[permaculture-oceania] New Members Story

[Matt Heffernan]

Yes - lots of healthy looking people.
Not so may barge arses as at Hungry Jacks up the road.

re food miles - I agree the emphasis on self sufficiency organics
etc a little lacking but still very inspiring to see so many
people focused on organic produce - and so much produce at that.

Matt
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: James Sprunt 
  To: 'promoting permaculture and sustainable living in the oceania region' 
  Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 6:17 PM
  Subject: RE: [permaculture-oceania] New Members Story


  Hi matt,

   

  I was in Sydney for the Organic Federation of Australia conference & the Expo which was great although there is no doubt it had an "industry" flavour, which is fine as long sustainability is still a part of the game e.g. food miles.

   

  Great feeling around the Expo though - lot's of healthy looking happy people.

   

  Peace,

   

  James

  Melbourne

   


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  From: permaculture-oceania-bounces at lists.cat.org.au [mailto:permaculture-oceania-bounces at lists.cat.org.au] On Behalf Of Matt Heffernan
  Sent: Monday, 24 July 2006 7:39 PM
  To: promoting permaculture and sustainable living in the oceania region
  Subject: [permaculture-oceania] New Members Story

   

  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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