Australasian Permaculture Convergence 10 – Only One Month to Go!!

What: The Tenth Australasian Permaculture Convergence (APC10)
When: September 24 – 27, 2010 (and post-convergence tablelands tour Tuesday, September 28)
Where: In the heart of the rainforest, Kuranda, Far North Queensland
Costs: Here
Register: Here
Why: Coz it’ll be bloody awesome! Read on to see why!!!

You could spend $50,000 and the rest of your life visiting all these amazing people and seeing their projects, or a hundred dollars now to meet them all in the one place at the same time. – Sarah-Jane, Star APC10 Volunteer, talking with Cairns locals at the Sustainable Living Expo last weekend.

Only One Month to go! We are not booked out. But you must register now!

This is our last APC10 Update before the event, which we have come to realise is likely to be the most important gathering of permaculture minds. The key themes in this convergence will be transition initiatives, engagement with the mainstream and renewing our networks and movement’s structure. In our extensive correspondence with permi people world-wide, there is a call for permaculture to move away from the margin to become an effective and credible voice in the future of Australia’s planning and preparations for the changes that will come as a result of climate change, peak oil, economic pertubations, migration shifts, etc.

We have summarised our plenary presenters below but we have an impressive line-up of speakers from around the world – in all about 50 people. Our programme is a conventional conference style programme, but interaction, discussion, round tables and time-out to network are vital to the convergence’s success. We will be testing our capacity to skype in speakers from around Australia and the globe – doing so on a shoe-string budget with volunteers. The complete and final programme is on the website: www.apc10.org

This is not a big-league corporate event with money to burn, yet it has attracted the attention of some of the world’s most influential environmental philanthropists including our own Dick Smith and Sir Richard Branson who, though unable to attend, is very interested in the potential of permaculture. A couple of the Branson’s family members are coming to do the PDC and attending APC10. This is a statement about the credibility and reputability of permaculture and its transformational potential. This comes from the decades of very hard work put in by permaculture educators, business developers, community organisers who have been determined to make the principles and concepts of permacultue work in practice. We pay tribute to Bill and David, and the generations of people they trained, and feel honoured to be able to carry the mantle onwards.

APC10 would really not be possible if it wasn’t for our sponsors. We have built genuine personal relationships with each, and we thank them for their involvement in helping APC10 – bringing speakers from overseas, supporting registrations from developing countries, providing IT services, catering and staging, advertising and promotions, and of course, the venue itself. And also our volunteers and members of Permaculture Cairns who have never doubted what our small group can achieve and have thrown their all into making this a world-class, memorable, celebratory and professional event. We love each and every one of them.

So if you have not yet registered please do so without delay. Your attendance, at APC10, is vital.

Plenary Guest Speakers:

Major General Michael Jeffery, CEO, Outcomes Australia. One of the challenges Australia faces in the 21st century is that of making the transformation from old technologies used in our current, predominantly industrial, farming systems to the new reality that we need to be more ‘in tune’ with nature. In so doing, we need to recognise the new realities of climate change, such as more erratic rainfall, desertification of the landscape, degradation of our soils, the impact of a burgeoning population, the shrinking of the farm sector and the explosion in costs of petroleum based inputs on sustainable food production.

The philosophy of Permaculture advocates the need to work with nature rather than against it, and this goal complements of Outcomes Australia. Both recognise that water should be seen as our primary national strategic asset and managed accordingly and that restoration of the health of our soils is fundamental to the sustained productivity of our agricultural landscape.

Sonya Wallace and Janet Millington, Transition Towns. As part of Australia’s first Transition Initiative, Sonya and Janet delivered Australia’s very first Energy Descent Action Plan. Since then they’ve been working on a peak oil and climate change policy group for their local government authority, and have presented at national government conferences on Transition Towns, Energy Descent Action Planning and how permaculture can be successfully applied to communities and regions.

Gunter Pauli, ZERI – Skype from Belgium. Gunter Pauli is a passionate proponent of green development and a clean economy. In 1994, Mr. Pauli founded the Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives ZERI a network of 100 Universities around the world, developing pilot innovations that could change prevailing economical business models. A worldwide network of business systems and communities could create a hundred million jobs, establish social funds and guide economies and societies toward sustainable zero waste production.

Gunter Pauli’s Blue Economy promotes a business model that speaks to permaculture principles. In nature the output from every natural process provides an input for another. There is no waste. A business model that supports less waste and emissions should be established as a global standard. Solutions to problems that are elegant in their simplicity and striking in their effectiveness, demonstrate that a new economic model is feasible and permits innovation and creativity to identify possible paths towards a better future.

Bill Mollison, Co-founder of Permaculture & Geoff Lawton. Inspiring, authoritive, thoughtful and often ‘off the cuff’, Bill, Geoff and their families are visiting APC for 2 days of our 4 day convergence and will provide the Saturday evening keynote presentations.

Russ Grayson, Permaculture V3.0. Russ kicks off the Official Convergence on Sunday 26th encouraging the movement to self-reflect. He will ask us to consider some key questions about the effectiveness of permaculture as advocates for change and asks how does permaculture need to change to more fully engage in public and enlarge its influence? How dow we go about creating a new Permaculture 3.0?

Daryl Hannah, Environmental Campaigner, actor and permaculturalist, Gala Dinner Keynote Speaker. Daryl will come to APC fresh from gaining her design certificate with Darren J.Doherty, but she is not a permaculture novice. Attracted to simple living, sustainable housing design and wholistic management principles in agriculture, Daryl is one of the most down-to-earth celebrities on the planet. For her environmental activism in North America, she’s rated amongst the top three most influential American actors alongside George Clooney, Leonardo di Caprio and Brad Pitt. Daryl believes in using media focus on promoting ethical and progressive causes and has used her fame to draw attention to renewable energy, indigenous people’s rights, and food security issues. She’s humble and honoured to take a place within the permaculture movement and wants to understand how she can help promote, educate and progress its goals.

Mark O’Connor, Can Permaculture survive Population Growth? Australia is set for a population of 140 million by 2100. High density cities, where most Australians live, will leave little space for gardens and making permaculture a pipe-dream for many. Mark, co-author of Overloading Australia, shows how this push works, and how we can beat it.

David Holmgren, Final Keynote Speaker, Permaculture for the future; understanding the lineage and preparing for surprise (via Skype). In the final plenary of APC10 David Holmgren co-originator of the permaculture concept, draws on lessons from over three decades of permaculture thinking and activism to distill pointers for using ethics and design principles to surf the energy descent future (without being dumped by king waves). This will be an upbeat presentation that encapsulates how the next generation of permaculture activists can confidently and creatively face the cascading crises that are unfolding all around the world. In keeping with the theme of creatively adapting to the energy descent future, David will be giving his presentation via Skype from his home, Melliodora in central Victoria.

We’ll see YOU in September!

Warm Tropical Permi Blessings
The APC10 Organising team and volunteers