displacement settings. Started in 2016, Permaculture for Refugees has movements in four continents. We support refugees to become Permaculturlists and now (after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the war in Ukraine) Permaculturalists who become refugees. Our work has provoked an updated PDC curriculum as we develop innovative ways to teach, and update content relevant for a future of increased forced migration and disasters.

Bunya Halasz is a grower, educator and designer that is enraptured by food forests, With Flavia Renata Assuncao  and along with a wonderful community of passionate food foresters, they regenerate lands to food forests and provide fresh food, plant materials, design consultancy, landscaping and hands on educational training pathways to our local community, reclaiming autonomous food systems through our businesses ‘Growing Roots Permaculture’ and ‘Living Agroecology’

I have a Permaculture Design Certificate through the Food Forest Gawler, Certificate 3s Conservation and Land Management and in Horticulture and a Certificate 4 Training and Assessment. I designed and helped set up Two Wells Community Garden and am now doing the same for Gawler. I have spent many years as a carer and Home Educator and have run various workshops in several locations over many years. We are now living sustainably in Gawler.

I have had a lifelong interest in why and how things work, and a passion for sharing this with others, so they can experience the excitement of rejuvenation and recycling for themselves. I assist my brother in the Australian Worm Firm, which follows this principle and provides an outlet for my creativity.

Isobel Hume (PhD Candidate) focuses upon spatial and resource requirements for self-sufficiency in vegetable and rainwater harvesting, using a quantitative approach that incorporates data analysis and spatial modelling.

Steven Hoepfner has been actively involved in food production for over a decade. His desire to understand the process’ involved in transforming soil and sunlight into nourishment has ‘unearthed’ some peculiar discoveries. Steven went from home veggie garden to large scale market garden and orchard management. Now, he’s running Adelaide’s premiere micro market garden, Wagtail urban farm, as well as offering his services as an edible landscape expert. He’s happiest educating on the importance of growing your own and wild harvesting the nutrition that goes unnoticed all around us.

I think you know this bit.

I am currently a Senior Research Fellow on the ‘Living Lightly Locally’ project and lecturer in ‘Sustainable Development: A Global Perspective’ at UniSA. Working at the interface between the social and environmental sciences, I have a passion for using ‘eduACTION’ to inspire others to effect positive change in the world. I possess a deep awareness of both the brutal realities of the challenges we face and the necessity for hope in enabling action to address the issues of our time.

Hey, I’m Annaliese… One of my super powers is my relationship to Permaculture Plants. Ive spent my whole life observing and interacting with edible, medicinal, culturally significant plants globally, some that repair soil, feed bees and also attract beneficial insects – Epic!! I’ve been blessed to learn from the best over the past 4 years – Frances Michaels at Green Harvest. I run the Change Makers Permaculture Design Course, with a stellar team of next generation Permaculturalists and Tea Haven Permaculture Gardens, near Maleny on the Sunny Coast, where I’ve I teach from and have grown over 100 varieties of edible plants.

We are a global network of Permaculture educators and practitioners working to apply Permaculture in displacement settings. Started in 2016, Permaculture for Refugees has movements in four continents. We support refugees to become Permaculturlists and now (after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the war in Ukraine) Permaculturalists who become refugees. Our work has provoked an updated PDC curriculum as we develop innovative ways to teach, and update content relevant for a future of increased forced migration and disasters.

My name is Bruce Kain, founder of Blimey Charley. Former clothing designer turned permie, passionate foodie and self-taught cook. Husband and father to four little rat bags living on a little hobby farm in the Adelaide Hills. I’ve worked and lived all over the world but there’s no place like the Australian Countryside to raise a family, grow our own food and connect with our communities. Blimey Charley is our journey.

Gerard’s been involved in farming for over 50 years, having grown up under the influence of a farm, attending Ag College, working in conventional agricultural including fish-farming and Stock Agent. The past 30 years were devoted to teaching small-scale, food production systems, (Diploma Organic Farming, CIV and Diploma Permaculture), and developing students’ experiences in permaculture, organic farming, agroecology, and regenerative agriculture. The last 23 years have seen the evolution of Eaglerise Farm – a multi-enterprise, diversified, resilient farm supplying Farmers’ Markets.

Emma Lewellyn is a therapeutic horticulture practitioner at the Adelaide Botanic Garden where she designs and delivers nature-based wellbeing programs for vulnerable cohorts in the community. Previously she has worked as a garden educator with trauma affected children.

Ian Lillington is an Permaculture Educator, from Castlemaine, Vic with experience in SE Asia and Europe. He recently led a course in Green Education at Green School in Bali and a Permaculture Design Course in Shanghai and Melbourne. Ian is also a networker, author and sustainability activist and was recently in England catching up with local economic initiatives there. At home in Castlemaine, [Victoria, in the SE of Australia,] Ian and his partner Marita built a 10-star home [that’s the maximum energy efficiency rating here] and do eco-renovations of older houses by adding insulation, solar panels, rainwater tanks and orchards. They will begin their next 10 star home as soon as the Building Inspection approval comes through. Ian book is an introduction to permaculture – “The Holistic Life – a Beginners’ Guide to Permaculture”, and is also editor of many of David Holmgren’s books

Beck Lowe is a permaculture educator, practitioner and writer. She undertook a life-changing PDC in the mid-90s and never looked back. She practices, writes about and teaches permaculture, empowering people to create resilient households wherever they live. She worked closely with David Holmgren on RetroSuburbia and has developed various resources on retrosuburban themes. She lives on her productive permaculture farm on Taungurung country near Heathcote, central Victoria. She particularly likes goats, apple trees, books and long walks by the creek.

Cecilia has been pioneering ways to use Permaculture Design and Japanese culture for a better place to live, for 30 years plus. She has created epic shared homes in inner Sydney and Melborne, where guests, volunteers and residents feel honored, capable and freed up to live their mission.

Jeannine is a qualified engineer, avid gardener and co-founder of Mobius Farms. We use the black soldier fly larvae to convert food waste into insect protein for the pet food market, and frass for the gardeners. We are keen to connect with communities passionate about food waste and doing better for our planet!

Hannah Maloney is a best-selling author of ‘The Good Life’, a Gardening Australia presenter, educator and is passionate about community development & building resilience.

We are a global network of Permaculture educators and practitioners working to apply Permaculture in displacement settings. Started in 2016, Permaculture for Refugees has movements in four continents. We support refugees to become Permaculturlists and now (after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the war in Ukraine) Permaculturalists who become refugees. Our work has provoked an updated PDC curriculum as we develop innovative ways to teach, and update content relevant for a future of increased forced migration and disasters.

Chelsea an Adelaide Hills local and fire fighter in two states turned permaculture outdoor educator.

Graduated as a Landscape Architect in 2007, Eunice was introduced to Permaculture Design in 2009 and fell in love with it. From 2015-2021, she embarked on a Research Tour around the world to study permaculture pioneering projects. During her research she lived and worked with Rosemary Morrow and collaborated with Permaculture for Refugees. Currently, Eunice is living in Mértola and working with Terra Sintrópica Association as the coordinator of Terra de Abrigo, a permaculture inspired resettlement project for Afghan Refugees.

Aelaide Parr is a graduate of the Ceres PDC course and works in the Victorian public service, two things that are not as wildly diverse as you might think, although they do lead to a very diverse wardrobe for different situations. Diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis at 20, and as neurodivergent in her mid-40s, she’s continually evolving an understanding of her own disabilities, their impacts and how she can advocate for people with disabilities both in and out of the workplace.

Rebecca is landscape ecologist with a passion for coastal and wetland restoration. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Environmental Science at Flinders University. Through the eyes of an experienced educator and ecologist, Rebecca believes that effective communication, especially with regard to the value of ecosystem services, is the key to motivating sustainable global citizenship for positive environmental outcomes.

We are a global network of Permaculture educators and practitioners working to apply Permaculture in displacement settings. Started in 2016, Permaculture for Refugees has movements in four continents. We support refugees to become Permaculturlists and now (after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the war in Ukraine) Permaculturalists who become refugees. Our work has provoked an updated PDC curriculum as we develop innovative ways to teach, and update content relevant for a future of increased forced migration and disasters.

Brenna Quinlan’s illustrations can be seen in books by David Holmgren, Milkwood, Ross Mars and Costa. She is also a committed educator. She has ridden a bicycle across the Americas, taught permaculture in Brasil, Chile and Argentina, and currently lives in a house truck in Denmark, WA.

Guy Ritani (ia/they/them) is a Takatāpui Māori artist, activist and Permaculture teacher passionate about climate justice, First Nations sovereignty and empowering futures storytelling. They’re one half of PermaQueer and a proud Pacific Climate Warrior.

Worked as a Behavioural Scientist for 30 years. My passion outside work was organic growing and in 1994 established an organic farm on the South Coast of NSW. Moved to the Blue Mountains in 2012 and became involved in local permaculture and other community groups. Launched the Edible Garden Trail in 2018 with a small grant from Bendigo Bank (and my Credit Card). Money raised goes to local school and community gardens. I now spend as much time as possible helping other communities establish their own trail.

Sam Ryan is one half of Folk of all Trades – a sustainability business hosting workshops online and in-person across southern Tarntanya – Adelaide. He and his partner Dani teach simple living skills; from making sourdough, kombucha and other natural ferments to growing organic veggies, composting, and even how to carve your own wooden spoons. He lives in the permaculture-inspired Aldinga Arts Eco Village, where they grow their own veggies, keep chickens, and milk goats. He also farms trees and sheep at Folk Farm and Forest in Kuitpo, where a regeneration journey is just beginning.

Growing up on a farm in the mid north of South Australia, on Ngadjuri country I was hands-on in the world of food from a young age. Early memories of homegrown strawberries and fighting over the crust from the home-made bread are cherished recollections of joy. Fast-track a few years to a career in nutrition and community development and co founding The Food Embassy where I can follow my passion for everyone’s right to delicious nourishing food from a food system that cares for people, planet and country.

Chaitanya was recruited to Permaculture by a friendly neighbour, and completed her PDC in 2018. When she was planning her own back yard food forest, she realised how quickly things got complicated. Her tech background also let her realise that computers could help. Thus the idea for a Permaculture garden planning app was born.

I have been studing “The Way of Council” with “Circles of Resiliance” for the last two years and have facilitated many on line and in person “Way of Council” circles.

Mark is a former research scientist turned horticulturist with a passion for growing food using wicking beds. He loves growing food organically with the helps from the chickens, compost bins and companion planting.

Permaculture educator, designer and facilitator. Currently active in the Canberra region with cooperative farms creation,hosting and workshops. I want to support our thinking of positive futures through practical and inclusive application of the permaculture ethics and principles along with aligned strategies

Virginia has been involved with permaculture since the early 1990s. Since 2003 she has been working on Vocational Training in Permaculture. She served on the Board of Permaculture Australia for over 6 years. She has worked as a permaculture teacher and in the training of permaculture teachers. Virginia believes strongly in the equity and accessibility of permaculture as a field of study and right livelihood and has dedicated the last 20 years of her life to this goal.

Richard lives with his family in the lands of the Taungurung in Seymour Victoria where he has been collaborating with David Holmgren to create, publish and sell his books. He established PermaculturePrinciples.com in 2008 as both a way to communicate the foundations and to provide access to permaculture books and other resources, joining forces with Oliver Holmgren to develop the business. He has helped publish the Permaculture Calendar since 2008, and titles such as RetroSuburbia and Rosemary Morrow’s Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture with Melliodora Publishing.

The University of Adelaide Soil Ecology Research Group undertakes critical urban agriculture research from a multitude of vantage points. Hannah Thwaites (PhD Candidate) is undertaking research at the intersection of the biophysical and social sciences, exploring urban agriculture’s potential for building community resilience in the face of climate change. 

An ag science permie landcare conservationist outdoor educator who has been designing a permie camp for youth and south east community with his wife Annette for the last 25 years.

Laura Wills’ practice takes a multidisciplinary approach, involving collaboration, ethics and participation. She is interested in the social context of art and in ecological art projects.