PDC 80hrs Sept- Dec 2020 @ Central Ringwood CC, Class is full for 2020
PDC Class starts Sept to Dec It is already full with big waitlist it runs Thursdays 9am-4.30pm with 3 sessions on Saturday 2 are at Monbulk on our farm and one day of 3-4 extra site visits. This is the base PDC with One certificate.
This year marks 18 years of teaching PDC on our Permaculture farm which is "26 years permaculture old now" after it's first 100 years of farming prior, with over 1000 vars of fruit and useful animals and netted structures it means we can back up what we talk about and teach in a PDC, not just a flashy website. so to keep in touch with our news on PDC 2020 you can click on newsletter link on our front page I hope to announce in Jan what our plans are.
New 112hr PDC plus 2020 starts July 14 to Oct 6 on farm in Monbulk
Link to book via Trybooking or do search for PDC https://www.trybooking.com/BIKGC
Our PDC classes are full yearly so dont miss out on getting into this PDC it's new so it's now the only one with any places available in 2020. This is a totally new PDC based on our big 147hr 2 cert PDC, We will independently run this new PDC without all the rules and unnecessary paperwork that Govt funding Imposes.
2020 is our 18th year running PDC on our property in Monbulk, with the 127 year old farm having its PDC design completed in 2005 we have many systems up and running over those 26 years, 1000 vars of fruit and useful happy animals mean we can back up what we talk about on this class. It includes extra subjects such as an intro to Biodynamics, Retrosuburbia Day with visit & speed design group exercises, Build a full hot compost, learn to graft fruit trees and see extra Permie site visits.
PDC 2021 @ Telopea Mtn Monbulk Feb – June 147hrs book Emerald com house
The funded PDC 2020 @ Monbulk PDC 147 hrs is off running but the waitlist now open for 2021 class with names being taken via Emerald community house, cost for 2021 is not set yet but well below $1000 not $3000-$5600 as elsewhere, 2021 cost is not known until Nov 2020 (it depends on the funding body)
This is Our flagship course covering the Full Permaculture Design Course, PDC + Applied permaculture skills certificate, we call these permaculture level 1&2 as we then run a 10 day advanced PDC level 3 class with fruit trees through to food forest ( with 13 days to choose from) since 2017 we also run a level 4 advanced PDC , in 2017 it was 4 days on renovate an orchard , in 2020 it will be a 4-5 day class in designing a food forest or edible forest garden.
147hr PDC is 2 certificates and runs Tuesdays from the 3rd Tues in Feb until end June normally with 4 days for visits and BD compost making held on Sat or Sundays,
The New 15 day PDC Plus 112hrs will commence in 2020 July14th to 6th Oct running on Tuesdays & 4 Saturdays all 9am-4.30pm this class i similar to the Feb class with extra site visits and time to make a full compost along with 2 additional subjects with Intro to Biodynamics and Retrosuburbia covered.
this class will run independant so no funding but will not cost the same as some charge for the 2 classes being about $5600 (@ tyagalum NSW) is the only equivalent class in Australia at present.
The 80 Hr Ringwood PDC is full for 2020,, this runs over 12 sessions, 9 are on Thursdays 9-4.30 and 3 on a Sat (or Sunday) for visits & sessions @ Telopea Mtn Permaculture in Monbulk and other permaculture properties, classes on the Thursdays are held at Central Ringwood community House off Bedford road and is near Ringwood railway station
The 80hr Kinglake class has transferred to Kushala Prem running this course, he has been a tutor for years on all our 3 PDC's we run, most tutors we use are still teaching their sections on this class starting Sept in 2020 Peter & Silvia will still run a couple of sessions on our farm, 2019 went terrific and 2020 will have a similar start date.
OUR Permaculture Design Course @ Telopea Mtn- we were pleased to be a finalist for this PDC in the Govt training awards in 2015, it was great recognition for Permaculture itself as an independent industry in its own right.
This class was nominated under the category of Outstanding PATHWAYS Program to future education & work) which is terrific as this is our particular focus with our PDC, we have been often loan crusaders trying to get Permies to be more professional and gain real yields for their work, in this current time it means getting jobs or your own paid work.
To add to this Peter was made a “Permaculture Elder” at the Australian conference in Perth 2016 while Silvia was the first to receive a “Community Service to Permaculture” award, for all her 25+ years work in the permaculture community
Full Permaculture Design Course, PDC + Applied permaculture skills certificate, it runs each Tues 9am -4.30 plus 4 of either Sat or Sunday 9am-4.30pm. starts Tues 16th FEB 2021
This is not just the very basic 72hr course, its twice as long due to so much new information to cover since 1981, we also include many real skills with strong skills in the areas of growing food, fruits, veggies and meat.
We cover all Bill's black book which is the international syllabus for the PDC but we also use the Vic Educators Group syllabus which as been approved to be the national curriculum since 2018, we also add much more pure horticulture subjects as that's what 680 successful past students have asked for, these extras have made it easier for many to claim RCC or RPL in Diploma of Permacutlure in Australia, most of our tutors have this formal APT qualification
Click here to download typical topics for this course
Over the last 25 years I have watched the evolving PDC and have seen a transition from people just wanting only straight science (with it's restrictive view points) to an embrace of the other Energies from related disciplines trying to achieve the similar goals of earth rebuilding and regenerative practices to produce food and other human needs.
You can register your interest in this new PDC by emailing me direct to telopeamtn@bigpond.com , once I work out payment methods I can email you, i would like to have people pay a deposit to secure their place then offer an earlybird discount (or relevant gift) for those who make full payment by a certain date (first 10 people) I will use Trybooking for transactions so people can use the forms of payment that suits them offered by this facility.
All of our PDC versions are based on Design and the skills needed to apply these to Land (or community) So we cover both Rural and Urban design plus Professional Permaculture business & enterprise, and plenty of horticulture skills necessary for the healthy growing of plants and animals. (we are certified organic & Biodynamic on this farm).
To successfully complete our PDC's you need to present a physical design of a property (or business, school or community enterprise) plus design an Element, this is one item expanded (these are the most enjoyed aspect of our class presentations)
we provide you all the notes in this PDC plus all the site visits & all the ingredients for the practical sessions.
Once completed we will release the full details via our newsletter soon including cost. $1090 Introduction price for this first one in 2020.
A Comparative cost for what we will offer is basic 72hr PDC $2800 plus 5 day practical $2800 ( Zatuna Farm 2020),
We will be a fraction of this price & operating on our demonstration farm that commenced in the same year 1994 with 100 years prior productive farming onsite before us growing fruit trees, berries and cut flowers cleanly.
We will still run the PDC Via Emerald community House onsite in Monbulk Yearly from Feb - June ( its full for 2020)
We will run our Ringwood Base 80hr PDC at the community house there too in 2020 but fully booked with 20 wait list.
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The PDC we teach at Telopea Mtn Permaculture in Monbulk, Victoria, Australia. meets Bill's base PDC but we have recognised a lot has happened since 1991 so our min class is 80 hrs and our flagship one is 147 hrs since 2004, in the bigger class we issue the PDC plus a "Permaculture Skills Certificate" to those who successfully complete their final design to pass the course.
all our courses are based on the VEG ( Victorian Educators Guild) curriculum originally written for South East Australia but is now recognised as a base for all Australia PDC,s and is backed by Permaculture Australia inc.
We currently prefer to teach our classes with a one day per week style rather than a 2 week solid block, it gives our participants time to think about and research each subject before the next week when we move onto a new topic.
I cannot see myself ever teaching a PDC all by myself (as some do) one opinion is not how I want to see my students learn, so we have 10-25 Permies as tutors or visit hosts to meet through your PDC.
We have developed about 50 tutors since 1995 who are often specialists in their subject for design purposes & teaching. Then we have used about 40 properties to select our site visits for that PDC,
So far 6-8 of our past students have started their own full PDC's, some use our bank of tutors to help them teach.
For the first few years we had 20 people all design one property ( over 10ace in size) but we have since changed to letting students select the properties they wish to design.
to call yourself a Permaculturist you HAVE to complete a PDC, this is recognised worldwide as a non TAFE (tertiary) qualification, in Australia it is a pre accredited course.
Once you have completed a full PDC then you CAN use permaculture in your business name, you can teach permaculture or complete a permaculture design for clients.
NB: it is not good enough to call your self a Permie if you have just attended a few Perma-blitzes or read a book or done some stuff online. Others and I have worked for years to establish the "Professional Permaculture" to combat the image of "Just a bunch of hippies" that we endured for the first 30-40 years. All Permies are now reaping the benefits of paid employment and recognition of our Industry especially in education, such as with APT accredited levels of permaculture certificates Cert I to Diploma now operating over 15 years nationally.
In our 80hr PDC we expect one design to be completed for the final design presentation to the class, this can be an urban (zone 0-2) or a rural design at least 10acres (zones 0-4)
In our longer 147 hr class we ask for 3 designs to be completed so an Urban (0-2) plus a Rural (0-5) and then each completes and presents to the class an ELEMENT, this is an expansion of ANY subject they wish ( some times its something they are expert in and want to share or its something they needed to research to complete their Design).
The Outcomes of these classes are designed by me to become "useful Evidence" if you are wishing to upgrade to APT certificates & diploma as they may be used as RPL or RCC credits in units (if its your own work) so collaborative work is lovely but not relevant if wishing to upgrade. NB: I have no control over the acceptance of this material in an institution.
To further support future study yearly we run a series of monthly advanced level 3 permaculture topics there are 13 in the fruit tree design & management of Orcharding or Food Forests (edible forest gardens) within Organic or Biodynamic certified systems.
Some years we also run a level 4 Advanced PDC class, pats topics have been design a figgery for a collection of 114 figs, Renovate an older Organic Orchard, soon we will do a 4-6 days Food forest for temperate climates one and then design a multi functional Cidery and make your own cider, perry & fruit wines plus vinegars.
So how do we see the future of our PDC's in the 2020's ?
We are happy to be able to attract funding (for however long this lasts) from ACFE (Learn Local) for adult education of pre accredited classes, this means our students pay far less than the going rate of a course of this quality, class cost should be $2850-$3300 each but we are running these at $595 to $800 per person.
We may in future run a PDC with no funding ties and no excessive paperwork this would be more expensive but under the going rate for our quality course, we also properly pay all involved in our courses so no volunteer tutors or visit sites.
We are also considering offers from international students to run a PDC over 2-3 weeks in a block to meet the needs of this cohort, this will not meet the Australian funding criteria, so would need to be at a full fee for service cost.