I am seventh gen Australian of 6 gens of farmers till the last, ive gone back to the roots! I am a keen gardener, cook and bush regenerator and worked for 23 years in various realms of environmental education and action.
First intro to permaculture at Blue Mountains Earth Repair Institute in the early 90's and then embarked on woofing trips on Australia's East coast and later Americas west and south west, Guatemala, and England. Also worked almost a year as a CSA volunteer on a community permaculture farm in Mexico, funding my trip with stints as an organic gardener and landscaper in California.
I settled into a permaculture community on Australia's east coast for 4 years, my unofficial permaculture 'apprenticeship' under Graham Jordan, a great permaculture pioneer. I trained formally with the wonderful Robyn Clayfield, the fabulous Seed Savers Network, and brilliant seed lady Dee Kempston for biodynamic seed saving skills. (Awesome teachers - thankyou!!)
In 2000 I left for Ecuador where I worked for 18 months in the wet tropics helping to manage South Americas first permaculture education centre, Madre Selva, establishing a seed and planting materials network, and delivering training in various locations. Back home I worked for 7 years in the campaign for a GM-free Australia for Greenpeace and helped to establish and coordinate GM-free Australia, a national alliance working behind the scenes to collaborate on GM-free campaigning. Somewhere back there also did some permaculture in schools work and coordinated ed programs here and there with NSW NPWS etc. With partner Ross did an eco retrofit of a country home and garden and some edible gardens projects with Clarence Valley Council. Now am managing the orchards, harvest and sales for Happy Buddha Fruits in Coorabell (Mango, Lychee, Longan, Jaboticaba) and have just found our own patch up the road at Montecollum where we have many dreams to seed! The land runs down to Myocum. Love working with other passionate people and making connections for collaboration. In all I have found my teachers, friends and colleagues in Earth care, (at times crazy-making ha ha), but overall just THE BEST. Permies make great friends. Keep mulching.