The 10th Australasian Permaculture Convergence happened in Kuranda, North Queensland Australia on the 24th – 27th September 2010.
Special guest speaker Daryl Hannah was in attendance as a special keynote speaker along with the co-founder of Permaculture, Bill Mollison. Some other Permaculture enthusiasts in attendance included Major General Michael Jeffrey (former Governor General of Australia), Costa Georgiadis (from Costa’s Gardening Odyssey), Josh Byrne (from ABC’s Gardening Australia) and Ned RocknRoll (nephew of Sir Richard Branson).
In a nutshell – Permaculture is a technique to make land use sustainable by following relationships found naturally in ecologies. The goal of Permaculture is to create a stable sustainable system of agriculture or gardening that provides for the needs of humans in the form of food, energy, shelter and infrastructure.
The Permaculture method was developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holgren during the 1970s and has gained momentum in application since then. The purpose of the Permaculture movement is to educate people in a set of design principles to create self-sufficient and sustainable human settlements. The principles can be applied on a small scale in your backyard right through to larger agricultural operations.
Daryl Hannah’s top tips to take steps towards a more environmentally friendly home:
- Be the best shining example of your belief system you can be
- If you can, get off the grid
- Get off petroleum and all fossil fuels – alcohol fuel and bio-diesel are great substitues IF they are grown and produced sustainably
- Get rid of and replace ALL the toxins in your home – cosmetics, soaps (dish soaps, shampoo, body soap, laundry detergent etc)
- Compost and start a worm compost too.
- Consume less – turn off electrical inputs – turn down the water.
- On demand water heaters rule! (No need to keep water hot 24/7)
- Give More
- Love More
- Rescue animals rather than buy pets
- Buy food from your local farmer or farmer’s market
- Educate yourself and let others know what you’ve learned
- Fight frustration with action
Source for Daryl’s tips: Home and Garden, 11/10/2010