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M i n d f u l G a r
d e n i n g - P e r m a c u l t u r
e O r i g i n s
The Origins of PermaculturePermaculture started in 1975 or 1976 as a public interest when Bill was talking about it to a friend who had a friend who was a radio interviewer on the national, government run, radio station in Melbourne. Bill was asked whether he wanted to do a talk-back program at this radio station. So he did. It turned out to be the most interesting talk-back program they had ever had. The board was just lit up for the rest of the day. People were asking what it was about and where could they get more information. Bill, at that time, had a manuscript that he had been working on, just ideas. He thought now was the time to publish something because there was so much information needed. He had at least three thousand letters coming to him saying, "Where can I get more about this?" At that time, David Holmgren was writing a thesis at the University about permaculture, working together with Bill who was directing his research. So they got the thesis together, Bill added some more, and they rushed together a book which turned into 'Permaculture One'. Twenty-five thousand copies were printed. Within three years they were out of print. ... continued below
Out of that came a group of people wanting to get together to talk about permaculture. They decided to set up an association. 'The Quarterly' now has about three thousand direct subscribers. [Now known as The International Permaculture Journal with many more subscribers.] Regional permaculture groups started. People got together once a month or every two weeks to talk about permaculture. Some groups began to get something going politically others set up a bioregional association to let each other know what is going on regionally. They're swapping plants and mapping species of trees in the bush which are good bearers of nuts, and operating a seed exchange, amongst other things. There were 36 of those groups in Australia which sprung up over four years. Wherever a permaculture workshop was held, a group usually formed and started doing something. Every one of those groups seemed to be performing a different function. In 1979 Bill decided that Permaculture Two needed to come out because there was more information. There was also a need to update a lot of the material in Permaculture One and change the emphasis from theory to something more practical. When the manuscript had been re-edited there were thirty thousand of the book 'Permaculture Two' printed. Bill visited America in 1980, lecturing and going from place to place with a few books. Selling them to scrape the money together so he could get to the next place, he bought a van in California for $700. It was during a really hot summer and the van died. Bill was stuck out in the middle of nowhere, dead van, and wondering whether this was all worth it? Then he went to the Futures Conference in Toronto. There were probably 1500 people there. They gave him a little spot, and he gave a talk about permaculture. Someone asked him whether he would like to talk again. He said, "Yeah, ok." There were 700 people at the next meeting. And he was asked to talk again, and there was a bigger crowd. Bill was one of the main finishing lecturers. When things seemed to fall down a bit, and no one really knew where to go on from there, Bill got up and started talking, and everyone in the room whispered, "Wow! Listen to this guy!" Edited by hen from the Transcript of the Permaculture Design Course, The Rural Education Center, Wilton, NH USA 1981 Reproduction of this Pamphlet Is Free and Encouraged. |
