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Kambarang - Season of Birth

Second spring: October-November

Transformational time of year
Flowers abound

The lifestyle for the Nyoongar communities during Kambarang

During the Kambarang season, we see an abundance of colours and flowers exploding all around us. The yellows of many of the Acacias continue to abound, along with some of the Banksias and many other smaller delicate flowering plants including the Kangaroo Paw and Orchids. Also during this time the Balgas will also start to flower, especially if they've been burnt in the past year or closely shaved.

One of the most striking displays of flowers to be seen during this season will be the "Mooja", or Australian Christmas Tree (Nuytsia). The bright orang/yellow flowers serve to signal the heat is on its way.

For the animals, October is also the most likely time of the year that you'll encounter a snake as the reptiles start to awaken from their hibernation and look to make the most of the warm to assist them in getting enough energy to look for food. It's also a time that many young families of birds will be singing out for their parents to feed them. Koolbardies (Magpies) will also be out protecting their nests and their babies.

Many things are undergoing transformation with the warm change in the weather.

Longer dry periods accompany a definite warming trend.

For more information click here

Transforming the urban edge

The urban environment is full of edges, each with it’s own unique potential for transformation. This drawing shares some ideas for how to make productive use of a front yard in Tokyo. Espaliered fruit trees, container compost and garden beds, balcony gardens, vines to take advantage of roof space, a small water tank with potting bench above, propagating area, bike stand, herb gardens, vegetable beds and a ‘gift station’ for sharing excess produce, used books and crockery.

Illustration by Paul Kearsley from the Urban Permaculture Guide 始まる新しい生き方

Rural re-settlers

With the sacred Aboriginal mountain of Mumbulla in the background, the Bega Valley is at the edge of adaptive change. The Champagne family are among many people in the area who have made the change from city consumers to rural producers. While the agricultural production is initially small, the production systems are usually regenerative and often innovative. These smallholder settlers have had a big impact on the social capital and social structures of the area.

Photographed at Brogo Permaculture Gardens in Australia by David Arnold

(Sourced Information & Photograph) 

The New Economy Network Australia
Perth Hub Un-Convention

The Naval Store, Fremantle
Saturday 21 November, 10AM-4PM
During Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020 Nov 16th - 22nd

An event un-convened by NENA Perth Hub - The Gateway to New Economy Network Australia (NENA) in conjunction with Kommuniti, Enkel Collective and Galactic Cooperative.

The event will take place in The Naval Store in Fremantle and offer presentations, exhibitors, display stands and demonstrations by people and organisations working to build a new economy, focused on ecological health & social and economic justice.

There will also be food trucks and drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic)

AND... The 2020 New Economy Network Australia Annual Conference, “New Economy—Work in Progress” held online on the same weekend, will be LIVE streamed into the un-convention during the day, and we will be LIVE streamed back to say hello from WA.

Exhibitor and presenter topics

• Arts and Culture
• Circular Economy
• Cities and Urban Communities
• Community Wealth Building
• Cooperatives
• Democracy and Governance
• Doughnut Economics
• Education
• Energy
• First Nations Economics
• Food
• Health
• Housing
• Inner Dimensions and Healthy Cultures
• Just Transitions
• Law Reform and Legal Services
• Localisation
• Money and Local Currencies
• Rural and Regional Economies

Get Tickets HERE
 

Fair Harvest Festival of Forgotten Skills

Sunday November 29th 2020

'Turn water scarcity into abundance'

In November last year, I did something very stupid by the standards of contemporary social norms: I chose to do something the slow, hard way. I chose to cut an acre of grass with an old fashioned scythe. The experience ended up teaching me more than I expected and gave me an appreciation for doing things the hard, slow way. Our culture has become obsessed with speed and efficiency, along with flawless uniformity to such a great extent that to even suggest that things should be otherwise is to hint at madness or join plain stupidity. I can see the benefits of speed and efficiency, but I can see the downside of such an emphasis. When such an emphasis becomes and obsession (as it has!), it causes us to completely miss out on the alternate perspectives, and the many benefits that can accrue from doing things the hard, slow way.

On reasons NOT to do things the hard, slow way

Western culture’s obsession with doing things with speed, accuracy and efficiency is not unwarranted, and that perception arose in my mind whilst cutting the grass with a scythe. The scythe method of cutting grass is, in my experience slower and physically harder, despite the impression that may be given by social media.

Furthermore, I found my new Austrian scythe to not be well suited to Australian conditions. I think scything must have developed in homogenous fields of grass (e.g. wheat, barley, oats), whereas my field of grass was heterogenous including different types of grass and also several types of weeds. It was capable of slashing these varied types of grasses, but each one had a different degree of resistance to the blade, which made each stroke different in terms of how far it would cut. Also, despite the initial appearance of the ground being flat, I discovered that in fact the ground was slightly lumpy. A field that has been cultivated for crops is often deliberately made flat by those who farm it. But the ground I was on had only been used for grazing cattle, and was compacted clay that was uneven. Finally, I discovered that whilst most grass would be cut down in any one stroke, some blades of grass would simply bend and not be cut. This was worst in areas that were the least dense with grass. Even a fast stroke would only cause the grass to bend sideways, and then pop straight back up.

The Austrian scythe turned out to not be well suited to these conditions. It could do the work, but it was going to take a long time, and the result was going to leave a few isolated strands of grass standing after I had completed each section. According to my original perception of this matter, the scythe had been a failure and a waste of money. Doubt arose for a moment: maybe I should just give up and let the contractor with a tractor do it. We had already booked a contractor to come slash the grass with a tractor and special equipment. Why bother persisting with such a stupid, pointless waste of time?
 

The many benefits of scything the grass – doing things the hard, slow way

Upon reflection, scything the grass was not only achieving my original goal, but was going beyond that and teaching me new things.

Originally, I wanted a simple method of cutting the grass that would allow me to get exercise. I had used a brush cutter previously and found the process annoying. Firstly there was the process of putting it together and ensuring the plastic cutting twine was the right length (the latter part being something that had to be done repeatedly when slashing a large area of grass). Carrying it around was heavy after a time, even whilst wearing the shoulder straps, and it was obnoxiously noisy, even when wearing ear protection. Slashing grass with a scythe was simple. It took less than a minute to sharpen the blade and then I was on to the job. The job was quiet, and the rhythmic motion was relaxing. And I really did get a good physical work out. I found the task was particularly good for the abdominal muscles. I think when all these fitness junkies find out about how great scything is for the abs that they’ll all be throwing away their lawn mowers in favour of an old-fashioned scythe! Which is a funny notion, thinking of all the fitness junkies in their yoga pants and gym sneakers outside cutting grass with a scythe, but it does point to a silly thing that Westerners do: we spend money on any number of labour saving devices which make us more sedentary, and therefore prone to lifestyle-related chronic diseases (like diabetes and heart disease). Then those who decide to get fit pay even more money for a gym membership so they can get fit! Looked at this way, scything the grass no longer seems so stupid. Here was a way to not only achieve a set goal (slashing the grass), but to get fresh air and fitness in the process.

In addition to the fitness, going slowly and mindfully over the land helped me to observe it closely and understand it better. I could see the unevenness of the compacted clay-like soil and the many different species of grass. I understood the prevailing winds and the gentle sloping to the east where the rain would run-off to. All of this was helping me to read the landscape which will be useful when my wife and I begin growing our garden. So often in Australia (and no doubt in other Western countries) there is zero regard for place when it comes to establishing buildings and gardens. As a consequence stupid decisions are made in relation to things like the direction of the sun, so buildings are made that are too hot or too cold and require more air conditioning, which further wastes resources. Gardens are planted with no thought of sunlight, but also natural patterns of drainage, which means more irrigation is required. The art of gardening has been lost for most modern people which I find deeply saddening, as it brings so many benefits beyond the plants themselves (especially in regards to physical and mental health). As I started out on this new gardening adventure on this old piece of land, I felt healthy and at ease, and I could see many creative possibilities as a I slowly made my way through the grass.

However, there was still the problem that the result wasn’t as neat as cutting with a mechanised tool. Strands of grass were left behind all over the place. Surely this was a sign of failure? Then it occurred to me that this was perhaps an ideal outcome. I was cutting the grass in the first place because of requirements to do with fire prevention in my local area. But I wanted the grass to grow again the next year, and for that some seeds would need to fall on the ground to grow next season’s grass. And here it was standing in sparse strands in front of me.

So slow down, relax, and observe the world around you…

There’s a place for doing things with speed and efficiency. But in our society which has become obsessed with speed and efficiency we’ve begun to take the approach regardless of the cost, even when that cost is our physical and mental well-being. Furthermore, we’re losing the tendency – even the ability – to do things slowly: to observe, to learn from a place and time, and to develop wisdom. And it’s these qualities that are amongst the qualities most in need in our human world today.

Do you want to start a new Permaculture Group?

Remember if you create a new Permaculture Group or Community Garden we would LOVE to hear from you and keep our records up to date together with provide you with opportunities like insurance and the like for your events just by being members of Permaculture West - plus we give 50% of your membership funds back to you to purchase necessary equipment to get you going.  So reach out! info@permaculturewest.org.au 

Crowdfunding for Pip Magazine on Pozible

 
To do this Pip will need to:

• employ more staff to help manage the production processes

• create a larger base of expert contributors who will ensure Pip presents relevant and well-researched content across all of its platforms

• invest in technology that will move Pip forward in the ever-evolving digital space.

The crowdfunding campaign is live until the end of the month and we would love your support!

Do you own and operate a Permaculture based farm or Organic or Biodynamic Farm in Western Australia?  Are you looking to connect with upskilled and passionate Permaculture enthusiasts with the opportunity for work?  or farm-stay work opportunities in exchange for meals and accomodation?  Permaculture West want to connect you in 2020!

Send us an email to info@permaculturewest.org.au and provide us with a short summary on what you are looking for either employees or employment and we will do our best to assist you and feature you in our next eNews, Facebook and Website.