For decades, a gap has existed between what students learn about sustainability in the classroom and the practical skills needed to care for land, grow food, restore ecosystems, and design resilient local systems.
Students may study ecology, food systems, climate pressure, and environmental change, yet the hands-on skills needed to respond to those realities have often remained outside the formal curriculum - in garden clubs, weekend workshops, community projects, or informal electives.
That gap is now beginning to close.
The Certificate II in Permaculture (AHC21722) is now "on scope" for delivery in Australian secondary schools through ReadCloud. This means students can complete a nationally recognised vocational qualification in permaculture while gaining credit toward their secondary schooling.
For the Australian permaculture movement, this is a significant step. Permaculture is moving from the margins of education into the mainstream structures of secondary schooling.
Why "On Scope" Matters
In the Vocational Education and Training sector, being "on scope" means that a Registered Training Organisation has been approved to deliver a particular qualification.
Permaculture qualifications have existed on the national training register for some time, thanks to the substantial work of Ross Mars and many others who helped establish and defend permaculture within the formal training system. However, getting a qualification into high schools is a different challenge.
VET delivered to secondary students sits at the intersection of two highly regulated systems: school education and vocational training. A course must be credible to schools, acceptable to regulators, deliverable by teachers, and assessable under national competency standards.
That required serious groundwork.
The Permaculture Australia VET Circle developed a comprehensive 270-page Training and Assessment Strategy specifically designed for the high school context. This strategy provided the structure needed for ReadCloud, a school-focused RTO, to bring the Certificate II in Permaculture onto scope.
Because ReadCloud already works with secondary schools, the qualification is now positioned for wider adoption in Australian school-based VET programs.
The Role of the Permaculture Australia VET Circle
The Permaculture Australia VET Circle has been the driving force behind this work.
The Circle brings together permaculture practitioners, educators, and vocational training specialists who understand both the ethics of permaculture and the requirements of formal education. Their work has not simply been to promote permaculture, but to make it administratively possible for schools to deliver it with integrity.
That matters.
Without the regulatory architecture, permaculture remains vulnerable to being treated as an optional extra. With it, schools can offer permaculture as a recognised vocational pathway.
"If you are attacking a problem that you can fix in your lifetime, then you are thinking too small..."
Bringing permaculture into schools is exactly that kind of long-term work. It is not only about next year's subject offerings. It is about building a generation of students who can participate responsibly in food, fibre, ecological, and designed systems.
A Four-Year Pathway from Tools to Systems Thinking
The Certificate II in Permaculture has been structured into four clusters, designed to scaffold student learning from Year 9 through to Year 12.
The pathway begins with practical outdoor work and gradually builds toward research, agricultural science, system design, production, and industry awareness.
Year 9: Working in Ecological Services
The first cluster is designed to give students early success through practical action.
Students focus on tool safety, workplace health and safety, weather observation, hand tool maintenance, and basic ecological restoration. The reading and writing demands are deliberately kept low so that students can first build confidence through hands-on work.
This is an important design choice. Many students who may not initially see themselves as academic learners can experience success through competent practical work. They begin by doing real tasks with real tools in real environments.
Year 10: Know Your Bioregion
The second cluster shifts toward research, mapping, observation, communication, and local ecological knowledge.
Students investigate their local bioregion, record information about Country, and develop workplace communication skills. This cluster gives practical purpose to literacy, numeracy, geography, and environmental understanding.
Rather than learning about ecology in abstract terms only, students are asked to understand the place where they actually live.
Year 11: Basics of Food Production
In the third cluster, the science deepens.
Students work with integrated plant and animal systems, crop production, propagation, soil health, and plant nutrition. They begin to read whole-site permaculture plans, conduct soil pH testing, propagate seedlings, and run small agricultural trials.
This is where the common misconception that permaculture is "just gardening" begins to fall apart.
Students are not merely planting seeds. They are learning to observe relationships, manage living systems, collect evidence, and make decisions based on site conditions.
Year 12: Obtain a Yield
The final cluster functions as a capstone production season.
Students manage crops from planting through to harvest, use low-volume irrigation, collect and store seed, record yields, and investigate employment pathways in the permaculture industry.
By the end of the course, students should not only have completed a qualification. They should also have experienced the discipline of bringing a living system through a full cycle of production.
That is a serious form of learning.
High-Level Science with Mud on the Boots
One of the strengths of the Certificate II pathway is that it does not force students to choose between practical work and intellectual rigour.
The course begins with tools, restoration, and work-readiness. It then moves into mapping, bioregional research, soil health, plant nutrition, irrigation, seed saving, production, and industry investigation.
This is science with mud on the boots.
Students learn through participation in real systems. They encounter water, soil, weather, plants, animals, tools, and human decisions as connected realities. That kind of learning helps students see that sustainability is not just a set of values or opinions. It is a practical discipline requiring knowledge, judgement, skill, and responsibility.
Career Pathways and Further Study
The Certificate II in Permaculture can lead directly into entry-level roles such as:
Urban food growing assistant
Permaculture farm worker
Community nursery worker
School garden assistant
But its value is broader than those direct employment outcomes.
The qualification builds transferable skills relevant to horticulture, agriculture, nursery operations, landscaping, conservation and ecosystem management, sports turf management, community food systems, and on-Country land management.
Students develop outdoor work-readiness, communication skills, workplace safety awareness, environmental observation, tool use, and practical responsibility.
For students who want to continue studying, the Certificate II can also provide a foundation for Certificate III or IV in Permaculture, the Permaculture Design Certificate, or further study in sustainability, environmental science, agriculture, education, or community development.
It is not a ceiling. It is a foundation.
What Schools Need to Do Now
The timing of this announcement matters.
Most high schools begin finalising subject offerings for the following year around Term 3. Schools interested in offering Certificate II in Permaculture in 2027 need to begin conversations now.
The pathway is straightforward:
A teacher or school leader identifies interest in offering the course.
The school's VET Coordinator contacts ReadCloud about adding Certificate II in Permaculture to the school's 2027 offerings.
If a school works with another RTO, that RTO can contact Permaculture Australia about licensing the Training and Assessment Strategy.
Permaculture Australia holds the copyright for the strategy and is willing to support interested teachers, schools, and RTOs who want to make the qualification available.
One school in Western Australia has already added the course to its 2027 offerings. The opportunity now is for more schools to follow.
A Mainstream Pathway for Ecological Responsibility
The move into high schools does not reduce permaculture to another school subject. At its best, it gives permaculture a more secure public form.
It allows students to encounter ecological design, food production, soil care, water management, local bioregional knowledge, and practical responsibility as part of their formal education.
That is the real significance of this moment.
Permaculture is not only about growing food. It is about learning to participate wisely in the systems that sustain life.
If Australian schools are serious about preparing students for the future, then students need more than abstract awareness of environmental problems. They need practical skills, vocational pathways, ecological literacy, and the capacity to design for resilience.
The Certificate II in Permaculture offers one credible way to begin.
For further information, teachers and VET Coordinators can view the course outline in ReadCloud's 2027 Course Guide or contact Permaculture Australia at hello@permacultureaustralia.org.au.
On May the 4th, 32 members of Permaculture Australia gathered in a Zoom call for the 2026 Annual General Meeting. The week prior, we also enjoyed a pre-AGM Online Soiree event that gave all the attendees a chance to meet the nominees to the board, which was a fun and interesting event to get together and look to the future of Permaculture.
The office bearers of Secretary and Treasurer were then peer-elected at the Mission Circle meeting on 25th May, and the members of the Mission Circle (following the Sociocratic Election Process to elect the Operational Lead of their sub-circle) elected the Chair of the Board at that meeting.
We are now very pleased to introduce you to our new Board of Directors, who will serve a term of 2 years from 2026 until the AGM in 2028.
NEW TO THE BOARD IN 2026:
KATIE REID
With over 20 years of experience advising boards, C-suite executives, regulators, and community organisations, Katie's career has spanned multiple sectors across Australia, including small not-for-profit organisations, government, and some of the world’s largest companies. Across these contexts, her focus has remained consistent: helping people across systems collectively understand and navigate complexity with integrity, inclusion and new models of collaboration and contribution.
Molly received the Yale Distinguished Alumna Award (2020) for her global work over more than 35 years to systematically re-design economic structures to ensure the protection of biodiversity, survival of humanity, and achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Sam has run for council, ran events, managed large aid and private projects and designed all over the world. He is a full time permaculture teacher, designer, farmer, project manager and landscaper, and actually hasn’t done anything else. He may not have been alive long, but he's certainly put the hours in.
Catherine has served for the past 12 months as the Chair of Permaculture Australia elected by her peers to steward the board of directors at a time of great transformation for Permaculture Australia and the Permaculture movement, demanded by the conditions of the world at large. Over the past year, the board has devoted much time to reaching out to listen and re-connect with the permaculture community and broader ecosystem, to align the organisation with the needs of our time.
Having served this past year has allowed John to witness a dramatic shift toward collective governance with the implementation of sociocracy as the model for collaboration and decision making.
He's been involved in Permaculture activism since completing his PDC in 1992 in many areas, but strategically in his local region of the Bega Valley, NSW receiving an APT Diploma in Permaculture Design through Recognised Prior Learning.
Having 20 years+ of professional experience in consulting and corporate in organisational and leadership development, Tim works internationally across numerous sectors, hundreds of organisations and his work directly impacts 1000s of people. This work includes many examples of strategic advisory work related to organisational design, development and culture generation for statutory boards including Charities and Peak bodies and Associations, as well as corporates, NGOs, government agencies and departments.
Bronwyn had had the honour of this role for the past year, and she feels that the work she has undertaken is only just beginning. Something that has deeply impressed her is the potential that she has seen within this organisation for making a real difference on a national scale. She has observed the obstacles we face, and also the opportunities. She has developed precious relationships with people right across the country that have so much to offer.
At this time, we wish to offer our sincere thanks to the 2025-2026 board members who will continue their Permaculture Australia journey in other areas of the organisation.
Departing Board Members:
Lauren O'Reilly (Left) stepped down from the board after helping the new board members transition into their current roles. She hopes to return in the near future to continue her contribution to the VET Circle
Fernando Moreno (Centre) continues on with Permaculture Australia filling a key role as our Operations Manager.
Felix Leibelt (Right) continues to be actively engaged in the Youth Circle as one of our Youth Ambassadors.
Congratulations to our new panel of Directors, and Thank You to all who have served in the past. We are excited to see the bright and promising future of this organisation and the broader permaculture movement unfold.
Community Gardens Australia, Grow It Local, and Permaculture Australia have announced an exciting national partnership to deliver the 2026 Community Growing Conference series — a powerful collaboration set to provide a major boost to food growing communities across Australia.
In 2026, Community Gardens Australia will lead the delivery of its annual State Conferences (formerly known as Community Garden Gatherings), with Grow It Local and Permaculture Australia coming on board as key partners. Together, the three organisations represent tens of thousands of local growers, garden leaders, permaculture practitioners and sustainability advocates nationwide.
The partnership brings together complementary strengths: CGA’s national leadership in community gardens, Grow It Local’s innovative digital engagement and storytelling platform, and Permaculture Australia’s deep expertise in regenerative design and education. The result will be an expanded conference experience in every state - with high-profile speakers, practical workshops, inspiring guest appearances, and dynamic networking opportunities.
These conferences are designed to do more than inspire — they will equip communities with the practical skills, governance knowledge, partnerships and confidence needed to grow thriving local food systems. From soil health and seed saving to volunteer leadership, governance, inclusion and climate resilience, the 2026 program will provide tangible tools to strengthen gardens at every stage of development.
But this partnership is about more than just conferences. Throughout 2026, the three organisations will actively support and amplify each other’s work - cross-promoting initiatives, collaborating on storytelling, sharing networks and expertise, and aligning advocacy efforts where possible. Together, they will also explore ways to measure collective impact, expand awareness of community food growing, and increase participation across diverse communities. By working in alignment, the organisations aim to build stronger visibility, deeper engagement and greater national momentum for local food systems.
By working together, the three organisations aim to:
Increase participation in community food growing.
Strengthen collaboration between community gardens, permaculture groups and local home food growing networks.
Build leadership capacity within volunteer-led projects.
Support resilient, regenerative local food systems across urban, regional and rural Australia.
Measure and demonstrate the collective impact of community food growing nationwide.
Importantly, the partnership ensures equal branding and shared visibility across all 2026 conferences - reflecting a united movement committed to growing food, community and connection.
“This collaboration signals a new chapter for the community food growing movement in Australia,” said Naomi Lacey, Director of Community Gardens Australia. “When organisations align around shared values, the impact multiplies. Together, we can reach more people, strengthen more community gardens, and inspire the next generation of growers.”
“The opportunity to form this partnership and contribute in this way is the very essence of our purpose,” said Bronwyn Chompff-Gliddon, Secretary of Permaculture Australia. “Our primary role is as an enabler of the autonomous movement of Permaculture. What begins here has the potential to feed into many other future endeavours.”
“This is a truly exciting partnership that will help get more Australians growing, sharing and eating locally grown food.” said Darryl Nichols, Co-Founder of Grow It Local. “Growing food is climate action, waste reduction, biodiversity restoration and community building rolled into one - and it delivers powerful health and wellbeing benefits along the way. Because when you grow food, you grow far more than just a garden. Lettuce do this!”
With food security, climate adaptation and community wellbeing increasingly front of mind, the 2026 Community Growing Conferences are set to be a landmark moment for Australia’s grassroots food movement - and part of a broader, coordinated effort to grow the movement well beyond a single event series.
Growers, volunteers, educators, councils and community leaders are encouraged to get involved — whether by attending, presenting, volunteering or partnering locally.
I arrived in Timor-Leste with a mix of excitement and exhaustion. At the airport, we were greeted by the most relaxed border officials I’ve ever met, smiling broadly, waving us through, and apologising for the 1990s computers that couldn’t quite load the digital arrival forms. The internet was patchy, everyone confused, but their warmth made up for it. As the afternoon “home time” for the border officers approached, one simply shrugged and said, “No worries, just go.” Outside, the friendly young Edison from the Permatil team welcomed us to his country. We gathered in the shade, melting in the tropical heat, and began to meet some of our fellow IYPC participants, each one from a different corner of the permaculture world. There was Michael and Curtis from Jagun alliances on the Northern Rivers, Aboriginal fire practitioners. Finn from Adelaide, a fresh PDC graduate and friend of Lachlan McKenzie, who carried his excitement like a seed ready to germinate. Sandhān from Bangalore, linked with Aranya Permaculture, handed out delicate seed-paper business cards. We were soon ushered into a minivan, unsure of where we were headed, the sense of mystery part of the charm. After nearly meeting our fate at a chaotic roundabout, we all laughed, realising: yes, we’d truly arrived in Southeast Asia. A quick supermarket stop revealed an amusing discovery, beer cheaper than water. Naturally, we toasted to being here, representing our communities and hard work back home.
The Warm Welcome at Centro Tibar
Our accommodation turned out to be at Centro Tibar, a secondary education college with a vibrant atmosphere and smiling volunteers who greeted us like long-lost friends. We were shown to our dormitories and met Thomas, another German working with Permatil. Dinner brought us together in the student built canteen, a mix of laughter, fatigue, and storytelling. The school’s owner, Simon, joined us and shared tales about the land and why goats were casually roaming the school grounds. Dinner was a simple and delicious buffalo curry with rice followed by sweet milk bananas, fresh mangoes, and maize for dessert. That night, I fell asleep to the whir of the fan motor and the soft crowing of distant roosters, a foreign sound that somehow felt familiar.
First Morning in Timor
Morning light brought life in motion, brooms sweeping verandas, hoses washing concrete, and students greeting me with eager smiles.
Centro Tibar impressed me. Students came from across Timor to study here, supported by government funding and international partnerships with Germany and Korea among them..
Breakfast was served at the hospitality bar and café, where I had my first taste of Timor coffee, smooth, earthy, and absolutely divine. The café was decked out in festive decorations, each corner hiding another curious trinket.
Into Dili - Meeting the Permatil Team
Later that day, we travelled into Dili to visit the Permatil office. There we met Lachlan McKenzie who gave us an introduction to the organisation’s incredible community projects, and Ego’s wife, who kindly welcomed us into their home. The conversations flowed about soil, water, youth, and the quiet revolution of permaculture taking root across Timor.
Short History of Permatil and Permatil Global in Timor-Leste
Permatil (Permaculture Timor-Leste) was founded in 2001 by a group of passionate local educators, farmers, and youth leaders including Ego Lemos who saw the urgent need to restore degraded land and rebuild food security after the country’s independence. Emerging from the devastation of war, Permatil became one of the first grassroots organisations to apply permaculture principles to healing both the land and the people.
Through school gardens, community training, and local resource mapping, Permatil pioneered a “whole village” approach, integrating water management, soil restoration, agroforestry, and traditional knowledge. It worked closely with schools and youth to develop the Permaculture in Schools program, which is now part of the national education curriculum across Timor-Leste.
Over the years, Permatil’s work spread through all 13 districts, training thousands of teachers and farmers, establishing demonstration sites, and promoting the permaculture ethics of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share.
In 2018, Permatil helped launch Permatil Global, an international network connecting Timorese permaculture experience with global partners. Its aim is to share tropical permaculture knowledge, support youth leadership, and link climate-resilient projects across Asia-Pacific, Africa, and beyond.
Today, Permatil and Permatil Global stand as leading examples of how local wisdom and global collaboration can regenerate landscapes, empower youth, and strengthen community resilience.
In that moment, it struck me: this wasn’t just a conference. It was a living network of people growing hope: one seed, one smile, one story at a time. Tadeius, Ego's son, made me a necklace, a gesture that melted my already warm heart.
Timor-Leste: Struggle, Resistance, and Prospects
Timor-Leste (East Timor) was colonised by Portugal for over 400 years, remaining largely neglected until the 20th century. After Portugal’s withdrawal in 1975, Timor-Leste declared independence, but within days, Indonesia invaded and occupied the country. The 24-year occupation was marked by widespread violence, famine, and human rights abuses.
ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL INDONESIAN STATISTICS, TIMOR-LESTE HAD 653,211 INHABITANTS IN 1974.
IN 1978, THE FIGURE HAD DROPPED TO 498,433 INHABITANTS.
THIS MEANS THAT TIMOR-LESTE HAD LOST MORE THAN 23% OF ITS POPULATION IN THE FIRST FOUR YEARS OF INDONESIAN OCCUPATION!
Despite the odds, the Timorese people waged a remarkable campaign of armed, underground, and diplomatic resistance. Figures like Xanana Gusmão, José Ramos-Horta, and Bishop Carlos Belo became international symbols of their struggle, earning the Nobel Peace Prize (1996) for bringing attention to their cause. In 1999, under UN supervision, the Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, a decision met with violent retaliation by pro-Indonesian militias before UN peacekeepers restored order.
Timor-Leste regained full independence in 2002, becoming one of the world’s newest nations. Today it faces challenges of poverty, unemployment, and oil dependence, but remains a resilient democracy with strong community spirit and rich cultural identity. The nation invests in education, agriculture, and youth empowerment, and is building new partnerships across the Asia-Pacific. Its people’s enduring values of resistance, solidarity, and self-reliance continue to shape a hopeful path toward sustainable development and peace.
IYPC 2025 - Planting water, growing communities
BRINGING YOUTH, ENVIRONMENT, ARTS, CULTURE AND MUSIC TOGETHER IN ONE EVENT
As we were greeted by the village elders and Permatil volunteers, we connected with more people arriving from all over the world while chewing on a beetle nut seed. Slowly getting used to the much slower pace of Timor time, we waited in the shade of the handcrafted bamboo structures. The camp was separated into three sections one for men, for women and one for couples. Compost toilets and bucket showers were provided for the participants, the camp kitchen and servery was all crafted from bamboo and palm leaves.
The site was prepared with swales, terraces, retention ponds and a new research facility that captures data from the local spring to measure the flow and impact, permaculture water restoration at work. The research is undertaken by the university of New South Wales lead by Martin Andersen.
Permaculture Conference Experiences in Timor-Leste
Since the early 2000s, Permatil and its partners have hosted several Youth Permaculture Conferences (YIPC) and training camps in Timor-Leste, designed to empower young people to become leaders in regenerative agriculture, community resilience, and climate action.
The first youth gatherings emerged soon after independence, as part of Permatil’s education outreach in schools and communities. These early programs focused on practical skills, seed saving, composting, and water management, while helping youth reconnect with traditional land wisdom.
By the mid-2010s, these evolved into more structured Youth Permaculture Conferences, drawing participants from across Timor-Leste and neighbouring countries. The conferences became platforms for cross-cultural learning, where local and international youth shared solutions for reforestation, food security, and sustainable livelihoods.
Workshops were held in schools, farms, and community training centres, combining hands-on permaculture design with music, art, and cultural exchange. Many alumni went on to start community gardens, school projects, and youth-led NGOs, extending the conference’s impact across rural and urban Timor.
Supported by Permatil Global, these youth conferences now form part of a wider international network connecting young people from Asia-Pacific, Africa, and beyond, continuing Timor’s legacy as a living classroom for permaculture education, peace-building, and resilience.
Presidential Support for Youth and Water Conservation
During his visit to the International PermaYouth Convergence in Gleno, Ermera organised by Permatil under the leadership of Ego Lemos, President José Ramos-Horta expressed strong admiration for youth-led efforts in water conservation and sustainable management.
Addressing the more than 800 participants from 17 countries, the President emphasised that “water is the most essential resource for our community, for agriculture, for the environment, and for our daily lives.” He praised the spring restoration projects that have already revived over 600 water sources nationwide, calling them a model of community collaboration and ecological citizenship.
Ramos-Horta urged for the expansion of water restoration programs across all regions and encouraged the world to see Timor-Leste not through the lens of hardship, but as a beacon of innovation, sustainability, and youth leadership.
His presence at the Convergence reaffirmed the State’s commitment to environmental sustainability and the empowerment of young people as key drivers of a resilient and green future for Timor-Leste.
Issues Around Seasonal Work, Exploitation, and Skills Gaps in Timor-Leste
In my time during the camp I spoke to many young Timorese about seasonal work. It was a highly contentious topic among the communities. In recent years, thousands of young Timorese have left their communities to work in Australia and other Pacific countries under labour mobility programs. These opportunities promise higher income and financial support for families back home, yet they have also revealed serious social and economic challenges for Timor-Leste.
Economic Opportunity and Social Cost
Seasonal work offers wages far beyond what is available domestically, providing much-needed remittances for rural families. However, the loss of young labourers has left gaps in local agriculture, education, and trades, particularly in the countryside. Many villages struggle to maintain food gardens or local enterprises as their most capable youth seek work abroad.
Exploitation and Limited Protection
Reports from Australia and other host countries highlight cases of exploitation, underpayment, poor housing conditions, and excessive working hours. Workers often face cultural and language barriers and have limited access to legal or union support. For many, the dream of earning a better life comes with emotional strain, isolation, and risk.
Lack of Training and Skills Development
A deeper issue lies in the lack of vocational and agricultural training within Timor-Leste. Many workers depart without strong technical, financial, or language preparation, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and less able to translate their experience into local enterprise upon return. The result is a cycle of dependency, where youth continue leaving instead of building sustainable livelihoods at home.
The Need for Regenerative Solutions
Addressing this issue requires investment in local education, permaculture, and vocational training that empowers youth to create meaningful work in Timor-Leste. Programs like those led by Permatil and Permatil Global show how training in food production, eco-enterprise, and land restoration can strengthen communities and reduce the need for migration.
Ultimately, the goal is not to stop mobility but to transform it into empowerment, where returning workers bring home new skills, fair experiences, and the confidence to grow Timor-Leste’s future from within.
As the days unfolded, the dry season heat pressed down like a second skin, yet the energy of the PermaYouth Convergence only grew stronger. The air pulsed with loud music, laughter, and the scent of and charcoal grills, where volunteers served plate after plate of spicy Timorese dishes: rice, beef stew, cassava, pork and mangoes and pineapple so sweet they silenced conversation.
Amid the dust and rhythm, hundreds of conversations bloomed; between farmers and students, elders and youth, activists and dreamers. Friendships crossed languages and continents; ideas sprouted like seeds carried by wind. In every handshake,coffee and meal, late-night jam sessions, the shared vision of a greener, fairer world took root a little deeper.
By the time we parted, it was clear: these were not just conference connections. They were the beginnings of a global family, united by planting water, song, and the unshakable belief that regeneration starts with us.
Our role as Youth Ambassadors feels clear now: to weave connections between people and communities, to tell our stories with courage, and to amplify the spirit of permaculture wherever we go. Let’s keep inspiring others and stay open to being inspired ourselves.
Sincerely,
Felix Leibelt
Youth Ambassador and Board Director Permaculture Australia My location: Dharawal, Jerrinja tribal land, South Coast NSW M: 0412 361 165 E: felix.leibelt@permacultureaustralia.org.au
About the Author:
Felix Leibelt is a South Coast-based permaculture designer and the founder of Geco Gardens. He loves building living systems that care for people and the planet. As a Youth Ambassador for Permaculture Australia, he’s focused on connecting communities, sharing real stories, and inspiring others to grow change from the ground up.
Thanks to generous donations and fund raising, Permaculture Australia’s 2025 Permafund grant round has been launched..
Considering the time and effort needed to write and submit an application, the closing date for applications has been extended to midnight AEST on 31 August 2025.
In the spirit of fair share, this year community organisations in Australia and the regions of Australasia, South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands are invited to apply for seed funding grants of AU$2,000 to support their environmental and permaculture education projects.
Applications for funding over AUD $2,000 will be considered and assessed on merit.
The 2025 Grant Application form and Grant Guidelines are available for download here.
Successful applicants will be notified at the end of October 2025. Applications received by 15 August and needing urgent response will be considered promptly.
The International PermaYouth Convergence (IPYC–2025) is a celebration of permaculture, youth leadership, arts, culture, and music across six days in the mountains of Timor-Leste.
Taking place in the village of Fatuquero, Ermera, this inaugural event is inspired by the highly successful PermaYouth movement already thriving across Timor-Leste. At its heart, the IPYC–2025 is a call to action for young people across the globe. By sharing permaculture knowledge and practice, we’re building an active global PermaYouth network, future leadership and global environmental stewardship.
Planting Water, Growing Communities Co-hosted by Permatil (Timor-Leste), Permatil Global (Australia) and the PermaYouth Association (Timor-Leste), the IPYC–2025 brings together delegations of youth (17 to 35 years) and their community leaders from six continents to camp onsite in Fatuquero, Ermera. The theme for IPYC–2025, “Planting Water, Growing Communities,” reflects the powerful work already underway in Timor-Leste—work that’s having a nation-changing impact. With the backing of the President of Timor-Leste, The Hon. José Ramos Horta, we want to expand this movement across Timor-Leste and internationally to communities that urgently need these solutions.
What to expect at IPYC–2025 Over the six days, participants will be immersed in all things permaculture to share and engage in practical activities about food, water and climate resilience, leadership training and cultural exchanges. The program will highlight innovative and effective watershed management practices including in water and ecosystem restoration and catchment management, working with your community, and the benefits that come from learning and sharing together. By night, participants will come together to share and enjoy a celebration and exchange of knowledge of indigenous culture, music, art and friendship. After the convergence ends, participants are invited to explore more of Timor-Leste—whether by visiting cultural landmarks in Dili or venturing into the country’s diverse landscapes and communities. And the journey doesn’t stop there: the PermaYouth Association (Timor-Leste) will continue to support attendees post-event, helping to establish and strengthen the global PermaYouth network.
Why it matters—and how you can get involved At the core of IPYC–2025 is an urgency to share tools of resilience and skills for our youth to utilise at the forefront of climate action, land care, and community leadership.
That’s where you come in. We’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign to help fund the event and support youth from across the globe—especially from under-resourced communities—to attend. Your contributions will help us identify and engage emerging youth leaders, cover their travel, and offer free tickets that include all transport, meals, camping, and participation in the entire program. If we exceed our fundraising goals, we’ll be able to further subsidise costs for selected attendees, helping us ensure that the IPYC–2025 truly reflects the diversity and strength of a global youth movement. Or join us in Timor-Leste—you can get directly involved by registering to attend as a participant, a volunteer, or a presenter.
Building a regenerative future together We invite you to support this global Convergence, share it with your networks, and help us bring together the next generation of earth stewards, community builders and changemakers. ** Join us in Timor-Leste, for IPYC–2025. ** Donate to the crowdfunder. ** Support global youth leadership in permaculture.
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