Our Team

The CERES School of Nature and Climate is the evolution of CERES’ education programs into a focused response to the climate and ecological crisis we are facing.

Meet our team of dedicated, passionate and expert educators, trainers and support staff that deliver a range of inspiring sustainability education programs for children aged 2-5 years old, primary and secondary school students, adults aged 16 years and older, as well as whole-school programs including the ResourceSmart Schools program.

Learning Director and Managers

Lorna Pettifer (On Leave)
Lorna Pettifer (On Leave)Learning Innovation Director
Lorna Pettifer has been working in environmental education and presenting to community groups on sustainability for many years. At CERES, Lorna passionately directs CERES School of Nature and Climate. She is dedicated to deepening our response to the ecological and climate crisis through CERES’ learning experiences. Her background in sustainability stems from ecology and zoology and has broadened to community engagement, environmental management, behaviour change and farm and food programs. Lorna has worked with community groups, schools, organisations, households and individuals. As an environmental advocate she has worked in national parks, environmental consultancies, universities, NGOs and wildlife reserves as a conservationist, educator, tour guide, bush regenerator, GIS consultant, environmental modeler and researcher.

Lorna proudly received the Environmental Educator of the Year for Victoria in 2018 and the Australian Environmental Educator of the Year in 2019.

Chloe Horner (on leave)
Chloe Horner (on leave)School Programs Manager
Chloe grew up in the Otways, riding horses, climbing trees and racing her brother on billy carts. She has been working in the environmental education industry for more than 10 years. She has passionately managed, designed and delivered a range of environmental education programs for local government, and in partnership with industry leaders and community groups. Her work has supported sustainability initiatives and outcomes within councils, schools, early learning centres, apartments and community groups.

Chloe loves to work collaboratively, which is recognised in winning the 2018 Keep Victoria Beautiful, Sustainable Cities Award in Community Government Partnership. She has tertiary qualifications in environmental sustainability, horticulture and education, and is excited to be a part of the CERES network, continuing to do what she loves – connecting people to the community and the natural environment.

Jonathan Noble
Jonathan NobleSchool Programs Manager
With experience in program and project management, learning design, and community engagement, Jonathan helps teams work together to achieve goals in both government and non-government organisations. His focus is on embedding knowledge, practices, and systems that make an impact on communities dealing with learning, change, and sustainability challenges.
Luisa Cardamone
Luisa CardamoneManager - Sessional and Deep Learning Programs
For more than 20 years, Luisa had visited the site as a nearby neighbour and for the past 12 years has been thrilled to call CERES her workplace.

Luisa manages the adult learning programs encompassing sessional, deeper learning and accredited courses across all things sustainable for individuals and groups ranging from corporate to the marginalised. Across gardening, cooking and the creative, she has grown the program offerings over the years. Her aim is to draw expert, passionate presenters to pass on their knowledge and skills so we can continue to lighten our footprint.

Educators and Staff

Abigail Jabines
Abigail JabinesIntro to Permaculture and Horticulture Facilitator
Abi has volunteered and worked for the horticulture industry in different capacities and work environments. She started as a volunteer propagator at CERES in 2015 before studying horticulture. After studying, she became a horticulturist for a hydroponics company, which included working with its research and development team to improve the environmental and growing conditions of horticultural crops and medicinal plants.

Abi started working at CERES in 2019 which gave her an opportunity to work at an organisation that matches her values and regard for nature. She is currently a Horticulture and Permaculture VET trainer, and a staff member at CERES’ permaculture and bush food nursery.

She considers her experience and training as a volunteer propagator at CERES as an important factor in pursuing her current career path after transitioning from another vocation. As a horticulturist, she is able to apply her values in a more practical and tangible way. She enjoys encouraging people from different backgrounds, especially women and young people, to work with plants and help improve the connection between people and our natural environment. Observing and figuring out how to best grow healthy plants also satisfies her thirst to learn and interest in trying tested or new ideas.

Adrian Black
Adrian BlackStudent Programs Coordinator and Educator, and Adult Learning Facilitator
Adrian is an educator, urban food grower, environmental activist and permaculturalist with just under 10 years experience in environmental education and nature based connection. With a background in design and storytelling, Adrian has a continued commitment to education as an avenue to empower people of any age and background to find meaning within themselves and their communities.

Adrian is a graduate of the CERES Permaculture Design Course, The Complete Urban Farmer and Ecovillage Design Education course which he completed in Switzerland through Gaia Education. Throughout his career in nature based education, Adrian has worked in film, on stage and in various capacities sharing the stories of plants, animals, and everything in between.

Belinda Kennedy
Belinda Kennedy Park Manager, Horticulturist, Volunteer Supervisor and Adult Learning Facilitator
Belinda Kennedy has been working within the horticulture industry for over 15 years, specialising in sustainable and organic garden design and management. She has worked in numerous fields within the industry alongside several key landscape designers throughout Melbourne; co-designing, implementing and maintaining landscapes on various scales both private and public. Belinda’s work is based upon sustainable garden practices and permaculture systems and includes indigenous garden design and development; wildlife corridors; native food and fibre gardens; closed loop garden design and implementation; compost systems; kitchen gardens and food forests.

Belinda has completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT, an Advanced Diploma in Horticulture at Melbourne University, and a Permaculture Design Course. Along with managing the grounds at CERES, Belinda runs regular workshops on sustainable garden practices; landscape design and maintenance; native food and fibre gardens; wildlife gardens; indigenous flora; and composting systems. Belinda has been employed as the Head Horticulturist and Volunteer Coordinator at CERES Environment Park since 2013.

Catherine Medwin (On leave)
Catherine Medwin (On leave)Teacher Programs Educator, ResourceSmart Schools Southern Metropolitan Region Coordinator, and Professional Learning Coordinator
Catherine Medwin has been working in education for the past 10 years, and has been a part of establishing a brand new PPP school as well as leading environmental education for the past two and a half years. She has been successfully embedding a culture of sustainability across the school during this time through implementing the ResourceSmart Schools program. Catherine is passionate about inspiring others to reduce waste and spreading awareness of environmental issues to both children and adults.
Christine Pendleton
Christine PendletonAdministrative Assistant, Adult Learning Programs
Growing up in a rural setting has led Christine to always feel a strong affinity with nature. After many years in retail, Christine decided to follow her heart and make a career change that aligned more with her values of caring for the environment. With a goal to work for an organisation that focused on making a difference through empowering the community and promoting sustainable education, CERES was a perfect fit!

Christine has tertiary qualifications in sustainability, community services and fine arts, and has a passion for social justice, food security and biodiversity. She loves nothing more than being able to spend her downtime searching for new bushwalking trails and just sitting and taking in the sights and sounds of the natural world.

Claire Cummings
Claire CummingsSystems and Communications Coordinator
Claire’s passion for sustainability has been a running theme throughout her personal and professional life. A strong focus on environmental action has underpinned her diverse professional and educational background spanning environmental science, events management, workshop facilitation, web design, IT, communications, and sustainable textile design, and eventually led to her role here at CERES. She regularly switches hats between her systems brain and her communications brain to ensure things run smoothly behind the scenes while keeping you informed of our offerings. Outside of CERES, you can find Claire tending to her garden, knitting up a storm, or singing on stage somewhere.
Emmanuelle Delomenede
Emmanuelle DelomenedeTeacher Programs - ResourceSmart Schools Assessor Consulting - Casual Consultant
After completing her engineering degree in France, Emmanuelle undertook a Master’s degree in Energy Studies at the University of Melbourne specialising in the environmental impacts of buildings.

Prior to CERES, Emmanuelle was working as an Energy Consultant in a large engineering company, undertaking holistic design and operational sustainability assessments of major commercial buildings. She joined the Teacher Programs team in September 2015 and is excited to be working with Victorian schools as she strongly believes in a bottom-up approach to drive change, starting at the community level and through early/primary education. Emmanuelle is passionate about sharing her dedication to sustainability and resilient resource systems and hopes to inspire the next generation.

Isabella Shaw
Isabella ShawStudent Programs Coordinator and Educator
Bella is a science communicator, archaeologist and artist who graduated with a Master of Archaeological and Evolutionary Science at the Australian National University. Bella’s research centers on craftspeople, objects and environments, and her interest in deep time human-environmental interactions has spurred a passion for helping people explore sustainability and stewardship in the modern era.

Outside of academia, Bella has worked as a science educator at the National Dinosaur Museum and the National Zoo and Aquarium, where she particularly loved sharing in kids’ excitement for the natural world. She has helped deliver archaeological programs to schools and worked on exhibitions exploring the intersection of art and science at the Museum of the Riverina and the Australian National University. When not at CERES, Bella is an enthusiastic citizen scientist and can be found somewhere in a bog surveying for frogs, or bush-bashing to find endangered Greater Gliders and assess bushfire management strategies in old growth forests.

Jason Sheehan
Jason SheehanTeacher Programs Educator and ResourceSmart Schools Northern Metropolitan Region Coordinator
Jason is an adventurer and storyteller. He has worked in Tonga where he helped coastal communities with environmental action and sustainability of their marine resources. Diving next to volcanoes, working on reef ecology, and rescuing turtles, Jason equally enjoys planting a tree for climbing in years to come. As a conservation biologist, Jason loves the narrative of conservation, following the connections between everything we as humans do and how it impacts our planet. He has taught students about climate change, sustainability, marine and coastal science and more, always finding new and interesting ways to invoke passion.

Jason strives to make everyone he meets excited about the environment by inspiring creative action. Working with CERES as an educator has allowed him to develop diverse ideas with schools and communities all across Melbourne. With so many people working for sustainability, he thrives on seeing this network grow.

Karen Mengell
Karen MengellManager - VET, Projects & Inclusive Programs
Karen began her education career in Kenya teaching in disadvantaged community secondary schools. After further roles in the corporate, government and philanthropic sectors she has for the past 20 years worked in a variety of adult education settings primarily designing and coordinating the delivery of Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs.

Karen has a strong focus on supporting a diversity of clients, including youth at risk, those with disabilities, career changers and the long-term unemployed, to identify their goals and strengths and support the exploration of and transition to green career pathways. Karen holds tertiary qualifications in management, training and philosophy, politics and economics.

Kat Young
Kat YoungStudent Programs Lead
Kat’s love of the environment and being in it began as a youngster in New Zealand, climbing daily through wild fennel and over the back fence to play in the neighbouring fields.

After following the wind to Australia in 1999, Kat has spent her time in various creative and people-centric roles, from hospitality to costuming to teaching martial arts, until arriving at CERES in 2014. Starting as a casual teacher, Kat quickly discovered that CERES was the place for her and her passions for art, education and nature connection.

Dr Kate Kantor
Dr Kate KantorStudent Programs Coordinator and Educator
As a child, Kate lived for the school holidays when she would go camping by rocky rivers and snowy mountains. Kate studied drama at the Victorian College of the Arts, ran away to join the circus (performing as a clown in Circus Oz) and then came back to Melbourne to focus on her passion for cultural development, community arts and the environment.

Kate taught for many years at the University of Melbourne and Victoria University as a lecturer in education and the arts, as well as working as a teaching artist at Polyglot Theatre. She has recently completed her PhD which focused on
practical, creative strategies to support young people to have hope and agency
about the future of the environment.

Kate worked initially at CERES as the artistic director of the Return of the Sacred Kingfisher Festival and is delighted to return to her current role as coordinator of the Towards Zero Waste Education Program.

Kerry Archer
Kerry ArcherTeacher Programs Educator
Kerry is an experienced Science, Biology and Environmental Science Teacher with over ten years in the secondary and primary classroom. She has experienced ResourceSmart from the ‘other side’, having guided one of her previous schools to become 5 star certified. Her school won numerous sustainability awards and in 2014, Kerry was awarded ResourceSmart Secondary Teacher of the Year. Prior to teaching, Kerry worked in environmental education, including at the Melbourne Aquarium, in local government and at South East Water. Kerry is a mum to an energetic and amazing little girl. In her spare time she loves snorkeling/scuba diving, rockpooling, gardening, dancing and reading.
Pia Wrafter
Pia WrafterTeacher Programs Educator, Acting Southern Regional Coordinator, Teacher Programs Assistant Manager
With a background in psychology, Pia spent years empowering people to make positive changes in their lives to improve their mental health. Over this time, her appreciation of the natural world was growing ever stronger, and the need for living in harmony with nature was becoming increasingly evident. Knowing that the change created from her own sustainable choices could only ever be limited, Pia embarked on the permaculture educator’s program. This gave her the tools to have a greater impact through educating and empowering others to find more sustainable and regenerative ways of living.

Pia has run sustainable education sessions with people of all ages, and has worked across primary and secondary schools to help set up productive gardens and composting systems. She loves seeing the joy sparked when people connect with nature – it could be something as simple as discovering a beautiful butterfly atop a flower. Pia is inspired by the many people finding creative solutions to the environmental challenges we face, and is delighted to be part of the CERES community. In her role at CERES, Pia supports schools on their sustainability journey as part of the ResourceSmart Schools Program.

Sarah Murfitt
Sarah MurfittStudent Programs Bookings and Operations Coordinator, Nature Playgroup Facilitator
Sarah’s passion for all things environment started early on in life and she now shares her love of nature with the next generation. An early excursion to a marine centre planted the seeds of marine biology and environmental education, and Sarah has been working in these fields for the last 10 years. While completing her degree in Environmental Science, majoring in Marine Biology, she worked on some amazing conservation projects both locally and internationally. And she loves sharing her enthusiasm for the environment with others, being able to do so in leadership positions, teaching and training people from all around the world.

Sarah’s love of learning has led her to work in many different areas and she is a lifelong student. Her diverse education and professional accomplishments include; educating people on Little Penguin colonies, working on the beaches of Costa Rica as a Research Assistant, and teaching people how to fly drones. Researching the use of remote sensing in coastal monitoring led to an interest in the ways technologies can assist with conservation efforts, and she is an advocate for conscious, sustainable living. Her creativity has led to sharing science communication stories and resources, and finding creative ways to help children fall in love with the world around us.

Sieta Beckwith
Sieta BeckwithCERES Narrative Director, and Nature Based Leadership Facilitator
Sieta has worked for 15 years in strategic communications roles, assisting purpose-led organisations from across social enterprise, for-profit and non-profit sectors, to discover, share and live their deeper mission and vision. Through her work as Narrative Director, Sieta brings together stories centred on universal human values, to articulate the potential power of bringing people together to take action for the Earth.

Since 2014 Sieta has been actively engaged in the emerging Spiritual Ecology movement, which seeks to explore what is the role of spirituality in social, economic, political and ecological change. She has found joy in bringing together small groups of humans from all ages and backgrounds to explore heart-centred practice, and learning to live from a place of love and compassion for all beings. Sieta also loves supporting younger generations to creatively explore new ways of thinking and being together, in a time of significant challenge.

Subik Baso
Subik BasoStudent Program Educator
Subik is from Indonesia with Macassan heritage who loves gardening and listening to live music and recently discovered that listening to vinyl is the best.

He has a Bachelor of Agriculture where he learnt about the Green Revolution system and its application. This system is used intensively in most farming practices in Indonesia. After finishing his study, he was involved in a compost project for urban forests as well as rice paddies in a regional area. This involvement led Subik to a very different path from what he learned at university.

Subik moved to Melbourne and straight away had an opportunity to enhance his passion for the environment by working in an Australian native nursery and helping revegetate a depleted property into a beautiful native garden.

Subik then joined CERES with the education team, now known as the Student Program Team. He manages the Indigenous and Global (Indonesian and Indian) Programs as well as teaching the environmental program. This gives Subik a great chance to learn in the broader context of cultural, environmental and social justice from different cultural perspectives whilst continuing his passion… gardening and listening to music.

Collaborators

Ashton Edgley
Ashton EdgleyBeekeeper at The Bee Wrangler and Facilitator
A love of plants and insects drove Ashton Edgley’s interest in beekeeping. His passion grew into a way of life and Ashton now spends his time caring for more than sixty hives – both his own and those of others. Ashton shares his love of honeybees in schools and universities by teaching others how to properly care for bees and explaining their importance in our food systems.
Beck Lowe
Beck LowePermaculture Design Course Facilitator
Beck Lowe worked closely with David Holmgren on RetroSuburbia as chief editor, researcher and project manager. Since publication, she has also taken on the role of education coordinator and has run workshops and developed resources to help households make positive changes.

Beck is an enthusiastic and experienced permaculture educator and has been involved in permaculture training at all levels for more than 15 years. She has practical permaculture experience in private and community spaces in inner city, urban and rural areas.

Brenna Quinlan
Brenna QuinlanArt As Activism Facilitator
Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator and educator who strives to make the world a better place through her art and her actions. She has ridden a bicycle across the Americas, taught permaculture in Brasil, Chile and Argentina, and lived for four years at Melliodora, the permaculture demonstration site created by permaculture co-originator David Holmgren and his partner Su Dennett in Central Victoria, Australia.

As an illustrator, Brenna has worked with the Australian Red Cross, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program, Plan International, Milkwood Permaculture, the Bob Brown Foundation, CSIRO and Costa Georgiadis, among others.

As an educator, Brenna has taught alongside the biggest names in permaculture, including Rosemary Morrow, David Holmgren, Dan Palmer, and Hannah Moloney.

She co-runs Grow Do It Permaculture Education, a project focused on bringing climate solutions to kids (and their grown ups) through art, music and creativity.

Brenna is currently building her own straw bale house out of reclaimed materials in Western Australia on Noongar boodja. She acknowledges the traditional owners of this land, and that sovereignty was never ceded.

Carol Henderson
Carol HendersonGardening Workshop Facilitator - Growing Great Tomatoes, Complete Guide to Home Composting (online), Herb and Companion Planting
Carol Henderson is a horticulturist, permaculture designer and teacher, who is passionate about urban food production. She regularly runs workshops for CERES, Cultivating Community, schools and local councils.

Carol’s style is friendly and highly interactive, incorporating group discussion and hands-on activities as much as possible. Working with children, youth and adults from all walks of life, Carol tailors each session to suit the needs and interests of each group.

Claire Dunn
Claire DunnNature Based Leadership Training Facilitator
Claire Dunn is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator and founder of Nature’s Apprentice. Claire is passionate about human rewilding and believes that a reclaiming of our ecological selves and belonging is key to regenerating wildness on the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection, ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soulcentric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of memoir My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild. Her most recent book, Rewilding the Urban Soul explores how we might embody wild consciousness within a modern city context. Claire lives in Melbourne where she lovingly tends her garden, community and her own wild heart. www.naturesapprentice.com.au
Chrissi Charles
Chrissi CharlesLandscape Restoration, and Indigenous Ecology Course Facilitator
Chrissi Charles cemented their love of plants in Lutruwita (Tasmania) while studying a bachelor of plant sciences (Botany and Ecology) in Nipaluna (Hobart). Chrissi spent the first few years after studying diving into a career in horticulture which included an internship at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne and an almost two-year stint as a researcher and content maker for the ABC’s Gardening Australia. Over the last year, Chrissi has split their time between working at Merri Creek Management Committee as a part of the Ecological Restoration team, studying a Masters of Ecosystem Management and Conservation (part-time) at Melbourne University and learning the ropes as a casual educator at CERES. Chrissi is excited to share their passion for plants, ecology and getting your hands dirty restoring natural areas.
Darren Tinker
Darren TinkerEnvironmental Educator and Facilitator
Darren Tinker has a passion for plants and the way people interact with the natural environment. Coming from a horticulture and geography background, he discovered his passion for education and engaging people through environmental education while working as an educator at La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary and also in his time as an Environmental Programs Assistant at a private college. Darren enjoys volunteering with humanitarian and environmental organisations, participates in community projects and has a keen interest in Permaculture. Outside of CERES he also works as a gardener with the Diggers Club.
Donna Livermore
Donna LivermorePermaculture Design Course, and Gardening Workshop Facilitator
Donna Livermore is an educator, biologist, permaculture and gardening teacher and community activator. She is passionate about living a life of good health, sustainable abundance and with a strong connection to the environment and local community. Donna has an on-going commitment to school education through her work in sustainability and biodiversity education.

With chickens, worms and a productive food garden in the front yard of her suburban block, Donna is reimagining what it means to live a good life in the city and shares this with others in her local community and through her Instagram page ‘A Good Life in the City and Town’.

Ian Lillington
Ian LillingtonPermaculture Design Course Facilitator
Ian Lillington first studied permaculture in England in 1985 and then, while on a contract in Melbourne, met and worked with David Holmgren at CERES in 1989. Back in the UK in 1990 , he decided to do a PDC [a 14-day residential with Graham Bell and Nancy Woodhead]. In 1991 he attended advanced training with Bill Mollison, and edited Graham’s ‘Permaculture Way’ book and Patrick Whitefield’s ‘Permaculture In a Nutshell’. Since then Ian has been a contributor to Australian and UK permaculture journals. From 1992 until now Ian has taught PDCs in Australia, at CERES and 20 PDCs in his home town of Castlemaine; and with David Holmgren and Su Dennett in Hepburn Springs, and at the Food Forest, Gawler. He was also a guest on early PDCs at CERES around 1994.

In the early 2000s’ Ian wrote The Holistic Life – a book that is an intro to permaculture. In 2015-19 he was involved in the Green Education movement in Hong Kong, and at the Green School Bali, teaching a PDC there and teaching in Shanghai. Ian and his partner Marita designed and built a straw bale, energy-efficient home in central Victoria where they live a permaculture-inspired lifestyle, eating from their garden every day and creating a sanctuary for the bees, birds and lizards.

Ilka White
Ilka WhiteBraided Rugs, Natural Dyeing and Darning, Mending and Upcycling Workshops
Ilka White is an artist, designer and maker of textiles. Her work often responds to the forces at play within the natural world and reflects the principles of sustainability. She is a great believer in the ability of beauty and creativity to lift the spirit. An experienced teacher, Ilka’s popular classes also reflect her love of the handmade, and her contemporary use of traditional making methods.
Joel Meadows
Joel MeadowsPermaculture Design Course Facilitator
Joel Meadows is an environmental educator, energy auditor, building designer, sustainable transport consultant, illustrator, maker of things of steel and wood, grower, cooker and preserver of food, avid gardener and musician. Joel has studied Sculpture, Blacksmithing, Renewable Energy Technology and Permaculture, he has worked for private, government and not-for-profit organisations and runs the Green Hand Institute, offering permaculture education and product development from new forms of rocket stove to innovative beehives, from human-powered machines to biochar makers. Joel illustrated the second edition of David Holmgren’s ‘Principles’ book and ‘The Rocket Powered Oven’ e-book with Tim Barker.

Joel lives with his family on the fringe of Castlemaine – Central Victoria, in their owner built and designed passive solar straw bale home, where he continually works on his permaculture business, property and ideas. When not in the shed Joel can often be found in the garden, growing food, building hot compost piles, tending to the chooks or scything around the orchard trees. Joel is an avid bike rider and repairer, likes playing and making guitars, building furniture, blacksmithing and leather.

Justin Calverley
Justin CalverleyComplete Urban Farmer, Sustainable Gardening and Therapeutic Horticulture Faciltator
Justin Calverley is a horticulturalist and permaculturist with more than 20 years’ experience and will be the lead trainer for the Urban Farmer course. Justin has extensive knowledge and experience in permaculture, garden design, organic gardening and native bushfood plants. He specialises in edible gardens and is an expert in fruit tree cultivation and pruning.

For more than 10 years Justin has taught workshops at CERES in sustainable gardening and permaculture. Justin was a regular broadcaster on 3RRR’s ‘Dirty Deeds” and “Breakfasters”, is a presenter on Channel 31’s “The Garden Tap” and author of The Urban Farmer.

Kat Lavers
Kat LaversPermaculture Design Course Facilitator
Kat Lavers is a passionate gardener, permaculture designer and facilitator. She has taught permaculture in Australia and with nomadic herders and aid agency staff in Mongolia. In her former role at Cultivating Community she used a bobcat and 500,000 compost worms to compost café food waste in the City of Yarra. She currently coordinates the My Smart Garden program for Hobsons Bay City Council and offers freelance permaculture and gardening coaching and classes. Her award-winning house and garden, ‘The Plummery’, is a 1/14th of an acre urban permaculture system that produces almost all the veggies, herbs, fruit and eggs consumed (more than 350kg in 2016), as well as recycling all organic waste on-site and harvesting the majority of power and water used by the household. There is also a retrofitted light earth studio made from onsite clay and scavenged materials. Kat is a volunteer coordinator of Permablitz Melbourne.
Ken Hercott
Ken Hercott Sourdough Bread Workshop Facilitator
Ken Hercott grew up on a wheat farm in the Mallee, Victoria. He started baking at home using flour milled on farm, then took his passion to the US to work under Master baker Richard Bourdon, alongside Chad Robertson. Returning to Austalia, he then worked with John Downes (the legend of Australian sourdough) at Newrybar and then at the Natural Tucker Bakery. There he honed his skills using a wood fired oven. Ken’s passion for sourdough bread led him to Europe, where he baked and taught at Fattoria Barbialla Nuova, in Tuscany.
Kristen Allen
Kristen AllenCheese Workshop Facilitator
Kristen Allan is a pioneer, leader and respected authority in the cheese industry. Kristen has spent more than 17 years immersing herself in the techniques and flavours of the ancient art of cheese making.

Kristen’s cheese is in great demand, supplying the likes of Annie Smither’s restaurant Du Fermier, Ester, Fred’s and Aria and has been a regular stallholder for some years at Carriageworks. Her recipes have been featured in various food magazines and publications including Gourmet Traveller & Cornersmith’s cookbooks.

In 2018, Kristen was nominated for a Delicious Produce award, a testament to her philosophy of slow, carefully hand-crafted cheese, using only high quality ingredients. Her buttermilk ricotta has a cult-like following around Sydney and her cheese is revered Australia-wide.

Establishing herself in the echelons of the food world and as one of Australia’s leading cheese educators, she is a regular teacher at Daylesford Longhouse, Cornersmith and Moonacres cooking school.

Kristen is an accomplished speaker. One of her most prized achievements in 2018, when she was asked to present at the feminist talks and ideas festival ‘All About Women’, becoming the first person to make cheese at the Sydney Opera House.

Naabi Methe
Naabi MetheGarden Farmacy, and Fire Cider Tonic Making Workshop Facilitator
Naabi Methe is a degree qualified Naturopath and a registered member of the Naturopaths and Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA). She has been a committee member of Vic Herbs since 2016 and has volunteered with Hands on Health and the Fitzroy All Stars. As well as being a clinician, Naabi manufactures small batch vegan botanical skin care, medicinal teas and first aid products under the name of Common Garden Health; runs fermenting and home remedy workshops and blogs about herbal remedies and food as medicine. Her passion is the use of herbal medicine and food as medicine to achieve affordable and sustainably-optimal health outcomes, and believes that knowledge is power, and knowledge about sustainable health practices should be common knowledge and should be shared. It’s also really fun!
Taj Scicluna
Taj SciclunaThe Herbal Apprentice and Understanding Soils Facilitator, and Nature Based Leadership (guest speaker)
The Perma Pixie (Taj Scicluna) utilises Permaculture and Herbalism to remind those wishing for a deeper sense of purpose, that individual and collective action can generate change and reformat the current state of humanity. Taj is well versed in Permaculture Design, specialising in ornamental edible gardens that mimic natural systems for beauty and efficiency. Her journey has led her to facilitate social permaculture workshops, focusing on the awareness of the self and how we may integrate ourselves back into forms of community for a positive impact on the Earth’s systems and processes.