Melbourne Permaculture Convergence 30 September to 2 October 2011

Missed the convergence? Here's some of the highlights from the sessions I attended:

Friday night

David Holmgren gave a dinner speech contemplating the ebbs and flows of the permaculture movement over the last three decades (Permaculture Melbourne is 30 yo). Despite being a co-founder of the movement, he feels like an observer, and can give a good helicopter perspective. Permaculture comes into vogue as recessions loom.

Saturday AM
Kerry Dawborn, author of 'Permaculture Pioneers' talked about themes she picked up while writing the book. Our world view and values in turn shape our world. Humans are like catapillars, only we munch our way through the environment. But can we, like the catapillar, go into our chrysalis and transform into a butterfly?
Environmental problems have complex causes, but the emergency band-aids we apply, are not solutions for the long term. Permaculture offers solutions involving deep change, but they're not easy.

Nathan Alexander talked about the importance of cities for human habitation and how they can be more sustainable as an organism. They're drivers of cultural change where ideas, innovation and technology can be exchanged.

Having researched historic cities which sustained themselves for centuries, Nathan offered some dimensions for a sustainable city. 10,000 to 1 million people, 30 dwellings per ha, around eight attached dwellings, 13m width, orientated for solar gain, mid-rise (3-4 storey). Activity centres in walking distance and good public transport. Infrastructure is often best delivered at the neighbourhood level. Street patterns should connect well and buildings should be capable of different uses – office, dwelling, warehouse, factory or shop.

Saturday PM
In the afternoon, we had site visits. I went to Flemmington community garden. It's run by Cultivating Communities, who manage over 100 plots just at this site. The plots are solely for residents in the public housing towers next door, funded by DHS. Next we visited the Merristem nursery, at the back of a private residence, close to Ceres.

Flemmington Community Garden

Meristem nursery

David Holmgren gave a talk about – well, a whole lota stuff - starting with the energy decent action plan he's been working on for Hepburn Shire. It's a challenge to plan for destructive events.
Boosting the community and household economy will boost our own resilience, as compared to the institutional or corporate economies. This analysis is similar to work by CLES in the UK. At the risk of being sexist, women going back to work has reduced the household economy. We increasingly outsource our childcare, meals (takeaway food) house cleaning and so on.

Also, in the household economy, we don't get so bogged down in regulation. Have you noticed how disasters like bush fires, result in an over regulation, so we can't use common sense solutions like earth ships. (Mind you, I've transgressed the odd plumbing and electrical regulation).

David pointed out that next time we have fires or floods, we should take the opportunity to promote it as a consequence of climate change. It shouldn't be a faux pas.

He has observed that in response to a disaster, 25% of people become super-empowered, 25% become incapacitated, and 50% of us muddle along. All the regulation brings the 25% super-empowered, back down to those who muddle along.

Criteria to assess whether a policy or action is good or not (in the face of disaster) could be:

• Does it relocalise jobs


• Does it allow mistakes, and provide feedback for future improvement


• Does it grow the household economy.

Sunday

Permaculture Design with Laurence Gaffney and Angelo Eliades.
Laurence reminded us to take pause as we observe natural systems, before leaping into design.

He's involved with mapping fauna and flora in the high country, to make the case for DSE to hold off on some of its back burning.

Each place is different and observation is a continuous and iterative process that takes time. Humans don't know much about ecosystems. We have a tendency toward 'doing', before understanding, and negative consequences are unknown.

Angelo reminded us not to fight against nature. Our role is to take care, not control, but we too easily revert to controlling our gardens. Nature decides the best place for things (weeds) and moves things around by itself. The end result is forests, so why not steward a forest instead, and include a few fruit trees.
Angelo's been busy building food forests. His blog is a great intro to permaculture. And source of advice.

Urban Agriculture
Kate Archdeacon gave a quick-fire run though of many urban agriculture initiatives, from variations of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and many more ways of directly linking producers and consumers. She'll put her presentation on the VEIL web site under 'Presentations'.

Permablitz
Kat Lavers facilitated a lively discussion (for the end of conference slot) on what makes Permablitz tick. The 'Collective' (admin group) is functioning a treat and we talked about some of the tips and tricks to making it successful. First, stack the benefits, then remove the barriers. Most important, make it fun. Lastly, share the load with a buddy to sustain the effort.

Other Stuff

• Martin Pritchard from Friends of the Earth gave us the story behind the South Melbourne Commons, where the Convergence was held.


• Robyn Francis came from NSW to talk about the new Permaculture Australia body.


• I missed some great sessions on co-housing.

Many thanks to John, Sarah, Mal and others who organised the Convergence.