Meet our tutors

GRAEME GEORGE

Graeme lives on a 5 ha property near Healesville in the Yarra Valley where he runs a small market garden
and heritage fruit orchard in a bushland setting. He has a background in conservation biology and the captive breeding of endangered wildlife, has been teaching Permaculture Design and Applied Permaculture courses since 1994 and is compiler of Permaculture Melbourne's “Syllabus for Permaculture Design in Cool Temperate South Eastern Australia”. He served on Permaculture Melbourne’s Committee of Management for many years, was a founder of the Yarra Valley Permaculture Group and is currently Coordinator for the Yarra Valley Group's weekly Organic Farmers Market at Healesville.

He developed and for several years taught Permaculture by Distance Education as a second year subject
for Charles Sturt University's degree in Ecological Agriculture based at Orange. He has been a Seed Saver
for many years, and is also a member of Birds Australia, the Australian Mammal Society and the American
Society of Mammalogists. His publications on the evolution, zoogeography and conservation of New Guinea's
marsupials earned him a Master of Applied Science degree in 1994.

Graeme has a passionate interest in the application of Permaculture concepts to land use patterns. 

 
AMADIS LACHETA
Amadis is inspired by the beauty and forms of nature, the endless creative manifestations of culture and the meeting point of these two, vast universes. She has a background in music, horticulture, permaculture & renewable energy and since 1997 has been immersed in the area of community gardens, sustainable education and urban agriculture. During this time she has worked with organisations such as Garden of Eden, Cultivating Community, CERES, Local and State Government and Community groups. Her work has involved the consultation, design and project management of a number of community and school kitchen gardens, private gardens, eco-village community garden design, presentation of sustainable gardening workshops, permaculture courses and conferences on urban food security, peak oil and community gardening. She writes about sustainable gardening for publications such as Earth Garden & Organic Gardener and regular articles on sustainable gardening for Green; sustainable architecture and landscape design magazine. Amadis is a Director of Urban Permaculture and also of Village Well, an innovative communications and cultural change organisation that specialises in creating great places & sustainable communities.

 ADAM GRUBB
Adam is a permaculture designer and Co-Director of the Melbourne based urban permaculture consultancy, Very Edible Gardens PTY LTD (VEG) (www.veryediblegardens.com) with Dan Palmer and Nathan Edwards.  Adam came to permaculture largely through a concern about Peak Oil, an issue in which he was active for many years as founding editor of the global energy news clearinghouse EnergyBulletin.net starting in 2003, and co-founder of community radio 3CR's Food Fight show about food issues also in 2003.  Adam took a PDC in 2004 with Darren Dorerty and David Holmgren and others in Bendigo.  In 2006 he was involved in the first permablitz -- a volunteer backyard makeover day -- and has been a long time facilitator of the now global permablitz movement (www.permablitz.net).  In 2007 he was a caretaker of permaculture co-orginator David Holmgren and Su Dennet's property Melliodora, and he has collaborated with David on his Future Scenarios work (www.futurescenarios.org).  He has been involved with over 50 urban, community garden and small acreage permaculture designs and implementations, and in the last two years has given somewhere around 100 workshops and presentations on permaculture related topics such as energy literacy, peak oil and climate change strategies, permablitz, the science of compost for kids, backyard ecosystems and organic pest control, living soils, soil geology, useful weeds, fermented foods, alternative economic models and integrated urban permaculture systems.  

JOEL MEADOWS
Joel Meadows is an energy auditor, sustainable transport consultant, environmental educator, designer and maker in steel and wood, cooker of food, avid gardener and musician. Joel has worked for private, government and not for profit organisations and runs his own business - the Green Hand Institute. Joel lives with his family in Castlemaine - Central Victoria, where he is working on a permaculture house and property.







JUSTIN CALVERLEY
Justin Calverley is a Horticulturalist with over 20 years experience in the industry. He runs his own Consultation and Design business. He conducts regular CERES workshops in organic gardening, fruit tree pruning, indigenous plants and Permaculture to name a few. Justin has extensive property design experience and has also worked at CERES nursery.  Justin is a regular broadcaster on 3RRR's "Dirty Deeds" and presenter on Ch 31's "The Garden Tap". 









TONI PHILLIPS
Sarah the goat
Toni Phillips has many years of experience in permaculture design and practice.  She specialises in integrating animals into permaculture systems and believes that animals can earn their keep as part of an overall system without being eaten!  

Toni, a qualified horticulturalist, first completed her PDC in 1994 with Jude and Michael Fanton and australian permaculture author Rosemary Morrow and in 1995 left Australia to live and work in Cuba for a year on a permaculture project.  Upon her return to Melbourne she began working at the Collingwood Childrens farm and works there to this day.  Toni will be giving a tour of the Childrens Farm to CERES PDC students as part of the 2011 course.


CHRIS CURRIE
Chris first became interested in Permaculture whilst studying Ecology and Environmental Management at Auckland University in New Zealand. He lived on an urban community garden run on Permaculture principles while he was studying and gained an understanding of its philosophy first hand. During this time Chris observed that there were many similarities between the kind of innovative environmental restoration projects he was interested in and the low energy, low input strategies of Permaculture.

Since moving to Melbourne Chris has completed his PDC and has since been working with small-scale, community driven environmental projects. Currently he is involved in the establishment and management of a new community garden close to the Merri Creek - the Merri Corner Community Garden.

MATT DANIELE

Matt has been interested in plants & growing food for all of this millennia. His broad ranging experience has involved  various stages of the cycle of food growing since completing  a horticulture course & a permaculture design course in 2001. After traveling & WOOFing on farms around England & Wales, Matt also gained practical experience in the tropics of Costa Rica.
 Matt’s work & involvement after returning to Australia has included revegetation of wetlands, co-managing CERES organic market, establishing CERES propagation enterprise, teaching horticulture, plant propagation, permaculture & being part of a successful urban food production household.
He is  inspired about sharing the wonders & resources that plants provide for humans & animals in all of our daily needs.




DAN PALMER
After earning his PhD at Monash University, Dan wrote and lectured
philosophy until he did a two-week permaculture course, quit
everything else, and went to work on permaculture projects in
Australia, New Zealand, India, Ethiopia and Uganda.  A co-founder of
the permablitz movement, Dan currently directs Very Edible Gardens
(VEG), a Melbourne-based business specialising in urban permaculture
design and edible garden implementation. Dan lives in Yarraville with
his partner Amanda and daughter Ciela.