Read Issue 1 as a flipbook

Permaculture is a design system for sustainable living and land use that is being applied to every aspect of life, but it is best known in its application to food production, at scales from the garden to the farm.

The focus on food in permaculture is…

Many projects start with a champion: someone who believes enough in an idea to take those perilous early risks. In our community that was Natalie Meyer. She was the team leader and able to draw on the resources…

What is permaculture? Is it gardening, is it chooks and composting, or as one concerned Japanese mother put it ‘angry people growing vegetables’? It must be something more. How did two plant lovers in Tasmania create something that…

Grapevines hanging from the ceiling, trees growing inside, passionfruit within an arm’s reach of the bed – Anneke van Tholen’s greenhouse home takes the term living with nature literally.

Anneke…

Creator of the permaculture principles calendar and the permaculture principles symbols that are used throughout this magazine.

Where do you live?

Seymour on the Goulburn River in Central…

After the three most unsustainable days of my life, spent mostly in aeroplanes and hotel rooms, we arrived in Cuba for the eleventh IPC in late November and early December last year.

First up…

The concept behind this work is to transform greenwaste into something useful by weaving a simple bowl.

Random weaving is a traditional Japanese basketry technique used mostly for ikebana flower arrangements where the design…

An attached greenhouse is a great feature in any permaculture design because it serves so many functions and is a great way to integrate zone one and zone zero. Your greenhouse can become not only a growing space but also…

Reclaiming Our Medicine

Many wild plants are considered weeds in Australia, but their medicinal uses are powerful. They flourish in abundance, enabling people of all kinds to use simple and effective medicine while ‘weeding’…

Deep ecology has its origins in the ideas of Norwegian ecophilosopher Arne Næss. His ideas include the concept of Gaia: that this planet we live on is a living earth; that all living things are part of the…

Castlemaine in Central Victoria has a long history of permaculture and it’s no accident that Growing Abundance (GA) emerged here. GA is a great example of people in a country town combining to grow and share sustainable food….

How did you find out about permaculture?

I grew up on a city herb farm in Brisbane, my dad’s business. While I had heard about permaculture plenty of times, I…

Carly McMahon gives us the rundown on how to turn your clothing trash into funky treasure

Have you ever had the overwhelming feeling that our wardrobes, or in many cases,…

Djanbung Gardens 20th Anniversary Celebration

7-9 June, 2014

In 1994 Robyn Francis acquired a compacted cow pasture to create permaculture’s first purpose-designed education centre and demonstration farm as…

Permaculture Australia

In 2011 the long established Permaculture International Ltd registered the business name Permaculture Australia (PA) to allow it to transition into the role of representing permaculture on a…

You can have your permaculture and eat it too

by Robin Clayfield (2013, Robin Clayfield Earthcare Education)

Robin Clayfield has just released…

Describe your garden …

Wild, abundant, full of wildlife. Some parts neat, lots messy! Always jobs to do – subtropical, so heaps of biomass to turn into compost. Alive. Quiet spots to sit, with…

I am so happy that you are holding this magazine in your hands and reading it. It has been a long time in the making, growing from pip to peach, and here it is present in the world,…

This year is International Year of the Family Farm, and two recent reports, from United Nations and European constituencies, make the case for a return of support for smallholder farmers.

The reports argue that…

What Food Forests Are And How They Function

Food forests are production systems that try to mimic nature. Rather than growing trees in grass, we aim for a variety of…

Cecilia Macauley’s Pearl of Wisdom #1

Permaculture design is about solving whatever real problems people have. My clients are mostly mainstreamers, so their problems aren’t of a vegetable nature. They…

Where do you live?

Melbourne. Inner city enough to grow bananas, thanks to the heat-island effect.

Describe your property

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Shiitake mushrooms are the yummiest variety, in my opinion. They’re also the most expensive in the shops, and it’s virtually impossible to find organic ones, at least where we live. Solution: grow your own.

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Where do you live?

I live on one acre outside of Margaret River, WA.

Tell us about what you do

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When visiting the Autumn Farm property it’s hard not to feel like you’re in a 1992 SBS screening of a foreign film, set in the heart of a family-run farm, breathing in the warmth of the grass and…

Where do you live?

We rent an old three-bedroom Queenslander for our family of six in West End, Brisbane Queensland.

What do…

I think that if any of the readers of this magazine were asked if they ate local food most would say ‘yes, I shop at the local farmers’ market, grow my own vegies, swap with friends and support…

Home made fresh ricotta

I could not believe how easy this is to make. Now I never buy ricotta, it just doesn’t compare to what I make at home. This…

I’ve spent the last seven years wandering the world, teaching people from all walks of life how to use plants to dye cloth. I didn’t carry dye materials between countries because most plants yield some kind of colour…

Decide what size and shape you’d like your flags.

Make a template, either from paper or fabric, and fold it in half. Lay the folded edge of your template onto the folded edge of the fabric you want to use. Pillowcases, scraps of fabric, old tea…