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PRI Australia Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) graduates, April 2012
Click here for larger view, or here for even larger!
All photos © Craig Mackintosh

I recently briefed you on the fact that I was visiting New Zealand. Today I put up a little more evidence of this (don’t worry, I’ll be adding more from the NZ trip over the ensuing weeks, as I have time). Anyway, now I find myself in Australia, staying at the PRI home base — Zaytuna Farm, in northern NSW.

I’ve been here a week already — arriving at the end of a PDC, hence the shot at top — and will stay for a couple more yet. It’s been quite a while since I’ve visited the farm — more than two years, in point of fact — and much has changed. Actually, it’s rather astonishing to see how the installed biomass has taken off. This permaculture site is now 11 years in development, and it’s maturing into a gorgeous piece of work. Watch out for a post or more on this aspect soon, as I’ll be sharing a history of Zaytuna Farm, with some interesting before/after shots that’ll give you some indication of what Geoff and Nadia and the PRI/Zaytuna team are accomplishing here.

But, even permaculturists and aid workers need a break from their usual schedule, so for now I thought I’d interrupt this broadcast to share a few photos I took just a little east of Zaytuna Farm. The pictures might even encourage future students to consider bringing their surfboard when coming here, or at the very least their bathing suits — as this region is rife with opportunities for low carbon fun in the sun, and water. After two years strapped into my swivel chair, immersed up to my armpits in WPN development work, amongst other things, I’m certainly appreciating a little R&R in this incredibly beautiful region. I’m sure you will too, should you come to study or visit.

At the very least, the photos may serve as a little vicarious travel for you. (And, if truth be told, I only spent a couple of hours here, as we were really on our way to a meeting, so I put these shots up to savour the moment as much as anything else!)


Byron Bay, NSW


The pointy peak (above, at top right) is Mount Warning — the first point
of the Australian mainland to see the light of day.


Geoff Lawton (above, right) takes a wave too!

After the little distractions above, we headed off to our meeting, before returning back to the PRI’s Zaytuna Farm, below:

4 Comments

  1. Thanks Craig, nice idea: a lot of us have probably visited/WWOOFED at Zaytuna and would love to be kept in the loop, and it’s a case-study for everyone else as well. Looking forward to your history piece – would be great to see more up to date visuals and hear about developments (biomass, new student accommodation?, how are the pastures/animals?, new earthworks?, have the chickens got access to the food forests yet?…).

    Have you visited the local rainforest areas? Inspiring to see a Zone 5, which I gather Geoff’s trying to rehabilitate in the valleys through Zaytuna.

  2. i remember first walking onto zaytuna farm on the 24th july 2001, cows were running around, I think i might have scared em. I had with me a machete and an old chook feed bag, i harvested stinging nettle and bladey grass mixed it with manure and made the first compost under a sentient silky oak on the creek flats.

    the first dam, the house dam was started on the 24th of september 2001, i remember standing in the bottom of it without a drop of water, it first went over its spill way on the first of june 2002, the first trees were planted on the 24th of september 2001, the same day the house dam was started, which consisted of aussie natives, black bean (castanaspernum australis) silky oak (grevillea robusta) and river she oak (casuarina cunninghamiana).

    bamboolevard was planted the 6th of december 2001, in the blazing hot sun into holes deep and wide enough to bury a bloated bovine, incidently now i believe that the canopy of bamboolevard is dense enough to hang a hammock and have a nap, but who’s got time for that, theres a farm to run and bring to fruition. I remember being excited when we had enough dried bamboo leaves and cow manure to mix and make as a render for the hexagon class room. That first time geoff put the shovel in the ground, looked at me with awe, my response to seeing the sandy loam was “we’ll grow good carrots here”, he responded in saying “we are gonna grow more than carrots here my boy!!” planting 52 bananas along the toe of the top swale, a bunch or 6 for each week of the year, burning down the out door kitchen as geoff left for jordan and having to phone him and tell him we left the billy on, flying over the place pre google earth in a light air plane on geoffs birthday as a treat for him so he could take photos of the newly implemented first major earthworks… the day bluey first came to the farm a nervous little puppy and jackie showing her that at that point she was boss. more to come if you want. dan the duckbloke

  3. Thanks for coming in Craig and talking about the website and development, you’ve done a great job, so much so I’ve been thinking about using a template similar to permaculture global to run other projects outside of permaculture.

    I didn’t think I learnt that much doing the PDC but coming back to Brisbane and having family and friends ask me questions, made me realise how much I actually took in. So Geoff your teaching methods seems quite different but at least they work well :).

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