Thank you to all the poets who took the time to compose and send in poems to the 2020 Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize – we received 262 entries. The content of the poems was beautifully varied: some were engaging, some funny, some sad, delicate, considerate, angry, political, provocative…
A huge thank you to Jeanine Leane and Michael Farrell for judging the Prize, and for attending Sunday’s online Prize presentation.
Without further ado, we are thrilled to announce this year’s winning poem Anthropocene Poetics Part 2 by Noemie Huttner-Koros from Perth:
We are also thrilled to announce the two commended poems:
Tracks by Ryan Dickinson from Monbulk, Victoria and Toolangi by Simone King from Coburg North, Victoria.
In previous years, we have announced the winner of the Venie Prize at the Daylesford Words in Winter festival. As the festival was cancelled this year we held an online presentation, which you can watch here:
A huge thank you to the Venie Prize co-sponsor, Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry, who will print the winning and commended poems in their next issue and to Jessica Wilkinson, Rabbit editor. Thank you again to judges Jeanine Leane and Michael Farrell, and of course all the poets who saw and felt deeply and sent us their words to read and reflect upon.
Science fiction influenced my thinking as a youth, especially stories that featured ecological limits (eg Dune and The Dispossessed). In the early 1970s, the modelling of the Club of Rome “Limits to Growth” report provided a context for the conception of permaculture – an ecological, creative and humane response to the Limits to Growth facing the whole of humanity.
In turn, permaculture and “back-to-the-land” self-reliant simplicity of those years inspired new generations of writers including Jackie French in Australia and Starhawk in the USA to write stories about futures of ecological consequence. More recently, a proliferation of books focused on climate change has created a new genre “Cli-Fi” that use climate science as context for stories about the future.
Linda Woodrow’s 470 is certainly Cli-Fi: great storytelling in the context of the near-term consequences of climate change driven natural disasters. But it is much more. Beyond the meticulous background research that all good writers of fiction do to make their stories real, Linda Woodrow also draws on decades of living close to the land where her story is set. That life applying and writing about permaculture has provided a broad and deep reservoir of experience to draw on in crafting this gripping story of persistence, empowerment and joy in the face of fear, loss and despair.
From the portrayal of geography transformed by natural forces to heroic and dogged persistence of volunteer natural disaster workers, the drama of personal relationships, fleeting and long enduring, and the details of providing the essentials of food, shelter and health care constrained by non-negotiable realities, Woodrow both entertains and informs the reader. Far from didactic, let alone judgemental, the portrayal of characters connected by blood and circumstance in 470 is sensitive to human frailties, contradictions and vulnerabilities. She gives hope that adversity can nurture profound and enduring personal growth and the slow emergence of self-governing communities at the household, neighbourhood and bioregional scale. While permaculture is barely mentioned in the book, its influence is everywhere in the story from homestead-scale organic food production, to ecological building, appropriate technology, botanical medicine, tree crops for a changing climate, design against natural disaster and intentional community decision making.
Beyond these recognisable permaculture related themes, 470 provides a glimpse of how environmental and countercultural thinking over the last 50 years has found expression, suppression, migration and re-emergence in Australian society by showing the flowering of those influences over three generations of a family lineage.
These were reasons enough for me, and our team at Melliodora Publishing, to jump at the opportunity to publish 470 as contributing to our mission to publish books “that fill a gap in the permaculture-related literature and support individuals in their personal permaculture journey”.
My own dabbling in fiction began more than a decade ago with my “Aussie Street” presentations portraying the transformation of suburbia from the “Golden Age of Growth” to retrosuburbia in the Second Great Depression of the 2020s. This became written word for the first time as a chapter in our bestselling RetroSuburbia: the downshifter’s guide to a resilient future, and the basis for our next publication, Our Street, a picture book by Beck Lowe and permaculture illustrator Brenna Quinlan.
Consequently, this jump into publishing a novel is more evolutionary than revolutionary but also involves new challenges in the very competitive market for fiction. The work by Richard Telford in conceiving and Maria Penna in crafting a beautiful and striking cover true to the author’s work is an important contribution to gaining wider attention in the crowded bookshelves, whether in store or online. We trust our regular readers from permaculture and kindred networks will grasp opportunities to gift and promote 470 to their families, friends and workmates as a way to start empowering discussions, instead of having ineffective and debilitating arguments about the minutiae of climate science or the motivations behind its detractors. While it is clearly too late to avoid “dangerous climate change” by progressive policies, it’s never too late for all of us to retrofit our behaviour to be more resilient in the face of the coming changes, and begin to build new household and community economies in the shadow of the old one that is doomed no matter how much money governments print.
For teenagers and young adults searching for meaningful and brave action in the face of societal dysfunction, 470 provides a broad pallet of possibilities. For families raising young children, 470 shows how raising the next generation requires us to be bold and brave in finding a pathway through the vortex of change we face. For older people with resources to reorganise for the non-negotiable changes of aging, 470 shows it is possible to do so in ways that help the next generations to face the future.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has shown everyone that our affluent technological society can be brought to a standstill by forces of nature so small they hardly qualify as living, while the bushfire summer showed us that despite our technology, humanity remains at the mercy of the weather that Mother Nature delivers each day and each season.
Imagination is essential to avoiding existential threats and creating the best of possible worlds. Linda Woodrow’s deep well of imagination helps us in this essential task.
David Holmgren, Melliodora Publishing
Hepburn, Victoria
You have a small block of land and you’d like to learn how you can live more sustainably.
You live on a farm with chickens and an orchard and you’re interested in seeing how you can integrate permaculture design principles.
You rent an inner-city apartment and you’re keen to see how you can live more in line with your values.
Whatever stage of life you are at, there is no better insight into the ins and outs of how permaculture works on a season to season, day to day basis than to take part in the whole day guided tour of Melliodora.
Situated in the Victorian central highlands, Melliodora is one of the best examples of a cool-temperate climate permaculture property that produces an abundance of food and other yields from a beautiful living environment.
The one hectare property has been transformed from the blackberry covered wasteland in 1985, into a model of small-scale intensive permaculture. David Holmgren and his partner Su Dennett will show you how their passive solar house, mixed food gardens, orchards, dams and livestock, as well as creek revegetation, have been developed and maintained over the last 35 years. The Melliodora garden farming model is most relevant to large town blocks and small rural allotments, but you don’t have to have a large block to gain a huge amount from the tour. All visitors will discover ways that they can apply the underlying principles and strategies to their own lives.
The 2020/2021 Melliodora tour dates are as follows: Sunday September 6, Sunday October 4, Sunday November 1, Sunday December 6, Sunday January 10, Sunday April 4 and Sunday May 2. The January, April and May tour tickets will be available a month before the day of the tour.
The tours begins at 10 am. In the morning you will be shown around the house. We will break for lunch between 12.30 and 2pm. In the afternoon the tour will take you to the garden farm, and the day concludes at 4.30pm.
The whole day tour includes the Melliodora eBook CD: a detailed record of how the house and garden you see on the tour were designed and established, explaining the logic behind design decisions, detailed plans, plant species selection and how it all works together. It is a refresher of the tour, a valuable reference for your own project, and an ideal way to introduce family and friends to permaculture.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to experience first-hand how permaculture design can help restore and improve land, and provide for residents’ needs and enjoyment.
Children are welcome. Parents must take responsibility for them and their actions.
Visitors are on the property at their own risk.
Please park in the driveway to avoid inconvenience to neighbours.
Books and other publications are available for sale on tour days at discount prices. You might like to look at the Publications page of our website to see more information about some of the books that will be available for sale on the day.
Melliodora is a private home so please respect the privacy of residents.
Please join us on Sunday August 9 from 2pm – 3pm for the Venie Prize presentation. You can watch the event live here on the day or after the event as it will be recorded:
All entries must be received by 11.59 pm EST, Monday July 20 2020. The winner will be announced in an online presentation on Sunday August 9 2020. The judges for the 2020 competition are Jeanine Leane and Michael Farrell.
Entry terms and conditions
1. Entrants must be citizens of Australia or New Zealand or have permanent resident status in Australia or New Zealand. 2. Poems must be unpublished (including online) and not under consideration by other publishers. 3. Poems that have won or are under consideration in other competitions are not eligible. 4. Poems must have an environmental theme. 5. All poems must be written in English. No images, videos or audio files. 6. The winning poems will be published on www.holmgren.com.au and www.rabbitpoetry.com 7. An entry fee of $10 will be charged and is payable via bank transfer, PayPal, cash or cheque. A receipt will be sent as confirmation once the money has been received. 8. The name of the poet must not appear on the manuscript (including the header, footer or file name ) since all poems will be considered anonymously. 9. Poems must be no more than 80 lines of text. 10. Multiple entries are permitted, though a $10 fee applies to each poem. 11. Please ensure you are satisfied with your poem before submitting. Poems that are resubmitted will incur a second fee. 12. The competition closes 11.59 pm EST, Monday July 20, 2020. 13. Selection will be made by the judges. The judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
About the judges
Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic from southwest New South Wales. She has published widely in the area of Aboriginal literature, writing otherness and creative non-fiction.
She was the recipient of the University of Canberra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Poetry Prize, and she has won the Oodgeroo Noonucal Prize for Poetry twice (2017 & 2019).
Jeanine teaches Creative Writing and Aboriginal Literature at the University of Melbourne and is currently editing a collection of First Nations Australian poetry commissioned by Red Room Poetry and Magabala Books to be released in 2020.
Originally from Bombala, NSW, Michael Farrell has lived in Melbourne since 1990. His new poetry book is Family Trees, the follow-up to the Queensland Literary Award-winning I Love Poetry (both with Giramondo). He has also won the Peter Porter Poetry Prize. Other book projects include the anthology Ashbery Mode (TinFish), an Australian tribute to American poet John Ashbery, andthe scholarly work, Writing Australian Unsettlement: Modes of Poetic Invention 1796-1945 (Palgrave Macmillan). Michael also edits Flash Cove. He co-won the Venie Holmgren Poetry Prize in 2017, and was runner up in 2018.
About Venie
Venie Holmgren
In her late 50’s Venie Holmgren began to write poetry and her first published anthology, The Sun Collectionfor the Planet in 1989, became a poetry ‘best seller’. At the same time, she applied her environmental activist skills and commitment to the campaign to save native forests near her home on the far south coast of NSW, where she was arrested twice for obstructing log trucks. After 16 years of solo self-reliant living she moved to the local town of Pambula where she penned her travel memoir, several more books of poetry and travelled widely as a performance poet. In 2010 Venie moved to Hepburn where she wrote her last poetry collection, The Tea-house Poems. In January 2016, Venie ‘caught the bus’ at the age of 93 .
RetroSuburbia Online
Permaculture: Innovation in Digital Publishing
The behind the scenes thinking
Our launch of RetroSuburbia: the downshifter’s guide to a resilient future as a “pay what you feel” online flip-book in response to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis has galvanised enthusiasm in permaculture and kindred circles. However, it has also raised some questions, and even frustration, with our strategy.
We had always intended to release RetroSuburbia as a downloadable e-book, but we needed to do so in a way that didn’t destroy the market for the 592 page hardcopy, printed in Australia and retailing at $85. We were looking to price the digital version at $50, whilst allowing those who already own the content in the form of the hardcopy book to access it for around $10.
Kindle, ePub and other standard e-book formats allow text-only books to be converted and formatted at low cost, however for a long, graphics-rich book like RetroSuburbia, they become prohibitively complex and expensive to create.
So our default was to go back to a PDF format, a solid, universally readable format that has been around for decades. This was our choice in the early 2000s for our first effort at digital publishing: converting and updating our 1995 A3-landscape book Melliodora. This was a labour of love and innovation by permaculture graphic designer colleague Richard Telford. It came out on CD ROM in 2005, and included a then innovative HTML “virtual tour” of the property using early digital photos from 2003.
When e-books finally went mainstream, we were amazed that the formats used couldn’t take advantage of the graphics-rich, fine grained, full colour and multimedia potential of an interactive PDF. On the plus side, they were simple to use and had some of the qualities people were used to in reading a book.
In the lead up to the GFC, my colleague Adam Grubb offered to use his substantial web skills to put my Future Scenarios work online as a long-read website (futurescenarios.org). We both felt the urgent imperative to help inform social and environmental activists of the challenging future unfolding, driven by climate change and peak oil. This free access website launched my role as a “futurist” and led to an offer from our US book distributor to publish Future Scenarios as a book, which proved to be a modest success despite the contents being free online.
A decade later, printing our massive manual RetroSuburbia in Australia, costing $25,000 more than it would to print in China, felt like a case of ideological extremism but one that was well supported by crowdfunding. We have sold more than 10,000 copies, mostly in Australia, making it a bestseller by any standard, despite not receiving a single book review from any mainstream journalist. When the mainstream media eventually discover RetroSuburbia they will no doubt describe it as having a cult following. Of course, the “cult” in “permaculture” is a running joke and issue of serious discussion within the movement – but I digress!
With RetroSuburbia out there fermenting change across our residential heartlands and hinterlands, I felt content to wait for the storm which I thought would come through the bursting of the property bubble, in between intensifying climate change disasters. As it started to unfold with that other horseman of the apocalypse, Pestilence, we scrambled to launch RetroSuburbia for the mainstream stuck at home with digital access and time to read.
We decided that using a new online format that shows off the best of our beautiful book, and gives readers some of the qualities of book reading, would provide the best of both of our previous innovations in digital publishing. Being online would give us the option to modify and add links to the gathering trove of material at retrosuburbia.com and further afield. It would also allow us to understand how people were using the book. Further, it would reduce the chance of the PDF being just one more unopened attachment circulating the web and ending up a torrent download.
The speed with which made the digital book available created some premature and mixed message publicity giving the impression this would be a PDF download, whereas what we produced is an online book that can be read on a standard web browser with the look and feel of the original book (most suited to desktop computers).
The “pay what you feel” gateway invites everyone to consider, from the heart, the value and import of this material for them. This reflects the Permaculture Ethics – in particular the third one, “Fair Share”: people are asked to judge what they feel is a fair share is based on their own circumstances. We trust this faith in the sharing economy will allow us to survive and thrive. We are happy for those of very limited means to use the online book without paying fiat currency, but we don’t want to see it pointlessly passed around to those who would not value or digest its potentially life-changing words, photos and graphics. We also encourage other ways to contribute, especially for those who cannot afford to pay much: share retrosuburban ideas as widely as possible, join the online community to share your experiences, and perhaps submit a case study.
Not being available offline is a significant disadvantage for some, and a hazard in some future scenarios. Enduring online access depends on our ability to continue to pay the substantial costs of maintaining today’s complex websites (and for the world wide web to survive in usable form). However, any lasting digital form of the book, whether online or downloadable, relies on technology in a way that a printed copy of the book doesn’t. If you are worried about the future availability and reliability of technology, a paper copy of the book is a good investment.
The response to the launch party has been huge, maybe big enough on social media to see RetroSuburbia scale-up for the masses, and we are grateful and moved by this remarkable show of support. Our team is incredibly energised but the effort and complexity has been enormous with some fallout, including the struggle to service customer queries and problems. We trust our network community to give us useful and honest feedback so that our third innovation in online publishing can help change the world for the better.
We are all drawing breath and attempting to look after our health as we work to make the delivery of RetroSuburbia online smooth, robust and resilient in a fast-changing world. And if the proverbial shit really hits the fan, we might just dump a PDF of RetroSuburbia out there to circulate – if necessary on memory sticks attached to carrier pigeons. It makes you realise that despite the wonders of the digital world, there is nothing like a book in your hands, just like “a bird in the hand being worth more than two in the bush”.
Yes, it’s true! Permaculture co-originator David Holmgren is launching an online version of his bestselling book, RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide To a Resilient Future.
About the launch
RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide To a Resilient Future is a book for this moment in history.
Permaculture co-originator, David Holmgren and the team at Melliodora Publishing have decided, amidst the crisis of COVID-19 and its ensuing economic fallout, to release their 2018 bestseller as an online ‘Pay-What-You-Can’ resource accessible to people worldwide who are looking for grassroots solutions to the challenges of this unique time.
The launch party will be broadcast live (via the RetroSuburbia YouTube and Facebook pages) and hosted by ABC Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis with live music from world-renowned permaculture electro-funk-swing band, Formidable Vegetable.
SCHEDULE (AEST):
7:00pm: Prelude from Formidable Vegetable’s Charlie Mgee
7:05pm: Intro & welcome from Costa
7:10pm: David Holmgren followed by Q&A (from YouTube comments)
7:40pm: Music from Formidable Vegetable
A BIT MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
A hefty tome of almost 600 full-colour pages filled with hundreds of photos and Brenna Quinlan’s beautiful illustrations, RetroSuburbia is part manual and part manifesto. The book shows how the suburbs can be transformed to become productive and resilient in a world of economic instability and energy-descent. It focuses on what can be done right now by an individual at the household level.
RetroSuburbia is a source of inspiration, introducing concepts and outlining patterns and practical solutions. It empowers people to make positive changes in their lives. As with David’s previous work, it is thought provoking and provocative.
If you are already on the path of downshifting and living simply, exploring RetroSuburbia will be a confirmation and celebration that you are on the right track and guide you on the next steps forward. If you are just beginning this journey, it provides a guide to the diversity of options and helps work out priorities for action. For people concerned about making ends meet in more challenging times, RetroSuburbia provides a new lens for creatively sidestepping the obstacles.
WHY RELEASE AN ONLINE VERSION OF THE BOOK NOW?
David explains:
As the COVID-19 pandemic first exploded across our globalised world, I found myself unsure of priorities in this time of pivotal change, even though I had been tracking information about Wuhan since January. Not because I didn’t know that a global pandemic of this scale was on the cards, or that it could overwhelm the most technologically advanced and powerful nations on the planet. Not because it could be the acceleration of what I coined “the energy descent future” two decades ago (in Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability). And not because we are not well prepared compared with most to weather the storm.
It was more the realisation of this being a grand turning point that will test a lifetime’s work in articulating and demonstrating a way of living connected to place and the seasons with minimal ecological footprint, conserving precious non-renewable resources, and regenerating natural capital that can sustain future generations after the pulse of fossil fuelled civilisation has faded.
Even more intensely, it was the understanding that such turning points are opportunities to leverage change in positive directions and avoid the worst consequences of delay and indecision.
become less dependent on big business and supermarkets?
design a resilient system in the face of growing uncertainties?
retrofit your house, your community and your life?
meet like-minded people?
The course
A PDC can be a life changing experience. Join us in the unique environment of the Rocklyn Ashram and be taught by a mix of experienced and enthusiastic permaculture tutors including David Holmgren and Beck Lowe.
This is a fully residential, fully catered course running over 15 days with a short break in the middle. This is a completely immersive experience.
The course will be structured around Holmgren’s 12 permaculture principles (detailed in Permaculture: principles and pathways beyond sustainability) and goes beyond land-based design, bringing permaculture to all aspects of human living.
The venue
The course will take place at the Rocklyn Ashram, nestled in the Wombat Forest near Daylesford in Central Victoria. Only a one and a half hour drive from Melbourne, you will feel like you are in another world. Beautiful and quiet, this special space creates an ideal learning environment.
Taking part in the ashram’s daily yoga program can further enhance your learning and enrich your experience. The ashram environment exemplifies and provides an experience of living by permaculture ethics. The serene and spiritual focus of the ashram complements the mindfulness of permaculture practice and reminds us to balance our activity and think with reflection.
At times the ashram program and the intensity of the course can seem challenging, however almost all of the participants comment that the benefits continue long after the course ends.
Delicious, wholesome and ethical meals will be prepared by Su Dennett and the ashram’s kitchen volunteers. Su will make sure that what you eat meets permaculture standards. Items will be sourced from local organic and bio-dynamic growers in a living example of using and maintaining sustainable food supply networks. You will be served vegetarian meals together with the ashram residents.
The accommodation
Accommodation is camping in the grounds of the ashram. You will need to BYO tent and gear. Alternatively you can choose to stay in a gender segregated triple share dorm room or a private room. Please note, these last two options incur additional fees.
Field Trips
You will visit a wide array of permaculture demonstration sites during the PDC, ranging from urban to rural and large scale to small scale properties. Some were built with permaculture principles in mind, such as Melliodora, the home of David Holmgren and his partner Su Dennett. And some have been retrofitted over a time, such a Tree Elbow, home of permaculture activists, Artist as Family.
House and Garden Tours
It’s great to sit and learn about the ethics and principles of permaculture but it’s on the field trips that it all comes to life. We feel very spoilt that we will have the opportunity to show you around the homes and gardens of the most exciting permaculture properties in the Central Victoria region.
Tutors
You will learn from the co-originator of permaculture, David Holmgren, experienced permaculture educator, Beck Lowe, and a team of excellent permaculture practitioners and tutors. Their depth of practical and theoretical knowledge will make this a very special PDC. There will also be opportunities to socialise with the presenters outside of session times.
Prerequisites?
There are no prerequisites for this course, but it is recommended you read the Essence of Permaculture if you have not yet done so. All other titles and writings by David Holmgren are highly recommended for those who have read Essence already. Please have a look through our online store or visit your local library.
We are in the midst of a great shift, a fundamental transformation in our relations with the earth and with each other. This shift poses humanity with a challenge: how to transition from a period of environmental devastation of the planet by humans to one of mutual benefit? How do we transform our relationship to the land, nonhuman lifeforms, and each other? Reclaiming the Urban Commons argues this change begins with a deeper understanding of and connection with the food we produce and consume.
This book is a critical reflection on the past and the present of urban food growing in Australia, as well as a map and a passionate rallying call to a better future as an urbanised species. It addresses the critical question of how to design, share, and live well in our cities and towns. It describes how to translate concepts of sustainable production into daily practices and ways of sharing spaces and working together for mutual benefit, and also reflects on how we can learn from our productive urban past.
Reclaiming the Urban Commons: The Past, Present and Future of Food Growing in Australian Cities and Towns Edited by Nick Rose and Andrea Gaynor UWA Publishing, RRP $29.99
David Holmgren’s chapter is Garden Farming: The Foundation for Agriculturally Productive Cities and Towns.
Here’s the opening paragraph:
Australian suburbs can be transformed into productive, resilient and sustainable places to live through garden farming. Growing food right where people live, in back and front yards, has environmental, social and psychological benefits. Garden farming in the household, non-monetary economy is complementary to commercial urban and peri-urban agriculture that, collectively, can be the heart of a resilient bio-regional food system.
Thank you to all the poets who took the time to compose and send in poems to the 2018 Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize – we received 154 entries. The content of the poems was beautifully varied: some were engaging, some funny, some sad, delicate, considerate, angry, political, emotive…
A huge thank you to Jessica Wilkinson + Stuart Cooke for judging the Prize, and to Jessica for coming along to Sunday’s Words in Winter event where the winners were announced.
MSSI facilitates interdisciplinary sustainability research across faculties and centres at the University of Melbourne, and promotes research in a way that maximises engagement and impact. MSSI emphasises the contribution of the social sciences and humanities to understanding and addressing sustainability and resilience challenges.
David is thrilled with his appointment and looks forward to continuing his working relationship with the MSSI. This is an acknowledgement of the importance of David’s work around sustainability and re-imagining the urban and suburban landscapes.
While the book RetroSuburbia has been successful in engaging those interested in making changes at the household level, David’s MSSI appointment will further his engagement with policy makers and academics interested in working towards a more regenerative future.
David is particularly looking forward to continuing his relationship with Dr Samuel Alexander and Prof. Brendan Gleeson, who have advocated and promoted voluntary simplicity, and sustainable urban planning, respectively.
