Introduction to Permaculture - 2 day course

Name: Introduction to Permaculture - 2 day course
Start: 2025-05-17T08:45:00+1000
End: 2025-05-31T17:00:00+1000
Location: Piggery Road Permaculture

Sat, 17 May, 8:45am - 5pm AEST

Piggery Road Permaculture

Penelope Swales

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Event description

Please note: This is a two-day course - day one is the 17th May and day two is the 31st May. One ticket covers both days.

At the time of writing, the Federal election is yet to be called - there is a polling booth 1km away so attendees will be able to vote there either before /after classes or during the lunch break.

What is Permaculture? A gardening technique? A blueprint for a saner world? A revolution disguised as gardening?

Learn about the history, ethics, principles and practice of Permaculture. Whether you are a complete beginner, wish to refresh your knowledge or just work out if Permaculture is for you, this weekend course will send you home with a head full of new ideas for your own plot.

Course fee includes a hands-on workshops in no-dig gardening, seed saving and hot composting plus a garden design component. The location will be a beautiful property on the outskirts of Boolarra with river frontage. Bring food to share. Camping and limited billets available upon request.

Course facilitators:
Penelope Swales trained with Permaculture stalwarts John Champagne and Rosemary Morrow. She has 30 years gardening experience and is the founder of Piggery Road Permaculture.

Carolyn Rowson (hot composting workshop) is the founder of Kongwak Community Garden and Nursery. She studied Permaculture at Southern Cross Permaculture Institute in 2006 and went on to become a regular teacher. Carolyn will teach the hot composting workshop.

Individuals: $200 waged/180 concession
Couples/book with a friend $380/ $350 concession.
Work for learning available (2 places only, for those who otherwise can't afford the course fee or who have a strong interest in market gardening: 10 hours labour. Requires moderate physical fitness)

To book email infopigrp@gmail.com, message us on Facebook messenger or call 0411 555 348Help us create a community of like-minded people in the Latrobe Valley

Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity

Hostinformation

Penelope Swales

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Award-winning singer/songwriter Penelope Swales has been articulating the human condition for over 30 years. Her subject matter ranges from politics via the environment, through to love, sex, the profound bond between people and dogs to the impact of the Internet on our society and relationships. She won the 2019 Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with her song “Cambridge Analytica” which explores the impact on democracy of disinformation spread via social media.

She first went on the road at the age of 16 as a backing vocalist for the band Dreamtime (a precursor to Kangaroo Moon). She supported herself through homelessness in her teenage years by busking for a living in the streets of Melbourne and Sydney before forming John's Sister in 1989 and releasing her first album of original material the same year.

Penelope began playing solo in 1993 and by 1996 had become an international artist, touring England and Ireland playing at clubs and festivals including Cambridge Folk Festival, Sidmouth Folk Festival and the Rose of Tralee. In 1998, she took up making musical instruments out of Gourds and formed the band Totally Gourdgeous with Mal Webb (Oxo Cubans, Formidable Vegetable Sound System), Carl Panuzzo (Checkerboard Lounge, Those Acapelicans) and Andrew Clermont (The Supper Club, BluGuru) Totally Gourdgeous has been a favourite on the festival scene for many years, winning Folk Alliance Australia's Members Choice Award for Best Live Act in 2004.

Penelope toured extensively throughout Canada, Europe, Japan, Britain and the US the mid-2000's. She was described as the pick of the Port Fairy Folk Festival by Melbourne's Inpress magazine in 2000. In 2003, her double album “Monkey Comfort” was released to critical acclaim, garnering numerous 4-star reviews and reaching No. 6 on the Australian Independent Blues and Roots charts where it remained for 8 weeks. She headlined the New York's Estfest Women's Music Festival in 2004 and a received a standing ovation for her formal showcase at the North East Regional Folk Alliance in New York State.

However, family needs intervened and in 2005 she she returned to her childhood home to care for an elderly parent. While doing so, she completed a law degree and worked for some years as a community lawyer advocating for the human rights of disadvantaged and disabled people in Victorian courts and tribunals. She continued to write and record and released “Skin Deep” in 2007 and “Legacy: Two decades of Topical Songwriting” in 2010. Now freed from her duties as a carer, she is returning to her first love, music with her new outfit Penelope Swales and the Stranded Assets.

Penelope also has extensive theatre experience, including a cameo in the Sydney production of The Vagina Monologues. In 2017, she joined the Good Girl Song Project, which combines theatre and folk music to create a compelling song cycle about the experience of female immigrants to Australia in the 1830's. Swales plays the character Elizabeth Wade, a destitute domestic servant who uses her wiles to talk her way onto a boat to Australia hoping for a better life.

Penelope runs workshops in circle singing and songwriting, both solo and as part of the Good Girl Song Project. She has released 10 solo albums and 5 with Totally Gourdgeous. She has just released her first album with the Stranded Assets, "Captains of Industry".

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Sat, 17 May, 8:45am - 5pm AEST

Piggery Road Permaculture

Hosted by Penelope Swales