Permaculture Tasmania are pleased to announce the appointment of a full committee for 2024/2025. We welcome the following committee members:
President – John Kane
Secretary – Loretta Leary
Treasurer – Bruce Jackson
Public Officer – Suzi Read
Membership Officer – Dianne Anderson
IT Officer- Shuwen Hu (Will)
General Committee – Karen Hewitt, Tania Brookes (Life Member)
We are postponing the Permaculture Tasmania AGM planned for Sunday 4th September 2022 as we currently do not have sufficient nominees to fill the committee positions.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the Permaculture Tasmania committee, please reach out by replying to this email – you can find more information about the roles in this document.
We will advise everyone of a new AGM date when one is set.
Kind Regards,
Permaculture Tasmania Committee
As you are likely aware, the Covid-19 Pandemic has restricted our ability to operate events, especially those with inter-state guests, over the past few years. Because of this, the Permaculture Tasmania committee has decided that we need to re-focus the efforts of the organisation towards local groups going forward, to provide the best support for our members.
If you’re interested in understanding more, or helping shape the future of Permaculture Tasmania, please join us for our Annual General Meeting on Sunday 4th September 2022. This will be held online and will start at 1pm. More details, including how to attend will be provided closer to the date.
Most of the Permaculture Tasmania committee has been refreshed during 2022 and we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to the new committee members and invite anyone interested to join the committee. Importantly, we are seeking a President and Membership Officer to join the committee.
The President will be responsible for leading the committee through this period of transition, including chairing committee meetings. The Membership Officer is responsible for managing our membership base, including working with partners that provide membership benefits.
To nominate yourself for either of these positions, please email permaculturetasmania@gmail.com and one of the current committee will reach out.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Alexia Thomson, our outgoing Membership Officer, for her outstanding contribution to the committee over the past 2½ years. Her experience and thoughtful approach will be sorely missed, and we wish her well in her endeavors going forward.
As a reminder, our current Committee is:
Kind Regards,
Permaculture Tasmania Committee
At the end of October, Permaculture Tasmania (PT) will no longer have the required Committee members to legally operate as an Incorporated Association.
And with the impending departure of more of our committee, the only way PT can move forward with purpose is if a new committed group (at least 5 fresh committee members) is willing to take on the legally required roles of President, Secretary, Treasurer, Public Officer and Memberships Officer – within the next month.
This new committee will need to establish clarity on the relevance that Permaculture Tasmania has for our existing membership. Our exiting committee can handover the tools, templates, funds, and existing systems to assist you to deliver the relevance you have identified.
A list of the tasks associated with Committee members’ roles can be found here.
The new committee can choose to pare this back but will need to be mindful of constitutional requirements when doing so. Our Constitution can be viewed here.
As we are operating to a deadline we will need to hear from interested nominees with a clear purpose by the 15th October. If we do not have the numbers to fill necessary roles by then, the Committee will be looking to how we best support our amazing Local Groups to continue to thrive without a State level association in operation.
It is with huge appreciation the Permaculture Tasmania Committee farewells Lisa Cawthen from the social media role of Facebook Guru!
Lisa has been an amazing powerhouse behind PT’s Facebook presence for the past two years. Consistently on point identifying and sharing the articles and discussion topics regularly posted on our Facebook Page and the community Group.
Lisa’s finesse and timely shares will be greatly missed by our now 3000+ facebook followers. Her patience and generosity of spirit when moderating posts and discussions has embodied the essence of People Care.
Applying the Permaculture Tasmania guidelines (as well as Facebook’s) to posts can be a fine line but it is one Lisa negotiated with absolute grace.
Thank you Lisa. You will be missed in this role but we are so glad to have you in our local permie community!
Permaculture Tasmania members went on a tour of Spring Bay Mill in Triabunna after the 2021 AGM. We recorded it for those that could not make it.
Do you love sharing useful and motivating info/news with others? Are you switched on to social media (FB and or IG fluent)?
PT is on the look out for at least 2 awesome volunteers who enjoy spending time on social media. Unless you’re a super keen FB or IG bean who likes staing connected to social media then we’re probably looking for a few folks to share the sharing load (and love). The time commitment for this role averages out to about an hour a day, which is why we’re keen to see this role carried by two or three people rather one!
Permaculture experience is desirable but having some understanding of permaculture’s breadth, beyond the garden, is a great starting point too. More importantly you are keen to learn, share info, skills, and do good things!
Interested? Email permaculturetasmania@gmail.com and tell us a little more about your particular interest/skills and provide a couple of examples (where relevant to your area of interest). Then let’s chat further!
At the 2021 AGM, Permaculture Tasmania announced Dr Caroline Smith as one of this years new Life Members in recognition of her outstanding contribution to permaculture in Tasmania. Congratulations Caroline!
Dr Caroline Smith has been involved in permaculture since the 1980s as a teacher, writer and local activist. Caroline obtained her PDC in 1992. She completed her PhD thesis on personal empowerment through learning permaculture (2000). Caroline is Co-editor of book ‘Permaculture Pioneers’ with Kerry Dawborn (2011).
Caroline contributes her knowledge as a volunteer on the northwest coast with RESEED and Live Well Tasmania and is involved in community teaching of permaculture.
Caroline is well published and uses her influence as an educator in the university sector to push the boundaries in mainstream education.
Caroline has been involved in facilitating many permaculture related courses in Victoria and Tasmania. The Tasmanian courses and workshops have been through the RESEED Centre in Penguin, Gentle Footprints Permaculture PDC in Launceston, Community House Introduction to Permaculture in Scottsdale and Live Well Tasmania, where she also volunteers.
Caroline has taught about permaculture in UTAS Diploma of Sustainable Living and is currently involved in developing a proposal for a unit in permaculture in the Diploma.
Caroline has worked in the community and is involved in teaching, writing, community seed banks and CENTS. She is caring for her 2-acre property in Penguin growing food and increasing biodiversity. Caroline is also a wonderful mentor as a permaculture elder and encourages others to adopt permaculture as a lifestyle.
Read about our other amazing Life Members announced for 2021 here.
At the 2021 AGM, Permaculture Tasmania announced Tania Brookes as one of this years new Life Members in recognition of her outstanding contribution to permaculture in Tasmania. Congratulations Tania!
An inspirational indigenous Maori woman and Elder, Tania has been a very active permie for many years, based in Devonport. She is a highly effective community organiser, teacher and activist who always brings her indigenous worldview into her life’s work in NW Tasmania. She is a wonderful role model for a permaculture way of life, bringing the principles and ethics into all she does. Tania is a facilitator with Gentle Footprints Permaculture in Launceston and teaches Introduction to Permaculture courses and other permaculture workshops and other short courses through various community grassroots organisations in the northwest.
Tania is the Tasmanian convenor of the Community Exchange Network Tasmania (CENTs) and the national co Administrator for the Community Exchange System in Australia (CES). Tania is passionate about community currencies and alternative economics incorporating community building and resilience and social permaculture. Tania instigated the concept of Seed Banks for northwest Tasmania and with assistance from local volunteers established two Seed Banks/Libraries at Live Well Tasmania in Wynyard and the RESEED Centre in Penguin. She has worked on many permaculture related projects including a local seed saving network, CENTS trading days and was an initiator of the ongoing permaculture design for the Oldina Community Farm. Tania works on the “edge effect” teaching community organisations around sustainability initiatives.
Tania also has published and broadcast/podcast about the importance of permaculture.
Read about our other amazing Life Members announced for 2021 here.
At the 2021 AGM, Permaculture Tasmania announced Jo Dean of Gentle Footprints Permaculture as one of this years new Life Members in recognition of her outstanding contribution to permaculture in Tasmania. Congratulations Jo!
Jo has been a committed and active permie for many years in the Launceston area and internationally. She successfully initiated Launceston PDCs where previously there had not been any PDCs in the north of the state run by local people.
Jo has:
– been part of the teaching team for Introduction to Permaculture Courses at Launceston, Beaconsfield and Scottsdale.
– organized 2 Permaculture Design Courses at Northern Suburbs Community Centre and conducted many skill share workshops at primary schools, High schools, TAFE, University and in Community since 2014.
– run Introduction to Permaculture Course with women’s groups and skill sharing workshops in villages in Fiji.
– mentored students at Launceston College to grow a hanging garden at school.
– mentored both men and women in the Afghan Hazara and Bhutanese community with gardening techniques and establishing a community garden.
– won an award for community project with Northern Waste Management Tasmania – Swap not Shop
Jo is State Representative for Community Gardens Australia for Tasmania and actively supports Taveuni Empowerment of women support group online with their Permaculture journey.
She contributed permaculture design ideas to the Northern Transformation UTas Inveresk Precinct. Jo was also a Human Rights Award nominee for teaching Permaculture in Fiji and Launceston.
Read about our other amazing Life Members announced for 2021 here.