Tag Archives: Crystal Waters Permaculture Eco-Village

The second Social Permaculture Weekend hosted by Robin and I at Crystal Waters Ecovillage in November 2020 was an absolute delight! A rich group came together to explore and understand the application of permaculture principles for the design of social dynamics. Particularly in the context of ‘times of change’, for which 2020 was a great demonstration. The engaging content was met with an equally potent delivery – where the sessions were dynamic, interactive, visual, kinaesthetic and engaging. We sat in circle. Everyone on the same level, with similar access to the information and experience… including us as instructors. Accessible and impactful tools were shared to implement for one’s self, for one’s kin, and for one’s community. We completed with a gentle ritual of acknowledgement and onward visioning to seal the goodness. After a weekend of exploring regenerative social design, combined with the delicious fare served at mealtimes, the group were …

Robin and many others at Crystal Waters EcoVillage in South East Queensland support resident Michael Ney who has begun producing a world class magazine. Eco Village Voice is an online community featuring a quarterly magazine including videos, podcasts and webinars. Eco Village Voice provides educational articles on many aspects of ecovillage living, as well as encouraging communication between other ecovillages to help each other and for the sake of our planet‘s wellbeing. We aim to celebrate regenerative and permaculture ethics – care for land, care for people and fair share.  Here’s the website for more information. Members have full access to our magazine in PDF downloads, as well as web pages with all the articles AND a web flip page viewer. Also includes podcasts and webinars plus our video channel. Valid for 1 year access. $5 USD per month x 10 paid upfront. = $50 USD annually. Two months free …

A new online magazine, Eco Village Voice, presents special events and the first is the Eco Village Film Festival in Maleny, QLD. This film festival celebrates the rise of sustainable communities aka “ecovillages” who are using appropriate technology to combat the effects of climate change, and are focus more on care for the planet than consumerism and are promoting a healthy lifestyle for the future of humanity. Separate website – https://www.ecovillagefilmfestival.com Eco Village Voice is essentially an online magazine – global quarterly, local monthly. Our monthly ecovillage supplements, with Crystal Waters Ecovillage being the first, is a way for ecovillage residents to network and publicise their activities. It also integrates an independent social media platform for anyone interested in ecovillages and permaculture, or regeneration and sustainability, and more! See: https://www.ecovillagevoice.com

Several places have become available in Robin’s next ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ six day Creative Facilitation, Teacher Training and Group Leadership course. People booked into three of the four available special cost price/scholarship places have cancelled or postponed for various reasons and a further two have deferred to a future time. There are still the numbers for the course to proceed so Robin is offering three more places for the cost price of $500 which includes all meals for 6 1/2 days. Accommodation in the EcoPark at Crystal Waters for the camping option is only $10 per night so this makes it a really affordable opportunity. A bed in the bunkhouse is $22.50. Some help and contribution, trade or donation would be most welcome as part of the exchange. For example, Robin is needing one person to come a couple of days early to help in the set up for …

A new documentary celebrating the past, present and future of Crystal Waters is just being released. It is possibly the most extensive exploration of an ecovillage in a documentary yet produced… I’d love to hear of other examples. In 2018, Crystal Waters, a world-first permaculture settlement and wildlife sanctuary, is now 30 years old – located near Maleny, South East Queensland. Given a UN Habitat Award in 1996, Crystal Waters is known worldwide for its permaculture related educational courses. Community members run monthly markets, bakery and cafes, bamboo and timber plantations, a fire brigade, cinema, even a cemetery. A visitor park offers cabins, caravan sites and tent sites. Over 100 dwellings and community buildings showcase diverse building methods – rammed earth, mud brick, straw bale and pole construction. The flow of the program entwines history and present views in a colourful and engaging manner. It may not answer all your …

Did you know you can design harmonious and effective groups who thrive towards their aims and purpose as a collective? Yep, it’s called Social Permaculture. And this is what Permaculture pioneer Robin Clayfield and social change-agent Erin Young are brewing for the SOCIAL PERMACULTURE WEEKEND on 18 & 19 May at Crystal Waters Permaculture EcoVillage, near Maleny in South East Queensland. This unique weekend is a rare opportunity to be guided in developing your social design fluency by applying the nature-based principles of permaculture. Using interactive and dynamic experiences, Robin and Erin will share with you insights to regenerative people systems and approaches contributing to happy and healthy humans on the levels of the individual, organisational, and societal. Various angles of effective social design will be covered, including group ecology, community governance and decision-making, group effectiveness, social space retrofits and confidence in acting for change. This course is for those …