In 2025 Permaculture Australia awarded eight small grants to organisations in South East Asia and the Pacific. When the grant round was launched permaculture teachers and groups helped spread the invitation to apply. One of the successful grant recipients was Asharprodip Somaj Unnyan Songstha (ASUS) an organisation in Bangladesh seeking support to run a permaculture course in their community which is in a region where Rowe Morrow and other members of PA have taught permaculture.
Following the funding being received. Rowe was sent a letter from the Executive Director of Asharprodip Somaj Unnyan Songstha (ASUS), Poritosh Kumar Mridha. Rowe described the letter as ‘lovely and heartfelt’ and great to share.
In his introduction Poritosh wrote “On behalf of ASUS, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to you and the Permafund team for your generous support of our mission. Receiving this grant is not only a milestone for our organisation but a vital initiative for the ecological and social healing we aim to foster in our community.”
“Please be assured that the ASUS team is fully committed to implementing this project with the highest standards of integrity and care. We look forward to sharing our progress and the stories of growth that your support has made possible.“
With Best Regards,
Poritosh Kumar Mridha”
More details about ASUS and their project to spread permaculture activities in the Sundarban’s coastal region of Bangladesh. will be shared in future Permaculture Australia newsletters.
All donations made to support Permaculture Australia projects are greatly appreciated and can be made here.
Gatherings have always been part of permaculture. Before newsletters and acronyms, people met around kitchen tables, the backyard fire pit, in the shed, or garden. Nothing new needed to be invented; it was simply about noticing what was already there and making the least change for the greatest effect.
Spreading across sixteen locations, from Oberon to the Clarence Valley, neighbours have chosen a day of the month to bump into other permaculturists at their local. Since 2022, ‘Permaculture at the Pub’ has become the working title for something that is not a formal group or event, but an idea shared. Just as you might meet friends to watch the game on a Friday night, these casual meet-ups are about soil, seeds, and curiosity.
Like fruiting bodies of a broader mycelium network of people, knowledge, and curiosity, these meet-ups appear where conditions are right: interest, availability, timing. Some may be fleeting. Others recur again and again. They are small signals of a living system of relationships, ready to sprout wherever the network is nourished.
A typical get together looks like anywhere from half a dozen to twenty or more folk catching up over what they have been up to for the last month in their garden or in the community. The first Thursday of the month is when we began meeting up in our little village of Paterson.
Certain questions come up. When does the talk start? Who is presenting? Could there be tours, seed swaps, produce shares? All familiar impulses. All well-worn permaculture ground. These have been gently set aside. Not because those things aren’t valuable, but because each addition makes the door a little heavier to open.
Requiring little, the invitation is wide. You don’t need a garden. You don’t need to be growing food or designing systems. You can arrive curious, unsure, or just wanting to see who else nearby might be thinking along similar lines. The point isn’t instruction. This space asks not for the bravado of expertise, but for the quiet care to connect. When the same rain falls on everyone at the table, the conversation tends to stay grounded in what is common.
The word “pub” can carry certain connotations, so it’s worth clarifying that alcohol is not the focus, nor will a pub setting suit everyone. In the original sense of “public house,” what matters is the idea of shared civic space. In rural towns, pubs often serve many roles: they are the local restaurant, playground, bottle shop, book club, and community hub all in one. Families can attend without needing separate childcare, and for many communities on the land, the pub is a practical venue. Some have chosen different venues or formats, and time of day, setting, and tone are all locally adaptable.
Much has been written about social systems as plainly as ecological ones. This approach grows from Mollison’s teachings about resilience arising from density of connection rather than control. Landscapes don’t hold together because they’re instructed to. Communities don’t either.
One of the most encouraging aspects has been seeing Permaculture Design Certificate students take this idea and quietly run with it. After the intensity of a PDC, there’s often a gap between finishing a course and embedding practice into daily life. These informal, recurring meet-ups have become a way for students and graduates to stay connected without creating hierarchy or obligation.
These gatherings are small gestures against the drift of disconnection, against the tendency to lose touch with the land and one another. Conversation moves between gardens and towns, knowledge passes sideways, and trust settles into the spaces people share. It is here, in the ordinary rhythm of returning to a shared table, that community grows, not through planning or instruction, but through the consistent work of connection.
Maplewood Permaculture are lead teachers on the Permaculture Design and Homesteading Certificate Course held twice-yearly in collaboration with Limestone Permaculture, in addition to providing permaculture design and consultation services.
We understand Permaculture as being an ethical & principled ‘Whole-of-Life’ framework, a regenerative design science and a way of seeing land, people and livelihoods as interconnected systems. Across the Hunter Region in NSW, this way of thinking is resonating strongly with small landholders who are seeking resilient, productive and meaningful relationships with their land. That interest has also been growing within our local & state government organisations like Councils, Landcare & Local Land Services!
Our latest collaboration is through the Permaculture Principled Small Farm Series, a new seven-workshop program hosted by Hunter Local Land Services and delivered by Limestone Permaculture, in partnership with Yeo Farm. Booked out within three weeks of opening workshop registrations, the series confirms what many of us in the permaculture movement already know: people are hungry for whole-system design knowledge grounded in real-world application.
A Permaculture Lens for Small Landholders
Small landholders are a vital and expanding part of Australia’s agricultural landscape. While their properties may be modest in scale, the cumulative impact of good or poor design is significant. Permaculture offers an ideal framework for this context, emphasising observation, thoughtful design, efficient use of resources, and the stacking of functions to achieve multiple outcomes from the same elements. This workshop series has permaculture as its backbone. It begins with core permaculture ethics, principles and the design process itself—supporting participants to move beyond isolated techniques and instead develop coherent, regenerative property plans. These foundations flow through every session, ensuring that practical skills are always linked back to whole-system thinking.
Learning across Scales, United by Design
Workshops alternate between two contrasting but complementary permaculture sites:
Limestone Permaculture, a one-acre demonstration homestead and micro-farm designed to show how intensive, diverse systems can thrive on small footprints
Yeo Farm, a 100-acre permaculture-designed Australian White sheep enterprise with integrated market garden exemplifies permaculture design at a larger agricultural scale.
By learning across these scales, participants see that permaculture principles remain consistent—whether designing a backyard food system or a broad-acre grazing landscape. What changes is the expression, not the ethics or logic.
From Principles to Practice
As the series progresses, permaculture design theory is translated into applied, site-based strategies, including:
Intro to Permaculture x2, an introduction to permaculture ethics, principles & the design process!
Building Climate Adaptation, focusing on improving drought, fire & flood resilience & responding to climate variability by highlighting water is life & trees protect life!
Practical Guide to Low Tech Earthworks, from using low-tech swales and contoured earthworks to slow, spread and store water while building soil carbon.
Insitu Compost Gardening for Soil Health & Cycled Production, focusing on in-situ composting and biological nutrient cycling within productive gardens.
Poultry Integration & Management, Integrating chickens, ducks and turkeys with trees, plants and structures for mutual health & welfare.
Espalier Orchard Systems – Integrated, Efficient & Multifunctional, combining fruit tree espalier + pest exclusion and vegetables in space-efficient, multifunctional designs suited to small properties
Each workshop reinforces the permaculture idea that elements are most successful when they are intentionally connected for mutual benefit. Programs like this demonstrate how permaculture can move confidently beyond the margins and into mainstream land management conversations, supporting both families and regions to thrive under increasing environmental pressure.
About Limestone Permaculture
Limestone Permaculture is a one-acre demonstration homestead located in the village of Stroud, NSW, designed and developed using permaculture design processes and principles. Our work centres on education, ethical land stewardship and empowering people to design regenerative systems that are productive, resilient and deeply connected to place. Limestone Permaculture currently collaborates at the local and state government level with a future goal to collaborate at the national level.
Thanks to generous donations to Permaculture Australia, Mlatho Farms and Agri-Learning Hub in Malawi was one of the organisations that received a Permafund grant in 2024.
Daniel Chibwe, the Founder and Managing Director of Mlatho Farms has sent us this update on their progress. We appreciate Daniel keeping us up to date, and heartened to hear of the opportunities that have arisen to take Mlatho Farms and Agri-Learning Hub from strength to strength during this year.
“I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to sincerely thank you and to provide an update on the growth and impact of Mlatho Farms and Agri-Learning Hub following the USD 1,300 Permafund 24 support we received in 2024.
Since that support, our journey has accelerated significantly: In 2025, USD500 from the Aspire Leaders Program and USD5,000 has been received from the Tony Elumelu Foundation,strengthening our institutional capacity and confidence from global partners.
I’ve participated in the Young Leadership Incubation Program (YLIP) in South Africa under AHA International and SACAU, with three learning visits to Johannesburg, South Africa.
In January 2026, I will be traveling to Germany to attend the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) and the Young Farmers Forum (YFF). I have already secured a visa and am fully sponsored by the Federal Government of Germany through the Ministry of Agriculture, joining 20 young farmers selected globally.
Beyond travel and leadership exposure, our work has gained strong visibility. This year alone, Mlatho Farms has been featured twice in national newspapers and several times on local and national radio and television, sharing our story of permaculture, youth empowerment, and climate resilience in Malawi.
I genuinely believe that these recognitions and opportunities were ignited by the Permafund 24 support.
You truly lit the candle that opened doors to networks, platforms and trust at a global level. Without that early belief, much of this progress would not have been possible.
As our organisation continues to grow, we are now better structured, more visible and increasingly capable of handling larger responsibilities and partnerships. Should there be future opportunities, collaborations, or advanced funding windows, we would be deeply honored to be considered.
Thank you once again for believing in grassroots permaculture initiatives from Africa. Your support is creating ripple effects far beyond what can be measured in numbers.”
The Permafund grants program, with 103 creative community projects worldwide supported so far, has seen many examples of the multiplier effect of donations, where a small amount of seed funding for an environmental restoration and permaculture education project has produced a positive result in one grant location to then be replicated by others through the inter-community network and has encouraged professional development among community leaders.
Donations to support environmental projects and environmental organisations in Australia and overseas are tax deductible in Australia and can be made here.
The APC Circle was formed after the intended Kangaroo Valley event was postponed in August 2025. It was important to reach out to the movement and engage in many conversations to identify how to proceed, ensuring that we were designing an event that was true to the needs and wants of the Australian permaculture community and the greater movement as a whole.
Ian Lillington of Victoria, a Permaculture Elder since 2015, came forward to lead this group, and together with those who answered the call for contributors to the effort, embarked on the following.
Here is an Overview from the group - [the map is not the territory] - and then some more detailed links and action steps to move forward in 2026.
Our work in the APC circle has been a useful exploration of what the next APC might look like, and it has pointed out gaps in the system that we have been able to start to fill; or refer to other parts of PA for attention.
Our work on APC has also been at a time when PA is undertaking a major management restructure. So - as well as keeping the 'normal' business flowing there is a lot of time going into making sure that the new 'circles' - where the work gets done - are integrating. [The challenges of holistic design made real!]
There have probably been more "people-hours" worked at PA in the last 6 months than perhaps in the last 6 years. Behind the scenes there is diligence and attention to detail, with many working groups actually working, daily. There's a willingness to listen and to identify and fix the leaks. The time spent, and thoroughness will pay off, but it is a long term project, and the timing and nature of a national body having a national 'gathering' is a part of a bigger whole.
I think the absence of a local/group stepping forward and saying 'we will do the next APC' could be partly a reflection of loss of morale after KV was postponed, partly a reflection of the global situation [where we are inclined to stay closer to home, maybe?], and maybe because the 'old' model of APC no longer appeals.
APC 2023 - Mount Barker SA
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In more detail, this is my summary of the last few months with the APC circle - and some thoughts/answers, though I am not the one with THE answers - it's still a time for asking questions , and thanks everyone for asking questions and being patient.
For an APC to happen,the People and the Place have to emerge together. [thanks Ben for that succinct phrase]. Our circle is not the team that will actually run an APC, though some of us might join that team. Rather, we are creating a fertile ground. where the people and the place for converging can happen. We are a more generic "convergences-circle" that is about asking "how do permies connect in meaningful ways?"
A group like this that can draw on past experience, and looking to the future is necessary.
APC 2021 - Brisbane
Pieces of the puzzle:
1. Planning/design - Prue has offered to do a draft gantt chart and also suggested that we might pay an event organiser to do a gantt ... interesting way to test if a business like Future Collective could deliver what they say they can.
3. Permaculture groups - you can help complete the spreadsheet in the link. As PA does not yet have a complete list of the many permaculture groups across Australia. Ben suggests "We should formally reach out to them and ask if they are interested in being involved in the organisation."
There is a mainly unpopulated list. It comes from the survey that we did. Lots of gaps to be filled by anyone who knows the answers or can research them. And/but in central Vic, where Commonground is located, there is a lot of p'c happening and very little of it happens in or through local groups. rather it is word-of-mouth and I guess SE Qld is the same.
4. Outreach - the survey was a good start - showed that we can reach 45+ age group and that there is a solid core in that age who want an APC - and it's not just the same people who have always been in the past. But I think we have only reached about half of who we need to - the big challenge is to reach a wider demographic.
Sonia and I will adapt the survey - it is a useful tool and now others in the community are just becoming aware that there is some APC action:
The Youth circle could get the survey out - But they are building their own network data - not many in the youth database yet. [see 5 and 6]
The PIP magazine will advertise the survey
and PRI may be allow us to spread the survey through their mailing list.
Morag gamble - any one with connections to Morag - or similar 'influencers'?
5. Media, PR Robyn Rosenfeldt, who has built up PIP magazine over 10 years and who has sponsored innovation awards at previous APCs is keen to help. She has great ideas about how to use APC as a way to get good media.
What else - social media ... Do we need a video maker, and insta/tiktok and ways that will at least reach the 16-40 year olds?
This area is where I feel least equipped ...
6. Youth connections
Ben and Ian met with Karla and Meka who are part of the Youth Circle.
Meka, who went to the IYPC in Timor [as a PA Ambassador] in October had lots of helpful observations about future Apcs.
Definitely want to add music, add hands-on projects, and allow participants to do "real things" at the venue, {eg CERES} where p’c people can contribute to things on site that will last. Not so sure if young people would go to the site before the event to [say] build rocket stoves or harvest food for the catering. Maybe Youth led permablitz/permablista as part of APC
7. finding the Change makers - this is where a lot of work is still to be done
8. a designer for a new logo
Ian Lillington Permaculture Australia APC Circle Lead
Permaculture in Australia is rich in practice. Across backyards, farms, schools, community gardens, and regeneration projects, people are applying permaculture principles to real-world challenges every day. From food production and water management to social enterprise and ecological restoration, permaculture has proven itself as a practical, ethical, and adaptive framework for living well within limits.
What has been less consistent is how this learning is recognised, supported, and made accessible through formal education pathways. Much permaculture learning still occurs informally, through short courses, mentorships, and community projects. While this informality has enabled creativity and responsiveness, it has also limited access for many learners and constrained long-term impact. This is where vocational education and training (VET) matters.
The Permaculture Australia (PA) VET Circle exists to strengthen permaculture education within nationally recognised training systems—without losing the ethical, ecological, and systems-based foundations that define permaculture. Its work sits at the intersection of practice, education, and policy, supporting educators, schools, and training organisations to deliver high-quality, credible permaculture learning. This article outlines why the VET Circle exists, what it has been working on, what it is hearing from the sector, and where it is heading in 2026 and beyond.
WHY VET MATTERS FOR PERMACULTURE
VET plays a critical role in Australia’s education ecosystem. It provides nationally recognised qualifications that are portable across states and industries, quality-assured through regulatory frameworks, and aligned with workforce skills and employability outcomes. For many learners—particularly young people, career-changers, and those seeking practical pathways—VET offers access and legitimacy that informal learning alone cannot provide. For permaculture, engagement with VET is not about standardisation for its own sake. It is about access, equity, credibility, and long-term viability.
Schools require curriculum-aligned, quality-assured programs that can sit alongside reporting, moderation, and accountability requirements. Community organisations need training that can align with funding agreements, compliance expectations, and partnership arrangements. Learners increasingly need qualifications that are recognised by employers, institutions, and government agencies.
Without engagement in the VET space, permaculture risks remaining fragmented, inconsistently delivered, or inaccessible to those who would benefit most—particularly young people, regional learners, and those seeking employment pathways in land management, food systems, and sustainability-related work.
At the same time, permaculture does not fit neatly into narrow or siloed training models. It is interdisciplinary by design, place-based in application, and ethical in orientation. The challenge is not simply to fit permaculture into VET, but to work intelligently within the VET system while retaining the integrity, depth, and systems thinking that make permaculture distinctive. This tension—between compliance and complexity—is where the PA VET Circle focuses its work.
THE ROLE OF THE PA VET CIRCLE
The Permaculture Australia (PA) VET Circle operates within Permaculture Australia’s sociocratic structure and aligns closely with PA’s Educate pillar. It is not a registered training organisation (RTO), nor does it seek to centralise or control permaculture education. Instead, it acts as a coordination, insight, and development circle, supporting a diverse national ecosystem of educators, trainers, schools, and organisations. The Circle’s work includes:
Understanding how permaculture is currently delivered within VET contexts
Supporting alignment between permaculture practice and national training packages
Sharing effective delivery models and lessons learned
Advocating for quality, access, and integrity in permaculture training
Strengthening pathways across schools, adult education, and industry Members of the VET Circle work across a wide range of contexts, including secondary schools, adult education, curriculum design, compliance-aware practice, and community-based training. This diversity ensures the work remains grounded, practical, and responsive to real conditions on the ground.
WHAT THE VET CIRCLE HAS BEEN WORKING ON
Aligning Permaculture with Existing Training Frameworks Rather than creating parallel or bespoke qualifications, the VET Circle has focused on how permaculture aligns with existing national training packages. These include packages related to agriculture, conservation and ecosystem management, horticulture, land management, and sustainability. This work involves identifying where permaculture principles and practices already sit naturally within units of competency, as well as where gaps, ambiguities, or tensions exist. It also involves unpacking assessment conditions, evidence requirements, and compliance expectations so that permaculture educators can engage confidently with the system.
Understanding the language and structure of the VET system allows educators to focus their energy on teaching and learning, rather than constantly navigating uncertainty. This alignment work reduces duplication of effort, supports audit readiness, and helps ensure that permaculture training delivered through VET remains both rigorous and authentic. Supporting School-Based Permaculture Pathways One of the most promising areas of growth is VET delivered in secondary schools. Schools across Australia are increasingly seeking programs that are hands-on, project-based, and connected to sustainability, wellbeing, and real-world problem-solving. Permaculture is exceptionally well suited to this space.
In school contexts, permaculture provides rich opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, drawing together science, geography, design, mathematics, technology, and ethics. When delivered through VET frameworks, this learning can also contribute to recognised qualifications, supporting diverse post-school pathways. Across Australia, schools are embedding permaculture through VET certificates or skill sets alongside Design and Technologies, Agriculture, STEM, Outdoor Education, and wellbeing programs. Students engage in practical work such as food production, water harvesting and reuse, biodiversity monitoring, ecological design, and community-based projects. Consistently, educators report improved student engagement, stronger connections to place, and increased confidence among students—particularly those who do not thrive in purely academic learning environments.
Listening to Educators and Trainers
A central part of the VET Circle’s work has been listening carefully to those delivering permaculture education on the ground. Across conversations nationally, common themes continue to emerge:
The cost and administrative burden of compliance
Fragmentation between informal permaculture education and formal VET
Inconsistent expectations and interpretations across providers
Tension between depth of learning and funding or time constraints
Educator fatigue and burnout.
Alongside these challenges is significant goodwill, creativity, and commitment. Many educators are delivering high-quality programs under difficult conditions, often with limited institutional support. The VET Circle’s role is to surface shared patterns, validate lived experience, and identify opportunities for collective improvement rather than isolated effort.
A SCHOOL-BASED CASE STUDY
In one secondary school context, permaculture is embedded across Years 7–12 through a staged, project-based program. Students begin by developing foundational skills in observation, soil health, and biological systems before progressing to applied projects. These projects include building worm farms, establishing tree guilds, managing aquaponics systems, conducting biodiversity surveys, and redesigning sections of the school grounds to improve water efficiency and ecological function. At senior levels, this practical learning is aligned with nationally recognised VET units. Assessment evidence is drawn from authentic activities, including practical demonstrations, design documentation, reflective journals, and collaborative projects. Students are assessed on what they do, not just what they can describe.
From a compliance perspective, the program meets VET requirements. From a permaculture perspective, it remains contextual, ethical, and systems-based. From a student perspective, it is meaningful, empowering, and relevant. Programs like this already exist in different forms across Australia. The challenge is not invention, but support, visibility, and scale.
WHAT THE VET CIRCLE IS HEARING FROM THE SECTOR
Across conversations nationally, several consistent themes are emerging.
Access and equity VET pathways can significantly improve access to permaculture education for young people, regional learners, and those seeking employment-relevant skills.
Quality and consistency There is strong appetite for clearer expectations around quality and assessment, without rigid standardisation that undermines local context or innovation.
Bridging informal and formal learning Permaculture’s informal education traditions remain vital. The opportunity lies in building bridges between informal learning, community practice, and recognised training where appropriate.
Educator support Shared resources, exemplars, and peer networks could significantly reduce duplication of effort, compliance fatigue, and burnout.
PERMACULTURE, WORKFORCE, AND FUTURE NEEDS
Australia faces increasing challenges related to climate change, food security, biodiversity loss, and water management. Addressing these challenges requires a workforce with practical ecological skills, systems thinking, and ethical grounding.
Permaculture education delivered through VET has the potential to contribute meaningfully to this emerging workforce. Graduates can move into roles in land management, community food systems, education, local government, and environmental services, bringing permaculture thinking into diverse settings. For this potential to be realised, pathways must be clear, credible, and supported.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2026 AND BEYOND
As the VET Circle looks ahead, several priorities are clear.
Strengthening relationships between PA, educators, RTOs, schools, and partner organisations.
Making effective existing programs more visible and shareable
Exploring flexible pathways such as skill sets and micro-credentials
Continuing reflective, ethical engagement with the VET system
Engagement with VET is not an end in itself. It must always serve the deeper purposes of
permaculture: care for earth, care for people, and fair share.
AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE
The PA VET Circle is a working circle, not a closed group. If you are delivering permaculture through VET, exploring pathways in schools, working with an RTO, or interested in curriculum, assessment, or systems alignment, your experience is valuable. Participation can include sharing insights, contributing to discussions, collaborating on projects, or helping shape future directions. Permaculture has always thrived through networks. The VET Circle exists to ensure those networks can engage effectively with Australia’s education systems.
CONCLUSION
Permaculture education in Australia stands at a critical point. Demand is growing. The challenges facing communities and ecosystems are intensifying. Education that is practical, ethical, and systems-based is increasingly essential. Engagement with VET is one way permaculture can meet this moment—by creating pathways that are accessible, recognised, and enduring, while remaining true to its principles. The work of the PA VET Circle is ongoing, collaborative, and grounded in practice. It reflects a simple conviction: permaculture belongs not on the margins of education, but at its heart.
Russel Montgomery Permaculture Australia VET Circle Images courtesy of Carey Baptist College, WA
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