I have been interested in permaculture, organic gardening, large scale farming and healthy food and planet for most of my life. I have respected and admired Bill Mollison's work since I can remember. I grew up on a broadacre farm near Goondiwindi as the son of a fifth generation farmer, and saw, with the help of my father's experience, that the soil and ecology was being trashed by modern agriculture. I have worked in a lot of aspects of commercial farming and rural work whilst indulging as a landscape painter. I created a network of buyers of organic food and supplied them by buying directly off organic farmers in the late nineties. All of this helped form a foundation for what I wish to do in the future.

I am on the Gold Coast, drawn here because of literally hundreds of acres of perfect farm land, all the perfect distance from the point of consumption, in the form of lifestyle blocks. I see this as an amazing opportunity for all involved. Many people are paying quite a lot to maintain their blocks -slashing, mowing, brushcutting etc. It is an ongoing fixed cost, with no return, and it's not cheap. I believe we are in a position as permaculturalists to design a solution to stabilize the ecology, to eliminate costs and create a net positive yield with these blocks. I have started consulting in this area, but it is bigger than me. There is an opportunity for the owners to turn the tables on costly maintenance and work with permies to produce food and share the spoils. These are early days, but there are hundreds of acres out there and I've met a couple of keen owners already.