Hi from southern Queensland

Uh hi
I literally just stumbled across this forum while googling how to make olla lol
I'm Jaime, in South East Queensland Australia, live on 40 acres with my parents and sister, and am currently sneaking in permaculture principals and structures in the gardens lol
We're currently in a horrible drought and are pumping water from my Nan's dam down the road to water the veggies and pot plants, so probably won't be doing many more plantings for a while lol
But we just put a shadecloth tunnel over the veggie garden, and I'm slowly building some terracing so the pumpkin and corn will have a bit of a better chance when it does rain.
I've probably been rambling on too long
I look forward to bingeing all the information on here and hopefully meet some lovely people

Hello Jaime,

Welcome, I'm from Sydney but have a property up in Northern NSW - yes, very dry and lots of bushfires at the moment. 30+ houses destroyed in the last two days and, according to reports, over 100,000 hectares burnt out.

We've had weird weather - last week up to high 30's, this week so far lucky to reach 20 C - suppose it's typical Spring weather really.

Hopefully we all get some decent rain with back-up showers, otherwise it's gonna be a very nasty Summer - too much fuel loading on the ground. Already on water restrictions.

Good luck with the veggie garden, don't forget about grey water use - the old bucket in the shower trick.

F A

Welcome Jaime, I`m across the pond so to speak in southern Brazil, small urban farm. We`re also having a bizarre spring, crazy hot temps already (and so far two insane hailstorms at night, on cold days!) but combined with lots of wet, not bothering planting anything like squash or cukes that will moulder, looks like it will be a bad year for rot.

Welcome to Permies : )

Hello you may be familiar with a fellow named Geoff Lawton who runs a permaculture school in Queensland. If not, you'll want to check out his videos and other things. He's about the best-known permaculture person alive, so I'm probably preaching to the choir.

FA
Yeah we've been on high alert for fires lately. Had about 4 in the past fortnight that have been uncomfortably close. We're just over the hill from the big laidley one that happened over the last couple days.
We also don't have mains water, only rain tanks and paddock dams (which are all empty at the moment), so we're usually on some kind of water restrictions, but now it's really drastic. Dad and I have been discussing where he's gonna put a long drop (my dad grew up with one so he's loath to go back, too many cold nights and interrupting huntsman's lol)

Tereza
Yeah I have 3 zucchini I planted 4 months ago from seedlings that are 10cm tall and only producing male flowers, so I'm not even gonna bother with any curcubits... (except maybe choko lol)

Kate
Thank you

Dale
I can't say I have, but I'm only now getting back into permaculture, was sick for a few years and back when I was discovering it we only had dialup, so most of my research was in libraries and opshops lol
I'll definitely look him up tho

Thank you everyone for being lovely, I'll upload some photos later of my various structures, finished and otherwise

To provide some balance: Many of our North American cousins reference Geoff Lawton. He does have a significant internet presence in the Permaculture sphere, and I suppose a degree of charisma to some people; however, it is a disservice to limit information from just one source, particularly when the founders and early practitioners of the model are still involved in the evolution of it.

If I want clear water I go to the source, in that regard I much prefer the writings and YouTube presentations of David Holmgren – the co founder of Permaculture.

Holmgren’s current focus is on retrofitting places rather than new construction, which is particularly pertinent given the prevailing world economic situations (recession/depression/inability to obtain loans, etc) and climate change – making existing places more livable.

So, as mentioned in a few articles, he certainly continues to progress and build upon Permaculture beyond the basics of sectors, zones, swales et al. As a consequence he provides a much more cerebral approach, building on well-known practices outlined in their (Mollison and Holmgren) books, and articulating it to current and future scenarios.

The following web link provides a rather concise history of Permaculture and the key players throughout its evolution:


CONCISE HISTORY OF PERMACULTURE

Thank you FA
I must admit I only know mollison by name, it was about 15 years ago when I first went library hopping lol
My family has been here for almost 200 years, so building onto existing stuff is kinda the only option here
Not that I'm complaining, it means I have 7 generations of knowledge to build on, which isn't very common in Australia, at least not for people as pale as me
I'll definitely have a look at that link
Thanks again

Hey Neighbour! I too am from Southern Queensland :)

Natasha Rutherford wrote:Hey Neighbour! I too am from Southern Queensland :)

Awesome!
Hi Natasha 👋

Hi Jamie and Natasha

I am at Mt Crosby near Brisbane. There are quite a few like-minded folks around here. Not sure how many are on Permies but we get together for produce swaps, two weeks apart in two locations.

Cheers

Druce

Druce Batstone wrote:Hi Jamie and Natasha

I am at Mt Crosby near Brisbane. There are quite a few like-minded folks around here. Not sure how many are on Permies but we get together for produce swaps, two weeks apart in two locations.

Cheers

Druce

Hi Bruce 👋
Ooh that's so cool
I'm just outside of Ipswich
Don't have much growing atm, we're only on tank water here