Crystal Waters Permaculture Village

“Amazing diverse course that has expanded my creative toolbox to facilitate in any scenario. Highly Recommended”. Carl Community Development “Robin’s Dynamic Groups Course is the gold standard in Facilitation education”. Gavin Hardy     “Robin’s many years of experience are on full display in this course. She cracks open the possibilities of what it means to facilitate and teach groups, and with her ethical undertones, people leave this course better equipped to make the world a better place. Be prepared for fun, laughs and a new way of seeing groups”. Brenna Quinlan       “This course has appealed to me for a while and I am so grateful for the experience. I feel so inspired and well equipped with many tools and creative processes to facilitate group dynamics. The journey has been empowering to feel the ability of engauging participants in interactive learning. Kiera Douglas Primary School Teacher, Yoga …

The scheduled March 2024 PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate Course) was postponed till August to make the most of time, resources and numbers of interested people, which included three people from overseas countries. The PDC last August was fantastic and enjoyed by all and this coming August PDC, from 11th to 25th August is promising to be a fantastic learning experience. The course is a fund raiser for Crystal Waters Community Cooperative with all organisers, presenters, cooks and support people being paid reasonably for their time and efforts, and all surplus going to the Co Op. The main Presenters and Facilitators of learning are Robin Clayfield, Annaliese Hordern, Max Lingdigger and Jessica Steele with guest appearances from several other skilled and passionate people. Robin and Max are Permaculture pioneers and acknowledged Elders of the Permaculture Movement with decades of experience teaching, presenting and facilitating Permaculture and related topics. Max was the …

It is said by Futurists that Facilitation skills will be one of the Top 10 skills required in the future. Robin has been training facilitators, teachers and group leaders for 32 years now and after a time, formed up her observations, experiences and thoughts into a Learning Methodology. She’s floated it out into the world with the help of ELFy, the magician. ELFy is a Jigsaw Puzzle where each piece is part of what she suggests is required for the group and each individual to be successful, engaging with the subject, motivated and having fun. ELFy is also an acronym for Educator, Leader, Facilitator and helps me address all of us who facilitate groups, train, educate, teach, lead, chair or mentor. Key pieces of the puzzle are Creativity, Group and Personal Empowerment, Interactivity and Collaboration along with grounding by meeting Needs and establishing shared Values, Ethics, Principles, Agreements and setting …

After a very successful ‘Women’s PDC’, for women and presented by women, in November last year, Annaliese Hordern and the Ground Permaculture crew are putting on another Women’s PDC in October this year. The course last year was in honour of and celebrating that is was 40 years since the first ever PDC, which Robin was a participant in. To support the course robin did seven sessions as a special guest, two of which were tours of Crystal Waters and of her garden. She’ll be a special guest again this October. Here’s the link to look or book

Last year’s ‘Dynamic Groups’ course saw some special guests as participants and everyone enjoyed a fun filled, deep learning and confidence building time together. Robin organized an exciting music event the night after the course to host ‘Formidable Vegetable’ playing two big sets and Jimmy Halliday, who grew up on Crystal Waters, playing with Charlee McGee and Brenna Quinlan to complete the band and also doing his debut with a new style of Looping music. Robin gave a challenge to the ‘Dynamic Groups’ course – to design and plan together an interactive, creative and potentially musical process piece that was 10 minutes long and would involve the whole group and all of the audience. After Jimmy’s set the group rose to the challenge and took to the stage. They had the whole crowd (over 200 people) up and dancing in sync and we saw introverts become extroverts and very professional …

The weather here has not been very supportive of gardening lately. First a very hot dry period towards the end of 2023 where many plants and trees died, then this year has been so wet and humid up here in South East Queensland. The result has been an overgrowth of tenacious grasses and ‘weeds’ that threaten existing trees and take over whole orchards, access paths and large areas of land as well as many large woody herbs and trees overextending themselves to obscure anything around them. Then along comes fantastic Volunteers and WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) who have helped turn a problem into a solutions.Lots of hard work…• Making Hot Compost from the ‘weeds’ and prunings, often chipping them first• Sheet mulching weedy areas by cutting ‘weeds’ and grasses then adding biochar, rock minerals and some nitrogen bombs then covering with soaked cardboard then straw• Placing ‘weeds’ in …