"Permaculture is a design system for the creation of socially, economically and ecologically sustainable settlements, whether in rural areas or metropolitan cities."
... Bill Mollison
Bill Mollison and David Holmgren created the Permaculture design system in the late 1970s while living in Hobart, Tasmania. Bill was instrumental in setting up Tagari Publications, which produced books on Permaculture, and established the Permaculture Institute, originally in Tasmania, then at Tyalgum in northern NSW. The Institute returned to Tasmania in the 1990s.
David left Tasmania after completing his studies at the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education, eventually settling at Hepburn, Victoria, where he established a rural smallholding and permaculture education centre, Melliodora. David continues to live at Melliodora and teaches Permaculture design and Permaculture solutions.
A do-it-yourself approach
"In a world of decreasing energy Permaculture provides, I believe, the best available framework for redesigning the whole way we think, the way we act and the way we design new strategies."
... David Holmgren
Permaculture developed as a do-it-yourself approach to making households into energy efficient, food producing and resource conserving places.
At the same time Permaculture proposes that we move beyond the household... that community involvement is a means to self-help, improved quality of life and sustainability.
If we are to meet our sustainability challenges, then working within the community is mandatory... even households making the most thorough changes cannot achieve the scale of change that contemporary challenges demand.
As a design system and approach to living, Permaculture has inspired people to take action wherever they live. Its creators, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, say that this is exactly where we need to make a start.