2007 March | Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

This Permaculture design course is sponsored by Global Resource Alliance, a small US non-profit helping impoverished communities create a path to an abundant and fulfilling future using natural, holistic and sustainable means. At present, they are working with residents of Kinesi Village, a rural community of about 5,000 on the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania.

Like many East African villages, Kinesi is rich in beauty and natural resources, yet average per capita income is less than 50 cents US per day. There is no indoor plumbing or electricity and inhabitants depend upon the polluted waters of Lake Victoria for personal and agricultural needs. Most villagers are too poor to afford charcoal to boil drinking water, so cholera, typhoid and various parasitic infections are common.

The course will be held at Afrilux Hotel, a clean, safe and simple establishment in the quiet town of Musoma, just across Mara Bay from Kinesi. A delicious breakfast and lunch will be served at the hotel for class participants. At least once each week, course participants will travel 45 minutes by boat to Kinesi to explore how permaculture principles can be applied to conditions there to improve the quality of village life.

We’ve uploaded our famous Greening the Desert flash movie to YouTube after converting it to a Quicktime movie. Here it is.

Tagari Farm is a 148 acre property owned by Bill Mollison’s The Permaculture Institute of Australia, situated in the sub tropics of Northern New South Wales in the ancient volcanic crater of Mt Warning which is the first spot on the continent of Australia to receive the sun’s light every morning. The Pacific ocean beaches are just 45 minutes drive away. Close to the outer western rim of the volcanic rim the farm sits just below a striking geographic feature called The Pinnacle. It’s a sharp edged pointed ridge line rising 2000 feet, the lower slopes include a large fertile river flat with a long frontage to South Pumpenbil creek.

The property was originally used for dairy and cattle grazing and has been extensively designed and established by Bill Mollison over 10 years as a permaculture model farm. There are 43 bodies of water — dams, ponds, canals and many miles of water harvest swales throughout the lush landscape. Gravity water is set from large high dams as main grid water cover the majority of the total landscape, part of this system includes 6 fish ponds set up for continuous water exchange flow through capable of holding 20,000 fish, also chinampa canal growing systems with the potential of the highest production of any system ever documented.

Living systems also include very diverse and extensive plantings of forestry including, timber, bee forage, animal forage, 60 species of timber and food bamboo, plus food forest fruit trees with over 300 mangoes.

The building infrastructure includes the original 90 year old farm house, a large 5 bedroom farm house, a straw bale barn used as a classroom, a large classroom/tea room with kitchen and toilets/bathroom, a very large open hay barn/machinery shed and numerous out buildings used for animal housing.

The property is ideally suited to permaculture education, demonstration and diverse sustainable organic production.