Educators

Sue Girard
Our course lead first trained with Rowe Morrow 14 years ago, and then dashed straight out of her own back door,  she has been a leading light in establishing permaculture studies across the Blue Mountains. Sue actively advises and educates in Permaculture, Food Security, Sustainability, and Wild Foods up and down the Blue Mountains and in Sydney. Sue shares effective strategies for temperate and cool climates, backed up by nationally accredited qualifications including a Diploma of Permaculture as well as Permaculture Cert IV(APT)(TM), Diploma of Conservation and Land Management, Horticulture, Bush Regeneration and Entomology.

Kat Szuminska
Community gardener, open data advocate, educator, seedsaver, permablitzer, local bushcare volunteer and budding beekeeper. Now Kat shares what she’s learned from her own practice with a little help from renowned Australian permaculture educator, running permaculture, gardening and composting courses almost exclusively in the Blue Mountains.  She’s trained with Nick Ritar (intro), Geoff Lawton (PDC, garden establishment and teacher training), Granddaddy of permaculture Bill Mollison (PDC/practical onfarm training), Robyn Clayfield (dynamic groups/community governance), Susan Brunskill at the National Environment Centre (APT) as well as in depth soil science with Elaine Ingham at the Soil Food Web, Lismore and natural beekeeping with Tim Malfroy.

We invite you to meet our foremost bioregional practitioners who join us on our PDCs:

Nick Ritar
Nick and Kirsten at Milkwood are real life bioregional heroes. Their wholehearted and deep embracing of permaculture principles on their farm and in our community is an inspiration to us all. As a permaculture designer, consultant and educator Nick works extensively across a wide range of bioregions, farms, watersheds and city environments. Nick is at the forefront of the new generation of Permaculture teachers working on the edge of what Permaculture can do to restore landscapes and create abundance in almost any environment on earth. Nick’s first hand experience in designing large scale earthworks is invaluable for getting to grips with the finer details of this subject.

Michelle Maher
completed her PDC in 1999 at Crystal Waters in Queensland and followed that with a short course on Eco Village Design in 2001. is currently working as a Strategic Planning Specialist at Blue Mountains City Council and has over ten years experience in town planning for developments ranging from small lot housing, subdivisions, industrial sites, child care centres to master planned suburbs of over 1,000 lots. As well as developing designs for sustainable on-site wastewater systems at a domestic scale she also worked on a range of institutional sites and was the Composting Toilet and Greywater Technical Advisor for a large overseas development project on Kiritimati Island in Kiribati that was providing sustainable sanitation solutions for the entire island. Michelle has also worked in the areas of social and economic impacts of flooding, as well as the specialised field of flood assessment for a range of insurance companies. Wow!

Gordon Williams is a Permaculture consultant and educator currently working in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia. Raised in the Blue Mountains, Gordon’s time in surrounding national parks and bushland where he gained an appreciation for the natural systems within them. His years of experience as a carpenter has led to a deep understanding of the difference between good and bad building design and construction; his passion is to see the built environment blend smoothly into living surroundings. He gained valuable experience working at the Permaculture Research Institute in educational and on farm roles.

Daniel Hatfield is  a passionate food gardener, educator and permaculturist.  Daniel believes in producing and promoting growing healthy, seasonal and local fruit and vegetables. He describes his practices as ‘beyond organic’. Daniel takes his inspiration from the principles of Permaculture, as well as organic farmers such as Eliot Coleman and Joel Salatin. Daniel completed his Permaculture Design Certificate with Geoff Lawton at the Permaculture Research Institute, and holds tertiary degrees in art and photography.