Holmgren Design
Permaculture
Vision & Innovation
What is Permaculture?
Popularly seen as a ‘cool’ form of organic gardening, permaculture could be better described as a design system for resilient living and land use based on universal ethics and ecological design principles. Although the primary focus of permaculture has been the redesign of gardening, farming, animal husbandry and forestry, the same ethics and principles apply to design of buildings, tools and technology.
Applying permaculture ethics and principles in our gardens and homes inevitably leads us towards redesigning our ways of living so as to be more in tune with local surpluses and limits.
Permaculture is also a global movement of individuals, groups and networks working to create the world we want, by providing for our needs and organising our lives in harmony with nature. The movement is active in the most privileged and the most destitute communities and countries. Permaculture may be Australia’s most significant export for humanity facing a world of limits.
from David Holmgren’s book RetroSuburbia
In this video, produced by The Food Forest, in 2010, David reflects on how permaculture can be used as a template for survival and abundance
Latest Writings
A review of three books: Futuresteading, The Good Life and Costa’s World
It’s not often I comment on the constant flow of new books about green lifestyle, growing and wellbeing but three recently released titles had me thinking about the issue of communicating the good news to inspire and motivate people to adopt and adapt ideas for more resilient and low impact living.
Protesting Permaculture: the last five weeks and the last five decades
On Saturday 13th and 20th November, my partner Su Dennett and I joined others from central Victoria travelling by train to the “Kill the Bill”/anti-lockdown/anti-mandate protests in Melbourne. This essay documents the experience, and reflects on the relationship between permaculture and oppositional activism over more than 40 years.
Autonomy and Solidarity in a Covid mad world
Whether you call it a pandemic or a plandemic, Covid and the responses to it have turned our world upside down. For some unknown but large number of Australians, the division of our country into the vaxxed and the unvaxxed is challenging what we thought was true and good about our country, and created doubt and conflict though our families, schools, communities and workplaces. The consequent questioning and destabilisation of our faith in our support networks and institutions has caused many to pull their heads in to avoid conflict. Getting vaxxed, whether they thought it was a good idea or not, seemed to be the only way to keep the peace, get by, or even just survive. For some small proportion, with more psychological resources, it triggered a sense of solidarity with the unvaxxed who are fast becoming second class citizens.
Our tours are up and running just in time for spring.
Featured Videos
Changing Habits for Self-Reliance and Resilience
David Holmgren — Sustainable Living Festival 2018
David Holmgren — Decolonise Your Lawn
About Holmgren Design
David
Holmgren
David Holmgren is the co-originator of the permaculture concept following publication of Permaculture One, co-authored with Bill Mollison in 1978. David is globally recognised as a leading ecological thinker.
Melliodora
Publishing
Melliodora is a small specialist publisher dedicated to producing a limited range of books and other media by David Holmgren and other authors. Our titles aim to support individuals in their personal permaculture journeys.
Melliodora
Property
Melliodora is a 8700m² (2¼ acre) property situated on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Central Victoria. It is one of the best documented and well known permaculture demonstration sites in the world.
Latest News
The Papillon Project continues to thrive
The Papillon Project is an educational charity that promotes sustainable living and environmental awareness to young people in the UK. They work with secondary schools to inspire young people to grow food for themselves and their local communities. David Holmgren is thrilled to continue being one of The Papillon Project’s patrons.
Declaration of Freedom – Food Forest Abundance
Jim Gale is a man with a vision. Through his organisation Food Forest Abundance, he is working towards turning “50% of the lawns around the world into Food Forests. “We can solve ALL of the world’s major problems,” he says.
Castlemaine Permaculture Hub PDC
While it’s best to do a PDC in your own bioregion, committing to a 2-week residential course is simply not possible for everyone. If you live in or around Central Victoria, and you are looking to learn more about living the ethics and principles of permaculture, you might like to book into the Castlemaine Permaculture Hub PDC. David is not the lead teacher, but a guided tour of Melliodora with David and Su is certainly part of the program.
From the Archive
A review of three books: Futuresteading, The Good Life and Costa’s World
It's not often I comment on the constant flow of new books about green lifestyle, growing and wellbeing but three recently released titles had me thinking about the issue of...
Read More
Protesting Permaculture: the last five weeks and the last five decades
On Saturday 13th and 20th November, my partner Su Dennett and I joined others from central Victoria travelling by train to the “Kill the Bill”/anti-lockdown/anti-mandate protests in Melbourne. This essay...
Read More
Autonomy and Solidarity in a Covid mad world
Whether you call it a pandemic or a plandemic, Covid and the responses to it have turned our world upside down. For some unknown but large number of Australians, the...
Read More
Pandemic Brooding: Brown Tech in New Clothing
In David Holmgren's latest essay, he highlights the importance of the Brown Tech world as a logical unfolding of energy descent systemic forces breaking down the techno-industrial world, rather than...
Read More
Pandemic Brooding: Can the Permaculture movement survive the first severe test of the energy descent future?
My aim in this essay is to focus on the critical importance of using all our physical, emotional and intellectual resources towards maintaining connections across what could be a widening...
Read More
