Open Letter to Julia Gillard re the current refugee crisis

(posted on the PM's website 12.5.11)

There's a lot of degraded ex-farmland in Australia, thousands of kilometers of country in my district alone that no-one wants to take responsibility for to rehabilitate back to productive use, either growing food or for wildlife habitat in areas where ecosystems are endangered.

One of the many options your government has in dealing with unauthorised arrivals, either by air or by sea, is to process them as quickly as possible on the mainland, and settle genuine refugees in permaculture villages of around 1000, in fenced and gated communities on a few hundred acres of unused land relatively close to towns.

Many refugees, especially from Asia, already have skills in food growing, and any permaculturalist worth their salt (Josh Byrnes of Gardening Australia being just one leading expert in the field) could draw you up a plan whereby the newest Australians can build their own earth-insulated homes (I myself have had plans drawn up to ABA standards for a 5 bedroom coursed adobe dwelling that can be owner-built and furnished for under $100,000) and become mostly self-sufficient in their own food requirements, within ten years, at which time they will be integrating well and contributing to the local community.

P/c models adapted to local conditions could be rolled out across rural, regional and remote communities all over Australia, especially Aboriginal ones in dire need of basic shelter and food, so that they can become self-reliant to a large degree....endangered plants and wildlife will benefit also as p/c integrates with bush tucker and the restoration of habitat.

Permaculture settlement models have been tried and tested for decades, evolving with the latest grass-roots technologies and integrating with indigenous wisdom, and have been proven to work well;  this is evidenced by the expanding number of successful ones in Australia and around the world. It would cost FAR less than off-shore detention and sending desperate souls to a living hell in a remote Malaysian prison for the rest of their lives.

If the government continues with its current asylum-seeker policy, when alternatives such as this are eminently viable, the UN criminal courts will have no option but to prosecute you for your cruelty and inhumanity towards some of the most traumatised and disadvantaged people on Earth. I personally believe it exposes very sick and depraved minds that would choose such cruel fates for asylum seekers, and that the political regimes that continue with it should be treated by psychiatric professionals.

 Maureen Brannan 905 Wilsons Road CLOYNA Q 4605  ph: 0427710523

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 (One of 80 Fact Sheets on Permaculture on Gardening Australia's website alone - the wealth of knowledge on p/c available on the internet is just phenomenal.)

Fact Sheet: Permaculture Paradise

Josh visits a permaculture paradise in Victoria

Presenter: Josh Byrne, 31/03/2007

David Holmgren and Su Dennett have transformed once degraded, blackberry infested paddocks into a bountiful hectare of orchards and vegie gardens. The couple moved to Hepburn, about two hours north west of Melbourne, 22 years ago to create a self sustaining environment.

Su devotes much of her time to the care of the animals, while David concentrates more on the botanical world. But what they are both doing is known as permaculture. David is a bit of a hero of mine because way back in the 70s he was one of the originators of the permaculture concept.

He believes the planet has got into a pretty serious state over the last 20 years and says “we really need to get moving on the sustainability front pretty seriously.” He sees permaculture as central to the redesign of everything - from the big picture stuff right down to the most basic ways of living and designing the environment.

The property is all about growing organic food and challenges how we think about waste by demonstrating reduction of consumption, reuse and recycling and getting the maximum return on effort.

David lets lots of plants go to seed in the garden, partly because of the huge fluctuations in temperature this year, but it's also part of the gardening approach. “We leave some things to go to seed so we can collect it, and also for some to re-seed naturally. We never sow parsley, silver beet and some lettuces come up wild. It does mean that you have excess plants, and that you never really get rid of weeds, you just end up with a better class of weed,” he says.

Su says the geese clean up the fallen apples, which are usually full of codling moth, or other pests. “That way we don't really need to have other pest control. They mow the grass as well, and also fertilise.”

But goose manure is not the only form of natural fertiliser for the fruit trees, David has also used a nitrogen fixer – an Australian acacia, Acacia floribunda, which fixes its own nitrogen out of the atmosphere. “When we cut it back hard, both for mulch and to feed the goats, it releases nitrogen that can feed the interplanted fruit trees."

A plum hedge, which has vigorous seedling plums, are also cut back hard in summer, and fed to the goats.

Most people see blackberries as a pretty serious weed and hard to control, but the goats seem to love it. According to Su, it's one of their preferred foods, so it can just be looked at as fodder.

Good water management is a critical part of permaculture. In true permi style David and Su have a number of systems to meet their water needs. They collect rainwater for house use, grey water for the garden, use some town supply, and also have a dam for apple culture and irrigation.

David says: “We use about 500,000 litres from the dam to grow food for maybe five to 10 people. That water use rate is way below the water that's used to produce food in the supermarket. Home gardeners, particularly if they are producing food, should have the right to be given a water allocation, just as farmers are, and then they can decide how they make use of that limited amount of water.”

The two principles that David would like to see adopted by people at home are to catch and store energy, in rainwater tanks, anything that's free flowing past or otherwise being wasted. The second is to use that to obtain a yield, produce something, or grow some food. That's the most important thing that people can do.

David believes that whether it’s called permaculture or not the principles behind it will inevitably become mainstream, as world oil supplies peak and there is a reduction in available energy. The necessities of climate change will also mean the redesign of society and low energy ways of living will become normal.