Robyn has worked in Australia and internationally since 1983. She was a founding director of Permaculture International Ltd (PIL) in 1987, editor of the Permaculture International Journal, designer and creator of Djanbung Gardens and founder of Permaculture College Australia. Robyn was involved in developing and the early delivery of the Accredited Permaculture Training™ (APT) vocational permaculture qualifications. She walks her talk on her property, Djanbung Gardens in northern NSW and is passionate about all things permaculture.  Robyn has dedicated the past four decades empowering people to be effective agents of change. Her students include some of permaculture’s leading teachers and activists.
PA’s Kym chats with Robyn about preparing for the changing climate & pandemics, the importance of respecting Indigenous knowledge and local food security projects to build community resilience.
Can you tell us a bit about your long & varied career, including how you got into permaculture?
I came across permaculture in 1977 when I heard Bill Mollison speak at an Organic Festival near Sydney, promoting the soon to be published, ‘Permaculture One’. I had just returned to Australia after five years travelling and living in Europe and Asia learning about traditional cultures, farming and survival skills. I was back in Australia looking for land to do the self-reliance thing. Permaculture was a natural next step, bringing all my ideas and interests together as an integrated philosophy and methodology. Over the next six years I experimented from the book on my herb farm on the NSW mid-north coast, where I was also involved in numerous community projects and the Rural Resettlement Task Force (multiple occupancy & intentional community movement). In 1983 I left the farm, did a PDC (which was the first women’s PDC) then moved to Sydney in 1984 to get permaculture going there – the rest is history.
Opening the EPICentre in Enmore, Sydney 1986 Bill Mollison & Robyn Francis (Damian Lynch in background)
What have been some of the highlights, and also the challenges?
Some of the highlights in the early years would have to be the IPCs (International Permaculture Convergences) I attended, especially a) IPC-1 in 1984 with the earlier pioneers, collectively laying the foundational agreements for the permaculture movement, the PDC and role of the Permaculture Institute b) IPC-2 in 1986 which brought together Fukuoka, Bill Mollison and Wes Jackson.
Another highlight were the two visits to India as Bill Mollison’s assistant, including co-teaching India’s first PDC in 1987, and Bill’s mentoring throughout the 1980s.  The exchange visit to Cuba in 2008, visiting 40 projects throughout the country, designing Jarlanbah (NSW’s first community title ecovillage), working with Aboriginal communities in NT and on the Murray River, teaching the first PDC’s translated into Mandarin in Taiwan and China and so many more. My life has been overwhelmingly full of exceptional experiences and opportunities to meet, learn from and work with amazing people and to see inspiring projects in so many parts of the planet.
There have been many challenges along the way, working long unpaid hours with sporadic income; turning up to teach PDC’s elsewhere with little or no basic resources and finding creative solutions (like the time I was provided with a little toddlers blackboard and half a chalk!); having the courage to jump into unknown and precarious situations and think on my feet; being let down and having to extend myself even further to get the job done; and recovering from a couple of major burnouts which helped me find more balance in my life and establish clear boundaries. There were also the positive, yet very demanding challenges of negotiating the labyrinth of bureaucratic requirements to create the Accredited Permacuture Training and deliver it successfully for 11 years here a Djanbung Gardens. I accept challenges as an opportunity to grow and even the most difficult have provided valuable lessons to take forward.
You’ve been active in food and seed sovereignty projects in your local area – why are projects like these are so important?
Building bioregional and local resilience is critical for moving forward, and as we’ve experienced, for surviving shocks. Over the years I have sought to balance my national and international work with grassroots action in my local community. I’ve used my community facilitation skills to guide collaborative processes and especially the initial meetings in 2009 that launched ‘Sustainable Nimbin’. The three priority areas identified were food security, energy and transport. I joined the Nimbin Food Security Group and mentored the involvement of my APT diploma students in these initiatives including raising awareness and conducting community surveys and consultation. The Nimbin Food Security group was a dynamic team of committed people under the umbrella of the Nimbin Neighbourhood Association. It has brought exceptional results including two local weekly farmers markets, a food processing library, seed exchange. With Robina McCurdy a series of workshops brought together farmers, food producers and retailers to identify challenges and opportunities. We formed a food co-op within a week to take over the local organic green grocers store in town when the owners closed it down.
We see much more local produce in local stores and cafes, farmers and growers that once struggled to make ends meet are earning a sustainable living, and a there has been a surge in small food processing enterprises. For the past five years we can source 80-90% of our food from within a 30km radius, including staples like our local Nimbin Valley Rice, Nimbin dairy products, local grassfed meats, tofu from local BD soybeans, coffee and a long list of fresh fruit, veg and other produce. During the fires last November and the pandemic lockdown, the community has been exceptional in the many ways people and organisations have pulled together, helped each other and ensured everyone was cared for.
Djanbung Gardens, from a barren cow pasture in 1993
Bushfires, droughts and the pandemic have shown community resilience and preparedness are crucial. Can you describe how you’ve designed Djanbung Gardens to cope with disasters and also any changes being made?
When I was searching for land, the capacity to design for disaster resilience and climate change were key factors. Not just the property but the location, climate, and community were all top considerations on my list. Where I am in the Nimbin valley is well above 1:100yr flood level, classified as low fire risk, sheltered topographically from severe wind loadings, has the highest rainfall area in NSW and I am easy walking distance from the village.  Although I designed fire breaks into the property, fire has not posed a major threat or concern until last November, when Gondwana rainforests on Nightcap that have never burned were on fire and hundreds of friends evacuated from the Tuntable valley, just over the hill. This was a wake-up call and for the first time in 25 years we went through a full fire prevention cleanup and preparation, and are revising our plans regarding future fire vulnerability. We can experience massive rainfall events around here, with the greatest so far being 515mm in 24 hours. I designed our water systems to cope with this degree of flow through the property to prevent flash flooding and water damage. The water collection systems (dams and tanks) are designed with the capacity to get us through historic droughts however we will be augmenting water tank storage in the future as dry seasons are lengthening and getting hotter.
Our greatest disaster challenge is climate breakdown, these other shocks are simply symptoms of the big one. Climate resilience has been a guiding factor in my design and our operations, however the rapidity of climate change and it’s manifestations is relentlessly accelerating. The last three summers have been exceptionally severe with extreme dry and heat, and progressively more severe each year — even tropical vegetables have shrivelled despite regular watering. Most of our summer production now needs to be under shade so we’ve built bamboo shade structures over part of our gardens. This is a big topic, and apart from what we doing on Djanbung, the most critical part of disaster preparedness is collaborating on a community level.
There has been a lot of media coverage about cultural burning and the importance of First Nations and Australian Indigenous knowledge for caring for country. How do you incorporate learnings from the local Indigenous communities into your permaculture activities?
I think local knowledge is incredibly important and unfortunately so much has been lost. This bioregion has been intimately micro-managed for tens of thousands of years and there’s much for us to learn. Relationships with our local elders and original communities need to be developed with deep respect and it’s not simply about taking their knowledge for our own use. Relationships need cultivation and nurturing over time to build trust. Here we have been in contact with our local mob since the outset, being gifted the name of our permaculture centre by the senior Lore/Law) keeper of the Bundjalung Nation. Part of building this relationship is getting to know some language, the ‘real’ names and stories of local mountains, rivers and special places, our local bushfoods and their seasonality, these are all integral to cultural learning, it’s not only about fire.
Caring for country, which includes cultural burning, demands an intimate daily relationship with the land, the local plants, animals, seasonal cycles, it’s not a one-size fits all or single cart blanch recipe. In this part of the country there was historically very little burning, mainly used to maintain marsupial pastures in the open forest of wider valleys and small targeted burning of the walking trails along the ridges to keep them open. Here we are in wet rainforest country and many of our forest ecosystems have never been burned culturally or by natural causes (until last year’s fires). In drier country there’s already strong evidence that cultural burning is effective and reduces fire vulnerability while keeping the ecosystem healthy and wildlife abundant. Listen, learn and observe.
What are the most important issue(s) we are facing as a at present – and how do you see permaculture positioned to respond to these?
This is a big question… our biggest challenge is halting the accelerating biospheric destruction favoured by governments and their corporate sponsors/beneficiaries. The problems we face, such as climate, social and economic breakdown are symptoms of the deeper rot of the growth-obsessed consumer society. As permaculturists we can respond on many different levels and in many different ways. We mustn’t lose sight of diversity, including the diverse situations people find themselves in and what factors they can immediately influence and change in their daily life, in their work, in their community and on a political level. We have a huge opportunity right now to reach out on a community level, especially as we deal with the aftermath of drought, fire, flood, pandemic, and we know there’s more in store. The single most important thing we can do is to reach out to our neighbours, regenerate community, not only for self-reliance and resilience, disaster preparation and response, but for abundance, conviviality and inspire through creativity and celebration. And we can all lend our voice to support others regionally, nationally and globally as ambassadors for the earth and for justice.
What does 2020 have in store for you and Djanbung Gardens and your other ventures?
2020 has been a difficult and challenging year with the pandemic forcing cancellation of some major courses and events and we seem to fall between the cracks regarding eligibility for government financial support. Despite some financial hardship, we have so much to be grateful for and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else during such times. I feel safe here and know we have created a place to survive these shocks and am surrounded by a caring and supportive community.
This is an important time of transitional change for me on both personal and professional levels. We now have three generations living here at Djanbung so there’s the inevitable ongoing adjustments in living arrangements and our physical environment for my twin grandkids as they grow. Most of my peers have retired many years ago and I’m not ready for that yet, although on some fronts I intend to slow down to make space for other things I’ve not had time to complete or embark on. We are in the process of planning our collective priorities for the coming years and decades here at Djanbung, it’s a work in progress. The one constant in life is change, it’s how we respond that’s important.
Where can I find out more?
Check out the range of permaculture courses (online and face to face), property tours and events by Djanbung Gardens and Permaculture College Australia here. Permaculture Australia members get a 10% discount on courses offered by Djanbung Gardens and the Permaculture College Australia.
Not a member of PA? Sign up here to access a great range of member discounts and to help us advocate for permaculture solutions.
Each month we’ll highlight some of the great activities our PA members are up to – in the news, on TV, podcasts, resources, blogs and more.
Here is a selection of our favourites below – noting there are many more!
If we’ve missed you or you’ve got some stories to share, let us know via hello@permacultureaustralia.org.au so we can include them next month.
Enjoy!
Listen up
Futuresteading with Kirsten Bradley Make a cuppa and enjoy this interview with Kirsten from Milkwood with the Futuresteading team. In their words, “this podcast will leave you feeling affirmed and hopeful, as Kirsten shares her thoughts on long-term renting, community sufficiency, ways of stewarding land (that don’t necessarily involve buying a massive property), how to bypass hypocrisy and why to get comfy with shades of grey.” Listen here
Morag Gamble has launched a new podcast, Sense-making in a Changing World here. Join her each Wednesday in conversation with inspiring guests – ecological thinkers, activists, authors, designers and practitioners to explore ‘What Now?’ – what is the kind of thinking we need to navigate a positive and regenerative way forward, what does a thriving one-planet way of life look like, and where we should we putting our energy. Yes please!
PA members Ceres have launched a brilliant ‘Winter Webinar series’ with episode one featuring PA member Dr Keri Chiveralls and permaculture superstars Kat Lavers and Dr Ben Habib here.
Holistic Farming “its the paddock between your ears that you’ve got to change first”. Have a listen to PA member Inside Out Management being interviewed as part of the Grow Love Project BIG SHIFT (The Big Shift for Small Farms) podcast – produced with funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program and supported by Greater Sydney Local Land Services.
Read up
Dr Cally Brennan of Canberra Permaculture Design & Education
PA member and previous Board Director Dr Cally Brennan from Canberra Permaculture Design & Education features in the news talking about food growing in small suburban blocks, including wicking beds in the front yard and driveway here
Tom and Zaia Kendall from PermEco run a permaculture farm at Kin Kin and like to teach others on how to be self sufficient with a great story in the Sunshine Coast Daily here.
Watch it
Manu, Farm it Forward, and Costa, Gardening Australia. Photo credit: Gardening Australia
Check out the new online documentary We have time featuring PA member & Permafund patron Charlie McGee from Formidable Vegetable, PA Life member and permaculture co-originator David Holmgren and Patrick Jones from Artist as Family to name a few.
If not already, check out and subscribe to Seb and Ewa from Permaculture Haven via their very active social media and Youtube. You’ll see a great range of permaculture videos and permaculture tips, including how to use their huge array of backyard produce – including this Purple yam gnocchi with greens and crispy smoked bacon sauce.
With Covid restrictions starting to lift, many of our PA members are taking bookings and/or expression of interest for property tours again. Check out Purple Pear Farm, Brogo Permaculture, Limestone Permaculture and Melliodora to name a few for some permaculture property inspiration.
Not a member of PA? Sign up today to help us advocate for permaculture solutions here. We’d love to have you join us.
We are thrilled to introduce two new volunteer guest posters to the Permaculture Australia Instagram account.
Kirsty Williams, PA Instagram volunteer
Kirsty Williams is a mother, grower and maker living on Girai Wurrung country in South Western Victoria. With a background in Horticulture, she completed her PDC early this year with PA members Good Life Permaculture. To quote Kirsty after completing her PDC” I instantly felt as though all the little scraps of my life had been stitched together and handed to me in the most beautiful of quilts.So special!” She lives and work on a 4 acre off-grid property with her business Growing Home Permaculture and is looking forward to sharing her permaculture adventures with everyone as we learn and grow together.
Shani, PA Instagram volunteer
Shani lives with her family of humans, chooks, pigeons and a dog on Kaurna land in South Australia. She occupies herself with radical home-making, conscious parenting and community building. Shani previously worked as an eco-architect with a focus on strawbale housing and in 2018 completed my PDC at PA members The Food Forest. She is looking forward to sharing snippets of theirpermaculture life with you all!
Don’t follow our IG page yet? Check it out here and don’t forget to tag and #permacultureaustralia so we can see your posts too.
The next installment of our ‘meeting the team’ series – celebrating the amazing diversity and skills of the volunteers that keep Permaculture Australia running. This includes the Board of Directors – six extraordinary women volunteering their time and skills for twelve months.
PA’s Kym chats with Wendy Marchment from the Board of Directors – about how she got involved with permaculture, plans for 2020 and how she ‘walks the permaculture talk’ in her daily life.
How did you get into permaculture?Â
My vague memory is that my Dad had some copies of the International Permaculture Journal in the early 90s and had visited Tyalgum where Bill Mollison was at that time. Around the same time I watched The Global Gardener series on ABC TV which resonated with me and subsequently bought the book Permaculture One.
I’ve been involved in various permaculture activities over the years whilst living in South Australia, Queensland and now Victoria. I particularly enjoyed teaching whilst working at Northey Street City Farm.
I love spending time outside creating edible gardens where I’ve lived. Lately, particularly during this COVID time and not working, I’ve been spending a lot of time on creating extra spaces and plantings on my large suburban block, as well as some design adjustments.
Banana crop. Photo credit: Wendy Marchment
Where do you live, and on what sort of property?Â
I’ve lived in Geelong on a north facing, sloped 1300sqm suburban block for the past 7 years with a 1960s cream brick veneer house that I share with my uni student son, our much loved mallinois rescue dog and sometimes an international student. I have a diverse range of plantings including a few experiments, for example bananas that I have actually obtained the odd bunch from. I’ve had to focus on soil improvement since my block had hydrophobic, sandy loam soil with little life in it. There’s been lots of free stable manure and coffee grounds used, in addition to green manure crops and heaps of straw. Two large worm farms in bathtubs help with this. I tend to cook what I grow and share or barter the surplus. Since I have limited storage space, my preserving is limited and often ends up as well received gifts. I’m getting more organised with seedsaving but still scatter various seeds around [in the garden] which leads to pleasant surprises.
Colour in the garden. Photo credit: Wendy Marchment.
What do you do with PA – and what is the best part of your role?Â
I’m just into my third year as Secretary on the Board of Directors and draw upon my experiences working in universities across many years. With a maths and statistics background working on projects, I have attention to detail and am organised so it’s a pretty good fit. I enjoy the fortnightly morning catchup with the paid positions [AMM Kym and Webmaster Kiran] – PA is lucky to have such capable people in these roles. I also like to create and improve, facilitate handovers and set things up to make it easier for newcomers. That’s still a work in progress and is part of the reason I’m still on the Board – along with the great group of people I get to meet and interact with.
What are your permie activities or plans for 2020 – and beyond?
It’s a bit hard to tell at this point given the unusual start to the year. Definitely more gardening. I’m looking forward to a little travel and catching up with friends and family. Hopefully I will also be able to get to a natural building course or two- I have a fascination with Cob and Bamboo.
In 20 words or less, describe what is permaculture and/or why it’s important?
Permaculture is fun and creative! It utilises design principles and observations of patterns in nature. It is essential for a healthy, resilient planet and communities.
Want to get involved with PA?
Read more about the PA People, including staff and volunteers here. If you’ve got skills to share and would like to join our volunteer team, please get in touch via hello@permacultureaustralia.org.au. You can also get involved with PA by becoming a member to help us advocate for permaculture solutions here.
Each fortnight we’ll provide a wrap up of some of the fabulous activities our PA members are involved with – noting there are many, many more!.
We’ll include a selection of media articles, new book releases, blog posts, videos and events to name a few.
Got some great items to share? Send them to hello@permacultureaustralia.org.au so we can include next feature.
Read up
PA life member and permaculture co-originator Dr David Holmgren has released his latest opinion piece on Permaculture during the time of pandemics here
Listen Up
Happen Films Podcast #5 features PA members Brett and Nici from Limestone Permaculture. This inspirational listen includes tips on what they wish they knew when starting out, and life after the recent fires and drought.
The latest Pip Podcast features Victor Steffensen, a Tagalaka man from Northern Queensland and expert on Aboriginal fire management here
LearnÂ
PA professional members CERES have a great series of winter webinars launching in June, with the first one featuring PA member Dr Keri Chiveralls. Bookings here.
Dance
Watch
PA member Hannah from Good Life Permaculture was back as a guest presenter on Gardening Australia showcasing permaculture principles and tips for winning the (gardening) uphill battle
Fiona Blackham, Tim Darby, Shani Graham, Martina Hoeppner and Marina Grayden.
Permaculture Australia is the national permaculture member based organsiation and we are run nearly entirely by volunteers. This includes skilled and experienced team members working in education, Permafund, fundraising and social media.
To celebrate National Volunteer week, we are putting the spotlight on a number of our wonderful volunteers. Today we are featuring Education team member Fiona Blackham.
After working in the oil and gas industry as a project manager for quite some years, Fiona Blackham started her landscape and gardening business Gaia Gardening in 2010. While she loved being outside and dealing with clients, she quickly realised how unsustainable the industry was. Badly designed gardens often led to more work for her or the necessity of using chemicals. In 2012 she attended a PDC with Ross Mars and found the solution to her growing concerns: A sustainable way to design gardens that work, don’t need massive amounts of maintenance and produce yields without chemical inputs.
Eight years down the track, Fiona has completed two permaculture teaching courses, a Certificate IV and a Diploma in Permaculture. After almost ten years on the tools, she has given up on gardening but not on the business. Now called Gaia Permaculture, her work is split between designing, consulting and teaching. Fiona educates at council workshops, Permaculture Intros and in the accredited system. She taught Certificate I at Rockingham Senior High School and Certificate III and IV at Candlelight Farm, taking over from Ross Mars. She is co-founder of the Permaculture Educator’s Alliance, where she teaches Permaculture Design Certificate Courses with Marina Grayden and Martina Hoeppner.
A *huge* thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers who keep Permaculture Australia running, we couldn’t do it without you.
Want to get more involved and help us advocate for permaculture solutions too? Don’t forget to sign up as a member here to get involved. We’d love to have you join us.
Robyn has worked in Australia and internationally since 1983. She was a founding director of Permaculture International Ltd (PIL) in 1987, editor of the Permaculture International Journal, designer and creator of Djanbung Gardens and founder of Permaculture College Australia. Robyn was involved in developing and the early delivery of the Accredited Permaculture Training™ (APT) vocational permaculture qualifications. She walks her talk on her property, Djanbung Gardens in northern NSW and is passionate about all things permaculture.  Robyn has dedicated the past four decades empowering people to be effective agents of change. Her students include some of permaculture’s leading teachers and activists.
There has been a lot of media coverage about cultural burning and the importance of First Nations and Australian Indigenous knowledge for caring for country. How do you incorporate learnings from the local Indigenous communities into your permaculture activities?
What are the most important issue(s) we are facing as a at present – and how do you see permaculture positioned to respond to these?
Futuresteading with Kirsten Bradley Make a cuppa and enjoy this interview with Kirsten from Milkwood with the Futuresteading team. In their words, “this podcast will leave you feeling affirmed and hopeful, as Kirsten shares her thoughts on long-term renting, community sufficiency, ways of stewarding land (that don’t necessarily involve buying a massive property), how to bypass hypocrisy and why to get comfy with shades of grey.” Listen 
Morag Gamble has launched a new podcast, Sense-making in a Changing World 
The next installment of our ‘meeting the team’ series – celebrating the amazing diversity and skills of the volunteers that keep Permaculture Australia running. This includes the Board of Directors – six extraordinary women volunteering their time and skills for twelve months.
Happen Films Podcast #5 features PA members Brett and Nici from Limestone Permaculture. This inspirational 
The latest Pip Podcast features Victor Steffensen, a Tagalaka man from Northern Queensland and expert on Aboriginal fire management 
PA professional members CERES have a great series of winter webinars launching in June, with the first one featuring PA member Dr Keri Chiveralls. Bookings 
You must be logged in to post a comment.