NEXT PDC BEGINS 2020
Our Permaculture Design Course focuses on creative facilitation which is fun, engaging and hands on.
We believe that there are many ways in which people can learn, and try to cover as many teaching styles as possible in order to compliment individual learning styles.
Join us for an interative, hands on, creative, practical and immersive Permaculture Course!
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To join the waiting list please Subscribe to our Newsletter on the Home page.
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Permaculture Design Course
Postive Solution-Based Change.
“I feel people are more capable of creating change through love and motivation rather than fear and desperation” - Taj Scicluna
Our Permaculture Design Course focuses on creative facilitation which is fun, engaging and hands on.
We believe that there are many ways in which people can learn, and try to cover as many teaching styles as possible in order to compliment individual learning styles.
Join us for an interative, hands on, creative, practical and immersive Permaculture Course!
Learn strategies and techniques that will increase resilience in lifestyle and contribute to regenerative ways of thinking and acting, creating postive solution-based outcomes for social and environmental systems.
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"Permaculture is Revolution desguised as Gardening" - Mike Feingold
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We beleive in offering real, skill-based learning on the Farm, catering for the kinaesthetic, leaving participants empowered with a range of intellectual knowledge and experiential skill.
Where:
Geo Echo Farm
Silvan
The Perma Pixie is currently retrofitting and helping manage a Farm property near the lush Dandenong Ranges, that is home to a range of animals such as Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Geese, Ducks, Chickens and more. We will be creating functional systems using Permaculture strategies as part of this Permaculture Design Course, assisting the efficiency of the property whilst offering real skill-based learning.
When:
Next course begins 2020
Course Fee:
$1400 waged
$1200 for concession card holders, low income card holders and elderly
2 work exchange places are offered to make Permaculture accessible.
Work exchange is 40 hrs for the course duration, each Wednesday for 4-8 hrs a week.
What is included in your Course Fee:
- The Gaiacraft Permaculture Design Course Curriculum Booklet
- A range of handouts for different sessions
- Extensive digital resources and downloads, access to the course Google Drive
- Hands-on experience in Gardening, Soil building, Natural Building, Forest Gardening and more
- Knowledge of design process and systems and how to design a Permaculture Property
- Tea, Coffee and morning tea
- Site visits to existing and functioning Permaculture sites
Site Visits:
There will be two site Visits to existing Urban and Rural Permaculture properties so that participants can understand the different design modalities employed in these areas and apply them to their own lifestyle or situation.
These sites are functional as well as beautiful, produce high yields with a healthy amount of human management and care for both the land and the people.
What you will learn in this Permaculture Design Course:
This course is Designed using Permaculture Principles and the Scale of Permanence to bring you a holistic and immersive experience. We are dedicated to assisting in the journey of personal empowerment that ripples through to create social and environmental change.
Participants will learn how to observe, plan, design, evaluate and manage holistic systems.
After course commencement participants will be capable of:
- Understanding Permaculture Ethics and Principles
- Designing for conditions within a changing climate
- Using patterns within a design context and building functional connections between elements
- Design abundant, self-fertile Food Forest systems
- Understanding the Soil Food Web and its application in home garden and agricultural systems
- Enhancing social cohesion and strategies for community living
- Understanding Ecological systems and how to use and cycle nutrients
- Analyse landscapes and client contexts to marry the two in a cohesive synergy
- Build biologically diverse food systems
- Designing a property using a range of 2D resources and spatial design tools
- Improve soil structure and fertility
- Increase self-empowerment and create new career and lifestyle pathways
What skills you will develop during this Permaculture Design Course:
- Tree Planting
- Tree Pruning
- Tree Feeding
- Pond Systems
- Plant Germination and Cultivation
- Compost Building
- Natural Building with different mediums and Earthship techniques
- Alternative Technology methods
- Homesteading skills
Catering:
Morning Tea and tea and coffee will be provided.
Lunch will consist of a shared, communal pot luck, increasing group cohesion and appreciation for our growing community of Earth stewards.
Your Facilitators:
Taj Scicluna of The Perma Pixie
Kimberley Kifun - Course Co-ordinator, Social Permaculture Facilitator
John Ferris of Edible Forest Gardens
Travis Heenan of Peace Farm
Annalise Hordern of Symbiotic Nature
Murray Goodchild of Peace Farm
Tyler Cameron of Mush Love
Kegan Daly of Of the Earth Permaculture
Tommy D - Skill-based Generalist; Natural Builder, Carpenter and Permaculturist
Stuart Muir of Permatecture
Melanie Birtchnell - Re-vegetation Specialist and Bee Lover, Keeper and Protector
Facilitator Bios
Taj Scicluna
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The Perma Pixie (Taj Scicluna) is passionate and motivated to inspire and educate people to live more nourishing and regenerative lifestyles with a deep connection to Nature.
Using her skills of Permaculture and Herbalism, she reminds those wishing for a deeper sense of purpose that individual and collective action can generate change and reformat the current state of humanity.
Being a fringe dweller, The Perma Pixie straddles the worlds of nature connection and professional business, hoping this will ripple through to others and create larger effects beyond the scope of her reach.
She intends to create a fusion of ancient wisdom with modern times, weaving the awareness of the past with the knowledge at present to form a synergy that will benefit future generations.
This is where functionality meets alchemy, a marriage of the mystical and practicality, an awareness of the internal and external landscapes which can exist in harmony.
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Taj is well versed in Permaculture Design, specialising in Ornamental Edible Gardens that mimic natural systems for beauty and efficiency. Her journey has now lead her to facilitate Social Permaculture workshops, focusing on the awareness of the self and how we may integrate ourselves back into forms of community for a positive impact on the Earths systems and processes.
Kegan Daly
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Kegan is a natural builder, specialising in Earthship and straw bale construction. He’s also a qualified horticulturist, permaculture designer/teacher and university-educated in environmental philosophy and political theory.
Disillusioned with the practical limitations of conventional activism, Kegan became passionate about combining the radical strategies of grassroots direct action and down-to-earth design processes of permaculture. His transition occurred with study and practise in the complementary fields of permaculture design, horticulture, natural building (straw bale and Earthships), environmental philosophy and the sociology of nature.
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Natural building is the core of Kegan’s skill base which began by working for veteran straw bale builder, Lance Kairl from House Of Bales in South Australia and studying Earthship construction at the Earthship Biotecture Academy with Michael Reynolds in Taos, New Mexico.
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Upon returning from Taos in 2015, Kegan established a small business, Of The Earth: Building Permaculture Landscapes that he now runs on a full-time basis. Having worked on Australia’s keystone earth building community projects in SA (straw bale gazebo project at Flinders University and Earthship Ironbank) and NSW (Earthship Marulan), Kegan is now respected in the natural building community as a dedicated, hard-working, skilled tradesperson whose life practise and philosophy is grounded in permaculture principles and ethics.
Kegan is also immersed in underground music culture having been a vocalist for doom, black metal and post-rock bands for 15 years, managed a record label and currently the curator and tour logistics manager for the touring company, Tulpa Collective.
Tomas Cifuentes
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Let me introduce you to Tomas Cifuentes, one of our guest facilitators for the 2018 PDC.
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Tomas is a passionate organic gardener and landscaper. He is also a permie and founder of SeedOfLifeGardens, a business that aims to promote 'growing our own food' by design and construction of edible gardens. Since 2010 I have been working & volunteering in Organic farms around the world. Finally when I settled in Melbourne in 2013 I started a small operation of heritage tomatoes and italian vegetables. I am obsessed with Soil fertility. In these last four years I have studied and practiced so many different methods to achieve this goal. And it keeps getting simpler and easier. You only need strong foundations and the proper knowledge.
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Annaliese Hordern
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Annaliese holds a degree in Environmental Resource Management, a Diploma of Permaculture and has served as a director of Permaculture Australia for 3 years. Her extensive plant knowledge extends from Peruvian Amazon Rainforest species to plant fibre weaving and Head Propagator of Green Harvest Organic Gardening, Australia’s premier supplier of edible, rare and useful plants.
Utilising progressive and creative facilitation methods Annaliese is a regular presenter throughout Australia and globally at Permaculture Design Courses as well as community events, transformational festivals and celebrations of sustainability and connectivity.
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Annaliese lives in the subtropical climate of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, on a one-acre Permaculture property where she continues her ethnobotanical research, collaborating with world wide leaders of sustainability and advocating on behalf of indigenous peoples and their sacred connections with plants and Mother Earth.
John Ferris
Edible Forest Garden Nursery
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John Ferris has been in horticultural since 1977 gaining experience in landscaping, garden maintenance and design owning and operating his own business since 2002. After studying with Dr Elaine Ingham (soil food web) and doing his PDC (permaculture design course) John's passion for organics and sustainability become more of an obsession.
Realising that traditional methods were not working, John decided to do something about it. He has incorporated all of this knowledge he has gained through these years into the operation and running of Edible Forest Gardens nursery.
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Edible Forest Gardens nursery is a nursery with a difference. Everything is either edible or at least beneficial to your garden.
The nursery only uses organic potting mix and fertilizer, no chemicals are used in the production of our plants. The water is from tanks or the dam and recycled back through the system so there is no wastage.
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John Ferris is a facilitator of soil science, food forests, perennial systems and landscape design. To learn more check out his Youtube Channel.
Willow Herbnerd
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Willow Herb-nerd is driven by a deep love of life and a curiosity of systems and mechanisms that make everything possible. She combines old knowledge with modern science, always questioning the inner workings and complexities of the natural world to develop well thought out solutions.
Working to de-mystify the wisdom of plants, Willow translates this to everyday life so that others can access this lost knowledge and reclaim their relationship to the land.
Willow weaves the fields of Herbalism and Permaculture design, seamlessly integrating the cultivation and application of plants to produce effective designs, gardens, medicines and courses.
Having a unique ability to understand patterns and construct functional webs, Willow grounds scientific intelligence with earth based spirituality to formulate grounded alchemy.
Her authenticity is reflected through her genuine nature, and she is equally as satisfied being enveloped in studious meditation by the fire as she is watching butterflies beat their wings upon the backdrop of the blue sky. She values her transparency, honesty and efficiency, and these qualities are echoed in her work. Each task is carried out with a meticulous rhythm, and the results show a quality reflective of the knowledge and wisdom that Willow uses to produce outcomes aligned with her ethics.
Willow believes that everyone has the capacity to remember their roots and harbour a re-connection with the wilderness, and uses accessible plants to facilitate this relationship, giving people the opportunity to connect to their local surrounds.
This is an vital part of Willows work, as she believes that having an intimate understanding of our seasons and cycles is essential to living a life of purpose, freedom and vitality.
Stuart Muir Wilson
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Stuart grew up working on his grandfathers farm (Bill Mollison) where he worked for 11 years. Learning, practicing and teaching along the way. As well as managing wwoofers on the farm.
This formed the foundation for his passion in sustainable architecture. Finishing his Master of Architecture degree with honors at the University of Tasmania in 2012. The honors thesis focused on integrating Permaculture, Architecture and Urban design, while helping out refugees. Forming the portmanteau of permatecture. Currently a practicing Graduate Architect in Australia.
Travelling to Brazil for International Permaculture Conference No. 8 where he went to the Amazon for an indigenous tour and learning experience.
Continuing 2011 I went to Mexico for 4 months to teach 5 courses. Ending up in the Caribbean where he did most of my teaching and consultation work.
I have also started a substantial Permaculture community gardens for students with a few friends at the University of Tasmania.
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