Wooroloo fire ravages new food forest

What Phil dreaded happened when the recent Wooroloo fire ravaged through the food forest he’d started in May last year. 

Philip East, who returned to Perth last year after spending several years teaching about sustainable farming and developing food forests and organic gardens in an impoverished village in Indonesia, has spent the last year seeking to be a good house husband making sourdough, yoghurt, sauerkraut, kombucha and kimchi while developing a food forest on degraded land in Gidgegannup.

‘When it was evident April last year that my trips to Nepal and Indonesia were not going to happen due to Covid-19, I decided to put effort into developing a food forest here in Perth just as I’d done in Indonesia,’ Phil explained. ‘Using land on a nephew’s property I set to work developing swales on contour, digging deep holes and filling them with organic matter, planting appropriate fruit and nut trees, and putting a fence around the 2000 square metre site.’

All was progressing well with trees and vegetables growing. He even obtained a yield of nectarines, figs, cabbages, cauliflower, zucchini, tomatoes – and numerous melons and pumpkins were ready to pick. However, nature had other ideas.

‘I’d been notified early afternoon 1 February by my nephew, Joe, that fire was on the way. We kept in Facebook contact with Joe and via a fire tracking website could see the fire getting closer. Then, ominously Joe went off line – and the website showed his block had been engulfed by the fire,’ Phil said recounting the situation. 

Soon photos and videos came through. Fortunately, Joe had been able to save his house, nearby shed and food forest. However, the news from the lower end of the block was terrible. Once it was safe to tour his block Joe drove down to his timber yard to see thousands of dollars of logs burning and machinery on fire (his business had already been setback by Covid, now it was up in flames, literally). As he drove further it became evident that Phil’s food forest that previously had 40 healthy trees and a variety of vegetables had been wiped out by the fast moving fire. Only charred remains of fruit trees, pumpkins and zucchini were left. All the carefully laid reticulation piping destroyed. All the swales covered with organic material now naked. 

‘I was shattered; I was speechless. Numb. Everything had gone up in smoke and there was nothing I could do.’

Using permaculture zone terminology, Philip explained that his nephew had protected the priority zones: 0, 1, 2 – house and nearby shed and gardens. However, Phil’s zone 3 project, rightly, was not the priority.

‘Joe’s garden is one year more advanced than mine with the tagasaste and other leafy shrubs providing protection for the fruit trees from embers and the extensive ground cover limiting the spread of fire. Also, wide firebreaks associated with the house limited fire access to the food forest and Joe was able to put out the spot fires as they appeared.’

Sadly, Phil had numerous shrubs growing at his northern suburbs house that were going to form a firebreak around his garden. He was planning to implement fire reduction insights gained from permaculture experts David Holmgren and Charles Otway. Also, with family and friends he was planning to get dorper sheep to keep the grass down around the food forest and timber yard. However, this time nature beat him!

Phil has been encouraged by the emotional and practical support offered by members of both the Permaculture Perth and Perth Hills Permies Facebook groups with many offering replacement shrubs and trees – and even to come and help restore the site. If you have an edible tree or two you could spare or shrubs suitable for a firebreak please email Phil at philipweast@gmail.com or sms 0400 466 988. 

In the future Phil will share lessons learnt from his experience along with those of his nephew Joe – and how he overcomes the current devastation and progresses with his Gidge food forest adventure.

Rosemary Morrow has received the Order of Australia Medal, boosting permaculture recognition in wider society.

Since then she has taught it to thousands of people, both in Australia and overseas, including in Vietnam after the war, Cambodia after Pol Pot and East Timor after the Indonesian occupation.

She has taught farmers and villagers in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kurdistan and in more recent times worked with communities, including refugees, in Afghanistan, India, Bali and Italy

Candlelight Farm Sale

Permaculture West's Facebook Posting Guidelines
 

This purpose of sharing this information is so that all members are aware of what is appropriate to post on our Facebook Page to promote permaculture knowledge and events as well as Permaculture West as an institution, who can offer members access to this platform to advertise relevant content. Please contact us if you would like us to post something on our Facebook page. 

1.0 APPROPRIATE CONTENT

1. All content has to conform to the Constitution and work towards our objectives as set out in the Constitution.

2. No advertising will be allowed on the Permaculture West FB page. This does not include paid courses of permaculture or strongly related content that will be interesting to our members. 

3. Paid courses can be posted once or twice when a reasonable time-frame has passed as determined by the responsible committee member (i.e. no repeated spamming of the same course). While the committee member responsible for marketing will endeavour to find and post courses, it is ultimately the responsibility of the course provider to ask Permaculture West to post the course.

4. No content that is offensive or discriminating in nature can be posted.

2.0 EXAMPLES OF APPROPRIATE CONTENT

1. Permaculture and sustainability events and courses happening in Western Australia

2. Permaculture West notices (e.g. AGM, stalls at festivals, call for volunteers)

3. Appropriate local notices by government agencies (e.g. biosecurity info from Department of Agriculture)

4. Notices of related sustainability organisations that could interest our audience (e.g. Transitions Towns, Organic Grower’s Association).

5. General Permaculture knowledge (e.g. how to grow things, seasonal information, building information)

6. Memes, jokes, quotes etc can be appropriate when their content clearly relates to permaculture and can be interpreted as working towards our objectives (e.g. food growing jokes, World Naked Gardening Day announcement).

7. Music videos on permaculture related topics (e.g. Charlie Mgee’s music)

8. Permaculture job offers, internships and other work opportunities in Western Australia.

9. Selling posts have to be permitted on an individual basis depending on their content and purpose. Private sale of established permaculture properties for example is generally allowed, sale through agents can be allowed if deemed suitable. Financial members can post private sales for free, agents or non-members for a donation of minimum $30 to Permaculture West. Selling of items should generally be directed to the Permaculture Buy & Sell Western Australia page, but can be allowed if there is good reason.

Bunuru—season of adolescence

Second summer: February-March

Coast living and fishing time.

The lifestyle for the Nyoongar communities during Bunuru

Bunuru is the hottest time of the year with little to no rain. Hot easterly winds continue with a cooling sea breeze most afternoons if you're close to the coast. Therefore, traditionally this was, and still is, a great time for living and fishing by the coast, rivers and estuaries. Because of this, freshwater foods and seafood made up major parts of the diet during this time of year.

Bunuru is also a time of the white flowers with lots of white flowering gums in full bloom, including Jarrah, Marri and Ghost Gums.

Another striking flower that is hard to go past is the female Zamia (Macrozamia riedlei). Being much larger than that of its male counterpart, the huge cones emerge from the centre of the plant with masses of a cotton wool like substance.

As the hot, dry weather continues the seed upon the cones change from green to bright red, indicating they're ripening and becoming more attractive to animals, particularly the emu, that will eat the toxic fleshy outer.

Heat people not the space

Thermal mass can be heated by the sun or on demand using systems like this rocket mass heater. The masonry holds hundreds of times more heat than air, storing it for longer, and releasing it at safe temperatures to keep people warm. This design incorporates a rocket stove and flue running through the masonry. Careful design and construction ensures that the small amount of fuel used is burnt hot and clean, while heat is soaked into the mass.
Photo by Calen Kennett, heater by Ernie and Erica Wisner

2021 Hemp Building Symposium

Fremantle Sailing Club
Saturday 20th March.

February 8, 20216:30 pm – 8:00 pm

What should you eat to be healthy?
Join best-selling author Michael Pollan on a fascinating journey to answer the question of what to eat for good health.

Cutting through confusion and busting myths and misconceptions, In Defense of Food shows how common sense and old-fashioned wisdom can help us rediscover the pleasures of eating and avoid the chronic diseases so often associated with the modern diet.

February 13, 2021 from 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Join the team from Ecoburbia to learn about sustainable food gardening at home.

PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS A FOUR PART COURSE. ONE SESSION IS HELD ON THE LONG WEEKEND (FEB 27th)

Join the team from Ecoburbia to learn about sustainable food gardening at home at our four part course with workshops covering:

-Making and using great compost
-Making and filling a garden bed
-Basic food gardening
-Preserving the harvest.

The course includes hands-on learning and a trip to the Duncraig Edible Garden.
Cost is $15 ($5 for Concession) and registrations are essential as places are limited.

For further information contact Ecoburbia on 0417 941 991 or ecoburbia@gmail.com

Restoration Agriculture – Real-Word Permaculture for Farmers

by Mark Shepard

Most current permaculture books focus on fruit and vegetable production for small-scale permaculture systems. While these are important, I found it extremely interesting to read Restoration Agriculture, with its focus on large-scale production of bulk calories by farmers. Shepard’s critique on the common permaculture approach is that it isn’t going far enough. If we produce our vegetables and fruit in sustainable or even regenerative perennial systems, but still derive the bulk of our calories from annual grains like wheat, rice and corn, we will never regenerate enough farm land to prevent catastrophic climate change and ecosystem collapse.

Shepard shows how the majority of carbohydrates, proteins and oils needed to feed us can be grown regeneration on the same amount of farmland currently under production and how much more potential is available on degraded land which is currently wasted. He promotes savannah-style agroforestry systems with the majority of calories coming from tree-based crops and animals. His calculations and nutrient tables are impressive and he is proving the system works on his own commercial 106-acre farm.

More books like this one are needed to provide case studies of working systems and prove that permaculture works on large-scale farming properties intended to make an income from farming. Restoration Agriculture is a North-American book, but the principles and practises Shepard promotes are appropriate worldwide. 

Book review by Martina Hoeppner

Grow It Local

Grow It Local was first brought to life in 2012. It was a ‘crowd farming’ initiative that started in Sydney which generated lots of interest and was a lot of fun. At this time, it was just a small team and Sydney's Three Blue Ducks restaurant. The Grow It Local mission is to help more locals grow, share and eat locally grown food.

Local growers were invited to put their patch on the map and donate some home grown produce in each exchange to a crowd farmed growers feast at Three Blue Ducks in Bronte. The Ducks transformed the locally grown produce into a mind-blowing feast enjoyed by all.

The ‘crowd farming’ idea caught on and Remo Guiffre of TEDx and food extraordinaire Jill Dupliex had an outrageous idea to crowd farm for 2,200 people at the Opera House. The results exceeded all expectations. Have a look at the TEDx Crowd Farmed by Grow It Local video here

Have a look at the website, there are already a large number on the map in Western Australia.

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 

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 2021!

Send us an email to news@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. To feature you in our next eNews please send your details by the end of the month.

Mason is looking for a permaculture opportunity

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