Permaculture Design Course (PDC)

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.

Kat Lavers is a small space food gardening specialist with a background in permaculture design, teaching and facilitation. She has a breadth of training experience working with residents and local government as well as refugee communities, aid agency staff and even Mongolian nomadic herders. Her award-winning house and garden, ‘The Plummery’, is a 1/14th acre urban permaculture system that produces almost all the vegies, herbs, fruit and eggs consumed (more than 450kg in 2020), as well as recycling all organic waste on site and harvesting the majority of power and water used by the household. When she’s not teaching permaculture and organic gardening, Kat designs community gardens and urban agriculture projects with local councils and communities.

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. She 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.

Taj Scicluna, ‘the Perma Pixie’, is a passionate and motivated little Sprite who aims to inspire and educate people to live more nourishing and sustainable lifestyles using Permaculture, Awareness and Compassion! Through Passionate Permaculture Education and Sustainable Services such as Permaculture Design and the creation of Delicious Ornamental Edible Gardens, The Perma Pixie aims to nurture diversity and protect ecology through harbouring healthy and resilient communities and ecosystems.

Monique Miller is a conservation and land management professional, Permaculture teacher, workshop facilitator and avid gardener. Monique came to Permaculture via a Philosophy/Arts degree and a year spent overseas. To Monique, Permaculture is the toolbox with which we can tackle the issues of a late-capitalist world. Monique completed her first PDC in Portugal (2012) and second at CERES in 2016. Since, she has been building veggies gardens, growing food at home, getting on Gardening Australia, attending 3 International Permaculture Convergences, learning more about applying Permaculture to life design, teaching edible weeds & fermentation workshops at CERES and facilitated the PDC from 2017-2019. She is passionate about harnessing the energy of & guiding new PDC graduates, social permaculture, and self-study. You can follow Monique at Monique Eve Miller on Instagram & Facebook.