By Peter Veeken, President – Permaculture Yarra Valley
As I write this, we are nearing the end of Permaculture Week 2024 and have had a busy schedule of events to promote permaculture to the wider community. This is the fifth year Permaculture Yarra Valley has run Permaculture Week and the first year is has gone beyond the Yarra Ranges. Events kicked off on Friday 15th and concluded on Sunday 24th March (which is actually more than a week!) In the Yarra Valley we held 18 events starting with the Ecotopia Festival at Ecoss followed by site visits, workshops, a film screening, a seminar on Growing our community and a visit to a commercial Biochar facility. Feedback from attendees has been very positive and gives me a buzz making the months of planning worthwhile.
Permaculture Week events in the Yarra Valley included:
Edible Forest Tour hosted by Edible Forest Yarra Valley
Small Suburban Permaculture Property Tour – Millgrove
Large Rural Permaculture Property Tour ‘Tenderbreak’ – Dixons Creek
Biochar Facility Tour – Lysterfield hosted by Earth Systems Pty Ltd
Large Suburban Permaculture Property Tour – Lilydale
‘Ecosophia’ Film screening – Warburton
Gardens for Harvest Permaculture Talk – Eastern Regional Libraries
Visit to Edible Warburton Community Garden
‘Growing our Community: One backyard at a time’ Seminar with Nick Rose and Kat Lavers
Large Suburban Permaculture Property Tour – Healesville
PEACE Farm Tour – Yarra Junction
Harvest Festival/Soul Dance – Permaculture Finale – PEACE Farm
Suburban Permaculture Property Tour – Kilsyth
‘Wild Ridge Farm’ Property Tour – Healesville
Some of our event hosts have pledged ticket sales to support Permaculture Australia/Permafund.
Beyond the Yarra Valley in Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula Permaculture Group, Permaculture Out West, Cardinia Shire Council, CERES, and Latrobe City Council hosted several events to celebrate permaculture.
Outside Victora, a couple of events were held in Tasmania and internationally events were held in the USA and the UK making Permaculture Week almost a global phenomenon. Planning and organising Permaculture Week takes a lot of effort and it’s important to acknowledge the voluntary work of several people:
Leanne Hall (Ecoss) and Chelsea McNab (Ecoss & Yarra Ranges Council) and Kat McKay (PEACE Farm) for coming up with the idea all those years ago. Fiona Campbell (www.permacultureday.org website administrator) for enabling the site to list Permaculture Week events and marketing. Meg Mulcahy (Permaculture Australia) for designing the Permaculture Week logo. Gabrielle Francis (Latrobe Community Health Service) and Nikkie Hale (Mornington Peninsula Permaculture Group) for the enthusiasm and dedication to spreading the word.
I’d like to thank Yarra Ranges Council and VicHealth for their sponsorship of events.
Finally, I thank our indigenous peoples for allowing us to hold events on their land.
Well over 400 people attended events in the Yarra Valley.
Event Name
Total Attendance
Ecotopia Festival – ECOSS
Several Hundred (est 700+)
Edible Forest Tour 2024 – Dixons Creek
12
Small Suburban Property Tour – Millgrove
10
Permaculture Tour – Tenderbreak – Dixons Creek
20
Mt Evelyn Community Garden Opportunity
30
Yarra Ranges Council Biochar Facility Tour – Lysterfield
15
Large Suburban Property Tour – 1 Acre in Lilydale
10
Visit Edible Warburton Garden
5
Lilydale Library Talk
20
Growing our community – Seminar
68
Movie Night – Ecosophia
Approx 50
Large Suburban Property Tour – Healesville
18
PEACE Farm Tour
25
PEACE Farm Harvest Festival
Approx 100
Urban Property Tour – Kilsyth
10
Permaculture Tour – Wild Ridge Farm – Healesville
30
Total for all except Ecotopia
Approx 423
My initial guess is we raised just under $350 for Permaculture Australia/Permafund thanks to the generosity of a number of hosts.
I hope Permaculture Week grows into a global movement in 2025 and beyond.
As a current financial member, you are invited to the Permaculture Australia Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on Saturday 27th April 2024, 1pm EST (Melbourne / Sydney Time) online via Zoom.
Attendance via Zoom – Attendance via zoom is welcome, the zoom meeting will be activated right on 1pm. You will be required to pre register, for attendance purposes. Please register HERE You will need to pre register to be sent the live link.
Nominations to the Board – Members can nominate themselves or another member they think is suitable and willing to serve on the Board*. People nominated must hold a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) certificate or VET Permaculture Cert III or higher, and confirm they are willing to stand and are familiar with or will become familiar with the responsibilities/time commitment outlined in the document ‘What Does Board Membership Involve’.
Under the Permaculture Australia Constitution, members who wish to stand for election to the Board must be nominated by at least 2 other current financial members of Permaculture Australia. If you wish to self-nominate and don’t know any PA members, then include a couple of references from people who know what relevant skills you have to offer PA in your nomination information. You are able to NOMINATE HERE or PA members attending the AGM can nominate during the AGM if they feel they have enough information about you (you are also entitled to speak to the meeting in support of your self-nomination).
We look forward to receiving your responses/nominations and are happy to answer any questions you may have. In fact, we encourage anyone who’s considering nominating to chat with a current Director/s.
Permaculture Australia is the Australian national member-based permaculture organisation. It is the peak body for permaculture in Australia. Our mission is to represent, educate, connect and empower the permaculture community. We’re the national hub for people...
Regenerative design frameworks such as permaculture can be an incredible means to create equitable systems that care for community and the planet. Alternatively, it can be another tool of eco-colonialism if not implemented meaningfully or with the feedback from diverse communities.
Innovation and transformation has always been fringe, on the edge and so-called “queer” spaces and Queer theory is now helping steer permaculture into increasingly diverse and equitable outcomes. Regenerative design has so much to offer in terms of tangible systems design support to Queer and other diverse and vulnerable communities. Queering the pathways that have been laid before us has never been more important.
Class will run Thursday 28th of March, 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th of April and the 2nd of May from 6:00-8:30pm AEDT (Sydney/Melbourne time zone) over Zoom and the link will be sent out via email on the 25th of March.
The class will also be recorded and made available to ticket purchasers if they are absent for a class
Workshop Content
The role of ‘bravery’ in regenerating our landscape & relationships and new ways we can be brave.
Breakdown of the social conditioning we have all faced that led to the issues we experience today across Patriarchy | Cis-heteronormativity | Ableism | White supremacy
Frameworks we can use to understand and combat challenges across Systems thinking
Trauma informed design
Culturally competent design
Resilient community design
The basics of Queer Theory & Permaculture and their role in this regeneration
How we can all use the above to regenerate our world
About Your Facilitators
Guy Ritani (Ia/they/them), is a proud Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Kahungunu & Macnamara takatāpui Māori artist, activist, designer and teacher currently living on Bundjalung Country. Their work is within the growing edge of our systemic relationships to whenua/Country, building food systems, economic support systems and housing that aligns to our planetary limits.
Toad Dell (they/them/it), is an Irish/English settler living on unceded land of the Bundjalung People. Co-founder of PermaQueer & board member of Permaculture Australia and are deeply committed and passionate about using permaculture education to help break up the hegemony and reliance upon cultural systems of violence.
Our mission is to support Queer and vulnerable communities with permaculture education. We also assist those who run organisations to implement frameworks underpinned by ecological thinking and Queer theory for a better future.
Born out of a desire to empower Queer community towards systems thinking solutions for their problems, PermaQueer now is turning that lens outward to offer Queer solutions to wicked problems in the world today.
PermaQueer is first and foremost a education outfit to support Queer, POC and other vulnerable communities through permaculture education. We offer a variety of courses in permaculture and the intersection of queer theory, permaculture and systems thinking with accessible options for our communities.
It’s not enough to just tend our queer and other vulnerable communities, as systems thinking tells us, we must also tend to the other systems we’re nested in and around as well. To address this PermaQueer has collaborated with a number of queer, first nations and POC communities to create frameworks forward for organisations and communities. Taking a decolonising stance and understanding that it will not be the individualist, the lone entrepreneur but vast and diverse communities across economic standings and ways of life all collectively taking regenerative postures in ways appropriate for them for a brighter future.
PermaQueer was co-founded by Guy Ritani (they/them/Ia) and Toad Dell (they/them/it)
This organisation has not been a sole effort by Toad and Guy though, the organisation is here because of the support and collaborations with women, POC and queers within permaculture and other communities.
Currently Toad and Guy are working with others in the hope of expanding beyond them more widely, increasing the team of PermaQueer. Our goal as a team is to develop PermaQueer into a social enterprise ecosystem, embedding queer and other voices to be leading within regenerative industries.
