This Year’s Australasian Permaculture Convergence (APC10) and PDC Shaping Up to Be a Hit!
Community Projects, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, Developments, Education Centres, Social Gatherings, Society — by Darren Doherty September 8, 2010
From a few days ago:
HOLLYWOOD star Daryl Hannah flies into Cairns tomorrow while Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson’s eccentric nephew, Ned RocknRoll hits town today.
The environmentally minded duo plan to spend a month in the Far North for a two week permaculture design course and the Australasian Permaculture Convergence.
The events will be at Kuranda.
Mr RocknRoll, the head of marketing promotion and astronaut experience at Virgin Galatic [sic], will be joined by his wife Eliza.
Other big names at the event include former governor-general Major Michael Jeffery and SBS Television’s Costa Georgiadis, of Costa’s Gardening Odyssey. – Cairns.com.au
Calling Ned RockinRoll eccentric is a bit over the top, but then again the Cairns Post is a News Limited tabloid after all.
The Free Range Permaculture PDC starting this Sunday is now booked out which is great and we have an amazing lineup with lots of locals, some indigenous guys from up the gulf, a smattering of others from around the country plus Daryl Hannah (Hollywood actress & world’s #1 female celebrity environmentalist), the Hon. Eliza RocknRoll (nee Pearson & Humanitarian Activist) and her husband Ned RocknRoll (Virgin Galactic and nephew of Sir Richard Branson), Ken Bellamy (Prime Carbon) and Costa Georgiadis (SBS). This promises to be an interesting time with a entirely revamped course outline (following the cessation of The Permaculture Institute ‘Teacher Registration’ program) with 7 design exercises (with 3-4 choices per design), up another 2 design exercises on what we’ve been doing the last year or so. We’re keen to put the design back into the design course obviously.
There are still a few places left on the post course convergence – don’t dally though….
Comments (6)Keyline Design – Mark IV
Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Dams, Earth Banks, Gabions, Land, Limonia, Rehabilitation, Roads, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Surveying, Swales, Terraces, Water Harvesting — by Darren Doherty March 16, 2009
‘Soil, Water & Carbon for Every Farm’ – Building Soils, Harvesting Rainwater, Storing Carbon
by Abe Collins & Darren Doherty
Introduction
Keyline Design was first developed by the great Australian, P.A. Yeomans (1904-1984), in the late 1940s & 50s initially as a practical response to the unpredictable rainfall regime he found on his new property, ‘Nevallan’, to the west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Soil Conservation, as developed by the US Army Corp of Engineers was the predominant practice of the time and for a time Yeomans was influenced by this, though soon found some deficiencies with the pattern of water flow its application expressed. Yeomans went on to devote the rest of his life to the promotion, research and development of Keyline Design and in doing so was labelled by Permaculture co-originator Bill Mollison as "…one of Australia’s greatest patriots… ".
Influenced by the likes of prominent organic agriculture figures in Andre Voison, Friend Sykes, Newman Turner & Louis Bromfield (among many others!) Yeomans has been attributed with being the 1st person to accelerate soil formation through the stacking of methods, overturning the myth that it took 1,000 years to create an inch of topsoil. Yeomans proclaimed that "…the landman’s job is not so much to conserve soil as it is to develop soil, to improve his soil and to make it more fertile than it ever was…".
Comments (0)Carbon Economy & Farming Courses USA 2009
Courses/Workshops — by Darren Doherty March 15, 2009
We are pleased to announce another world 1st! We have designed and organised three ‘Carbon Farming Courses’ and one ‘Carbon Economy Course’ to be convened across the US during 2009.
The course modules include: Holistic Management, Soil Food Web, Broadacre Permaculture, ZERI, Fungi, BioChar, Energy Systems, Natural Building and Pathways to Relocalisation.
To deliver these modules we have some of the world’s most experienced and respected facilitators and practitioners including:
Comments (0)Making Contour Maps on the Cheap
Dams, Earth Banks, Surveying, Swales, Terraces — by Darren Doherty September 11, 2008
by Darren Doherty of Permaculture.biz
 An example of the results Click for larger view |
I developed a technique in 2007 during a Keyline Design Course at Tuscon, Arizona for making a contour map using cheap available materials. One of our students didn’t have the cash to get a surveyor to do the job on his 40 acres, so I came up with this solution on the whiteboard and have since tested it on the ground quite a few times now.
Using a Bunyip/Water Level, A Frame, Laser Level or Dumpy/Automatic Level mark out a contour line using stakes or pin markers (see below for an alternative to this technique in some circumstances).
Comments (6)
