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Property tour June 2014

Permeco Inc.
A look into the food forest at PRI Sunshine Coast.

A look into the food forest at PRI Sunshine Coast. Bananas, Casava, sweet potato, arrowroot, citrus and olive trees and a multitude of support species.

Full Moon Dam, or "The Pond", now has silver perch in it as well as being a swimming hole on hot days.
Full Moon Dam, or “The Pond”, now has silver perch in it as well as being a swimming hole on hot days, greatly enjoyed by students, volunteers and residents!
Stone bathroom at the residence of the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast, made with locally sourced river / creek rock by Tom Kendall with help of volunteers and students, over a period of several years. Still in progress!
“Zaia’s Outhouse”, the outdoor compost toilet at the residence at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast. Made by Tom Kendall and Intern Winston Tay.
Entrance to the kitchen garden at the Permaculture Research Institute “Maungaraeeda” Sunshine Coast. Choko and Goji berry vines on the water tank, Paw Paw, chinese greens (bok choy, pak choy etc), mandarine tree and lots more food, plus a sink to wash produce.
A choko and Goji berry vine cover the water tank at the residence at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast.
Entry to the kitchen garden at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast. Paths are sawdusted using sawdust from the local sawmill, all beds are mulched using mulch cut on the property and beds are composted with compost made from ingredients from the property.
Kitchen garden at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast, new beds on the right where a pumpkin vine was dug up. Lots of madagascar beans on the trellice and strawberries in beds left and right. Variety of plants ensures minimal pests and disease.
A swale on the left, just covered with chopped vetiver grass. Sweet potato ground cover, with view to the poly tunnel where seeds are planted and plants are waiting to be planted outside.
View into the food Forest at the permaculture Research institute Sunshine Coast, bananas in the background, arrowroot, sweet potato and pumpkin vines in the foreground.
PRI Sunshine Coast uses biological resources as much as possible to prepare our soil for planting. These chickens are preparing the soil for more garden beds.
New beds prepared by a biological resource: chickens. Then further prepared by our Interns and planted out or about to be planted out.
New chicken prepared garden beds, with sight of the Food Forest behind. At the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Bathroom for students and volunteers at the Permaculture Research Institute “Maungaraeeda”, Sunshine Coast. Shower on the left, small sink to wash hands and face and brush teeth. Main sink is for dishes and kitchen use. On the other side is the wood heater to heat the water and the compost toilet.
The wood heater heats the water for our student and volunteer bathroom. It is lit by students and/or volunteers at around 3 or 4pm. If the fire is kept going until bed time, there will be enough hot water for breakfast and lunch dishes as well.
This is the student and volunteer communal living, dining and kitchen space at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Path through the garden towards the poly tunnel / nursery area at the Permaculture Research Institute “Maungaraeeda”, Sunshine Coast.
The nursery area at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast is in a Poly tunnel, half shade house and half hot house. The bathtub in the hothouse is there to hold heat, it also has water chestnuts and fish in it.
This is the outdoor plant propagating area at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast. Larger plants are re-potted and put out here to grow further before they are planted where they need to go in the garden, food forest or swale.
A look into the food forest at PRI Sunshine Coast.
A look into the food forest at PRI Sunshine Coast. Bananas, Casava, sweet potato, arrowroot, citrus and olive trees and a multitude of support species.
This path takes you alongside the Food Forest on the right and banana trees on the left. Support species support the fruit trees planted in the food forest, at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast.
Chickens, a biological resource, are preparing the patch of land where their own food will be grown in the future. The Permaculture Research Institute “Maungaraeeda”, Sunshine Coast currently has 7 different chicken areas.
The cattle yard at the Permaculture Research Institute “Maungaraeeda”, Sunshine Coast holds the cows overnight. Milkers are milked morning and night time, and manure is collected in the morning to be put into the methane gas bio-digester.
The methane gas bio-digester is still being worked on, although manure is already generating methane gas inside. Manure is collected from the cows in the morning and put into the bio-digester. The reed bed is currently being worked on by Tom Kendall at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast.
Here you see the buried dome of the methane gas bio-digester at the Permaculture Research Institute “Maungaraeeda”, Sunshine Coast. Behind it you find the outlet, which will produce beautiful fertiliser, which will still go through a composting process after.
One of the cabins used for student accommodation at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast. The cabin has a queen bed and a bunk.
Students can book to use this comfortable cabin when they do a course at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast. This cabin has a queen bed and a couch.
An aquaponics installation was put together by interns during the Urban Focus internship at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast earlier in 2014. It still needs to be made operational.
Comfortable chairs and couches, a hot water urn which provides hot water all day, and tea and coffee, plus morning and afternoon tea all makes this a comfortable and “easy to learn” teaching space at the Permaculture research Institute “Maungaraeeda”, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. An outdoor setting without being exposed to the elements.
As part of our Urban Focus Internship our interns built these planter boxes for vertical gardening. Still to be planted out at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast.
Cows in the paddock at the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast. They supply us with milk, cream and butter and meat. We separate the cream from the milk with a 60 year old cream separator. We make cheese with the skim milk and butter from the cream.
The Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast currently runs 4 adult goats and 2 kids, with some more kids on the way. The goats are Saanen, Anglo Nubian and a Boer cross. The Anglo Nubian is a male, so kids born are half Anglo Nubian. Goats give us milk, from which we make cheese (when they are in milk) and meat. We are not currently milking.
The main dam at the Permaculture research Institute Sunshine Coast, which supplies the water for the garden and for the animals. Due to extremely low rainfall this year (2014), water level is very low.
At the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast, water is pumped up by solar pump from the main dam to the left hand water tank to be gravity fed down to water animals and gardens. Our main water pump pumps rain water caught on roofs from their water tanks to the right hand tank, to gravity feed down for use in showers and sinks.
This is the top large swale at the Permaculture research Institute Sunshine Coast, which also functions as an overflow for the main dam. The swale holds the water on the property longer, thus saturating the soil with water and nutrient and preventing erosion and run off.
Author: Permeco Inc.

Not for profit organisation and charity based in Queensland, Australia, focusing on permaculture education and environmental research. Please note that all articles and recipes written under this label on this website prior to 2025 are written and copyrighted by Willa Sevenstern (previously known as Zaia Kendall).

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