Permaculture Education

This page serves a record and resource for people involved in permaculture education activities with WorkSmith.

Courses OPEN for bookings – in the Canberra – Queanbeyan Region 2024

Intro to permaculture (Canberra Region) – Autumn

Canberra Region Permaculture Design Course

About Permaculture Design Courses

Developed in Australia in the late 70’s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the “PDC” is now taught in over 150 countries. Well over a million people have graduated from Design Courses and are using this tool to build resilience and diversity into their lives, their local communities & in the workplace.

David Suzuki calls permaculture ‘Australia’s greatest intellectual export’.

Whilst many people study permaculture as a design system for their personal placee and/or professional lives, successful completion of the course will qualify you for a Permaculture Design Certificate which makes you eligible to practice or teach permaculture commercially. The course may also be recognised as relevant prior learning towards the completion of requirements for the nationally accredited VET Certificate III or IV in Permaculture.

Intro to permaculture (Canberra Region) – Autumn

2 Sundays in April

: Lizzy explaining the Permaculture domains (aka Permaculture Flower)

: An activity by our participants

: Sam running a session on permaculture principles

: Sam facilitating, Sculpture by Redback Forge

Canberra Region Permaculture Design Course

From 10 May – 30 June – 4 long weekends of 3 days

PDC Faculty Partners

Lizzy Smith WorkSmith Permaculture

Localisation and bioregioning enthusiast, Designer, Permaculture practitioner and educator. On a life quest for regenerative living and keeping relationships real.

Lizzy

Sam Hawker

Sam is the passionate human driving Garden Kitchen Witch*n. In her life and work, she weaves in many modalities and practices – permaculture, women’s work, deep ecology, grief work, embodiment, indigenous wisdom, activism, art of hosting, radical homemaking, the work that reconnects, emergent strategy, holistic management, cyclical living and even more …

The integrity to her ethics is always evident, in cooking, teaching, holding space, and living life. Sam draws upon nearly a decade spent deeply embedded in one place and now is on new adventures, spreading roots throughout the region, and bringing her passion for change to many communities. https://gardenkitchenwitch.wixsite.com/home

facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GardenKitchenWitchn/

Sam Hawker

John Champagne – Brogo Permaculture Gardens, Permaculture Design

Dr Cally Brennan – Canberra Permaculture Design

And other invited experienced educators

John, Sam and Lizzy with welcoming smiles

the organising crew being photo bombed by a merch urchin!

More about the faculty

John Champagne

Meet John Champagne, a seasoned permaculture enthusiast with over three
decades of hands-on experience. Embarking on his permaculture journey in 1992
with a Permaculture Design Course in Chiltern, Victoria, taught by Vries and Hugh
Gravestein , who were students of the legendary Bill Mollison, John’s passion for
sustainable living soon evolved into both a life path and a thriving career. His
teaching journey began in 2004 alongside David Holmgren, shaping the minds of
eager learners.
Having conducted more than 50 Permaculture Design Courses across diverse
landscapes in Australia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Thailand, and India, John’s
commitment to spreading permaculture wisdom is endless.
Together with his wife Sharon, John founded Brogo Permaculture Gardens in the
picturesque Bega Valley, (New South Wales, Australia), 30 years ago. This 11-acre
haven, situated in a temperate climate, serves as both a family home and a thriving
permaculture demonstration site. It’s a hub of abundance where excess produce,
certified organic, finds its way to local outlets.
As a permaculture design consultant, John’s expertise extends to private properties,
eco-villages, and community and school gardens. His influence reaches beyond
borders, where he has been instrumental in shaping permaculture education. Today,
his students, inspired by his teachings, conduct courses in Thailand, Indonesia, and
India, ensuring the permaculture flame continues to burn brightly.
A dedicated advocate for sustainable living, John plays a vital role in his local
community. For over 15 years, he served as the President of SCPA (South Coast
Producers Association), a non-profit community group focused on nurturing a local
food economy. Together with his PDC tutor Hugh Gravestein, John pioneered the
South Coast Field Days in 1995, Australia's first event spotlighting ‘Sustainable Living & Landuse’.
Acknowledged as an elder in the Australian Permaculture Movement, John
Champagne remains a dynamic force. A former board member of Permaculture
Australia for three years, he currently spearheads Permafund, a charitable group
channeling funds to permaculture projects worldwide. In 2018, John’s passion for
community and sustainable living culminated in organizing the Australasian
Permaculture Convergence (APC14) held in Canberra. Get ready to be inspired by
John Champagne’s journey, where permaculture isn’t just a philosophy but a way of
life.

Sam Hawker

The integrity to her ethics is always evident, in cooking, teaching, holding space, and living life. Sam draws upon nearly a decade spent deeply embedded in one place and now is on new adventures, spreading roots throughout the region, bringing her passion for change to many communities.

See more about Sam here:

https://gardenkitchenwitch.wixsite.com/home

Dr Cally Brennan

Dr Cally Brennan has a PhD from Melbourne University, and has been practising permaculture for over 12 years. Cally runs Canberra Permaculture Design and Education, a small business that services Canberra and the surrounding region. The business provides permaculture advice and designs for both urban and nearby rural properties, as well as workshops on topics like fruit and vegetable growing, wicking beds, gardening in a changing climate, and passive water harvesting. Cally will be leading the design component of our PDC.

Cally is particularly passionate about devising effective ways to slow and capture water runoff to increase drought resilience, reduce bushfire risk and even reduce flooding. Cally‘s passive water harvesting techniques in her own permaculture garden are featured in a popular You Tube video titled The Self Watering Garden. Cally believes that permaculture land design can be implemented at any scale and has experience from courtyard gardens up to large rural properties. Her recent design work includes a passive water harvesting plan and edible garden design for part of a 50 acre property in Googong, a design for a small acreage in Tarago, as well as designs for several suburban blocks.

From 2018 to 2020 Cally was a Director of the Board of Permaculture Australia, Australia’s national permaculture body, and Treasurer for the organisation in 2019-20. Prior to this, Cally was one of the organisers of the 14th Australasian Permaculture Convergence, held just outside Canberra in early 2018. Cally has studied permaculture and advanced permaculture design with John Champagne, Graham Bell, Geoff Lawton, and Dr Ross Mars.

Lizzy Smith – WorkSmith – The Business who is auspicing the PDC

WorkSmith ABN 77 937407857 – healthy, safe, sustainable business

Permaculture., a free app about permaculture and homesteading owned and designed by Lizzy Smith.

: Lizzy – Solar Punk Creatiive Futures Workshops

: Lizzy – Artist – Universal Grief (as Egg)

: Lizzy – Workshops Creating a Labyrinth

: Lizzy Nature bathing Qld

: Lizzy as Compost – Deep Ecology with John Seed

: Lizzy explaining the permaculture domains

WorkSmith Permaculture. Mentors and Guides

April Sampson-Kelly – Permaculture Visions

Morag Gamble – Permaculture Education Institute

Regenerative Design networks – get in touch if interested in joining us for some long lunches and working parties.

WorkSmith Permaculture. – Intention

Be a catalyst for a bioregional community of permaculture informed people with ‘practivism’ and mad skills that get the good stuff done.

Image credit – Brenna Quinlan

Reading and References – learning about Permaculture never ends

WorkSmith Refunds Policy

Refunds are available if you cannot attend and give use notice by email up to 14 days of the commencement date.

Please kindly note that tickets are non-refundable after 14 days (of the commencement date). However you are welcome to pass your ticket on to another person as long as they can make the commitment to participate and attend the program.

Locally grown produce