[permaculture-oceania] New Members Story

[Matt Heffernan]

Gday all.
My name is Matt Heffernan.
I have just joined your mailing list & will tell you as briefly as possible 
what I've been doing re Permaculture.

I  completed a PDC
at Ecoliving centre Randwick with Robyn Francis last year.

>From suburban Oatley in Sydney, Ive designed & just recently renovated(using a builder) my 2 bed full brick house, 
changing the layout,increasing garden space, 
building 3 beds & bathroom upstairs for a family of 4. 

I have 6 solar panels facing Nth, Room for 2 more sending power back to the grid.(just made the now defunct rebate)
For the 1st full qtr Mar-Jun, they provided approx 35% of my power.
They are fixed on roof & the gradient will be much better for summer (peak).
Working on our usage.  

7000 litres - 2 water tanks. (no space for any more).The rainwater is fed through the
house for everything using an electric pump. I have a sediment & UV filter next to pump.
When the tank empties, town water switches in automatically and fed to house via mains pressure.
We've had plenty of rain lately & therefore havent switched over to town
water for 2 months now. Yeeha. (and they filled again today)
we are using 200 litres per day which gives 37 days. 4A toilets, 4A dishwasher, 3A everything else.
Working on our usage.

Used passive heating, cooling principles, plenty of cross ventilation, 
laminated windows - casement for wind catching. Insulation in walls
and roof upstairs + sarking under colourbond roof, 2 whirly birds, raised floor boards to be insulated soon I hope.
No aircon but gas for heating & cooking. 

All Bio paints inside, No PVC in the ground or for water-in plumbing. It was very difficult to 
decide on the best building materials from a sustainability & toxicity perspectivre and in some
cases pretty well impossible to avoid. Eg glues, laminates.

I have the shower & laundry pipes diverted to a greywater pump
and will be used for sub-surface around my fruit trees when required. Irrigation channels not yet setout &
considering alternatives. Reedbed would be great but space an issue.

Backyard &, Frontyard orchard/food forest is very juvenile but so far planted Lemonade, Grapefruit, Lime, Avocado, Banana, 
Paw Paw, feijoas, figs, mandarin, orange, strawberry guavas, pomegranate, grapes, passionfruit, mulberry, lilly pilly, with a plan to have about 30 fruit trees. Dwarfed where possible. 

Garden with veges all starting but slowly in winter. Incorporating herbs, groundcovers, edible perrenials & weeds, wormfarms, as many compost piles I can scavange up etc. Chooks soon.

I love the garden and hope to produce all my fruit & veg in 5-8 years. Seedsaving also. I am very passionate about health -sustainable local organics (great expo yesterday), & solutions to the energy future. Considering future direction locally, particularly my kids infants/primary school when they start. I work as a muso so luckily have more time than a 9 to 5er.

Thanks for reading
Regards
Matt Heffernan or as my friends calls me - permy dorc! 







----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Cameron Little 
  To: 'promoting permaculture and sustainable living in the oceania region' 
  Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 8:08 AM
  Subject: [permaculture-oceania] RE: Joining mailing list


  Welcome to the list Matt.

  you wrote:
  > I did a PDC last year with Jed, Cheryl, Loki, John, Rosko etc (are you out there) facilitated by
  > Robyn Francis. I often have 
  > questions and could maybe even offer some worthwhile info, particularly 
  > in regards to converting a typical suburban house into a water & energy 

  I suspect that people will be interested to hear about your sustainable home project.

  Regards,
  Cameron

  Cameron Little
  Ecoliving Program Manager
  UNSW Ecoliving Centre
  14 Arthur St
  Randwick  NSW  2031

  cameron.little at unsw.edu.au
  ecoliving at unsw.edu.au

  www.ecoliving.unsw.edu.au

  ph.  02 9398 8838
  fx.  02 9398 2416
  mob. 0414 385 644

  CRICOS Provider Code: 00098G



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