PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE – 2017
LOCATION: GLENGARRY – VICTORIA. DATE: Starting TBA and running over 4 weekends for 12 days in total.Time: 9am to 5pm each day.
SUSTAINABLE FARMING – BE A PART OF THE NEXT AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
Are you concerned about how food is produced in our region? In 2017 make August available to develop your skills in a course that will streamline your transition form town to country. A Permaculture Design Certificate is the first step to a low input farming system of food production from a regenerative design process. From 1 square meter of land to thousands of hectares!
We believe, young Australians are the future of agricultural food production. There is a huge undercurrent of young families going back to the land to reconnect with food production on small, large and diverse farms. These farms will supply consumers with food that is grown nutrient dense, chemical free, ethically produced GMO free food. Team this up with good energy, desire to repair and heal the landscape to be more productive and support natural systems.
This 72 hour PDC is designed to get you hitting the ground running with instructors that are also on that same path as you! We believe that its going to take pioneer’s to save food production and the biosphere in Australia for the next 200 years . This world-recognised, 72-hour full time course provides a strong foundation to permaculture as set forth by movement founder Bill Mollison, resulting in a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) upon completion.
‘Permanent – Culture’ (Permaculture) Designing abundance……
We need a regenerative solution that rebuilds ecosystems and communities the way they were meant to function.
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A holistic approach to the environment that blends ancient knowledge with 21st-century clean technology
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A creative approach to community-building that’s rooted in the most basic principles of life and social sciences…
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A technically sophisticated, locally appropriate approach to designing and building human habitat and alternative energy solutions…
Most of all, we need an inclusive approach to change that embraces blue jeans and designer suits, cob and pervious concrete, up-cycled rain-barrels and condensation catchment…
The PDC serves as base for further permaculture work and study which is a prerequisite for the Diploma in Permaculture Design, offered through The Permaculture Institute. Credit for this course is now accepted by a growing number of universities around the world.
To date, thousands of permaculture designers worldwide have been certified through this course, and now comprise a global network of educators, ecological activists who influence major corporations, individuals creating new business alternatives and groups of committed people working together to change the way we view and design into landscapes. The course covers sustainable living systems for a wide variety of landscapes and climates. It includes the application of permaculture principles to food production, home design, construction, energy conservation and generation, and explores alternative economic structures and legal strategies supporting permaculture solutions and permanent agriculture into the future.
Meshing primal wisdom with modern technology for a regenerative career and lifestyle Permaculture (“permanent” + “culture” + “agriculture”) provides a big-picture perspective, using nature’s patterns and rules as a basis for designing your home, backyard garden, farm, business, community commons, and council streets and parks.
It’s a systematic, regenerative approach that tackles big problems – and solves them with sweeping effects.
Big PROBLEMS…. Simple Systematic Design Solutions!
It’s a systematic, regenerative approach that tackles big problems – and solves them with sweeping effects.
For example:
Erosion is creating deserts on every continent…
…and permaculturists are using simple, low-tech strategies to rebuild soil and create lush oases not in decades but years…
City water supplies are growing more toxic from chemicals used in purification…
…and permaculturists are using plants to transform sewage to clean, drinkable water…
Centralised energy, water, and food supplies are getting steadily more expensive and less safe…
…and permaculturists are building local renewable energy installations, community water-harvesting systems and self-sustaining gardens…
Forests are being clear-cut for wood, farmland, drilling, fracking and mining, speeding up global warming, erosion, and species extinctions…
…and permaculturists are planting food forests to clean the air and water, build soil, and provide fuel, food, shelter and habitat…
Rubbish & waste is choking landfills and oceans, and washing up onto beaches…
…and permaculturists are turning waste into a valuable resource, starting up businesses and profiting from harnessing it…
Toxic waste sites are multiplying around the world…
…and permaculturists are cleaning up some of them in a matter of months using plants, fungi and microbes…
Personal and national debts are racking up and economies are getting steadily more unstable…
…and permaculturists are setting up local currencies, barter systems and time banks to bypass the staggering dollar…
Developers are pulling in mega-millions while families get sick in poorly built, unhealthy, chemically-processed homes…
…and permaculturists are building simple, low-energy homes, made with indigenous natural materials, debt-free…
And that’s just the start!
OUTLINING THE PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE
The PDC is a tested and proven curriculum offered by Permaculture institutes and educational centres around the world. Developed by visionary authors/educators/naturalists / Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It includes all of the topics in their pioneering work, and in the works of the book: Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual. This book you will receive as a part of your course package.
OUTLINE – In this section and the next lay the foundation with the core principles on which permaculture is based. Starting with the mistakes that led to today’s world situation, we’ll look at…
◦ How did we (humans) get here, and where are we going?
◦ What are the problems – how can we state them in a manageable way, without overwhelming ourselves?
◦ What are the myths of our current culture? How do they prevent us from acting?
◦ How do we reclaim our story so that we can have a positive impact on our immediate ecosystem, our bioregion, and the planet as a whole?
Concepts and Themes in Design – You might call this portion ‘How Does an Ecosystem Work?’ Starting with the ecological building blocks that every permaculture design replicates, we’ll look at…
◦ Naturally occurring patterns, natural laws, and how to replicate them in human-made designs (and dramatically increase crop yields in the process!).
◦ Food webs and sustainable human diets, interdependency and natural connections between species and the amazing, dynamic stability that’s built into a diverse ecosystem.
◦ A new definition for the concept of yield.
◦ A holistic understanding of all of the benefits and services a design should strive to provide (in nature, each element serves many functions, not just one!)
Methods of Design – Now we start getting into the nitty-gritty tools and techniques for replicating natural, self-sustaining ecosystems! We’ll talk about…
◦ Observing a site and deducing its needs, your options, and your best strategies, from the land itself.
◦ Developing a strategic approach to a project including; designing from patterns to details, analysing the elements of a site and the needs and yields of its systems, and using slope and orientation.
◦ Surveying landscapes for property design using both simple and sophisticated tools, designing by map overlays and interpreting seemingly random assortments of information.
◦ Finding your microclimate and increasing productivity with intensive garden design strategies including: stacking of space, soil-building, mulch, nutrient cycling, pest control, green manures, worms, compost & companion planting.
◦ Building in the human factor: determining work spaces, designating zones and sectors for types of use.
◦ Creating a master pattern that incorporates a code of ethics for the relationship between humans and nature.
◦ Incorporating guilds of interdependent plants and animals.
◦ Establishing and maintaining a balanced, self-perpetuating system.
Pattern Understanding – Circles, spirals, waves, branches…we see certain patterns over and over again in nature and human designs, but why? What purposes do they serve, and which should be used in X situation? We’ll talk about…
◦ Key natural patterns, the purposes they serve, and how and where to apply them.
◦ The importance of boundaries as a place of species mingling, challenge and growth and how to put this to use.
◦ The impact of these principles on the human level, in relationships, society, and the economy.
Climatic Factors – These days, when we hear about climate, the first word that probably comes to mind is “change” – but here we’ll be looking at more basic questions. We’ll talk about…
◦ Climate zones and weather patterns, the workings of precipitation, wind, and radiation.
◦ How to identify the impact of climate factors on the project landscape and across the region.
◦ How to identify your micro-climate and extend your growing season….
Trees and Their Energy Transactions – You probably know about the roles that trees play as fuel, raw material, and carbon storage, but are you aware of the many other functions they serve in living forests? We’ll talk about…
◦ How they regulate and moderate ecosystems by complex interactions with wind, precipitation, and temperature.
◦ How you can sustainably use, propagate, harvest and manage tree systems using such techniques such as coppicing, pollarding, grafting, guild planting, succession planning, and designing shelterbelts and orchards.
◦ How to grow your own fuel and heat your own home without fossil fuels.
Water – While Earth is called “the watery planet,” humans have tended to mismanage our fresh water supply threatening the availability of our most precious resource. Here you’ll learn about how humans have intervened in regional water systems, and how we can repair them.
◦ Using earthworks to capture, conserve and store water, and reducing the water we use in our sewage systems.
◦ Purifying contaminated water the way nature does, without the use of toxic chemicals.
◦ Principles of water harvesting and conservation, rainwater collection and storage.
◦ Uses for greywater (using your wash-water to make plants grow better),
◦ Constructed wetland design and other smart water-use ideas you might never think of.
◦ Passive water hydration and infiltration.
◦ Composting toilets.
Soils – Yes, that’s right – soils in the plural! We have so much to say here – where most people see soil as dirt, permaculturists see it as a living ecosystem in itself.
◦ The soil ecosystem – its structure and elements, the role of water, gases, mineral nutrients, and micro-organisms.
◦ How to diagnose problems in difficult soils through bioindicators such as plant ailments.
◦ How to solve plant ailments through treating the soil.
◦ The hidden crisis of global soil erosion, and what we can do about it.
◦ The relationship between soil and life on earth.
Earthworking and Earth Resources – One common remedy for runoff and erosion is earthworking: building berms and digging swales.
◦ Identifying the many types of earthworks that harvest and store water, and when to use each of them.
◦ Planning the project, measuring the slope and pegging the contour, moving the earth, and planting afterward.
◦ Using both ancient and modern technologies for surveying, design and implementation.
The Humid Tropics – To be a permaculturist is to be part of a global movement, so we’ll look at climatic conditions and best practices for regions worldwide. We’ll talk about…
◦ Reading weather patterns, creating and enhancing micro-climate and using design strategies for all major global climatic zones.
◦ Adapting permaculture practices such as earth shaping and integrated land management to tropical settings.
◦ Creating a home and garden for tropical conditions.
◦ Evolving a tropical polyculture.
◦ Working with the special needs of grasslands, tropical coasts, and low islands and cays.
Dryland Strategies – As erosion steadily sweeps topsoil into the sea and desertification advances across steadily broader regions, dryland tactics will become increasingly necessary!
◦ The interactions of precipitation and temperature.
◦ Types of deserts.
◦ Plants that can succeed under varying desert conditions.
◦ The desertification process.
◦ How to harvest water in arid lands.
◦ How various people are reversing desertification.
Humid Cool to Cold Climates – If you’re planning to practice in SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA area, this will be the regional segment for you.
◦ Characteristics and soils of cool to cold climates.
◦ Special needs of cold-weather homes and home gardens.
◦ Construction and uses of greenhouses (glasshouses).
◦ Characteristics of grasslands and rangelands.
◦ The role of wildfire in the Australian landscape.
◦ Ways of cycling nutrients and incorporating animals into your system using cool ideas like chicken tractors, pannage systems, pigeon lofts, dairy systems and bees!
Bonus! – This section is our particular area of expertise, as we’ve honed our craft as permaculturists in this ecosystem! And you’ll reap the benefit, with extensive added information from our tried-and-true toolbox. We’ve added in-depth sections on…more
◦ Using simple tools to do a solar analysis for placement of gardens, greenhouse and buildings.
◦ Using appropriate building techniques for our climate.
◦ Using low-tech renewable heating solutions, such as Rocket Mass Heaters and others.
◦ Building your own solar infrastructure, from solar dehydrators to solar air heaters and water heaters.
◦ Using the earth as a storage of cold and heat to minimize your heating and eliminate your cooling needs.
◦ Saving thousands of dollars on energy bills with efficient home design, retrofit and renewable energy systems, and other innovative building tricks and tips.
◦ Incorporating water-saving methods like passive water hydration and infiltration, rainwater collection, storage and composting toilets.
Strategies of an Alternative Global Nation – Long before we reach the end of the course, you’ll realise that permaculture offers a whole new guiding vision for human society…and agriculture is just one tiny facet of this vision. We’ll talk about…
◦ Extended families, village development, and new approaches to political systems on the local, national and international levels.
◦ Land trusts and ethical investments.
◦ Right livelihood and working groups.
◦ Effective aid, and the possibilities of the long-range future.
Are you feeling a little overwhelmed? We’re not surprised; this is a high-intensity course, designed to help you hit the ground running as a permaculture designer! But don’t worry – we’ve taken pioneering steps and added learning tools to help you put all the pieces into perspective and anchor in the information, as well as building in extra practice time for you to work on the concepts and processes.
Yes, just as in every PDC program, you’ll have the opportunity to get out in to the field – students get a tour of several thriving permaculture sites in the area, as well as the opportunity to implement a new site design. But while digging swales, harvesting rainwater, and building cob ovens and spiral herb gardens are all important permaculture practices, we think it’s a pretty safe bet that you can download our recommended videos and try these practices in your backyard, participate in a work day at your local community garden, or join us on any of our permablitz weekends to learn technique. We focus on the complex systems and concepts you can’t learn as easily on your own.
We want to ensure that you get the greatest possible value from your time with us by giving you the high-end design and consulting knowledge we’ve gleaned through our years of practice!
As agents of change and business owners, we combine the visionary principles of permaculture with a professional, scientifically-proven approach…and lots of hands-on experience in the field!
Our family live on a day to day basis many of the practices and techniques that we teach at courses and workshops on our own farm Jacmarall Farm. We practice and definitely are not limited to 
rehydrating an eroded salinity ridden paddock and stream bed stabilisation, to planting a food forests and tree systems, building functional farm infrastructure, to creating a greywater system in our home and working with a non flushing toilet (Compost toilet) walking our talk.
Through living our highest values each day, we are bound to offering you a level of education that seeks to find the best practitioners in their chosen field to help guide you in a course that is designed to teach you to become a highly effective permaculture designer, entrepreneur, and/or teacher! So we’ve taken Bill Mollison’s original course outline and given it a edge that sets us apart for beyond sustainability into a regenerative, earth-healing business or lifestyle. entrepreneurs, who seek to go
Why choose this course? How will it impact your new future? You can learn Permaculture Design and Regenerative Farming skills to improve your quality of life, create resilience, care for the environment and build family and community strength.
Here are some questions you may well ask your self
1) Am I looking for a way to be more self-reliant?
2) How can our land be more productive and profitable?
3) Why is everyone sick and tired and failing their health, the earth, and our communities?
4) How can we on our patch help, heal, and regenerate the soil?
Courses & workshops hosted by the Nick Huggins Group are for people who want to live an inspired mission to create positive change. We have searched the world of regenerative land repair and natural systems thinking to bring you regenerative design methods that are actively cultivating positive change that represent the highest ethics of people care, earth care and fair share. Our unique style of delivery will lead to a life beyond sustainability to regeneration. Connecting you to professional permaculture designers, innovative farmers and seasoned homesteaders, well practiced in their fields, our courses show you what you’ll need to help usher in an age of earth and culture repair. These courses train you to develop the skills, acquire the knowledge and experience the empowerment needed, to achieve your vision. These best practice methods are effective, practical, solution oriented and ready to be applied in your life and on the land that you steward. When we look at the tools available to us in this information dense world, hands on experience will win hands down every time. The chance to visit and see first hand hear people in your bio region making a difference and living their vision for an abundant, productive landscape. In a nutshell, this course will show you the tool box (Permaculture Design), how to apply it and examples of its application on the ground around our Bio-region.
Bill Mollison’s encyclopaedic Designers Manual is just the beginning of the value we offer in our new, enhanced PDC:
◦ We add relevant material from around the world…perspectives we’ve gained from visiting permaculture sites around Australia and overseas with or world wide network of designers and entrepreneurs.
◦ We share our hands-on, DIY land regeneration experience with numerous eco-technologies…from primal to leading-edge…and show you how to learn from our mistakes and triumph.
◦ We offer the lessons learned from our personal experiments with living systems…remediating soil, water-harvesting, composting, growing food, and collecting and biologically treating wastewater.
◦ We include our real-world business experience as practicing permaculture consultants…from the first steps of creating a regenerative startup, to networking and attracting clients, to weathering business mistakes and triumphs, even to turning local eco-disasters into teachable moments with permaculture solutions.
◦ We offer advanced resources and training to help fast-track your permaculture career… Designed to give you the continuing education you need to incorporate design and business principles in a successful project or start-up, our Premium and Professional Development packages provide you with all of the standard PDC features (found in the Foundational package), plus additional courses and one-on-one training specifically focused on building your career and keeping your knowledge fresh and up-to-date.
When you add all of that to the standard PDC content, you have an extraordinary and unparalleled course! But we didn’t stop there. We’ve stepped ahead of the pack and developed key features, some of which are not offered by any other PDC, anywhere in Australia!!
We understand – 12 days and $1995.OO base price is a serious investment, especially in stagnate economic times! It’s easy to say, “This course will change your life” – but what does that mean exactly?
So before we can ask you to commit your time and hard-earned dollars, naturally you need to know how you’ll benefit.
Just for starters:
1. This course will opens MASSIVE doors…
Our enhanced PDC program includes all the topics, theory, and practice you’ll need to launch a new career as a permaculture designer, teacher and/or entrepreneur. Not only that – it provides the foundation you’ll need to pursue full teacher registration and a Diploma of Permaculture Design with the Permaculture Institute.
2. You will receive multiple courses for the price (and another dozen if you sign up for the Premium or Professional Development packages!):
If you were to seek out a degree program covering the information we include in these weekends, you’d need to take between 10-15 individual courses, and pay roughly 10 times as much.
This program includes (just for starters):
◦ Permaculture design, technique and practice taught by recognised experts in the field ◦ Water conservation and harvesting
◦ Organic gardening
◦ Renewable energy
◦ Integrative pest control
◦ Project management
◦ Soil restoration
◦ Community-building
◦ Food Forest design and maintenance
◦ Alternative economic systems
And that’s barely scratching the surface! Some of the most important topics, such as Pattern Observation, simply aren’t taught outside of a PDC program. We assure you, you do get your money’s worth!
3. You’ll Practice What We Teach…
We’ve built in extra time for you to practice the tested and proven techniques and procedures that we use every day as permaculture designers and practitioners. Oh – and yes, you’ll have some high-energy, outdoor time learning with real permaculture sites. Hands-on components in the past have included design implementation, compost-making, and permaculture site tours, but vary from course to course.
ONE on One with Permaculture Professional: want even more personalised design training? Check out our Professional Development package, which includes one-on-one coaching with Nick and your own personal professional designer to oversee your project.
4. If Our Teachers Charged by the Hour…
Let’s see….this course is over 72 hours of class time between lectures and practice. That works out to roughly $25/hour… about half the average college professor’s paycheck for teaching just one course! Truth be told, most of our students tell us we’re undercharging: they usually realize the full value of the program by the fourth day, if not earlier.
5. One Program, Many Ways to Save…
Students who take this program find themselves transforming from ordinary folks to committed and capable change agents. You’ll learn to identify the problems on a site and design effective, efficient and sustainable solutions to provide food, water, shelter, and energy…all at measurable, long-term cost savings. And you’ll find those savings far exceed your one-time course fee.
6. One Program, Many Ways to Earn…
Most importantly we have designed our course to produce new Designers and new Teachers…and that’s only the beginning of the career paths that open up!
7. $100 + in Savings Up Front…
Fair warning – pack light for this course if you’re flying in for the PDC, and leave room in your luggage! A copy of the very hefty and very comprehensive course textbook, Bill Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual (a $100+ value) is included in your tuition, plus an extensive electronic resource list for future use. We know of very few PDC programs that offer this!
8. A Resource Library You Can Use Forever…
As a Verge PDC graduate, you’ll have permanent access to the digital copy of all our lecture slides and course material. We spent five years creating these materials, and are always working to improve them – and they’ve been tested and proven with audiences around the nation and around the world. They’re all free for you to use when you begin to create — and charge for– your own presentations and workshops. Talk about getting a running start on building your business!
Since we began teaching the PDC, our students have ranged from home gardeners to community organisers to Broadacre farmers to Permaulture Entrepanures ; from municipal planners to cattle rangers; from artisans to career-changing executives. And as we’ve worked on enhancing the program, we’ve realised – there is no one size fits all!
So we’ve tailored the benefits you receive with our PDC to fit your budget, your schedule, and your vision:
You will receive: The course text “permaculture: A Designers manual” (RRP $120), instruction from certified educators, an on farm experience at a many Permaculture demonstration sites,day tours on farms and gardens that have implemented and are working to permaculture designs and
principles in our bio-region, course notes and catering for morning and afternoon tea
breaks only.
On completion and submission of your own permaculture design, you will be awarded a Permaculture Design Certificate which is recognised by all major permaculture certifying bodies and a number of major universities. Total investment to start your sustainable
farming future – Investment: Outlay for this course one of 3 levels listed above per person for the 4 weeks part time. Including morning & afternoon tea, venue, field trips, course notes and a bound 576 page Designer Manual.
*Payment Plans are available with Credit Card payment excepted..
Dates:
The course will be run over winter 2016, part time course over 4 weekends starting Friday 5th August.
TBA
Week 1: Week 2: – Week 3: with farm visits – Week 4: with design presentations and course completion at 3.30pm.
This course is the full 72 hour PDC set out by Bill Mollison and the Permaculture Institute. These date are now confirmed with our venue.
Attendance:
All days must be attended to attain the Certificate of Permaculture Design. We are realistic, if you miss a day or two we will run catch up days following the PDC on demand or via phone or Skype.
Course hours: 8.45am muster each day – 9am sharp start to 5pm over the 4 weeks ( Longer hours with farm visits may be required). Catering will be nominated on each course. BYO lunch on the on all days. Morning & Afternoon tea included.
Milestone Dates:
* Bookings open, TBA
* Early Bird price offer is from TBA 12pm to TBA 12pm.
* Cut off date to finalise your booking Wednesday TBA 12pm – and payment in full. If we don’t receive your payment in full by this date, your booking will be moved back to the waiting list.
* Wednesday TBA This will be PDC confirmation date that the
numbers we have committed for the course and will go ahead.
Friday TBA– Official start day of the Winter PDC
Location: Glengarry Hall – Glengarry Victoria.
Register
How to Register for the Course
Step 1: Click on the Register button above or BUY NOW button at the top of this course page. This will take you to our courses page.
Step 2: Choose your PDC level – Foundational, Premium or Regeneer Development (Click Add to cart) then click (View Cart) above the item selected.
Step 3: Review your selection and add coupon code if you have a discount offer. Click (Proceed to Checkout) button and follow instructions.
Step 4: Enter your details and review your registration details and click the “Confirm Registration” button.
Step 4: Choose a payment method. You can pay online with a credit card, or choose “other payment options” and follow the instructions provided. **Please be aware: a spot will not be reserved for you until we receive your full payment.
Step 5:
a) If you pay online via credit card, your registration will be complete and a spot will be reserved for you in the course.
b) If you have chosen another payment option, payment is due immediately. Your spot will not be reserved until payment is received. Be sure to download and save your invoice.
We will send you confirmation of registration as soon as we receive your full payment.
You can pay using the following methods.
1) Credit card online: Via PayPal & our online invoicing system (Visa, Mastercard or American Express). To do so, click the register button at the top of this course page and follow the prompts.
2) Cheque sent by mail: Cheque should be made out to Nick Huggins Group Pty Ltd – Send cheques to: 34 Hilltop Close, Tarago NSW 2580
3) Direct Deposit (EFT) – Account Name: Nick Huggins Group Pty Ltd – BSB 062 545 – Account No: 1043 0983 – Commonwealth Bank of Australia
If it doesn’t make a difference to you – we’d much rather receive a Direct Deposit or cash.
Small businesses pay huge fees to banks and credit card companies to process credit card transactions…
Cancellations and Refunds
If you are unable to attend the course, another person may attend in your place for the entire course duration at no extra charge. Full course fee is payable for non-attendance. Course attendance is subject to availability and a cut-off point to make the course viable.
Nick Huggins Group Pty Ltd reserves the right to cancel this Course. Notification of cancellations will be given 14 days prior to course commencement via Email or Phone call.
Payment made by Paypal will incur Paypal fee for transaction. Account fee to service your
Instalment payment is non refundable. More than 30 days prior to course commencement: If you wish to cancel your course outside of 30 days prior to the course start date, Workshop fees will be refunded less $75 administration fee will be retained.
Between 14-30 days from course commencement: If you cancel your course within 30 days but outside of 14 days of the start date of the course fee will be refunded but the deposit withheld in full.
Between 0-14 days from course commencement: If you cancel your course within 14 days of the start date, no refund will be provided. (In cases of extreme hardship, you are welcome to contact us and discuss the matter with us.)
Cancellation Refund Policy: All cancellation payments will be made
payable 30 days after the completion of the workshop/course and not
before.
Refund policy after workshop/course commencement: Please choose carefully. We do not give refunds if you simply change your mind during the course. You can choose between a refund, if the
workshop was wrongly described, different from a sample shown to you or don’t include what they are advertised to.
Refunds: In the unlikely event that we are forced to cancel a course you will promptly receive a full refund. If we need to postpone a course we will contact you immediately and either give you a full refund or transfer to another course.
Q1) Is there a pre-requisite to join the course?
A: NO…. No age limit, education level.. Nothing. Its a knowledge sharing course and has no exam at the end. This course will help you see the world through very different eyes. Its about sharing information, and each person will play their part in the learning outcomes.
Q2) Do you offer scholarships ?
A: We offer 2 scholarships per course and are subject to an application process. This scholarship is on offer to a person with in the community who would love to study Permaculture but just can afford to. We recommend applying early to avoid disappointment.
Q3) Who should take this course ?
Design professionals can add new qualifications to their resumes and offer improved services to their clients. Their designs tend to use fewer resources, work more efficiently, and are easier to maintain.
Homeowners, gardeners, and farmers learn to increase the value and productivity of their property and to create home and land environments that better support their own needs as well as nature’s.
Real estate, construction, and development professionals are able to better address the public’s growing concern for the environment and to reduce resource use and impacts.
Educators learn to integrate permaculture design into their curriculum in ways that have been proven to raise student performance.
Planners and public officials find holistic solutions to land-use and resource issues, and will identify and solve bottlenecks and impediments to implementing their programs.
Energy, water, and waste-systems workers will learn holistic management strategies for integrating their projects into the larger community.
Most participants find the course life-changing, and they form powerful new viewpoints and enhanced social networks.
Q4) What will I get from undertaking this course?
This course will give you holistic decision-making tools to create and practice regenerative solutions for food, water, and energy anti-fagility, regenerative shelter; building social capital; developing a sound economy, renewing local communities on all scales, and many other needs. It will allow you to find solutions to the challenges presented by life in an industrial society. Permaculture uses ecological principles to design sustainable human communities that are harmoniously woven into the environment and that aim to have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It offers a framework for critical decision-making and right livelihood.
The permaculture design course teaches whole-systems thinking. What does that mean? Most of the time we’re taught to think in terms of things: the parts and pieces that make up our world. This approach lets us exclude supposed “externalities” like pollution and side effects, which often come back to haunt us later on. Systems thinking focuses on the relationships among the parts, the features that emerge from these relationships (often unexpectedly, just as suburban sprawl emerged from transportation improvements), and how the parts come together to make up greater wholes. Systems thinking is the key to sustainable living.This certificate course will introduce you to strategies and tools for designing and living in landscapes, homes, businesses, and communities that are regenerative—that is, that go beyond not just depleting resources and the human spirit, but renewing and invigorating them. In this course you will meet people concerned about the same things you are, and be inspired by them, and in many cases, form new collaborative relationships with them. Many people find this course to be one of the most transformative experiences of their life.
Q5) What is the course design outcome, and how practical is it?
The final design project is a permaculture design of a site or business practice prepared by groups of 5-10 participants. Students choose the design sites, which range from residential yards to parks, local businesses, and city policies and plans. The final presentation encapsulates and summarizes what the students have learned in the course, and is presented by each design group at the final session. It gives each student a chance to work on a real design, with coaching from experienced permaculture designers. Though implementation is not part of the course, many of these designs go on to be built in part or in full after the course.
In addition to the many residential design projects that have been implemented, some of the most visible public projects that have been or are in the process now of being implemented.
Q6 ) How should I prepare for weather during the PDC?
A: Winter weather in Glengarry is a rare treat among Australian towns providing a great variety of conditions throughout the months leading to spring. Awake to moderately fresh mornings, sunny days and brisk nights. But come prepared for any weather, warm days to snow fall in the high mounts above. Glengarry has it all. Keep in mind that we will be visiting farms, gardens and sites during the PDC. Come dressed for all occasions from wet to dry, calm to gale force winds and all combined.
Q7) Will I still receive my design certificate if I have to miss a class?
A: You may miss up to, but no more than 2 full days of the PDC course, and still receive their course certificate. Students in the Regeneer Development package are eligible for Unlimited Refresher courses, and may attend later PDC classes to make up for missed time.
Q8) Is this course eligible for tax deduction? Do you issue tax receipts?
A: We are not considered a designated educational institution (i.e. university or college) that qualifies for the purposes of the education tax credit claimed on the tax return. If you are working in a small business and would like to write off the course because it relates to your business, then yes, you may use our proof of enrolment when filing your taxes. Please contact us for more details. We are happy to issue students a receipt or proof of enrolment for the above purposes.
Q9) Is permaculture just gardening ?
Thats a BIG NO…In short, Permaculture is a design system for sustainability, which includes gardening in terms of food production, but it also includes other life systems such as energy-efficiency, water, recycling, and land stewardship. In it’s full form, it encompasses economic and social structures that support the evolution and development of more permanent communities. Permaculture design concepts are applicable to urban as well as rural settings, and are appropriate for single households as well as whole farms and villages.
Q10) What are some examples of permaculture in practice?
Permaculture principles are already used in both urban and rural applications worldwide.
Ecological methods of production for any specific crop or farming system (e.g., soil building practices, biological pest control, composting) are central to permaculture as well as to sustainable agriculture in general.
Permaculture principles are adapted to farms and villages worldwide. The concepts become site specific and therefore applicable to locally adapted techniques of production. For example, organic farming and gardening techniques utilising cover crops, green manures, crop rotation, and mulches are an important part of permaculture based systems.
There are a range of other methods and technologies used by sustainable farmers working within a permacultural framework such as chisel plows, no-till implements, spading implements, compost turners, rotational grazing.
Farming systems and techniques commonly associated with permaculture include agroforestry, swales, contour plantings, Keyline agriculture (soil and water management), hedgerows and windbreaks, integrated farming systems such as pond-dike aquaculture, aquaponics, intercropping, and polyculture.
Gardening and recycling methods common to permaculture include edible landscaping, keyhole gardening, companion planting, trellising, sheet mulching, chicken tractors, solar greenhouses, spiral herb gardens, swales, and wormfarming/vermicomposting.
Water collection, management, and re-use systems like Keyline, greywater, rain catchment, constructed wetlands, aquaponics (the integration of hydroponics with recirculating aquaculture), and solar aquatic ponds (also known as Living Machines) play an important role in permaculture designs.
As Glengarry is a tourist destination, there are loads of accommodation options. A simple Google search will help you find B&B’s, hotels, campgrounds, home rentals or whatever you might prefer. By August/September, tourist season is mostly warming up, so finding accommodation shouldn’t be too difficult. However, we still recommend booking as early as possible to avoid disappointment. You may also wish to contact the Latrobe Visiters Centre for recommendations.
The classroom portion of the course is held at the Glengarry Hall in the centre of Glengarry – this might be helpful when you are looking at accommodation distances.
Camping: There are several campgrounds around the area. None are actually located in Glengarry, you’ll have to commute in each day. Late August/September can still have light frosts at night, and see overnight low temperatures around -2 deg (and perhaps colder).
Hostel: This is quite likely one of the most economical options at the Cambrai Maffra hostel. The hostel is very simple, but clean and has kitchen amenities. Shared dorm rooms and private rooms are available. PH 03 5147 1600 – ADDRESS 117 Johnson Street, Maffra
Websites to use to find a place include www.wotif.com or www.airbnb.com.au
Hotel / Bed & Breakfast: If you are not on a budget, there are loads of great places in Glengarry. A simple Google search will help you .
LEAD EDUCATOR
Nick Huggins – Jacmarall Farm – Tarago NSW.
Leading this PDC is Nick Huggins – A skilled and focused project management and education professional with over 16 years experience providing innovative and effective services for land owners in, Holistic Resource Management, Regenerative Agriculture (Regen Ag), Keyline Farming and Permaculture and were it all started in Horticulture. Realising productive, economically viable businesses in Regenerative Agriculture, introducing processes spanning biological amendments and holistic grazing to drought proofing and in Permaculture Design, both as an educator, speaker, mentor and on private projects with a proven record of successful, comprehensive designs.
SUPPORT EDUCATOR
Rebecca Phyland – Thornbill Eco Education
SPECILIST EDUCATORS
Matt Kilby – Global Land Repair Pty Ltd – 
Since 2000 Matt has continued to refine the art of tree planting by expanding on a successful polyculture tree planting strategy and incorporating soil health principles utilising mineral and microbe balancing. As a result, Global Land Repair has developed the unique Plant Pink Tree Planting System™ that is achieving up to 97% tree survival rates in commercial timber plantations and other nursery and regeneration projects. Matt joins another PDC again this year to share his skills and knowledge on tree’s, soil and a host of other land repair skills.
Gerhard Grasser – AgriSolutions Pty Ltd – 
The philosophy and motivation of AgriSolutions largely stems from the passion and beliefs of the Managing Director, Gerhard Grasser. His passion for natural living and sustainable agricultural practices is unsurprisingly extended to those around him and hence the business was formed and grown substantially. His passion to teach others about natural alternatives for the environment and particularly farming never waned and this drive has lead him to expand his own knowledge and skills to meet the increasing demands of this “mentoring” role. Gerhard has provided professional consultation services to the Nick Huggins Group over the years and into the foreseeable future.
Nick Huggins Group is offering it’s first round of Permaculture Design Certificate Scholarships for 2016. We offer 2 scholarships per course apart of our business ethic’s and return of surplus back into the community.
Submissions are now being excepted prior to the the scholarship starting in August at the Glengarry PDC. Open to anyone that would love to study Permaculture design from the Gippsland who is finding it challenging to fund the investment required. Our aim is to invest in self starters who will take the skills studied and teach others.
Annual Scholarship Award to the Value of $1995.00 AUD (No Cash redeemable) . The deadline for submission 30 days before the start date of the PDC at 12pm UTC+10 Sydney Australia. 14 days before the PDC started the chosen recipient will be notified by email or phone.
Criteria for the Scholarship Award: Permaculture Design Certificate
Conditions:
- This scholarship is via an in person involvement in a 12 day design course. All days must be attended for the scholarship to be fully funded.
- A $500 deposit is required to hold the scholarship when it is awarded.
- The deposit will only be refunded on the 100% completion of the course. Non attendance with out prior notice will see the scholarship forfeited with deposit retained. (Compassion will be granted extending to personal matters beyond your control)
- You will be required to blog post your journey on the PDC for the 12 days in print or video.
- You will be required to submit 1 story every 3 months about your mission beyond the PDC.
- You will be required to submit a nomination form outlining your request for a Scholarship.
- You will be required to sit an interview over the phone of Skype (VOIP) should you be short listed.
- 50% of the deposit will be refunded upon 100% completion of the PDC. The remaining 50% after completing the other tasks above.
Ok, now your ready to submit your application for PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE. Email info@nickhuggins.com.au and request a nomination form to fill out.
We will only except applicant’s who are highly motivated and inspired by what they can potentially create. We will be taking the time to read your application, so please take the time to give as much detail as possible to make your application a success.
If you find you can’t fit in all the detail you want or you have a business plan, please attach extended pages..
If you have any questions regarding the scholarship. Please email info@nickhuggins.com.au
