Permaculture BMX biketrack,
steadily evolving into a beautiful
orchard
Permaculture demonstration site at
Broken Hill
Annemarie Brookman of
The Food Forest in a perennial
garden, rich with herbs, fruit and vegetables
all year round
Three dimensional model on an aerial photo of
a property at Cherryville.
Modelling is an important skill - it
enables a group of people to be
quite clear about what each of them
is proposing for a property design
This Cob Oven was built during a
Design Course in a mini workshop
led by Anne McMahon
Permaculture practitioner
John Campbell at Willunga with an
aerial photo of the Willunga Hills
Face which is used for planning
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THE COURSE 2008
With David Holmgren, the Brookmans & others
10 - day Course at The Food Forest, Gawler,
South Australia
24- 28 January, 8-10 and 23-24 February 2008
This 10 day intensive course will present you
with an opportunity to consider your life in a new light and give
you some of the skills needed to design a sustainable and meaningful place
for your future.
You will learn through lectures, practical activities,
case studies, videos, field trips and games.
In addition to our experienced teaching team
you will have access to a wide range of printed and video resources. Most
importantly you will work with a group of motivated fellow students with
diverse skills and backgrounds.
The extended format of the course is for busy
people, designed to cause minimum disruption to other parts of your life
and also to allow you to absorb and practice skills from one learning block
before moving on to the next. However the residential aspect is important,
to help you become fully immersed in learning about sustainable living.
Sessions are scheduled in the evenings , but we finish at 5pm on
the last day of each block. There are 3 days which are normal ‘working
days’, which may need some planning to have off.
Whilst many people study permaculture for personal
use, successful completion to the course will qualify you for a Permaculture
Design Certificate issued by the Permaculture Institute and makes you eligible
to practice or teach permaculture commercially and to proceed towards the
Diploma in Permaculture Design awarded by the Permaculture Institute
.
The course can be also recognised as relevant
prior learning towards the completion of requirements for the nationally
accredited Certificate IV in Permaculture which is integrated into the
Australian Qualifications Framework, attracting Youth Allowance, Austudy
etc. More information is available at: www.foodforest.com.au/ShortCourses.htm
and click on Accredited Permaculture Training.
Permaculture
Out of the concern for the environment and the
protests of the 70’s came a positive suggestion for change, a model for
the sustainable occupation of the Planet by humans, a design system which
goes back to the great truths of traditional knowledge, to basic scientific
principles and to the values of a truly civilised society.
The principles of permaculture were first expounded
in Tasmania in the late 70’s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. The approach
is now taught in over 100 countries and the hundreds of thousands of graduates
of Design Courses have had significant impact around the World.
Permaculture can be employed on any scale, from
balconies and the family to large farms and regional communities. It promises
a stable landscape of productive trees, shrubs and animals, human-scale
living and self reliant children with the confidence to design a sustainable
future for themselves.
Based on three ethics: care of the Earth, care
of other humans and acceptance of responsibility for consumption and population,
many technologies and strategies have evolved to make permaculture one
of the most self-evidently logical solutions to the World’s current and
future problems.
Topics
The course at The Food Forest will focus on the
southern Australian environment and the ways we can enrich rural and metropolitan
landscapes. It will cover such topics as:
• Principles and design of sustainable systems
• Reading the landscape - land capability assessment
• Passive solar design for houses and structures
• Sustainable energy, ‘waste’ and recycling
• Appropriate human settlements
• Personal and community strategies
• Soil management
• Garden and farm planning
• Orchard and food forest design
• Free range poultry management
• Alternative economic models
• Catchments, water management and aquaculture
• Revegetation, agroforestry, bush food and wildlife
The Venue
The Food Forest today is the result of the vision
of owners Graham & Annemarie Brookman, and is a remarkable 15 hectare,
certified organic, permaculture farm and learning centre. From its buzzing
biodiversity come over 150 varieties of organically grown fruit and nuts,
wheat and vegetables, honey and carob beans, as well as free range eggs,
nursery plants and timber. (We’ll be harvesting and eating some of the
products!)
The collections of tree crop varieties represent
a unique genetic resource; willingly shared with others wishing to establish
sustainable plantings.
When the property was purchased in 1983, it was
not much more than a bare barley paddock; only a few towering River Red
Gums remained along the river from the time the Kaurna Aboriginal people
camped in their shade and gathered food from the land.
Today, there are thousands of native plants and
a number of endangered wildlife species such as Brush Tailed Bettongs which
help to manage the orchard floor and form part of the complex ecosystem
within a 1.5km rabbit and fox proof fence.
The heritage-listed homestead was built within
the first few years of white settlement of South Australia and much of
the history of the farm has been retained. The old stone barn has been
transformed into a Learning Centre for the presentation of courses and
workshops. Visitors can also enjoy the ‘loo with a view’, a Clivus Multrum
composting toilet and reedbed system which will transform human by-products
into reeds for thatching, rich compost for fertiliser and golden bamboo
for furniture and structural work. Environmentally responsible building
technologies are demonstrated in the Studio with it’s curved garden wall,
the Eco-gazebo and Coolroom, all of which are constructed with strawbales.
The Cob Oven shows the ancient craft of building with special mud mixtures.
The extension to the homestead is an exemplar of passive solar design using
a fusion of strawbale, stone and well insulated corrugated iron. Rainwater
is collected for use in the house. Solar panels heat the water and photovoltaic
cells provide the house with electricity; surplus power is fed onto the
grid.
In 2001 and 2005 The Food Forest was a State
finalist in the National Landcare Awards. In 2003 The Food Forest won the
Organic Federation of Australia’s National Award for Best Organic Producer
and was runner up for the Best Organic Education Project. In 2004, The
Food Forest won the Leadership in Sustainable Industry Award in the SA
Premier’s Food Awards. In 2005 it won the Nature Foundation SA Good
Business Environment Award for Environmental Responsibility & Leadership
and this year was a finalist in the National Banksia Environmental Awards
for Education.
Accommodation
The accommodation is in a share, bunk style facility
at The Food Forest. Alternatively you can bring your own van or tent, or
possibly book a private ‘ensuite’ cabin for a modest surcharge. The
cabin options are in a park not far from The Food Forest. Meals are included
in the registration and include vegetarian and omnivorous options, largely
sourced from The Food Forest and the bio-region.
Come Prepared
If possible, we would like you to have read “Introduction
to Permaculture” by Bill Mollison and Reny Slay. Other useful reading is
“Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual” by Bill Mollison and “Permaculture:
Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability” by David Holmgren.
Principal Tutors
David Holmgren co-originator of the concept
of permaculture, will be presenting during the first part of the course.
This opportunity to learn with one of the Planet’s purest exponents and
philosophers of permaculture provides you with a chance to update values
and techniques or start your permaculture career at the cutting edge.
In 2003 David published “Permaculture: Principles
& Pathways Beyond Sustainability”, a book which is the first significant
development on the permaculture concept since Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture:
A Designers’ Manual” which was published in 1988. David’s teaching expounds
permaculture for this millenium, freed of the necessity to justify some
of the now publicly accepted environmental concepts which occupied so much
time in the traditional course.
To find out more about David visit: www.holmgren.com.au
Annemarie Brookman (see
above)
Graham Brookman
(see above)
Guest Tutors and Field Visits
Guest tutors selected for skills in their particular
field and their commitment to sustainable living and permaculture
will also teach in the course. Some of the best examples in permaculture,
in and near Adelaide, will be visited as part of this course.
For Details
Email: brookman@bigpond.com
Post: Annemarie Brookman, PO Box 859, Gawler
, SA 5118
Phone /Fax: 08 8522 6450
Street address: Clifford Rd, Hillier (Adelaide
UBD)
By train from Adelaide: Gawler line, exit Tambelin
station
(20 min walk, 5 min cycle, see UBD roadmap and
for train info www.adelaidemetro.com.au)
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