Social Permaculture

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 …

For the last 4 years, back in our home country Brazil, we decided to go on a journey of reconnection to the land and holistic way of living, that was when we discovered permaculture. Each of us fell in love with it in our own ways, “For me (Renata), coming back to the land and learning about permaculture helped me make sense of and connect my passion for food, local systems, and community living.”; “And for me (Thais), Permaculture ethics aligned with my values not just with the practical tools it provided for caring for the land but also on the social aspect, because I am amazed by the power of achievement that arises when people come together towards the same dream”. The goal of coming to Australia was to get to know a different culture and to continue to live on the Permaculture path we started, thus, there wouldn’t …

There’s a magical and nourishing event that happens monthly in Maleny called the ‘Maleny Seed and Harvest Swap’. Robin was invited to be a guest speaker after the swap session during one gathering last year and has been going regularly since then to the swap. It’s the most awesome system. People bring anything they have surplus or to swap from their gardens, lay it out on the tables, then at 9am, everyone wanders around and takes what they want or need. More people come in later, place things down and the gathering continues. People bring produce, plants, cuttings, flowers, eggs, honey, dried herbs, seeds of course and you never know what else. Robin brings potted edible plants, bunches of greens from the garden, surplus produce, most recently chillies and passionfruit, dried herbs like Perilla, Horsetail, Peppermint and seeds that are in abuncance. Her presentation on the first occasion was about …

A passionate and skilled group of 18 people from India, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Solomon Islands plus two University Professors (Kristen from UQ and Jagjit from Monash and India) and two student interns participated in a specially designed 3 day tour of places of interest in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland in mid December 2023. Robin hosted the tour group with Raven’s help covering logistics and most admin tasks. The program included beginning in Maleny with an Acknowledgement of Country, Lunch at an Indian restaurant and a presentation by Assistant Manager of 44 year old Maple St Co operative, a wonderful member owned food health food store. The afternoon completed with some shopping time and a tour of the Co ops, Collectives and points of interest around Maleny then a bus ride to Crystal Waters Permaculture Ecovillage and dinner with Yoav from ‘Good Food Vibes’ on the Deck at Crystal Waters. …