Meet the Team — 2024-2025
John Kane
Role: President
Location: Golden Valley
What inspired you to get involved in permaculture?
Listening to Morag Gamble’s wonderful interviews with permaculture people around the world was what really got me fired up. I’ve been wanting to build a permaculture homestead for years, and my partner and I are making progress.
What’s your favourite permaculture principle and why?
Creatively use and respond to change creatively. Change is the only constant in these times. Change is an opportunity for growth and renewal, and I actively pursue it.
What motivated you to join the committee, and what do you hope to achieve?
I want to help many more Tasmanian learn about the wonderful opportunities that permaculture offers, driving positive change in individuals, our communities and our planet.
What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
I’ve lived in 9 US states or territories, 2 Australian states, Japan and Thailand.
Bruce Jackson
Role: Treasurer
Location: Eastern Shore, Hobart not far from Eastlands
What inspired you to get involved in permaculture?
Interest in sustainable agricultural systems.
What’s your favourite permaculture principle and why?
Produce no waste. I enjoy finding alternative uses for things, and if that fails,
Gumtree, the worm farm, compost bin, biochar production, recycling bin, and scrap metal yard can play a part
What motivated you to join the committee, and what do you hope to achieve?
Permaculture Tasmania was about to fold up, I thought it such a shame as Permaculture had originated here. My aim is to be a competent Treasurer.
What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
I spent 4 years in Zimbabwe just after independence.
Loretta Leary aka Poch Leary
Role: Secretary
Location: Golden Valley
What inspired you to get involved in permaculture?
Coming from an Egyptian/Italian background, growing food in the backyard was just a way of life. We didn’t know that we were “permies” back then, we were just doing what we loved; growing food in sync with nature and protecting Mother Earth.
What’s your favourite permaculture principle and why?
Principle 6; Produce No Waste is my favourite because I was brought up with the adage “Waste Not Want Not”. In my previous career as a Sustainability teacher I implemented a 27 stream recycling system in a primary school of 800+ kids and provided an avenue for the local community to recycle or upcycle as well. I still adhere to this adage in my current job and at home as well.
What motivated you to join the committee, and what do you hope to achieve?
I wanted to ensure the longevity of PT and ensure that the community has ongoing access to a forum for celebrating successes and providing support in the PT community. As I establish our permaculture garden on our tiny farm in Golden Valley, I hope to utilise the expertise of the PT community and hopefully help others along in their sustainability journeys.
What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
I love making jams and have one several prizes at some of Tasmania’s and Victoria’s agricultural shows.
Dianne Anderson
Role: Membership Officer
Location: Launceston
What inspired you to get involved in permaculture?
I got interested in permaculture back in the 80s through Grass Roots Magazine and I sort of dabbled with it at home. When I moved to Tasmania and finally had some land, I became a lot more interested through Urban Farming Tasmania. That put me in contact with other permies. So my approach was through an urban farming lens and one of my friends became a permaculture teacher. In 2020 when I went back to Melbourne, I broke my shoulder and was stuck with lock downs, so I did an extended PDC whilst I was there.
What’s your favourite permaculture principle and why?
IFair share because I am all about access; that everyone gets an equitable opportunity to participate and to learn. I’m also an advocate for equity and equality and intersectionalism. I want to break down the barriers.
What motivated you to join the committee, and what do you hope to achieve?
The honest answer is deep indoctrination of service to the community. I haven’t been able to do that a lot was a person with a disability so this gives me that opportunity and without the committee this wasn’t going to happen. This is me trying to give back to the community and also from a personal side, getting back into things that I used to be able to do easily and find new ways to be able to do that. It’s part f my healing journey as well.What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
I am a dancer. I do fat chance belly dance and prime contemporary style dance with Tas Dance.I was a classically trained ballet dancer in my youth and have dabbled in other styles such as ballroom.
Tania Brookes
Role: committee member and Life Member of PT.
Location: Limilinaturi country
What inspired you to get involved in permaculture?
The ethics of permaculture align with my indigenous worldview
What’s your favourite permaculture principle and why?
All of them. I take a holistic view which extends to the principles as they are all interconnected. The same is true of my outlook on life.
What motivated you to join the committee, and what do you hope to achieve?
I simply couldn’t sit idle and watch the organisation go into recess. Community is connection!
What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
My best conversations are with trees. ‘Ko au te whenua, ko te whenua, ko au’ – ‘I am the land and the land is me’.
Karen Hewitt
Role: Committee member and the Local Group Representative (Transition Tamar)
Location: Tamar Valley
What inspired you to get involved in permaculture?
At first I loved the symbiosis that Permaculture had with the natural world, and also how it was welcoming to everyone regardless of their current skillset in regards to the sliding scale of self-sufficiency; but the more I came to know about it, the more it absolutely inspired me with the possibilities for total systemic social change – and that’s what stuck.
What’s your favourite permaculture principle and why?
Value the Margins. We are not just talking hedgerows and the biodiversity they foster, we are promoting and listening to those who have historically been repressed, oppressed or ignored. A society is only as good as how it treats its most vulnerable.
What motivated you to join the committee, and what do you hope to achieve?
As Transition Tamar is a Local Group of Permaculture Tasmania, we need someone to sit on the Permaculture Tasmania Committee to be that point of connection between the two entities, and ensure communication and accountability; as Convenor of TT it is probably easiest for me to perform this role. Permaculture Tasmania supported us to get going and to meet some of our startup and ongoing costs, so there is a debt of gratitude there too. And it also would have been a real shame if the organisation had folded and left the home of permaculture without a permaculture-related networking body.
On a personal note, when my daughter and I relocated here, we turned to the local Tamar Valley Permaculture Tasmania group to find our tribe, and met some wonderful people and made some lasting connections – so it’s a bit like paying that forward as well. From a TT point of view, we want to work in close connection with our revitalised “parent” body (the initial committee sprang from a PT bookgroup), to jointly realise our vision for Launceston and the Tamar Valley region to become a connected & resilient community through sustainable living, localised food production, circular economy and regenerative development. It doesn’t hurt that in the process we get to talk a lot about growing lovely veggies in local community too
What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
Apart from the obvious food gardening, I am endlessly fascinated with our world and how everything came to be organised like it is (the sooner we can understand that, the sooner we can change those bits that don’t work for everyone).
I am still not growing straight carrots – despite being awarded a 2020 partial PT scholarship to enable me to do so by taking my PDC with the amazing Jo Dean – but I have come round to the fact that straight or kinky (like they tend to grow on my rocky site despite raised beds ), carrots taste the same.
Sam Nobes
Role: Committee Member
Location: Eaglehawk Neck
What inspired you to get involved in permaculture?
I’ve always been involved in regenerative horticulture, organic gardening and permaculture, it’s my way of life. Less destruction and more alternative ways to reuse things and go about gardening and life. Here in Tasmania we are truely blessed and I’m grateful every day to witness that.
What’s your favourite permaculture principle and why?
My favourite permaculture principle is working with nature. I can try and fight the elements all the time but they will always win. Better to work with what you’ve got than try to change what you easily can’t. That doesn’t mean I don’t try to grow figs in the far south of Tasmania for example but they sure don’t grow as well as they did in the Adelaide region!
What motivated you to join the committee, and what do you hope to achieve?
My motivation to join the PT committee is to bring permaculture to a wider audience. As Most of it is common sense and working with what you’ve got.
There’s no mistakes to make just gained experience. It’s fun, it’s educating and it’s fascinating. opportunity and without the committee this wasn’t going to happen. This is me trying to give back to the community and also from a personal side, getting back into things that I used to be able to do easily and find new ways to be able to do that. It’s part f my healing journey as well.
What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
I am a dancer. I do fat chance belly dance and prime contemporary style dance with Tas Dance.I was a classically trained ballet dancer in my youth and have dabbled in other styles such as ballroom.
What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
I am very creative and whilst I can’t draw I can turn my hand to most artistic things. From music to sculpture to baking sourdough breads and cooking. I often think I am a nightmare to live with as even I can’t tell what I’ll do next! lol! Sam is the maker and purveyor of fine goods at Convict Sourdoughs, Jams & Preserves.
Shuwen Will Hu, AKA Flow Will
Role: IT support and committee member
Location: Launceston
What inspired you to get involved in permaculture?
After completing my PDC course, I’m eager to contribute to the community and continue my permaculture journey. My goal is to inspire others to make small, achievable changes that collectively support a more sustainable planet.
What’s your favourite permaculture principle and why?
I believe in using small and slow solutions. They’re often more practical and efficient than large-scale efforts, making real-world impact more attainable.
What motivated you to join the committee, and what do you hope to achieve?
It’s difficult to see Permaculture Tasmania fade away, but I hope with fresh, creative approaches to organizing, it can regain its prominence. I envision more people joining, helping to shift lifestyles and making a meaningful contribution to climate change and pollution reduction.
What’s one fun fact about you or something you enjoy doing outside of permaculture?
I absolutely love poultry, especially chickens! They’re adorable, and I’ve cared for over 20 crossbreeds, including Rhode Island Red, Silkie, Sussex, and Araucana. I would love to swap fertilized eggs or chicks to increase the diversity of my flock.
