Permanent Culture for All - what is Permaculture?

Having just completed a two-week permaculture course in Queensland I thought this would be a great opportunity to kick off our eco series. I returned back to everyday life with somewhat of a different perspective on the way in which we live our lives. This will be the first of a series of articles related to eco living –an important part of anyone’s’ QUOL plan. I have decided to start with the subject of permaculture and aim to walk through this subject and help to develop some meaning as to how this can relate to our daily lives. 

Bill Mollinson, an Australian ecologist in the 1970’s, developed the term permaculture. It means PERManent AgricCULTURE and PERManent CULTURE. One of the definitions for permaculture is: 

Permaculture is a practical concept applicable from the balcony to the farm, from the city to the wilderness. It enables people to establish productive environments providing for food, shelter, material and non-material needs, as well as the social and economic infrastructure, which support them. Permaculture means thinking carefully about our environment, our use of resources and how we supply our needs. It aims to create systems that will sustain not only for the present but also for future generations.

 -from the Permaculture International Journal.

As with many things over time it has evolved to take into account the needs and requirements of present day life on the planet. More than most things, permaculture has worked well as a focal point to bring people together who have a genuine concern for our planet and the way in which we interact with it. Without these focal points there is often a lack in common purpose and direction even though the desired outcome may in fact be the same. 

This was very evident across the participants who attended the recent permaculture course in Queensland. The course was run by a very knowledgeable couple – Evan Raymond and Morag Gamble from Sustainable Futures and was held in Crystal Waters. This is an ecovillage designed and developed on permaculture principles. The participants in this course were half male and female ranging in age from 19 to 61 and coming from 7 different countries. These facts are all the more amazing considering that there were only 13 people on the course. Permaculture served to bring this diverse group of people together who felt that a change has to be made in the world we live today. Within the group the motivations for attending were indeed as diverse as the group itself. Some wanted to save the world, some wanted to save themselves and the world, others wanted to work out ways to help the world save itself. The key focus was based on the premise of change and learning more in order to be able to make a positive contribution in their own unique way.

The permaculture ethics are:  

Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. These are in fact the way many civilisations throughout our history have lived and thrived. It has only been when they have moved away from these ethics that their way of life has changed and was no longer seen as sustainable. In essence to me permaculture is all about modeling nature and what works well in nature, then making that applicable and relevant to the way in which we lead our lives today. This is quite simply a common sense approach to living today – unfortunately common sense does not appear to be that common any more! 

To put myself on the spot and pick five words that best describe permaculture it would come down to: 

Sustainable, Diversity, Balanced, Symbiotic, Community 

I am equally as sure about the selection of these words as I am that the words chosen by each person with a view on permaculture would be different. This in itself is testimony to the very nature of permaculture and what it has to offer. The motivation for me in attending the course and spending a greater percentage of my time involved in eco living was summed up by one of the co-founders of Crystal Waters – Max Lindegger:

“I would rather be part of the solution than part of the problem!” 

Until next time – Ciao for now!

Paul Antonelli 
quolkids.com