Women’s Change Makers Permaculture Design Course

Celebrating the 42nd Anniversary of the first Women’s Permaculture Design Course, this edition of the 'Change Makers Permaculture Design Course' is being held ‘for women, by women’.

We acknowledge and cultivate the awareness that women often approach the content of a Permaculture course differently - through connecting to country & nature, reading landscape, how we learn, communicate, process information and so much more. 

Designed for women who currently or intend to steward land, those travelling and whom desire a fresh toolkit, women seeking a starting place towards a new life direction and those keen to be part of the

 ‘Re-generation’ : personal, community, planet. 

​* The first ever Women's PDC was held in November 1983 near Tyalgum, Nth NSW and presented by Lea Harrison, Judith Turley and Susie Edwards. They were inspired to offer the PDC course to bring more balance into Permaculture after attending the first Permaculture gathering of a few dozen people with only 4 women present.

Women's Permaculture Course  Overview 

​This 72 hour plus, Permaculture Design Course curriculum is based on the work of the co-originators of Permaculture Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, with insight and development from many of the Women on that first Women’s PDC, 41 years ago, and women whom came after including : Robin Clayfield, Rosemary Morrow, Robyn Francis, Robina McCurdy, Linda Woodrow and Frances Michaels along side many more…

Participants are required to attend all sessions of the PDC, and will be involved in interactive classroom and outdoor learning, discussions, small group activities and skills building opportunities with practical components of the course subjects, tours site visits and more. The culmination of the course involves a group Permaculture Design Project based on a local site, to apply the learning from the past 2 weeks immersion.

In this Permaculture Design Course we will cover :

DESIGN - ethics, principles, methodologies, strategies & techniques.

PATTERNS - patterns in nature, reading landscapes & maps.

CLIMATE - global climatic regions, influences, & suitable design techniques.

WATER - catchment hydrology, earthworks, water cycle, storage & treatment.

SOIL - soil ecology, management & remediation techniques.

FORESTS - ecosystems, orchards, food forests, syntropics.

PLANTS - perennial & annual plant selection, seed-saving. 

BUILDINGS - passive solar low impact design, appropriate technology, compost toilets. 

SOCIAL - group ecology, collaborative decision-making & governance.

ANIMALS - integrated animals systems.

PRODUCTION - integrated food-production systems for multi scales & contexts.

ECONOMY - alternative economies, community exchange.

MICRO-CLIMATES - design techniques for home & land to mitigate local climate.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS - for challenging scenarios & thrive.

COMMUNITY - bioregional planning, local food, neighbourhood & eco-village design.