[permaculture-oceania] New Members Story

Sun Jul 30 00:39:48 EST 2006

Good luck Steve
Please forward any q's you may have - would love to
help if I can
Matt Heffernan
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Solomon" <stsolomo at soilandhealth.org>
To: "promoting permaculture and sustainable living in the oceania region" 
<permaculture-oceania at lists.cat.org.au>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: [permaculture-oceania] New Members Story


> Matt,
>
> Thanks for this full description of your project(s). I found it inspiring 
> and am about to begin a similar project myself.
>
> Steve Solomon
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Matt Heffernan" <kbanana at bigpond.net.au>
> To: "promoting permaculture and sustainable living in the oceania region" 
> <permaculture-oceania at lists.cat.org.au>
> Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 7:39 PM
> 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
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  permaculture-oceania mailing list
>  permaculture-oceania at lists.cat.org.au
>  http://lists.cat.org.au/mailman/listinfo/permaculture-oceania
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>> _______________________________________________
>> permaculture-oceania mailing list
>> permaculture-oceania at lists.cat.org.au
>> http://lists.cat.org.au/mailman/listinfo/permaculture-oceania
>>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.4/401 - Release Date: 26/07/2006
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture-oceania mailing list
> permaculture-oceania at lists.cat.org.au
> http://lists.cat.org.au/mailman/listinfo/permaculture-oceania
>