Big ambitions on the horizon, the โbig spending boardโ is not looking at spending less, but making more. The consensus is Permaculture Australia needs to be seriously considering our identity, and our future. Who are we? What do we do? And how are we going to make the money we need to change the world, at every scale, sink or swim.
Call for bold action
From my heart, me, Sam, our youth are drowning in a hopeless future. A future run by AI and callous tech billionaires on a dystopic sinking ship. We need a revolution and we know that. But this revolution canโt be a quiet one peddling slowly in the background, maybe one day gearing up to do something. This revolution needs to be the central focus of those committed to it, and I am wholeheartedly of the belief that means it needs to support families, young people, career driven individuals, and the like.
The change we need
Currently permaculture Australia cannot support the incredible people that run it, which means they must either dig deep and become self-made business people to stay focused on permaculture (driving them away from being able to afford the time to volunteer), struggle financially, or do it part-time. The change we need is not a parttime gig, but a full time journey to a better future. There is a trillion dollar carbon off-setting industry, a 1.2 trillion dollar corporate social responsibility industry, a 7.3 trillion dollar education industry, and of course a lot more, all extremely relevant to our beautiful little organisation. Our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and all future generations need us to grab these potential opportunities by the horns. We need to hit hard or we wonโt have a home to go to.
Permaculture Australia’s Full Potential
So with that, hereโs the absolute excitement of what is happening: The event circle is charging forward with our biggest potential income for Permaculture Australia, and a culture of self-financing is being embraced in many circles. Different circles are talking about how money is going to come into their activities, and how key people are going to be taken care of. The culture of Permaculture Australia was born aiming for the stars, so we need to make sure weโre adequately resourced to get there.
Aligning for Collective Impact
Hopefully all of us here at Permaculture Australia are lining up together as the team necessary to further this, focused on how activities can bring in resources, namely money in the context of a charity, and I am personally very willing to work with anyone who is. Excitement is a natural disposition for me, considering the possible future we could live in and I am looking forward to what this future holds if we act.
Excuse my religiosity but I must wrap this up with a small excerpt from the Holy Quran as it is what steadies my heart in a cataclysmic sea of current and future events:
โCorruption has spread on land and sea as a result of what peopleโs hands have done, so that Allah may cause them to taste โthe consequences ofโ some of their deeds and perhaps they might return โto the right pathโ.โ
May we all focus on the path ahead and find our guiding lights to keep our hearts buoyant and determined in increasingly dark times.
Thanks,
Sam Parker-Davies Treasurer & Board Youth Ambassador
Permaculture Connect Inc. is a grassroots community initiative founded in 2019, to bring together people who want to live by permaculture values. Rooted in the three core ethics, Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share, the group exists to nourish the land while strengthening human connection.
While food growing and edible gardens are central interests, the focus reaches far beyond harvests. Members share a commitment to regenerating landscapes, improving soil health, and leaving the earth in a better condition for future generations. Equally important is the social fabric that Permaculture Connect weaves.
The group creates opportunities for like-minded people to meet, learn, and support one another through shared experiences. Monthly gatherings rotate across properties in the wider Brisbane region, pausing briefly over the December - January holiday period.
Events range from garden tours to hands-on workshops and creative skill-sharing sessions. Past activities have included tool-sharpening demonstrations, weaving workshops, mending circles, and a popular sustainable cook-off where teams prepare meals using only homegrown ingredients.
These gatherings spark meaningful conversations, foster friendships, and strengthen community resilience, benefits that extend well beyond the garden gate and contribute positively to mental wellbeing. Permaculture Connect is free to attend, with a gold coin donation welcomed to support running costs.
Permaculture Australiaโs Permafund has the pleasure of receiving updates from many permaculture projects around Australia & the world who have received small grants from Permafund. All have their own unique combination of flora and fauna, resources and climatic and cultural factors which drive locals to apply permaculture principles to projects in unique and innovative ways.
This often includes using organic solutions to keep local wildlife from decimating gardens while supporting biodiversity and ecological balance. Sometimes that involves small creatures - such as companion planting to attract beneficial insects, or hand-picking caterpillars off vegetables, or introducing lady bugs to manage aphids. Thinking a little bigger, here in Australia we may need to net fruit trees to exclude cockatoos in order to obtain a yield, or tree guards to ward off wallabies.
But when it comes to managing large animals, Friends of Wildlife in Myanmar really โtakes the cakeโ - with a need to keep Asian elephants from trampling their permaculture plot! They are using strategies including planting bio-fencing with elephant-unpalatable seedlings.
Friends of Wildlife (FOW), with support from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Myanmar, works to conserve Asian elephants and to mitigate humanโelephant conflict in nine villages of Taik-kyi Township in southern Bago Yoma, Myanmar (Burma). To reduce humanโelephant conflict, FOW has established eight Elephant Emergency Response Teams (EERTs), an Electric Fence Management Group, and a village-level network.
FOWโs current project involves developing one of the villages, Shwe-Myine (Ywar-thit) Village, as a model for community-based conservation. This village consists of 63 households. While the village faces multiple challenges, including Myanmarโs political situation and some men having to leave due to conscription, women have actively taken leadership roles. Activities include awareness, training, home gardening, permaculture, fish farming, and community forestry - while strengthening inclusive governance and empowering the community-based organisation or sustainable resource management.
This project is supported by funding from both Community Conservation Inc (US $ 10,000) and Permaculture Australiaโs Permafund (AU $2,800). FOW is using this funding strategically to cover 15 activities in order to meet their three main objectives and is an example of donated dollars stretching further when converted to another currency.
Activities 1-3 of FOWโs project involve meetings to address Objective 1: Increasing Awareness and Behaviour Change.
Activities 4-10 involve training activities in the following areas to meet Objective 2: Capacity Building.
Community forestry management
Fish biology / nursing the fingerlings
Home gardening
Bio-fertilizerย
Ethics and Principles of Permaculture
Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO): Organizational development and financial management
Conservation ethics
Organic home gardening and greening
Permaculture Practice
Community forestry
Elephant Emergency Response Team
Activity 13, Permaculture Practise, involves a permaculture plot which is 100 feet long and 80 feet wide. It is located beside a road that is sometimes used by wild elephants.
During a one-year reporting period, wild elephants entered the village on four occasions. The Elephant Emergency Response Teams (EERT) responded successfully to three incidents, and no damage occurred. On another occasion, two wild elephants entered the village at around 2 a.m. The response was delayed, and some fences were damaged. Friends of Wildlife support the EERT with essential equipment, including batteries, torchlights, and streetlights. In addition, they are establishing bio-fencing by planting 420 elephant-unpalatable seedlings. The planting was carried out in September 2025, and survival monitoring in December 2025 showed a 97% survival rate.
Between December 2025 and January 2026, several permaculture activities were completed. This included soil preparation, development of the permaculture zoning design, and selection of suitable plant and crop species. In addition, 4,300 seedling bags were prepared in the home nursery to support village greening activities, home gardening, and the permaculture plot.
FOW plans to implement the permaculture design with an aim to create a low-maintenance and climate-resilient system. It also provides clear learning zones for villagers and integrates food production, soil health, water management, and biodiversity.
Zone 1 will serve as a learning and management hub. It includes the existing hut, mango and cashew trees, a rainwater harvesting tank, tool storage, a notice board on permaculture principles, and a seating area for training.
Zone 2 is the intensive demonstration area located near the hut and water source. It will include raised keyhole garden beds, vertical gardening, and a nursery and seed bank. Crops will include leafy greens, vegetables, herbs, and mulch-rich beds.
Zone 3 is a semi-intensive food forest. It will feature fruit trees, nitrogen-fixing plants, and an understory of medicinal and multipurpose crops.
Zone 4 will focus on staple crops for household food security, such as cassava, sweet potato, maize, and legumes grown through intercropping.
Zone 5 is a buffer and biodiversity area on the northern side of the plot. It will include bamboo, native shrubs, and bee-friendly flowers to provide protection and wildlife habitat.
The design also includes water management measures and clear pathways connecting all zones. Simple signboards will explain key concepts such as mulching, nitrogen-fixing plants, and food forest layers.
Throughout project implementation, FOW has coordinated with CCC to provide rotating support to villagers. For education and demonstration purposes, FOW plans to conduct monthly village trainings/talks, school visits, and farmer-to-farmer learning sessions. Practical demonstrations will cover composting, mulching, intercropping, and natural pest control.
We congratulate FOW on the progress they are making in improving environmental sustainability in diverse ways despite the unique and significant challenges faced in Myanmar, and look forward to hearing more updates in future.
By Peter Veeken, President โ Permaculture Yarra Valley
As I write this, we are nearing the end of Permaculture Week 2024 and have had a busy schedule of events to promote permaculture to the wider community. This is the fifth year Permaculture Yarra Valley has run Permaculture Week and the first year is has gone beyond the Yarra Ranges. Events kicked off on Friday 15th and concluded on Sunday 24th March (which is actually more than a week!) In the Yarra Valley we held 18 events starting with the Ecotopia Festival at Ecoss followed by site visits, workshops, a film screening, a seminar on Growing our community and a visit to a commercial Biochar facility. Feedback from attendees has been very positive and gives me a buzz making the months of planning worthwhile.
Permaculture Week events in the Yarra Valley included:
Edible Forest Tour hosted by Edible Forest Yarra Valley
Small Suburban Permaculture Property Tour โ Millgrove
Large Rural Permaculture Property Tour โTenderbreakโ โ Dixons Creek
Biochar Facility Tour โ Lysterfield hosted by Earth Systems Pty Ltd
Large Suburban Permaculture Property Tour โ Lilydale
โEcosophiaโ Film screening โ Warburton
Gardens for Harvest Permaculture Talk โ Eastern Regional Libraries
Visit to Edible Warburton Community Garden
โGrowing our Community: One backyard at a timeโ Seminar with Nick Rose and Kat Lavers
Large Suburban Permaculture Property Tour โ Healesville
PEACE Farm Tour โ Yarra Junction
Harvest Festival/Soul Dance โ Permaculture Finale โ PEACE Farm
Suburban Permaculture Property Tour โ Kilsyth
โWild Ridge Farmโ Property Tour โ Healesville
Some of our event hosts have pledged ticket sales to support Permaculture Australia/Permafund.
Beyond the Yarra Valley in Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula Permaculture Group, Permaculture Out West, Cardinia Shire Council, CERES, and Latrobe City Council hosted several events to celebrate permaculture.
Outside Victora, a couple of events were held in Tasmania and internationally events were held in the USA and the UK making Permaculture Week almost a global phenomenon. Planning and organising Permaculture Week takes a lot of effort and itโs important to acknowledge the voluntary work of several people:
Leanne Hall (Ecoss) and Chelsea McNab (Ecoss & Yarra Ranges Council) and Kat McKay (PEACE Farm) for coming up with the idea all those years ago. Fiona Campbell (www.permacultureday.org website administrator) for enabling the site to list Permaculture Week events and marketing. Meg Mulcahy (Permaculture Australia) for designing the Permaculture Week logo. Gabrielle Francis (Latrobe Community Health Service) and Nikkie Hale (Mornington Peninsula Permaculture Group) for the enthusiasm and dedication to spreading the word.
Iโd like to thank Yarra Ranges Council and VicHealth for their sponsorship of events.
Finally, I thank our indigenous peoples for allowing us to hold events on their land.
Well over 400 people attended events in the Yarra Valley.
Event Name
Total Attendance
Ecotopia Festival - ECOSS
Several Hundred (est 700+)
Edible Forest Tour 2024 - Dixons Creek
12
Small Suburban Property Tour - Millgrove
10
Permaculture Tour - Tenderbreak - Dixons Creek
20
Mt Evelyn Community Garden Opportunity
30
Yarra Ranges Council Biochar Facility Tour - Lysterfield
15
Large Suburban Property Tour - 1 Acre in Lilydale
10
Visit Edible Warburton Garden
5
Lilydale Library Talk
20
Growing our community - Seminar
68
Movie Night - Ecosophia
Approx 50
Large Suburban Property Tour - Healesville
18
PEACE Farm Tour
25
PEACE Farm Harvest Festival
Approx 100
Urban Property Tour - Kilsyth
10
Permaculture Tour - Wild Ridge Farm - Healesville
30
Total for all except Ecotopia
Approx 423
My initial guess is we raised just under $350 for Permaculture Australia/Permafund thanks to the generosity of a number of hosts.
I hope Permaculture Week grows into a global movement in 2025 and beyond.
As a current financial member, you are invited to the Permaculture Australia Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on Saturday 27th April 2024, 1pm EST (Melbourne / Sydney Time) online via Zoom.
Attendance via Zoom - Attendance via zoom is welcome, the zoom meeting will be activated right on 1pm. You will be required to pre register, for attendance purposes. Please register HERE You will need to pre register to be sent the live link.
Nominations to the Board - Members can nominate themselves or another member they think is suitable and willing to serve on the Board*. People nominated must hold a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) certificate or VET Permaculture Cert III or higher, and confirm they are willing to stand and are familiar with or will become familiar with the responsibilities/time commitment outlined in the document โWhat Does Board Membership Involveโ.
If you are unable to attend the AGM, and are a current memeber, you can still vote (All proxies are to be returned by email to the Secretary by 1pm Friday 26th April 2024).The instructions on how to vote via proxy and the form for you to complete to nominate your proxy voter are here: LINK
Under the Permaculture Australia Constitution, members who wish to stand for election to the Board must be nominated by at least 2 other current financial members of Permaculture Australia. If you wish to self-nominate and donโt know any PA members, then include a couple of references from people who know what relevant skills you have to offer PA in your nomination information. You are able to NOMINATE HERE or PA members attending the AGM can nominate during the AGM if they feel they have enough information about you (you are also entitled to speak to the meeting in support of your self-nomination).
We look forward to receiving your responses/nominations and are happy to answer any questions you may have. In fact, we encourage anyone whoโs considering nominating to chat with a current Director/s.
2023/2024 Permaculture Australia Board Members Renominating
Greta CarrollLinda WoodrowFelix LeibeltNaomi AmberToad Dell
2024/2025 Permaculture Australia Board Members - New Nominees
Lauren O'Reilly
PDC 11 years ago, Cert IV in 2017, I run an make a living from my permaculture business desiging and building gardens & consulting. I have just opened my second public permaculture demonstration garden (in the heart of mullum) have worked in east Timor and for the last 3 years have been coordinating and teaching the Cert IV Permaculture through the Byron Community College. in 2022 I started Northern Rivers Permaculture Network a not for profit.
I practice and teach project management within permaculture and really believe in the power of permaculture to help heal our communities.
Fernando Moreno Rodriguez
As a seasoned Business Administrator, I bring a track record of strategic prowess and commercial acumen, cultivated across dynamic industries such as manufacturing, construction materials, and fashion. From the outset of my career, I've been a staunch advocate for strategic planning, recognising its pivotal role in driving organisational success. I have spearheaded numerous entrepreneurial endeavours, each underscored by meticulous strategic planning aimed at capturing market opportunities and maximising commercial potential. This experience has equipped me with a nuanced understanding of the intricate interplay between strategic vision and commercial execution, allowing me to navigate complex business environments with agility and foresight. In my capacity as a leader, I have actively contributed to designing and implementing robust strategic frameworks tailored to organisational objectives, fostering a culture of innovation and adaptability. My expertise extends beyond strategic planning to encompass commercial strategy development, encompassing market analysis, product positioning, and revenue optimisation. I am driven by a passion for excellence and a commitment to delivering tangible results, making me well-suited to contribute effectively to the strategic direction and commercial success of PA as a member of the board of directors.
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