About Us
20 years since I quit work (what others would call a Good Job) to be a fulltime Permie so begins our latest phase for Telopea Mtn Permaculture & Nursery has begun with Dean taking over the Monbulk Nursery 1st April 2022, this means Silvia and I can spend more time up at new farm in NE VIC but we will be back regularly at Monbulk to keep up maintenance of collection and picking BD fruit, we will run the advanced fruit tree classes in the classroom there, Kushala (day) is running PDC classes in the Monbulk classroom
We hope to base our new nursery on Myrtleford Market and fill tree orders for designs
OUR INTERN PROGRAM contin ues in 2022 FOR THOSE WHO HAVE COMPLETED OUR PDC
this link takes you to the document about the program and has the application form as well.
intern_2021_v1.2_application_form.docx
How our Permaculture journey began In 1994, after 8 years traveling around the state living on small rural properties in country towns we purchased this place in Monbulk/Olinda on the East of the hills above Melbourne Australia. First settled & established in 1893 the property grew berries until 1940’s it had been a cut flower farm since 1907 with deep red loam soils and a water right to the creek as the bottom, the aspect is Nth Nth East with good established trees throughout. The property was in one family until 1989 and went through changes in crops including growing peas & beans, daffodils, plum & Nectarine trees, Valottas and more, it had a chance to rest from being tilled from 1960 to 1989 so it just regenerated.
The first thing we needed was adequate fencing to house our well loved Rare Breed Animals and Poultry, these help manage the Heritage orchard, the fire risk and they supply raw ingredients for our Biodynamic composting.
Silvia and I are interested in so many areas that we don’t have time to be experts in one single field, our yearly travels and living in 4 different geographic locations within the state of Victoria have increased our practical skills, particularly in small scale systems for animals and fruit & veggies.
This has resulted in us running our own courses in animal husbandry, organic growing and design. we also ended up being involved and leaders of local & state community groups.
In 2002 Peter quit what some would call a good job to become a full time Permie.
Now in our 2010 update we have since purchased some extra govt land adjacent to us, mostly all bush, other things have also changed such as the opening of a Nursery selling 700 varieties of fruit trees, completion of renovations to existing buildings such as our 100 year old shed to 2 classrooms one for cheese, wine making and other food classes while the other has many varied classes from Permaculture Design Certificates, soils & compost and now Biodynamics.
The collection has grown to over 1000 heritage fruits varieties mainly due to the Government closing down their Govt collections so we have felt compelled to save these for the future of all Australians.
Update 2015: after attending the recent APC 12 conference on permaculture in Tassie, I found listening to a presentation by Robin Francis – one of the inducted elders of PC at this event, that the year we began our Permaculture Project here at Telopea Mtn happens to be the same year as most of the Big well known ones such as Djanbung Gardens and Tagari all of which celebrated 20 years last year. 3 New netted enclosures now total about 1 acre protecting most of our fruit and reducing the workload even further as they are managed by poultry ( 2 sets per system) who do most mowing and pest control while the crops are protected from the birds that have been our main pest, they also exclude the possums and in future the bats as they extend their territories out of Melbourne.
Update 2021: this year just to add to the Covid complications of running classes and fruit tree business Peter had a stroke and was recovering well when a small heart attack sent him back to hospital for 5 bypass surgery, recovery has been slow and by Feb 2022 all clear for the new grafts and all valves not leaking means a build up of workload to full recovery by end of 2022 BUT things have to change so the nursery will be taken over on 1st April 2022 by Dean from Twin Hives Permaculture our fantastic netted enclosure builder, then PDC are being handed over to Kushala who already took on the Kinglake PDC, these will all run thru the classroom on farm at Telopea Mtn Monbulk. Liga will also run the first night PDC there too since 2014
Update 2022: Silvia and I have Purchased a new farm over 40 acres of hills in a small valley NE Vic between Bright & Mt Beauty, this has been undergoing a PC make over for 3 years with new Barn, netted enclosures and full re-fence of the past 20 acre dedicated to a Deer farm paddocks, more than 1/2 the place is bush backing onto alpine national park, new fencing thru the 2 acre house area and upgrades to the internal roadways all now lined with new trees plus massive new 3 tier veggie and garden areas, water has increased to 700kl of fresh spring well water in tanks at altitude for pressure for irrigation and fire if needed. soil improvements and stock rates have seen it go from stones to good green grass in 3 years, re-grafting & planting of our fruit collection has begun with 600 or so vars moving to this new farm for scion and tree making for a smaller version of our nursery. we are between properties for a few years still with peter holding fruit classes at Monbulk and doing some subjects for the PDC held there. 3 Solar systems are now installed with batteries ( shed 8kw with 15kw battery is off grid so is one of the house ones) these mean we have no elect bills or water ones too but have full autonomy of these essential services also Silvia's vehicles on farm are now EV with most of Peters tools are battery as well. these savings can be invested in more world resource saving technology in future.
We hope to base our new nursery on Myrtleford Market and fill tree orders for designs
OUR INTERN PROGRAM contin ues in 2022 FOR THOSE WHO HAVE COMPLETED OUR PDC
this link takes you to the document about the program and has the application form as well.
intern_2021_v1.2_application_form.docx
How our Permaculture journey began In 1994, after 8 years traveling around the state living on small rural properties in country towns we purchased this place in Monbulk/Olinda on the East of the hills above Melbourne Australia. First settled & established in 1893 the property grew berries until 1940’s it had been a cut flower farm since 1907 with deep red loam soils and a water right to the creek as the bottom, the aspect is Nth Nth East with good established trees throughout. The property was in one family until 1989 and went through changes in crops including growing peas & beans, daffodils, plum & Nectarine trees, Valottas and more, it had a chance to rest from being tilled from 1960 to 1989 so it just regenerated.
The first thing we needed was adequate fencing to house our well loved Rare Breed Animals and Poultry, these help manage the Heritage orchard, the fire risk and they supply raw ingredients for our Biodynamic composting.
Silvia and I are interested in so many areas that we don’t have time to be experts in one single field, our yearly travels and living in 4 different geographic locations within the state of Victoria have increased our practical skills, particularly in small scale systems for animals and fruit & veggies.
This has resulted in us running our own courses in animal husbandry, organic growing and design. we also ended up being involved and leaders of local & state community groups.
In 2002 Peter quit what some would call a good job to become a full time Permie.
Now in our 2010 update we have since purchased some extra govt land adjacent to us, mostly all bush, other things have also changed such as the opening of a Nursery selling 700 varieties of fruit trees, completion of renovations to existing buildings such as our 100 year old shed to 2 classrooms one for cheese, wine making and other food classes while the other has many varied classes from Permaculture Design Certificates, soils & compost and now Biodynamics.
The collection has grown to over 1000 heritage fruits varieties mainly due to the Government closing down their Govt collections so we have felt compelled to save these for the future of all Australians.
Update 2015: after attending the recent APC 12 conference on permaculture in Tassie, I found listening to a presentation by Robin Francis – one of the inducted elders of PC at this event, that the year we began our Permaculture Project here at Telopea Mtn happens to be the same year as most of the Big well known ones such as Djanbung Gardens and Tagari all of which celebrated 20 years last year. 3 New netted enclosures now total about 1 acre protecting most of our fruit and reducing the workload even further as they are managed by poultry ( 2 sets per system) who do most mowing and pest control while the crops are protected from the birds that have been our main pest, they also exclude the possums and in future the bats as they extend their territories out of Melbourne.
Update 2021: this year just to add to the Covid complications of running classes and fruit tree business Peter had a stroke and was recovering well when a small heart attack sent him back to hospital for 5 bypass surgery, recovery has been slow and by Feb 2022 all clear for the new grafts and all valves not leaking means a build up of workload to full recovery by end of 2022 BUT things have to change so the nursery will be taken over on 1st April 2022 by Dean from Twin Hives Permaculture our fantastic netted enclosure builder, then PDC are being handed over to Kushala who already took on the Kinglake PDC, these will all run thru the classroom on farm at Telopea Mtn Monbulk. Liga will also run the first night PDC there too since 2014
Update 2022: Silvia and I have Purchased a new farm over 40 acres of hills in a small valley NE Vic between Bright & Mt Beauty, this has been undergoing a PC make over for 3 years with new Barn, netted enclosures and full re-fence of the past 20 acre dedicated to a Deer farm paddocks, more than 1/2 the place is bush backing onto alpine national park, new fencing thru the 2 acre house area and upgrades to the internal roadways all now lined with new trees plus massive new 3 tier veggie and garden areas, water has increased to 700kl of fresh spring well water in tanks at altitude for pressure for irrigation and fire if needed. soil improvements and stock rates have seen it go from stones to good green grass in 3 years, re-grafting & planting of our fruit collection has begun with 600 or so vars moving to this new farm for scion and tree making for a smaller version of our nursery. we are between properties for a few years still with peter holding fruit classes at Monbulk and doing some subjects for the PDC held there. 3 Solar systems are now installed with batteries ( shed 8kw with 15kw battery is off grid so is one of the house ones) these mean we have no elect bills or water ones too but have full autonomy of these essential services also Silvia's vehicles on farm are now EV with most of Peters tools are battery as well. these savings can be invested in more world resource saving technology in future.