Current Offers

Secure your spot in our permaculture design course today and be part of a community dedicated to building a brighter, greener future: http://tiny.cc/51pjxz

John’s excitement for the PDC

Designing the PDC

PEAS is a guild of educators and designers focussed on bringing more opportunities for people to gain Permaculture skills in the ACT and surrounding regions.

We work on a strength-based design of Permaculture courses and workshops based on local needs.

We collaborate with local experienced people who ‘live permaculture’ and can share their skills.

Media

Media Release 18 March - email peas012345@gmail.com for copy and photos

Facebook Event page

John’s excitement for the PDC

Designing the PDC

Email: peas012345@gmail.com

Your ideas are important

Tell us what you want to learn and do

Meet John Champagne, a seasoned permaculture enthusiast with over three

decades of hands-on experience. Embarking on his permaculture journey in 1992 with a Permaculture Design Course in Chiltern, Victoria, taught by Vries and Hugh Gravestein , who were students of the legendary Bill Mollison, John’s passion for sustainable living soon evolved into both a life path and a thriving career. His teaching journey began in 2004 alongside David Holmgren, shaping the minds of eager learners.Having conducted more than 50 Permaculture Design Courses across diverse landscapes in Australia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Thailand, and India, John’s commitment to spreading permaculture wisdom is endless. Together with his wife Sharon, John founded Brogo Permaculture Gardens in the picturesque Bega Valley, (New South Wales, Australia), 30 years ago. This 11-acre haven, situated in a temperate climate, serves as both a family home and a thriving permaculture demonstration site. It’s a hub of abundance where excess produce, certified organic, finds its way to local outlets.

As a permaculture design consultant, John’s expertise extends to private properties,

eco-villages, and community and school gardens.

His influence reaches beyond borders, where he has been instrumental in shaping permaculture education. Today, his students, inspired by his teachings, Conduct courses in Thailand, Indonesia, and India, ensuring the permaculture flame Continues to burn brightly.

A dedicated advocate for sustainable living, John plays a vital role in his local community. For over 15 years, he served as the President of SCPA (South Coast Producers Association), a non-profit community group focused on nurturing a local food economy. Together with his PDC tutor Hugh ravestein, John pioneered the South Coast Field Days in 1995, Australias first event spotlighting ‘Sustainable Living & Landuse’.

Acknowledged as an elder in the Australian Permaculture Movement, John Champagne remains a dynamic force. A former board member of PermacultuRe Australia for three years, he currently spearheads Permafund, a charitable group channeling funds to permaculture projects worldwide. In 2018, John’s passion for community and sustainable living culminated in organizing the Australasian Permaculture Convergence (APC14) held in Canberra. Get ready to be inspired by John Champagne’s journey, where permaculture isn’t just a philosophy but a way of life.

Lizzy Smith WorkSmith Permaculture.

Localisation and bioregioning enthusiast, Designer, Permaculture practitioner and educator.

On a life quest for regenerative living and keeping relationships real.

In addition to consulting, Lizzy runs the Permaculture app, a free app for everything about Permaculture and homesteading.

Sam is the passionate human driving Garden Kitchen Witch*n. In her life and work, she weaves in many modalities and practices – permaculture, women’s work, deep ecology, grief work, embodiment, indigenous wisdom, activism, the art of hosting, radical homemaking, the work that reconnects, emergent strategy, holistic management, cyclical living and even more …

​

The integrity of her ethics is always evident in cooking, teaching, holding space, and living life. Sam draws upon nearly a decade spent deeply embedded in one place and now is on new adventures, spreading roots throughout the region and bringing her passion for change to many communities. https://gardenkitchenwitch.wixsite.com/home

Dr Cally Brennan has a PhD from Melbourne University and has been practising permaculture for over 12 years. Cally runs Canberra Permaculture Design and Education, a small business that services Canberra and the surrounding region. The business provides permaculture advice, designs for urban and nearby rural properties, and workshops on fruit and vegetable growing, wicking beds, gardening in a changing climate, and passive water harvesting. Cally will be leading the design component of our PDC.

Cally is particularly passionate about devising effective ways to slow and capture water runoff to increase drought resilience, reduce bushfire risk, and even reduce flooding. Her passive water harvesting techniques in her permaculture garden are featured in a popular YouTube video titled The Self-Watering Garden.

Cally believes that permaculture land design can be implemented at any scale and has experience from courtyard gardens up to large rural properties

Her recent design work includes a passive water harvesting plan and edible garden design for part of a 50-acre property in Googong, a design for a small acreage in Tarago, and designs for several suburban blocks.

From 2018 to 2020, Cally was a Director of the Board of Permaculture Australia, Australia’s national permaculture body, and Treasurer for the organisation in 2019-20. Before this, Cally was one of the organisers of the 14th Australasian Permaculture Convergence, held just outside Canberra in early 2018. Cally has studied permaculture and advanced permaculture design with John Champagne, Graham Bell, Geoff Lawton, and Dr Ross Mars.

Gürkan Yeniçeri, a permaculture teacher and practitioner, strives to grow enormous produce in small spaces. He cultivates a variety of produce, raises trout, and tends to bees in his suburban backyard. He enjoys consuming fermented foods, except for natto.

He possesses a sourdough culture passed down in his family for 200 years. His yogurt culture is also 15 years old. He has written articles on the PRI website and runs his site at havatopraksu.org.

He has written books on aquaponics, cheesemaking, and beekeeping, and he is working on a natural cheesemaking book, all in Turkish. He enjoys browsing the Green Shed store and selecting broken guitars and basses to repair.

He recently repurposed a piece of wood he had saved since 2008. He is married, has three children, and resides in Canberra.