Permaculture

Permaculture is a design process focused on creating human settlements that are sustainable and abundant and do not deplete, degrade or pollute natural systems. Food, water, energy, building materials, shelter, fuel, mulch, microclimates, animals and people are all part of good permaculture design.

The cultivated ecologies and designed systems of permaculture mimic natural sustainable systems. Energy and nutrients cycle throughout, waste from one process become the raw material of another process, each element performs multiple functions, inputs are kept to a minimum, maximum yield and dynamic stability are the goals.

Once started in their own backyard, most people find their permaculture journey soon spreads out over the fence and into the community sprouting new co-operatives, collectives, permaculture groups, Perma-blitzes and a huge range of similar activities.

Through open access to permaculture information anyone is able to learn how to do this and increase their own self-reliance - permaculture is freely available to everyone. By following permaculture's principles we are able to design; functionality, energy efficiencies, waste reduction and resilience into any system.

Bill Mollison
Well known as a backyard  / community food system, permaculture is now seen as a viable solution on a much wider scale and is being applied to design transport systems, regional food distribution systems, large-scale agriculture, local energy systems, financial systems and much more.

Permaculture is; observation, biomimicry, planning, understanding, reflection and intentional design. It is trial and error and learning along the way. From balconies to broadacre, bustling cities to remote villages - permaculture design is meeting human needs without increasing detriment to the natural environment and taking into account the earth's finite resources.

The word 'permaculture' originally referred to 'perma'-nent agri-'culture', but that has since grown to mean 'perma'-ment 'culture'.
David Holmgren

It's an Australian concept originating in the 1970's from the meeting of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, and we have decades of on the ground successful examples to learn from.

Since the '70's permaculture has been inspiring and enabling people to learn how to better design their homes, land and communities through a myriad of ways including the 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and by joining groups such as this, Permaculture Eudlo.