Last month while David was in Perth for the Australasian Permaculture Convergence he gave The Keith Roby Memorial Lecture in Community Science, a free public lecture funded by the Keith Roby Trust, established in memory of Dr Roby.

Keith Roby was a foundation member of Murdoch University and a pioneer in the area of “Community Science”, the phrase he coined to reflect the ideal of science and technology directed towards human fulfillment, social well-being and satisfying the fundamental needs of humankind. He believed science could make a significant contribution towards resolving major contemporary issues such as the dilemmas surrounding the environment; energy; resources and genetic engineering.

With a deep commitment to interdisciplinary teaching and research, he initiated research and founded courses in the areas of science, technology, society and energy studies.

Each year a distinguished speaker is invited to deliver a lecture that builds on Dr Keith Roby’s life’s work. This year, David Holmgren was asked to give the memorial lecture. The topic of David’s presentation was Permaculture: four decades of education, design and action for a sustainable future. In his talk David discussed the evolution of permaculture from environmental design, to the social and psychological design of the “inner landscape”, and addressed the question about the relationship between permaculture and spirituality. Thanks to Oliver for the following photos:




You can listen to a podcast of the event here:

And you can read the full transcript here.