By Brett Cooper, Limestone Permaculture
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.
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