One of the most important things in the permaculture world is community and networking. This is so much easier achieved by creating, or becoming a member of, a local permaculture group.
We are lucky enough to be situated right in between 2 local permaculture groups: Permaculture Gympie and Permaculture Noosa . They each meet once a month and always have guest speakers with interesting subjects to share, and / or interesting and relevant movies to watch, like “Gasland”. Growing tips, nutritional guidance, beekeeping, transition towns and many more subjects are touched upon by guest speakers every month.
Permaculture Noosa guest speaker Rhonda Hetzel began the blog site “Down to Earth” to record her and her husband’s journey toward living “the simple life”. She spoke about her journey in the April meeting.
Permaculture Noosa was started by Geoff Lawton, when he lived on the Sunshine Coast some years ago. Permaculture Noosa is still one of the strongest permaculture groups today, with some meetings attended by more than 100 people. There is a library with books which can be borrowed, all about permaculture, gardening and self reliance related subjects. There is a seed saving bank which is accessible by members to contribute to and use. Every month before the meeting starts, members who have something to share or sell, set up their goods for display. A great place to share the excess!
The Permaculture Noosa group library and the members table.
Members of Permaculture Noosa also receive a booklet every year, which has every members’ contact details and skills/profession listed. A valuable resource, this allows permaculture members to find local, like minded people when they need to get jobs done!
Meetings of both permaculture groups include a “bring a plate” supper or a supper which is catered for by volunteers.
Other events organised by the permaculture groups are PET (Permaculture Energy Transfer) days, where people go to other people’s properties to help implement permaculture principles and design, to plant or do other permaculture related jobs on the property. Similar to a “PermaBlitz”. Regular Open Garden tours are also organised to inspire members.
Monthly newsletters are emailed or are available in hard copy at the meetings. Most groups lean more towards email for ease of distribution and to save paper.
A Seed Bank at the April meeting.
Permaculture groups are a fantastic idea to start a permaculture network in your area. Apart from networking, it also encourages people new to permaculture to come to the free meetings and learn from guest speakers and existing members. If you do not have a permaculture group in your area, why not start one today?
©2012 Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast – Building permaculture communities through Permaculture groups.
Author: Zaia Kendall
Zaia grew up in a family of musicians in Holland, and has a background in top sport (snow skiing) and web development and design. She co-founded the PRI Luganville and PRI Sunshine Coast Inc (now PermEco Inc.) with Tom, and runs the “invisible structures”, like finances, business administration, website design and maintenance, writes articles and records and edits videos. She assists Tom in running the Kendall Permaculture Farm and supervising other volunteers. She is an active member of several musical projects and bands, involved in community music and runs percussion and marimba workshops, is the percussion leader for the Woodford Folk Festival People’s Orchestra and composes as well as plays music. She is passionate about community music and loves seeing people discover that they can play!