http://www.eepo.com.au/perma/pawa/ -- Lawrence F. London, Jr. - Venaura Farm - Chapel Hill, NC, USA mailto:london@sunSITE.unc.edu http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGarden mailto:llondon@nuteknet.comTitle: PAWA
Permaculture Association of Western Australia
PO Box 430, Subiaco WA 6008
Telephone: 417 2274 Fax: 295 4627
Email: pawa@perma.eepo.com.au
The Association exists to promote Permaculture in WA. Among our regular activities are monthly meetings, field days, workshops and design exercises.
Before the formal meetings, you are invited to access the resources available. Feel free to borrow books and magazines from our extensive library. You can visit the produce tables where people offer excess produce to members. At the bookstall there is a range of literature for sale. On the members information table you will find pamphlets, membership forms and information about permaculture courses that are being offered.
There is a Seed Trading and Plant Resource Network. This allows you to take seeds on the understanding that when you collect next generation seeds, you will make some available to members by returning them, properly labelled, to the seedbank. Members who manage the Network will advise how to label your seeds correctly and how you can become involved in the Plant Resource aspect of the Network.
Committee members are identifiable by their green name badges at meetings. Please direct any questions to them. Assistance in setting up and clearing away chairs and tables at meetings is appreciated. The tea and coffee is available free of charge and you are welcome to stay for a chat and a cuppa.
The Groups Co-ordinator can give you a contact phone number for the group near you, or assist you in setting up your own group (see leaflet in Induction Package).
These groups are a great way to learn and to get help in developing your property. Informal exchange and friendships develop in local groups. Special Interest groups focus on particular topics:- Villages, Housing, Alternative energy sources, Permaculture in schools, Remote Area and Overseas Outreach. Contact the Groups Co-ordinator if you wish to join one of these groups or start up another group.
Requests for specific workshops which you would like the Association to offer should be submitted in writing to the Committee or placed in the Suggestion Box at meetings. You can even manage a PAWA sponsored workshop yourself by presenting your idea and organising a group of 20 members or more who wish to participate.
The course covers the topics set out in the curriculum of the standard 72 hour course which is used as the international framework for teaching Permaculture.
These are offered for people wishing to increase their design and teaching skills. Advanced Courses are only available to those people who have undertaken the Permaculture Design Course (Certificate).
This learning can gain you a Diploma in Permaculture. You simply submit a record of the practical work done over a two year period, after your PDC, to the Permaculture Institute at Tyalgum, NSW.
Diplomas can be awarded in any one or more of the following subjects:-
PAWA offers reimbursement of costs (up to $50 in each instance) to those who initiate a membership drive in local areas, to form a local group under the umbrella of PAWA.
A mobile library of 10 selected permaculture books will be available for distribution by mail or courier to country groups for a period of 2-3 months at a time. It will be the responsibility of the groups to see that there is 100% return of the books.
PAWA will also develop 20 book kits comprising the Designer Manual and 2 or 3 other books which will be distributed, as requested, to local groups and country people living in isolated situations.
Local Groups are encouraged to report their activities in the Newsletter as their projects may act as a catalyst for others' groups in developing their own activities. Correspondents are sought from country groups to write articles for the newsletter and, if sufficient articles can be produced, a special country edition could be published annually.
For assistance in initiating or contacting an existing group, contact the Groups Co-ordinator whose name is published on the inside cover of the PAWA Newsletter. Otherwise mail or fax your request to the Association.
An enthusiastic Permie can become frustrated, trying to keep up with techniques, knowledge, what works and what doesn't in any one of the many areas that are considered ???? in permaculture. ???? food production, processing, storage, building design, managing small animals, agroforestry, tree crops, ethical investment, bioregionalism, community development, social equity, radical economics, and the list goes on.
An answer is to 'work-net' in small groups and find others who are dealing with a similar issue. The fundamental premise of a special interest group is that you will do better at something if you find someone else to share the work, the agony and the joy.
To find others who share your interest, you simply place a notice in the newsletter which tells others of your interest and ask them to make contact. When a group is formed please advise the Groups Co-ordinator whose name is published on the inside cover of the newsletter. The Co-ordinator can then advise others who to contact to join a particular group.
Remote Area and Overseas Outreach for those interested in the training, funding and co-ordination of permaculture aid projects.
Pattern Language for those interested in principles put forward by Christopher Alexander et al (1977) in the book A Pattern Language.
Perma-tek for those interested in developing high mileage carburettors, hydrogen power and over-unity motors.
Urban Village Group for the purpose of assisting members who wish to live in or develop such communities or villages.