We are constantly including new workshops in our Sustainable Living Workshops program. Here are profiles of some of the presenters.
Adrian Holbeck
Adrian has grown vegies in Ravenshoe, Townsville, Brisbane, the Pilbara and Perth; and a few chooks and citrus trees in Alice Springs. His focus is on teaching and practising Permaculture to help his local community in a low energy future. Although his main teaching interest is insects, ailments and remedies (also known as ‘Pests and Diseases’), he also teaches soils and other subjects. In previous careers, Adrian owned and operated a psychology consultancy for 20+ years and taught at Curtin University.
Carmel Harris
Carmel grew up on a dairy farm with chooks, pigs, small crops, bananas and no electricity. The education years created a city slicker, the National Art School, teachers college, BA then London, more art, travel, environment and 3rd world interests. Back to the country for 12 years living the organic farming solar/hydro powered alternative community life and meeting Bill Mollison at the Permaculture Institute. Last 13 years at Northey Street, did PDC and APT3, Cert 4 TAE (teaching) Cert 3 & Diploma Horticulture. Taught Horticulture and Permaculture at Grovely TAFE. Carmel loves designing, learning and teaching for a low energy future.
Morag Gamble
Morag Gamble, from SEED International, is a passionate permaculture educator and designer. For over 20 years she has travelled the world teaching about and researching permaculture systems in 20 countries. She has lived at the United Nations award-winning Crystal Waters Permaculture Village for 16 years and has developed a permaculture teaching garden there which is the recipient of a Glossies Edible Landscaping Award.
Morag was a cofounder of Northey Street City Farm and the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network. She led the design and development of the Conondale State School Garden and developed the foundation for the Learnscapes permaculture curriculum for Indonesian schools. She is an advisor to Indonesian, Korean and Hong Kong Permaculture groups, and is program director of the Ethos Foundation.
She is currently advising the development of the Moving Feast permaculture garden at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and regularly leads practical permaculture community education programs around South East QLD. She leads permaculture holiday workshops for kids, works closely with the local permaculture school garden, and offers permaculture camps for high school students. She has also lectured in food politics at Griffith University and helps others to design their own permaculture garden systems.
Claire Dunn
Claire Dunn is a writer, educator, journalist and barefoot explorer. After many years as an environmental campaigner, in 2010, Claire embarked on a year of bush living, completing the ‘Guunuwa Independent Wilderness Studies Program’. Her recent book “My Year Without Matches: Escaping the the City in Search of the Wild” is a memoir of that journey.
Claire is a passionate advocate for ‘rewilding’ our inner and outer landscapes, and facilitates nature-based reconnection retreats and contemporary wilderness rites of passage.
Dick Copeman
Dick Copeman has been involved at Northey Street City Farm since it started in 1994. He has taken on a number of roles at the farm and was Education Coordinator from 2004 to 2010. He initiated Northey Street’s Permaculture Design Courses and from 2007 to 2009, ran certificate 3 courses in Accredited Permaculture Training. His particular interests are in permaculture design, vegetable gardening, tree crops, bush foods, bush regeneration and food preparation and cooking.
Dick started his working life as a medical practitioner and has worked in Aboriginal health, general practice and palliative care. He was a senior lecturer in general practice at the University of Queensland from 1986 to 1996. His interests in nutrition and public health lead him progressively into involvement in health policy, food policy, environmental activism and permaculture. Dick is closely involved with the Brisbane Permablitz Network.
Emma Brindal
Emma Brindal is passionate about social and environmental justice, permaculture, living lightly and fostering connection and care for the Earth in others. She is the founder of WiseEarth Education, an organisation dedicated to nurturing and building respect for our planet. Emma is inspired by the principles and practices of Deep Ecology, Bioregionalism and Place-Based Education; and believes that understanding the interconnectedness of all life through experience is key to bringing about a Life Sustaining Society for all beings.
Emma is also the Youth Education Coordinator at Northey Street City Farm, where she runs the Earth Kids programs and the schools program. Previously she worked in Western Australia on the Waste Wise Schools Program, supporting teachers to integrate Education for Sustainability projects and approaches into their schools. Emma has a degree in Environmental Science, a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and a Certificate II in Permaculture.
Elizabeth Fekonia
Elizabeth teaches Cheesemaking and Sourdough at the Farm and elsewhere. To find out about her, visit her website:
Hedrick Kwan
Hedrick is a tender caregiver to the kingdom’s life source – its earth and its plants.
A tradesman at heart, he loves to work with his hands to nurture the delicate beauty of flowers and plants. Hedrick’s time spent as a UQ, Gatton undergraduate taught him efficiency and labour-saving processes in farms and gardens. He has contributed positively to the horticulture industry in Singapore through education and advocacy at various workplaces such as Mandai Orchid Garden (RIP), landscaping and a garden café called Bollywood veggies. In 2012, Hedrick founded Plant Visionz. The concept was to implement as well as impart knowledge to lay people on how to grow plants. His interests in the field of horticulture include foraging, orchid hybridization, garden to fork cooking, recycling organic waste with earthworms, and growing food in all places.
Lesa Hepburn
Lesa Hepburn is a professional fibre artist producing a wide range of contemporary artworks primarily from her own hand made paper. She creates unique eco-friendly artwork and jewellery featuring weaving and embossing. Lesa incorporates recycled materials and specially grown and prepared plant fibres into her processes and images and we find her wealth of knowledge and experience in paper making inspiring.
Find out more details on her website – http://www.visualartist.info/lesahepburn
Richard Nielsen
I’ve been a member of Northey Street City Farm since its beginnings in 1994. I live locally, and have a background as a community worker, as a teacher, and as a civil servant. My education includes environmental science and ecology, education, community development and social welfare. I also have a strong interest and history of activity in politics, via The Greens. I teach horticulture as part of my commitment to a small scale society, where the bulk of food production takes place locally. I think this is one of the ways of the future, principally because the current system of food production is not sustainable in terms of its energy requirements. I am the resident Bee Keeper at Northey Street City Farm.
In the mid 80s I joined the Intentional community of Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, near Maleny, with the intention of helping to establish in practice an alternative possibility for the future. Due to family circumstances this did not eventuate, and instead I turned to working towards addressing the same issues within the city, which lead me to the fullness of my participation in Northey St City Farm. Recently I have also been an active member and presenter with Beyond Zero Emissions.
Ronni Martin
Ronni Martin is an experienced trainer who has facilitated workshops in a wide range of permaculture and community development topics. She has been involved in permaculture and community development projects for over 30 years and brings this experience to the workshops.
She completed her Permaculture Design Certificate in 1984 and was awarded a Diploma in Permaculture Design in 1986. She was a founding member of Edible Landscapes Nursery, and later of Food Forest Nursery. She is currently the Education and Support Team Manager at Northey Street Community Farm.
Robin Clayfield
Robin Clayfield has spent 3 decades living, working and playing in groups and communities and using the Principles of Permaculture to inform all aspects of life. She is a Permaculture Pioneer and has been responsible for encouraging Social Permaculture to be considered and applied in many contexts – Education and Teaching, Facilitation and Group Dynamics, Community and Participatory Design, Social Enterprise, Buildings and Public Space Design, Health and Lifestyle… as well as using the principles to design and work towards creating a one acre garden ‘paradise’.
Robin lives at Crystal Waters Ecovillage, having been a resident lot holder since 1988. She has taught many Permaculture Design Courses as well as her Creative Teachers Facilitation courses for Permaculture, Transition and Community Gardens people. She continues to offer her ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ Teacher Training Intensives and ‘Creative Community Governance and Decision Making’ Days all around Australia and in other countries as well as presenting at festivals, conferences and events.
Her Book ‘You Can Have Your Permaculture and Eat It Too’, published 16 years ago, has sold over 4000 copies and her ‘Manual For Teaching Permaculture Creatively’, co-authored with Skye, supports teachers and facilitators in over 50 countries to work in a more creative, interactive and empowering way.
Robin often leads students from Northey Street City Farm on tours of Crystal Waters and has been a partner to the Farm for at least 10 years. Many Farm teachers have done her Dynamic Groups training over the years and she has been hosted to offer her courses at the Farm on occasions, most memorably playing and learning on the deck under the mango tree for 6 days with a circus tent adjacent on the lawn, thanks to Dick.
Visit www.dynamicgroups.com.au for more info and upcoming courses and events.
Tali Shelley and Jono Shelley
Introducing Bushtekniq, your local chemical-free landcare specialists. We are Jono & Tali, a brother-sister duo committed to enhancing natural bush regeneration & restoration. By applying ecologically sensitive techniques & perspectives, we aspire to maintain & promote connectedness. We have experience in: council bushcare, creekcare & environmental programs: Land For Wildlife & Wild Backyards – obtaining status & grants; plantings, landscaping, gardening & arborworks; primary education programs, music tuition & entertainment community event management. Presenting information & workshops in an engaging format is something we hope to do for a broad spectrum of community, from children to adults, private landholders to marginalised members of our society. We are developing a program series that can be readily transferrable across this spectrum, and welcome any opportunity to practice and evolve this concept.
Tim Auld
A rural upbringing provided Tim with respect for the environment and interest in agriculture, his father being a wine maker and grandparents in citrus and grape production. The family home often had a vegetable garden, chickens and fruit trees. He has been gardening in confined and challenging places for several years. Tim completed his Permaculture Design Certificate in 2008 and the Accredited Permaculture Training Cert 3 in 2009 under the guidance of Dick Copeman at Northey Street City Farm. Tim volunteers his time at the Graceville Community Garden, close to where he lives.
Tim has an interactive software development background, so is familiar with designing systems with complex and conflicting requirements. He brings his skills to bear on food production by using computer aided design, improving the quality, readability, accuracy and speed of his garden designs.
Tim operates his own business – All You Can Eat Gardens. AYCEG was conceived in late 2009 by a small group of permaculture students at Northey Street City Farm. These students were keen to design, build and maintain productive urban and suburban gardens in Brisbane Now a viable social enterprise, AYCEG is run by Tim as a sole trader with the help of local permaculturists.
Dr. Tim Heard
Tim Heard is an entomologist, ex-CSIRO research scientist, and a long term stingless bee keeper and promoter of native bees. Tim completed his university doctoral studies on using these bees for crop pollination. He obtained his first hive of stingless bees in 1985 and now keeps more than 300 hives of three species around south east Queensland. He obtained the hives by rescuing threatened wild colonies and dividing existing hives to personally propagate more than two thousand new colonies. He has developed new hive designs that allow for easy propagation and sustainable extraction of honey, without harming the colony.
He has presented workshops and seminars for more than 20 years on bees in generaland keeping stingless bees in particular. He currently runs “Sugarbag Bees” which provides hives of stingless bees, offers beekeeping services, presents workshops and seminars, and conducts research.
Tim has more information available on his website – www.sugarbag.net
Dr. Tobias Smith
Tobias is an ecologist and native bee researcher at the University of Queensland. He is also director of Bee Aware Brisbane, and works as a beekeeper and workshop presenter at Sugarbag Bees. Tobias is passionate about native pollinators and the delivery of awareness programs to help our community appreciate and protect our vital pollinators and the ecosystems on which they rely into the future.