Thanks for checking out your local permaculture group. Our current committee are:
After a long interest in permaculture, Steve completed a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) in 2000 with David Holmgren & Fiona Buining. As part of his work on the founding committee of BREAZE, Steve called together the team that developed the original Ballarat-based PDC in 2009. This group was the core of the first BPG committee. Steve has had continuous roles on the BPG committee since and has been on the organising team of all but one of our PDC’s.
Steve manages the Ballarat Farmers Market, which operates on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays each month at Zoo Drive, Wendouree. He lives on Chestnut Farm, an 8 acre property on the edge of town. Steve is particularly keen on building with recycled materials, forest gardens and grafting heritage fruit trees.
Ellen is the co-founder and president of The Hidden Orchard, a volunteer group that is auspiced by BPG. They harvest fruit from private property and public land that would otherwise go to waste and redistribute it to the community through food relief charities.
Ellen is also the host and coordinator of Smart Living Ballarat, a free monthly workshop series delivered by BREAZE and sponsored by the City of Ballarat. Smart Living Ballarat covers different topics every month around living sustainably and lowering the cost of living.
When she's not working or volunteering, Ellen loves cooking, eating, travelling, hiking, camping and dancing at music festivals with her husband Michael.
Ellen is Steve's daughter, so has grown up with Permaculture. She also completed the Permaculture Design Course in 2021.
James has long been a fan of pottering in his garden and bushwalking amongst trees, but lockdowns through 2020-21 (fingers crossed not 2022...) provided an opportunity to further this interest by completing his Permaculture Design Course (2021) as well as a Diploma of Sustainable Living (online through UTAS). He's currently undertaking a sustainable renovation to his miner's cottage in Ballarat and hopes to use what he's learned to expand his garden and live a greener, more sustainable life.
James works in IT, undertaking data analysis and building reports for a national retailer. He loves getting into details, figuring out why things are the way they are, and probably consumes more news and analysis than is healthy (useful for quizzes though!).
As a father and husband with 3 children in primary and secondary school I think the permaculture ethics of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share are important for all people to ensure the next generation get to enjoy a more sustainable future.
We live on a small farm and have a range of animals and plants for both produce and lifestyle purposes including bees, sheep, horses and chickens as well as a wide range of perennial and annual plants. We are using permaculture principles and regenerative farming techniques to attempt to leave our small farm and surrounding community in a better place socially and ecologically than it was when we moved here.
“At the prime of my experiential life, I have a combination of scientific knowledge and practical experience to fullfil my life objectives of living sustainably, with nutritious food and in relative comfort whilst offering some of this back to my community through things like the Ballarat Permaculture Guild”
After working more than 30 years in public and private agriculture roles, René currently enjoys growing about ¾ of his fresh food from his food garden on a 1000 square metre block on a red ferrosol soil type (otherwise known as volcanic kraznozem soils) at Buninyong. He continues to use learnings from his participation in several agriculture industry conferences and training programs around food production and nutrition. I want to focus on low input, organic methods to grow food now.
René says his own-produced food is the best option for their family, not because of money savings, but because he thinks it is more nutritious than commercial produce when grown in biologically active soils he is focussed on. Lower greenhous gas-emitting food production is also strong driver. Everything is watered by a drip system that is from water collected off building roofs and pumped when the sun shines (from power collected from solar panels). The soil must be managed with nutrient and pH amelioration techniques to allow for growing food year round. Total area under food production, including fruit trees is more than 216 square metres.
Living sustainably, being connected to a vibrant permaculture community in the Ballarat area and sharing experiences and knowledge, perhaps over a coffee or a glass of red wine are my reasons for jumping out of bed each day.
Annie struggles writing about herself in third person, but she is curious and willing to give anything a go! This is what led her to join the Retro Suburbia book club in 2024, her first step in the world of permaculture and sustainability. That plus Annie has a great appreciation and love for Mother Earth. Annie’s purpose is to find ways to live lighter, more aligned and more connected to the world around her.
You will never find Annie because she will either be curled on a couch with her nose in one of five books she is reading, turning her compost and saying hi! To her worm friends or taking her beloved pets on long sniffaries down at Yarrowee Creek. But if you do spot her, please say hello! Actively choosing to keep her phone on ‘silent’, Annie prefers person to person interaction IRL (In Real Life). When she chooses to be social, Annie enjoys getting to know people, listening to their stories and finding out what lights them up. Annie currently works as a Youth Engagement Officer and loves working with, advocating for and mentoring young people. Her background is counselling and psychotherapy, hospitality, astrology and the art of not taking one’s self too seriously.
Her celebrity dinner guests would be Brene Brown, Ester Perel, Costa Georgiadis, Hannah Moloney and Cesar Milan. And she would cook up a gigantic Indonesian vegetarian feast!
After an initial introduction to permaculture from friends whilst studying Landscape architecture and Urban planning, Michael was properly introduced to Permaculture by his now wife and father-in-law. Making the move back to Ballarat in late 2020 and taking part in the BPG Permaculture Design Course in 2021 solidified an interest in Permaculture and its application to ourselves in the way we live and the places we inhabit. Michael enjoys getting into the details of how and why, forever researching and applying that knowledge to new projects.
Michael enjoys the outdoors, camping, hiking and mountain biking.
Professionally Michael works for a small local distillery, working in production and product development.