Permaculture College Australia PCA has been invited to conduct a special part-time Permaculture Design Course in Bellingen and Nambucca Heads in Autumn 2011. The course will be conducted as four 3-day blocks (Fri, Sat, Sun) over 4 months from March to June.
Darren Doherty, RegenAg.com on Robyn Francis
Robyn Francis’s permaculture students speak
Source: Oscar and Lucinda, book by Peter Carey, set in Bellingen
Bellingen and surrounding bioregions have long been a focal point for alternative lifestyle and community. In recent years there has been a resurgence of great sustainability initiatives in the region including Permablitz, a new community garden and Transition Town movement and the community is looking forward to new contingency of Permaculture-trained community activists to build the momentum.
Course Dates and Venues
March 11-13, Bellingen: CWA Hall Church St
April 8-10. Bellingen: CWA Hall Church St
May 6-8, Nambucca Heads: Youthie Centre
June 3-5, Nambucca Heads: Youthie Centre
NB This is a 72+ hour, 12-day course. The full course must be attended to qualify for a PDC Certificate of Completion
The local course convenor, Joe Walker, completed a similar PDC conducted by Robyn Francis in Bellingen in 1992 and with fellow permaculturists recognised the need for another course in the area.
For information and details about local logistics of the course please contact Joe Walker 0438 516351
Darren Doherty delivers a Community Supported Agriculture Tagari certified PDC (Permaculture Designers Certificate) to a class organised by Permaculture Sydney North
Darren profiles Permaculture co-founders Bill Mollison and David Holmgren; Tagari or The Permaculture Institute of Bill and Lisa Mollison in Tasmania and also David Holmgren’s business in Victoria
Petra Schneider explains how permaculture has been proven in post-tsunami Aceh and post-conflict Timor as a strategy following community-based disaster management
Petra Schneider of IDEP Foundation, Bali, Indonesia, describes the history of the foundation doing post-tsunami disaster relief and permaculture aid. She explains the start of the trainer-the-trainer network with Robyn Francis, and its origins in post-tsunami work done by Steve Cran and Ego Lamos and the evolution of the Aceh-wide permaculture networks.
Yayasan IDEP is an Indonesian non-profit NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). Innovative and effective, IDEP encourages program sharing with other grass roots projects through media and curriculum development.
We are committed to developing self-sustainability and directly empowering local communities to improve their own situations. We believe that permanent results can be achieved through local empowerment.
Sharing knowledge gained and media through local NGO networks
Conducting media training & supporting local NGO partners with their programs
Since the Bali Bombing tragedy in October 2002, the rapid decline of Bali’s economic stability has brought harsh focus to the un-sustainability of an economy primarily based on tourism. Yayasan IDEP is addressing increased requests for support from local communities to continue and expand its programs.
In 2003 IDEP launched a Community Based Crisis Response Program that will help local Indonesian communities to be more prepared for and to better manage disasters.
At IDEP we are extremely grateful for the support we have received from our international and local advisors, overseas voluntary programs, volunteer support and financial assistance received from these and local supporters of our programs. Thank you, we could never have achieved so much without you.
IDEP’s website is an on line resource center for local NGOs & communities to easily access and download information in support of their local project planning & development.
A brief tour of Djanbung Gardens Permaculture Education Centre, home of Permaculture College Australia in Nimbin, NSW Australia. Executive Director Robyn Francis, walks us through this beautiful land which she transformed through permaculture design, working with nature – rather than against it, from a barren cow pasture into a mix of tropical food forest, cold-temperate orchard, vegetable gardens, chook yard, and more. Visit permaculture.com.au for more information about this amazing place. http://permaculture.com.au
You are invited to join us for the official launch of Permaculture College Australia, Friday 29th January, 5-7pm, at Djanbung Gardens. Refreshments will be available and a contribution (muchies, drinks etc)
Video: Jack Heimsoth
A brief tour of Djanbung Gardens Permaculture Education Centre in Nimbin, NSW Australia. Executive Director Robyn Francis, walks us through this beautiful land which she transformed through permaculture design, working with nature – rather than against it, from a barren cow pasture into a mix of tropical food forest, cold-temperate orchard, vegetable gardens, chook yard, and more. Visit permaculture.com.au for more information about this amazing place.
An interview with Narsanna Koppula of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives studied permaculture on the first Permaculture Design Certificate taught in India with Bill Mollison and Robyn Francis in 1983
ARANYA AGRICULTURAL ALTERNATIVES
ARANYA is an environment and development organisation, registered under societies act. It is facilitating and providing services to the communities, organisations, government and other national and international agencies since 1999. The ARANYA has a very well experienced professionals with a maximum of 25 years of experience in environment and development sectors.
ARANYA has experience in the following development aspects :
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT
PERMACULTURE
ORGANIC AGRICULTURE
NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
WATERSHED PROGRAMME – DWMA
WDF WATERSHED – NABARD
AP COMMUNITY BASED TANKS MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME – I & CAD
AP IRRIGATION LIVELIHOODS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT – I & CAD
TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME – NABARD
ENVIRONMENTAL
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS CAMPAIGN PROGRAMME
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
UNICEF VILLAGE INTEGRATED PLANNING PROGRAMME
WOMEN AND RIGHTS
ARANYA- a self-regulating system
ARANYA is a registered organisation under the societies act. ARANYA is a Sanskrit word, which actually means Forest. Ancient Indian mythology considered forest as the homeland for all life forms. The forest is defined as a sustainable energy generating system, performing a vital role in maintaining ecological balance as one of the main ecosystems. ARANYA (The Forest) is also the source and guiding principle of agriculture. It is a self-regulating process, with abilities to sustain the present and the future. Therefore the organization was christened ARANYA AGRICULTURAL ALTERNATIVES (‘ARANYA’) to encapsulate the regeneration philosophy of the age old Indian tradition and culture.
Philosophy of ARANYA
“ARANYA” aims to provide alternative solutions to the present conventional, chemical agricultural practices. Since forest is the motherland for agriculture, ARANYA is committed to follow the philosophy of nature in the agriculture practices which teaches us to generate production without destructing planet earth, where all forms of life can coexist. To achieve sustainable development on the planet, mankind must observe the changes that are taking place in Nature. ARANYA strongly believes that there is only one law in the nature i.e., Nature’s Law, mankind should not extract anything beyond their needs from the nature and also whatever remains unused should be returned to nature, a law which can be stated LAW OF RETURNS to increase ability of sustainable production.
Permaculture pioneer Robyn Francis runs the Djanbung Gardens at Australia’s first eco-development
Certificate IV by Flexible Learning
The new revised Certificate IV in Permaculture is now available through flexible learning.
Flexible Learning combines short course training, mentored distance and self-directed learning and project work to complete the Cert IV in Permaculture. First participants need to complete the foundation training of the standard 72hr Permaculture Design Course (PDC) and Advanced Design Skills/FLOW courses offered in our Summer and Winter School programs. Those who have already completed a PDC simply need to do the Advanced Design Skills/FLOW to get started.
2010 Dates:
Summer School: PDC Jan 10-23 ADS/FLOW Jan 25-28
Winter School: PDC July 3-16, ADS+FLOW 19-22
Robyn Francis has a MySpace website under the name ‘Permaculture Guru’. And she is.
The Nimbin resident has been the editor of the Permaculture International Journal, a founding director of Permaculture International Ltd and a permaculture teacher and designer all over the world.
For those who came in late… permaculture is essentially a system of designing sustainable land management systems that work with the earth’s natural cycles. It takes a holistic approach to the design and development of human settlements, taking into account food production, structures, technologies, energy, natural resources, landscape, animal and plant systems as well as social and economic structures. It literally means “permanent agriculture” and the term was first coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid 1970s.
When The Echo visited Robyn at Djanbung Gardens, the permaculture training centre she has been running since 1994, there were signs on the wall with messages like ‘look for low energy solutions – let the ladybirds eat the bugs in your garden’.
The five-and-a-half acre training centre is next door to Jarlanbah, an eco-village with 43 residential lots that Robyn designed in the early 90s.
“I’d been living up here for about five years looking for my perfect patch to set up a permaculture training centre and this fitted the bill perfectly,” she said.
For Robyn, a sustainable lifestyle wasn’t a choice she made later in life, it was something she grew up with.
“My folks were very resourceful people. They grew up during the Depression on dairy farms here on the North Coast… We had a standard quarter-acre backyard (in Inverell) but it was full of vegie gardens and fruit trees and chickens and ducks and a few hives of bees and a milking goat that we used to tether to mow the neighbours’ lawns. Before we got town water we had a 2000-gallon tank we had to survive on. Water was seriously rationed; half a cup for brushing your teeth. So having a high degree of self reliance was something I grew up with and thought was normal,” she said. “When I finished schooling I spent a few years in Sydney and then went travelling, and that was my real education. What I found particularly fascinating was village culture and the different ways people farmed… I lived for three-and-a-half years in Bavaria not far from Munich. The last of the old traditional farmers were still there farming in their old ways with the rotational crops. The only change was that horses had been replaced with tractors. The only thing they were importing onto their farms was the diesel for their tractors. Their animals provided all the nutrients for the crops.”
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