10 Feb, 2019 | General
Emas Hitam is a small NGO operating on the Indonesian island of Bali in the village of Petula. They received a Permafund grant of $1,000 in February 2017 to construct two dry composting toilets on their community garden site called Ancut Garden.
Emas Hitam volunteers
One of the downsides of the popularity of Bali being a tourist destination is that it has created a water crisis. Stored groundwater is being sucked dry by the ever-increasing resort industry making water a finite resource for everyday use by the Balinese people.
Community area and composting toilet systems under construction
Signage has been placed inside the toilets with educational facts about soil, compost and water conservation for the many visitors expected.
Household scale system
The first toilet built used a small bucket as a collection point to demonstrate a household scale while for the second toilet, a wheelie bin was used for larger numbers of people attending the site.
Wheelie bin dry composting toilet in cubicle built using local resources
Help support projects such as this by making a donation to Permafund. Donations of $2.00 and over are tax deductible in Australia and are much appreciated.
For more information please contact permafund@permacultureaustralia.org.au.
8 Feb, 2019 | General
The team from Permaculture Australia’s Permaculture International Public Fund (well known as Permafund), is extremely grateful for the generous donations from individuals, key supporters and fundraisers that have enabled the 2018 round of micro-grants.
With donations of AU$13,000 to distribute, Permafund received applications from projects in India, Kenya, Nepal and Australia.
From 16 applications the Permafund assessment team has selected six organisations who have each received an AU$2,000 micro-grant as seed funding for their various projects.
IRDS (Integrated Rural Development), Salem District, Tamil Nadu, India.
Enabling 50 tribal farmers in 3 villages to cultivate indigenous millets, and vegetables through intercrops using permaculture and indigenous farm practices so that the soil fertility and soil moisture will be  improved and micro-organisms increased.
Kiini Sustainable Initiative Kenya
Establishment and management of a Permaculture integrated land use design model in the Nyeri farm school. Education about greywater recycling, water harvesting and composting will be included.
Nepal Permaculture Group, Kathmandu
Rooftop gardening systems and 10 permaculture farms will be developed with three major aims: food production, research and demonstration using ecological technologies related to permaculture and climate resilient farming practices.
OTEPIC Kenya
Educating children about permaculture gardening at Tabasamu Orphanage Children’s home and Biddi primary school. The grant will support the purchase of teaching materials, gardening tools and equipment, seeds and fencing.
Permaculture for Sustainable Communities – Kenya
The project will focus on establishing permaculture as a fully-fledged occupation in the Kakuma Refugee Camp, Turkana County in the north-western region of Kenya, by providing essential materials to all supported households to fully implement permaculture to produce food, work and income.
(WORD) Women’s Organisation for Development, Tamil Nadu
Promotion of Indigenous millets cultivation through the creation of seeds banks for 15 villages and involving 75 farmers.
A micro-grant of AU $1,000 was approved to assist Ethos Foundation raise funds to support women and children in East Africa to establish permaculture garden systems under the guidance of touring permaculture educator Morag Gamble and family.
Each organisation will provide Permafund with project updates, photos and a completion report to share with donors, key supporters, Permaculture Australia members and the community.
What is Permafund?
Permaculture Australia’s Permaculture International Public Fund (i.e Permafund) is a unique, beneficial mechanism with huge potential for doing good in the worldwide permaculture community though the distribution of funds donated by the Permafund community and its supporters.
It is an organisation with Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status in Australia so is entitled to receive tax deductible gifts. You can only claim a tax deduction for donations or gifts to organisations that have a DGR status.  Tax deductions for donations or tithes are claimed by the donor person, or business, that makes the gift.
Donations of $2.00 or more are tax deductible and are shared with grateful grant recipients who put the funds to work in a wide variety of creative and effective projects.
For more information please contact permafund@permacultureaustralia.org.au.
6 Sep, 2018 | Education
Calling all students and teachers of permaculture at all levels. Permaculture Australia’s Education Team is working on an interactive web page using this snail graphic:
We hope to populate the page with an inventory of all courses past and present in all the categories on the snail. To do this we will need your help to review the page as it is developed and to send us feedback and suggestions.
Some categories (such as PDC) will need to be organised by State, and probably even by venue or year, or some mechanism for identifying courses. It is a tall order but something that has been called for for many times.
For current courses, we will link to member information on the Permaculture Australia webpage only, and for past courses we will be looking for articles and other useful information.
In tandem with this initiative, and in order to identify future needs, we will be undertaking a national survey and we ask that you help us disseminate it far and wide. The more complete the responses, the more likely we are to inspire solutions and the establishment of new courses.
We look forward to developing a rich and inspiring educational mycelium with your help.
The Permaculture Australia Education Team education@permacultureaustralia.org.au
14 Jun, 2018 | General
A 2017 Permafund microgrant of AU$2000 is supporting THREAD Siddharth village to establish a demonstration food chain system for the benefit of 54 tribal womens’ organisations in Orisha, India.
The aim of the food chain project is to show tribal communities how to improve their food security and self-reliance. The eco food court and café run by the tribal women’s organisation, Nari Sugyani Samaj at Siddharth village has been set up as a model.
As fresh local chicken and fish are in strong demand, the demonstration involved the Installation of a poultry enclosure and tunnel system around the fishpond adjoining the café.
The project also included organising state-level tribal women’s organisations to visit the demonstration site to learn about the food chain system for replication in other communities.
Though originally designed to be a small-scale system, enthused by the idea the team assembling the cages and wire tunnels made it a large installation, which THREAD needed to support with extra funding. The construction of the poultry and fish system was completed on 12 May 2018.
Donated local chickens from Siddharth village were added to the food court’s existing chickens plus THREAD purchased an additional 300 young birds, known as King of the Jungle, from a breeder.
The poultry house, which is located at the end of the pond, has tunnels running all around the pond so the birds can rove through the system each morning. This has been an eye-catching attraction for the visitors to the food court while helping the women learn about poultry management.
The droppings of the chickens will be washed to the pond during the rainy season to provide nutrients for the fish. The fish are then added to the menu of the womens’ café for the benefit of the customers. The enriched pond water is also used to fertilise the adjoining fields.
As the birds are still growing, the income this system will generate has not yet been calculated. The outcome will feature in a future report from THREAD.
Meanwhile, the THREAD team organised a workshop for state-level tribal women’s organisations to introduce the idea to them and provide information on how it can improve protein production and generate income in their communities.
A total of 45 representatives from 30 tribal women’s organisations from all over Orisha participated the workshop to learn about the food chain concept in order to implement the systems in their own district’s blocks.
THREAD has also exposed top government officials to this idea and the Women and Child Development department has shown interest to support self help groups who would like to install similar units.
The project expenditure was exceeded unexpectedly due to the increased number of chickens and cost of materials due to GST. THREAD Siddharthvillage was able to complete the project by subsidising it.
THREAD Siddharthvillage (the Team for Human Resource Education and Action for Development) now is now lobbying government to support Indian indigenous tribal regions to initiate such income generating projects through self help groups.
They extend thanks to all donors to Permafund for the initial funding to implement the project.
Donations of AU$2.00 or more to Permafund are tax deductible.
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5 Jun, 2018 | Permaculture Gatherings
A heavy overcast sky and a strong cold wind made it a day for wooly sweaters and warm jackets as the Permaculture Festival 2018 at Canberra City farm got underway. The weather failed to dampen either the festivities and enthusiasm nor the music of The Incredible Vegetable Sound System.
Among the fruit trees and vegetable gardens of the city farm, the Permaculture Festival was a fine start to the next four days of the 14th Australasian Permaculture Convergence at Cotter, by the Murrumbidgee on the outskirts of Canberra.
Sound is energy and the upbeat sound of the Incredible Vegetable Sound System gave people the energy to get up and dance away late-autumn’s chill at the Permaculture Festival at Canberra City Farm.
Singer/songwriter, Charlie McGee, mixes important messages and entertainment with the the Incredible Vegetable Sound System.
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