Day four permaculture design certificate and we were out and about taking in the local (permy) sites. that meant a visit to four places, in various stages of permaculture implementation - from old timers like Chris and Bev... to stalwarts Bill and Carol.... the legendary Harry Black and then off to a new venture in Tilba Tilba....
Chris and Bev Frank's place (just up the road from 'the crossing')...
Chris and Bev have been pioneers in the district in numerous fields - mohair, meat rabbits, free range meat chickens... but perhaps this doggie is their greatest legacy - Chris and Bev are noted maremma sheepdog breeders (there's one helping out the group now...)
It was so lovely to visit the farm - I have been here years ago (waaaaaay back in the 1990s) and have known the Franks family since the 1970s. Chris speaks with great passion for the land and life on the farm... he's the real deal and a real character!
After a nice cuppa it was time to get the group on the road again....
Into Bermagui township and Bill and Carol Broadhead's 'urban' permaculture vegie garden....
Bill is another tremendous character... and another face from the past - waaaaaay back in the early 1980s, when Bill moved to the area with his family, he was my judo instructor (during my brief flirtation with the sport). Gosh this was turning out to be a trip down memory lane!
Bill is passionate about growing your own food free of icky stuff (pesticides, herbicides), and creatively responding to climate change and all the challenges ahead. His garden was an absolute inspiration (and I scored an invitation to return anytime to gather some seeds/cuttings/grand tales)
(ps that's our intrepid permy course leader above - John Champagne.... ) At Fairhaven (just a few kms out of Bermagui) Harry Black, a retired scientist and explorer (for lack of a better way of describing this extraordinary man), established a sub-tropical orchard in the 1980s.... Harry's garden is a thing of wonder - with custard apples, bananas, sapotes, and many other subtropical species that it's thought impossible to grow on the far south coast of NSW....
I meet Harry in the early 1990s - he was a constant at little markets around the area - I always seemed to be heading home with fruits of all types (he also grew amazing heritage-variety tomatoes). And the tales he told of some of his adventures (Harry ventured to the Antartic twice and led expeditions to the Himalayas) made every trip to the tiny markets he frequented an adventure....
Harry passed away in July.... so I found the sight of his hats on their pegs really quite poignant....
Harry's house and garden will be sold sometime in the next year and his amazing orchard may be lost forever (already many of the stone fruit in the orchard have died in the extended dry period.... and without supervision and loving attention its survival is on the line) Harry's family has given permission for folk (like the local permaculture peeps) to collect matter from the orchard to graft/strike new stock to at least keep some of his genetics in the area should the orchard be 'dozed under...
ahhhh me
Last stop for the day was a new and developing garden beside the highway at Tilba Tilba....
don't you just love the view to Najanuga - the rock formation in the background there.....
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