Permaculture Australia (PA) is the national permaculture member organisation and peak body. Our mission is to support, promote and advocate for permaculture ideas, solutions and strategies. To support our expanding work, we are looking for a part time Accountant to join our growing team.
The position of Accountant is central to the operations of Permaculture Australia, a Company limited by guarantee and a Registered Charity and Environmental Organisation. The Accountant is one of four part-time paid positions within PA and covers a variety of tasks including preparing financial reports, invoicing, payroll and compliance reporting.
The ongoing part-time position is on offer with an initial contract to end of April 2022, with flexible working hours undertaken from home for up to 10 hours/month.
For any queries please contact Donna, PA Board Director via treasurer@permacultureaustralia.org.au.
HOW TO APPLY:
Please send the completed application form and brief CV to treasurer@permacultureaustralia.org.au before midnight Saturday 7th November 2020.
Thank you for your interest in working for Permaculture Australia.
A small team of permaculture practitioners are developing culturally appropriate permaculture resources, with a focus on teaching in displacement settings & crowded urban areas.
Led by international permaculture pioneer & Permafund Patron Rosemary Morrow, four days were spent in the Blue Mountains recently to progress the teaching resources.
“My years have shown that there are few materials available in translated languages to the participants we teach. This workshop will ensure accurate & appropriate training materials, which at the time of COVID-19 is even more essential to support distance/online training and community reach even more camp and urban settlement settings”, Rowe Morrow
Highlights of the workshop also included sessions with Permaculture for Refugees members BASD in Bangladesh, Sarah from Green ReLeaf in the Philippines, Blue Ribbon in Malaysia, Kat Lavers, and Morag Gamble sharing information on Permayouth.
Professional development sessions on teaching online, developing videos, cartoons, written and visual training materials were completed to assist with the resource development.
A new booklet ‘Teaching Permaculture in Refugee Camps‘ by Rowe Morrow and Ruth Harvey was also launched at the workshop.
P4R SEA member Sarah Queblatin from Green ReLeaf in the Philippines briefs the Blue Mountains participants via Zoom.
Permaculture Australia, including Permafund, are well representated with members Kym Blechynden, Jed Walker, Greta Carroll, Morag Gamble and Sarah Boulle all involved in the project.
“PA staff and members are thrilled to be involved withthe Permaculture for Refugees SEA activities. By partnering together we’ve been able to produce appropriate teaching resources for local NGO’s working in refugee camps and informal settlements – improving access to information by communities across the globe who often need it the most“, Kym Blechynden, PA.
These teaching resources will be translated and made available for use by communities in early 2021. The key to making these resources accessible to refugees are their translation into multiple languages. Funds are required towards covering the cost of translations, so all donations are welcome and gratefully received. Please contact hello@permcaultureaustralia.org.au for more information
PA’s Permafund members Greta Carroll, Rowe Morrow (Patron), Jed Walker & Kym Blechynden at the Blue Mountains workshop.
A huge thank you to the Blue Mountains Food Coop, Quakers Service Victoria and Permaculture Australia Permafund for their financial support to the workshop, all of the facilitators and participants for volunteering their time and travel costs, and to lead organisers Rowe Morrow and Jed Walker.
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For more information:
This article relates to the three permaculture ethics (Earth care, People Care & Fair Care), Use and Value Diversity, and Use Edges & Value the Marginal. More information on the permaculture ethics and principles can be found here.
Permaculture 4 Refugees South East Asia is a network of permaculture aid workers in Australia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Philippines, including members of Permaculture Australia and PA’s Permafund. We work in partnership with local NGO’s to support permaculture training and resource development in displacement and crowded urban settings. Donations are required and gratefully received to assist with the translation of resources into multiple languages, contact hello@permacultureaustralia.org.au to find out how to donate.
PA’s Permafund provides small grants to community permaculture groups across Australia and internationally. Since 2012 we have provided 38 grants in 14 countries, with another 12 projects being announced on the 1st November 2020. Donations over $2 are tax deductible in Australia. Find out more including how to donate here.
Rosemary (Rowe) Morrow is a permaculture pioneer, Permafund patron, author and teacher. For almost 40 years Rowe has worked extensively with farmers and villagers in Africa, Central and South East Asia and Eastern Europe and to communities experiencing the serious effects of climate change. When not working overseas, Rowe is based in Katoomba, NSW and is an active member of Permaculture for Refugees.
Have you ever wondered if you can implement permaculture principles in a renting setting? Yes, you can! Read more about ‘permaculture renting’ with our guest blogger, Dawn Green, from lutrawita / Tasmania, and check out some great case studies on permaculture renting properties too.
“Many of us, myself included, have lived in rental properties over the years. Some of these situations are temporary, some are long term. But no matter what time frame applies, renting brings with it a unique opportunity to make a difference in the world.
Permaculture renting refers to the practice of establishing gardens and lifestyle choices based on permaculture principles within a rental property setting.
There are two big factors at play here – the temporary nature of the garden and infrastructure (for you, but it may pay divendends to future renters and owners. More on this later). And two, ensuring you have the appropriate permission and guidelines established before your shovel hits the dirt or any infrastructure is modified.
So, how does it work?
Firstly, pen a letter to the rental agency, seeking permission from the house owner to establish a garden or make changes. Make sure you talk about your passion for gardening and include a sketch of the garden beds you’d like to put in. Ideally these will be no-dig garden beds which are super easy to establish. That way it’s crystal clear what your intentions are and you have permission in writing to proceed.
Then it’s time to consider what type of garden you’d like to plant. A great source for ideas can be found here.
While you are working on your garden, find ways to connect with your local community to access all kinds of (usually) free resources, including seeds and cuttings. Discover your local permaculture group and start networking. Together we are smarter and more resourceful than on our own.
Other ways to live sustainably while renting includes the all-important act of reducing your waste. Most urban areas have good recycling collections systems, but don’t forget it’s important to avoid packaging where possible, especially food packaging. Buy food in bulk where you can and food waste and vegetable peelings can go into a backyard compost or give your waste a second change by tracking down a local Share Waste host. Or better yet, buy or make yourself a worm farm – you and your kids will be delighted with your new ‘pets’ and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how quickly they multiply and munch up your food scraps!
Of course we must also focus on our water usage too. The easiest way to use greywater is to place a hose on the end of your washing machine output and then divert it to the lawn or trees. Ensure you use the most natural biodegradable detergent that you can find.
You can save litres and litres of water by catching the first part of your shower water before it starts to run hot into a bucket and then use the water on your veggie garden. And it’s also worth considering standing in one of those large plastic tubs while having your shower and then dumping the shower water outside.
A great firsthand story on permaculture renting from Milkwood Permaculture will give you lots of tips and ideas to consider too.
Think of the future
Even though you may need to move on from your rental property one day (the house is being sold, or your living arrangements have changed), your legacy garden will go on helping others and helping the planet.
Planting trees or perennials at a rental property means we are leaving behind plants which will improve the soil, increase biomass, create habitat and will hopefully make a small, but significant difference to the world.
So don’t let a minor detail like renting prevent you from the pleasure of creating permaculture in your community and contributing to having a smaller carbon footprint. Do your homework and before you know it, you’ll be out there with the dirt in your hands, knowing you are making a difference in the here and now, and also laying the seeds for the future as well.
For those on Social media, you may wish to follow The Urban Nanna on Facebook and Instagram for daily tips on successfully implementing permaculture principles and building community while living in a rental property.
The Retrosuburbia Real Estate Checklist (RREC) and ‘Sun’ rating checklist aim to help you evaluate an existing property – whether it is the one you live in or one you are considering purchasing or leasing. It’s available to download free from here or purchase the entire book here (if you are a PA member don’t forget to use your membership discount code too!)
“As more emphasis and urgency is placed on the need for sustainable living due to the Earth’s health, through societal norms, economic drivers and (hopefully) legislation, people will turn to learning from and employing those with permaculture skills.”
Jo Bussell’s permaculture journey started with two weekend permaculture introduction courses in 2010 and 2011. In 2013 she completed a PDC in Fremantle with Sparkles, Harry Wykham and a range of presenters, followed by an Advanced PDC with Ross Mars and Graeme Bell in 2016. Only a year later, Jo opened Urban Revolution in Perth, WA. Martina from the PA Education team chats with Jo about the permaculture skills required for her retail employees & opening a permaculture store in Perth, WA.
Jo, you have the only permaculture ‘brick-and-mortar store’ in Perth. Tell us a little bit about the concept and how you got the idea to open this store.
Permaculture sparked (like for so many people) a passion in me to make my home food gardens efficient and mineral dense, followed by helping friends and family implement permaculture design elements into their gardens. This moved onto paid permaculture design work. There was a need to recommend tools and soil inputs to have a successful food garden in Perth. This morphed into working with Men’s Sheds to make plastic free gardening tools such as our first product, a seedling flat. I then created an online store and went to markets offering the products, permaculture advice and design work. The bricks and mortar store came to fruition due to the number of products we were supplying and the need to take the business out of our home.
What are the goods and services available in your store?
The store offers garden, cleaning, homeware and personal care products that are made from materials that are compostable, plastic free or are better for the Earth. The gardening products are aimed at growing food along with a fabulous range of local, heirloom and open-pollinated veggie, herb and flower seeds. We assist and educate people individually on how to grow food, create soil and compost everyday organic waste. We randomly present on various permaculture related subjects at community events and in schools. We also connect interested people with permaculture courses, teachers and designers.
I know your employees have done Permaculture Design Courses and at least one has done her Certificate III in Permaculture. Is permaculture knowledge something that is needed for the work at Urban Revolution?
Yes. Permaculture knowledge is key to assisting our customers with product use and our free advice on how to create soil, compost, grow food, and modify or add elements into an urban garden using permaculture design techniques. Skills I am looking for in particular are a holistic composting knowledge, soil creation specifically for growing vegetables, experience in growing various vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers; companion planting, backyard chickens and integrated pest management knowledge.
Are you encouraging further permaculture studies for the people you work with and your customers?
Yes, absolutely. Out of our six staff, three have Permaculture Design Certificates (PDCs) and two have completed further permaculture education – and we all would like to do more. The remaining three are growing food at home and are eco aware with other skill sets. They are learning about permaculture by just working in the store. When possible, I hope they will all complete a PDC. In addition, our customers are consistently recommended to do a PDC at every appropriate opportunity!
There aren’t many permaculture jobs advertised at the moment. Do you think this will change?
Yes, I think it will change and gain momentum. For example, why hire a mowing company to maintain your garden? Y ou can hire a permaculture-based gardening company to improve and manage your garden’s health, grow food, educate and provide garden design. As more emphasis and urgency is placed on the need for sustainable living due to the Earth’s health, through societal norms, economic drivers and (hopefully) legislation, people will turn to learning from and employing those with permaculture skills. Ultimately our business goal is to employ permaculturists to provide presentations and workshops to schools, businesses and especially in our communities. At the moment this is a longer-term goal due to cash flow and providing an appropriate venue.
Additional information
Martina Hoeppner holds a Diploma in Permaculture and a Certificate IV in Training & Assessment, teaches PDCs and Certificate III in Permaculture in Perth and is the current Co-Convenor of Permaculture West. She contributes to Permaculture Australia’s Education Team and tries keep alive her own garden and three sons in her spare time. More information on the different types of permaculture education completed by both Martina and Jo can be found here.
Martina and Jo are Professional and Organisation members of Permaculture Australia, the national member based organisation in Australia. Sign up as a member here today to join hundreds of members across Australia advocating for permaculture solutions.
Urban Revolution Australiais anEco & Garden Store and Online Shop with household, personal and gardening products to make it easy to have a thriving garden, wasteless kitchen and greener lifestyle. There have a current vacancy to join their team which would suit someone with a permaculture background (a Permaculture Design Certificate would be highly regarded).
“Permaculture offers a simple, joyful and ethical way of life and making a living” Morag Gamble
Permaculture offers a huge range of practical tools to improve household and community resilience, increase food security, better manage water, create systems that return carbon to the earth, and reduce bushfire risks. All of these are sorely needed now that the climate is changing so much faster than expected, with unprecedented fire conditions, heatwaves and drought.
We are excited to share three online opportunities to increase your skills and knowledge in permaculture and soil health.
Permaculture Education Institute, Morag Gamble
Receive a 10% discount on the registration fee for the Permaculture Educators Program, which comprises a Permaculture Design Certificate plus Permaculture Teacher Certificate. To receive the discount you must sign up using this link only and enter PA10.
2. The Advanced Permaculture Student Online, Matt Powers
Join the Advanced Permaculture Student online course and receive a 50% discount ($750) off the registration price. To receive the discount you must sign up via this link
3. Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web Foundation Courses
Do you want to understand how soil microbes work in harmony with plants? Dr. Elaine Ingham has dedicated her life to researching the Soil Food Web and to working with farmers to help them transition away from using chemicals, to working in harmony with nature. Signup for the Foundation Courses today here.
More information:
Permaculture Australia does not endorse any businesses, services, products, courses, workshops or events posted on this website. When you purchase a course or product using the provided links above, you will receive the stipulated discount and PA will also receive an affilitate commission on each purchase.
Please contact hello@permacultureaustralia.org.au if you would like to become a PA Affiliate or have any queries. We will carefully review all organisations to ensure they align with permaculture ethics & principles, and the mission of Permaculture Australia. Every effort is made to ensure the above information is up to date and correct and will be updated as new information is received.
Spring has sprung with the action from communities towards this giant we face that is climate change. While in lockdown in Naarm / Melbourne, a household of permaculture folks have planned a three day summit with some of the legends of permaculture, First Nations perspectives on a just recovery, and workshops for pragmatic solutions to building resilient communities. Read more about the event and how it was developed with this guest post by Guy Ritani, PA member and co-organiser, TEDx PermaQueer.
“During isolation I have had the privilege to go to a number of climate action, youth future, climate uprise events which I am incredibly grateful for. However I came away from a lot of them thinking something was lacking. Action. The calamity we face is reasonably well known to most people and the issue of climate change has shifted somewhat into a paralysing storm. I wanted to hear the solutions and see how they were appearing in the light of day with peoples actions. Action that we can all do to weave the vast ropes of humanity through the needle head that is climate change.
TEDX is currently doing a global pulse of their platform out to communities around the world on the topic of climate change and are calling it ‘Countdown’. I applied for the TEDx license a few months ago and didn’t hear back until two weeks ago to advise the event would be in three weeks. 3 WEEKS!! So a very excited and anxious me began drafting on the whiteboard what an I thought an action filled summit would look like, one that had real impact for communities.
I live in a Permaculture sharehouse with fellow teacher and PA member Delldint Fleming, my partner and co-teacher at PermaQueer Toad Dell and permaculture student, Cicily. Together we drafted the idea of an amazing summit with all of the dream speakers we could possibly want. The drawing board featured David Holmgren, Rosemary Morrow, Damon Gameau, David Attenborough, Keitha Thuy Young to name a few. Then we set out with bright eyes on our journey to contact all our dream speakers. Some we got, others we didn’t. I wanted to curate a summit from all perspectives and all levels of industry to tackle the ways our human system works as holistically as possible and get somewhat of a birds eye view of how we can actionably respond to this crisis. We shared the outcome: a solutions oriented approach to the ways communities can build infrastructure to alleviate their dependence on carbon consuming systems.
We’ve been in isolation pretty much since March this year so we’re all just slowly migrating around the house and garden with our laptops and drawing boards organising, emailing, designing, replying to emails, calling speakers and replying to more emails again. It has been a tremendous effort from the four of us here pulling together this fantastic group of speakers, dispersing it out to our communities and establishing the infrastructure to run this event. I am immensely proud of my household, having never tried to do anything like this before and I’m pleased we’ve stepped up to the plate. Outwardly too, it’s been amazing and so affirming getting the support from all the amazing speakers we have and their deep genuine interest to solve these issues and share how they’ve done it themselves.
In terms of the actual event, we wanted it to feel effortless, like a conversation over a cuppa. The three day summit begins with a Welcome to country. We then have Tyson Yunkaporta talking on what a meaningful existence means as we move towards the future informed from the deep ancestral truths Aboriginal and First Nations peoples hold from the past. One thing we’ve really consciously tried to centre this around is First Nations sovereignty. There is no just recovery without complete considerations for the First Nations of this land and of the lands surrounding it. So as we came together hoping to speak of solutions, we tried to ensure they were coming from First Nation voices and experiences. I want the speakers to talk about this issue in the way that sang to them and spoke to their true passion as to why they do what they do. From seed saving to bringing your ethics to the workplace, decolonising our minds and ancestry to integrating medicine into our natural food systems, how activists are supporting Australia to break up with fossil fuels to fungal fabrics as the future of fashion. We have tried to meaningfully cover as much as we can given the time we’ve had so I am really looking forward to this event.
One last thing I will mention is the queering of Permaculture. We know the edge is where it’s at and to value the marginal. Our desire is to integrate all the deep pools of knowledge and open up other areas of humanity’s realm of acceptance so we can create this new future. We’re entering an era of science fiction at the moment, in that we don’t have a rulebook anymore for what’s going to happen and the outcome will be only what we make it. Now is the time to open up all our borders and collaborate with people, ideas, identities, cultures and get as creative as possible. I hope that this will be the first in a series of events on pragmatic sustainability and am looking forward to the future 🙂 “
For more information:
TEDx PermaQueer will be held online on October 15-17th October 2020 and recorded in Naarm / Melbourne. Tickets for the event are free or via donation and can be booked here. The list of speakers includes David Holmgren, Rowe Morrow, Guy Ritani, Morag Gamble, Delldint Fleming and many more. Follow for updates on the schedule and speakers here.
Permqueer is a collaborative effort to share ecological sustainability methods through the lens of permaculture and focussing accessibility to traditionally marginalised communities. Our goal is to spread knowledge of living within ecological boundaries.
Guy and Delldint (and many of the speakers at TEDx PermaQueer), are professional members of Permaculture Australia, the national member based permaculture organisation. Join up here today to help us advocate for permaculture solutions.
