Message from Warrick Bone, President of Permaculture Victoria
Many of you would have heard of Permaculture Melbourne, the member based association of people practicing Permaculture across the state of Victoria. Well now we are called Permaculture Victoria, which better represents the spread of membership across the state.
The association had it’s beginnings in 1981 as Permaculture Melbourne (PcM) as the result of a lounge room meeting between a small number of people enthusiastic about Permaculture. PcM grew over the years in both members and community participation. Incorporation in 1990 lead to a resurgence and broadening of activities to include education, overseas aid, heritage orchard management and other community based involvement.
The membership is organised into geographically based Local Groups across Victoria ranging from West Gippsland in the east, through the Dandenongs, most suburbs in and around Melbourne, Ballarat, the Otweys, and Donald to the north west of the state. There are also three Special Interest Groups; Perm-Apiculture (Natural Beekeeping), the Plant Group and the Victorian Educators Group.
See http://permaculturemelbourne.org.au/local-groups/ for a complete list.
The local groups are very active within their communities and run various activities such as permablitzs, workshops, member site visits, excursions, social gatherings and the likes. The association also organises participation at appropriate festivals and exhibitions, conferences and gatherings, and looks to support members in permaculture promotion and education.
In recognition of the spread and depth of membership across the state, the decision was made in 2013 to change name to Permaculture Victoria (PcV) – a simple enough change, but one that triggered a great deal of grass root level interest in forming new local groups. This also instigated an increase of enthusiasm amongst members with plans and activities underway build the association to include all interested Permies across the state.
Cheers,
Warwick Bone
President – Permaculture Victoria