Posts in Landscape restoration
Permaculture - a different kind of farming

Have you heard about permaculture?
Do you know what it is?
I will admit that when living in Griffith, NSW in the late 1980s - early ‘90s we converted the garden and lawn of our suburban block to a permaculture garden. It must have given the neighbours something different to talk about.

To help clear up any potential misunderstandings you have we are speaking with Lachlan Storrie, who runs a business around the lower Hunter Valley in NSW called Treefrog Permaculture.

Permaculture garden in foreground with ‘normal’ suburban block next door.



Lachlan proud of his bananas in Newcastle, NSW.

Wikipedia definition

Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principles in fields such as regenerative agriculture, town planning, rewilding, and community resilience. Permaculture originally came from "permanent agriculture" but was later adjusted to mean "permanent culture", incorporating social aspects. The term was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, who formulated the concept in opposition to modern industrialized methods instead adopting a more traditional or "natural" approach to agriculture.


Permaculture is also good for wildlife.

Are you edible? Feathered dinosaur looking for food.

Coffee berries

Blueberries almost ready for picking

Australian sandalwood - under threat but it could have a rosy future

Australian sandalwood fruit. Image: M.Fagg

What do you know about sandalwood?

Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) has been exploited since the 1850s and now there are major concerns that the wild stocks of this once widespread small tree are in serious decline with next to no natural recruitment due to drought, grazing by feral and domestic animals and fires. Australian sandalwood is now considered to be vulnerable to extinction in the wild.

There is evidence that harvesting of wild stocks continues to be problematic.

Can plantation grown Australian sandalwood be the answer?

Listen to this interview with Dr Geoff Woodall, one of the founders of farmed sandalwood to learn more.

 
 
 

Dr Geoff Woodall, Native Plant Agronomist, with one of his cultivated sandalwood trees.

Distribution of Australian sandalwood (S. spicatum). Source: Atlas of Living Australia

Geoff Woodall with a 20 year old ‘farmed’ sandalwood tree.

 

The Wilderness Society says the new annual sandalwood harvesting quota is six times higher then what is considered a sustainable level.(Supplied: Wilderness Society)

Sandalwood oil is used in soap, detergents, deodorant, perfume and cosmetics manufacture.

Gondwana Link, global carbon and restoring landscapes
Keith Bradby, Gondwana Link wants to restore landscapes and the carbon stored will be additional to other benefits.

Gondwana Link - sustainable landscapes boost carbon storage

The topic of carbon is getting more and more mainstream. Recently Clint Jasper from Radio National’s “A Country Breakfast” interviewed Professor Jacqueline McGlade, from Downforce Technologies about her company’s satellite technology for estimating soil carbon. The Professor even had a piece in ‘The Australian’.

Also Robin Williams’ ‘The Science Show’ had an extensive program on the best methods to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

This interview is with Keith Bradby a lifelong avid reader and curious prober at the mysteries of life.

He received an Order of Australia in 2015 and an Excellence in Natural Resource Management Award in 2005.

He has run a beekeeping and native seed business, consulted to the mining sector and worked in local enterprise development.  He even worked for three state cabinet ministers across both side of politics.

He has also consulted to emerging landscape efforts in New Zealand, southern Africa and Mexico, and is helping to establish EcoHealth programs in Australia and New Zealand and is the Chief Executive Officer, Gondwana Link Ltd as well as being involved in a heap of other organisations as well.

Gondwana Link has reconnected country across south-western Australia, from the wet forests in the southwest corner to the dry woodlands and mallee bordering the Nullarbor Plain, in which ecosystem function and biodiversity are restored and maintained.

For more information on Gondwana Link - https://gondwanalink.org/ Image: Ula Majewski



Yarrabee in 2006 prior to restoration works. The property purchase was made possible through an initial funding contribution from Wesfarmers, and is owned by Greening Australia. A different mix of funding enabled the restoration plantings. Yarrabee is a critical property adjoining Stirling Range National Park where this section of the completed Link will eventually connect with the park. Image: Amanda Keesing

Same view in 2019, 13 years after the start of the project. Image: Blair Parsons