Permaculture Design Course (PDC)

Follow your passion and immerse yourself in this Modular Permaculture Design Course held in the Beautiful Byron Shire. In this hands-on course you will discover how Permaculture principles can develop resilient systems, contributing to environmental, social and personal well-being. Through gaining a clear understanding of these principles you will be able to apply them to your everyday life and surroundings – from a small home garden to commercial production.

You will learn how to design, build and maintain abundantly productive food gardens within sustainable human settlements and be shown how to work with an appreciation and understanding of nature’s patterns and cycles. There is an additional focus upon practical activities in the garden including no-dig gardening, seed saving, plant propagation, food forestry, Hugelkultur, tree maintenance, animal care, composting and more...

The course takes place over 14 days held as individual short modules on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year. The foundational 72 hour International Permaculture Design Course (PDC) curriculum is covered – plus loads of hands on experience and field trips. This modular course is designed to support flexible, part time learning with the opportunity to complete all the modules within a 4 – 12 month period depending on your availability to attend each one*. Upon completion of all 14 modules you will graduate with a Permaculture Design Certificate. The PDC is held twice a year. The modules can be enroled in seperately if you prefer to do just one or two and don’t wish to do the full PDC.

Course dates are:

Fri 11th Aug - Permaculture Ethics, Principles And Patterns with James Nash
Sat 12th Aug - Plant Propagation And Seed Saving with Flavia Renata Assuncao
Sun 13th Aug - Introduction To Permaculture Design with James Nash
Fri 8th Sept - Soils – Organic Management with Joey Venables
Sat 9th Sept - Trees And Perennial Crops – Creating Food Forests with Brad Halasz
Sun 10th Sept - Vegetables – Integrated Organic Production with Brad Halasz
Fri 13th Oct - Animal-Integrated Production Systems with Sharon Gibson
Sat 14th Oct - Settlements – Sustainable Housing And Appropriate Technology with Dani Wolff
Sun 15th Oct - Water Systems For The Home And Landscape with James Nash
Fri 27th Oct - Community Design And Social Permaculture with Dani Wolff
Sat 28th Oct - Group Design Project with James Nash
Sun 29th Oct - Individual Design Workshop with James Nash
Sat 25th Nov - Ecology – Weeds, Pests And Diseases In The Garden with Joey Venables
Sun 26th Nov - Design Project Presentations, Locavore Feast And Celebration with Bunya Halasz and James Nash

The course will incorporate field trips to the award winning Mullumbimby Community Garden, Urban Food Forests, Intensive Permaculture Production Systems, Bush Permaculture gardens and Natural Forest Ecosystems.

The teaching team, led by Bunya Halasz, have a diverse, complimentary and deep range of experience and skills.
Other Tutors Include: Sharon Gibson, James Nash, Sarah Boulle and Joey Venables

This course offers a great introduction to permaculture and is suitable for anyone concerned with the environmental and social challenges around them who wants to help develop positive solutions. It would also benefit students interested in studying Permaculture Certificate III or IV with Byron Community College in the future.

Student Feedback

“Enjoyed every minute of this course; a real credit to the College and all the tutors involved - thanks for everything!!” Chris

“Terrific experience - satisfied my curiosity about what environmental and social permaculture are about. Full marks to the College and tutors for a great experience” Penny

“I loved the way the course provides so many positive and practical ways for living in a real world ecologically sensitive way” Peter

“I am most enthused that the tutors themselves are living permaculture practices. I really liked the outdoor classes and how such a variety of tutors experiences were shared” Scott

“I really loved the teachers- each with their area of knowledge. I loved getting to know my peers over 5 months. The site visits were amazing too! More of those!” Hannah

"Doing the course over several months allows plenty of time to digest learnings and start observing through the eyes of a permie and do more reading.
I have already recommended this course to several people. Fantastic, knowledgeable tutors and excellent value for money. Another benefit was making like minded permie friends." Gabriella

“The teachers were amazing! Such depth of knowledge, I could have just listened to them ramble the whole time! I felt the time spread between weekends was really valuable, and enabled us to take in more knowledge, work with various tutors on some of their projects to gain field experience, as well as come up with questions and issues we were facing with our own projects. I've taken similar courses before so much of the information in this course was review, however the local plant knowledge, community connections, and the in-depth teaching of the design process was so worth it. Thank you!” Heather

“I loved this course. The teachers were absolutely fantastic ! Full of knowledge and so inspiring. The support has been great !” Andrea

What to bring

• Pen and paper for class
• Water bottle
• Own refreshments/lunch

What to wear

There will be hands on learning components in various outdoor locations so please wear comfortable outdoor work clothes, this includes

• Sturdy covered shoes or boots
• Appropriate long pants
• Hat
• Sunscreen
• Gardening gloves
• Wet wearther gear if wet

• If you are unable to complete the PDC within a 12 month period, you need to pay to re-enroll in the individual units missed in order to receive your certificate. Please call the office to re-enroll.

Important information

Once your enrolment is completed you will receive a confirmation email. This email will be your receipt and inform you of the dates, time and venue of your course, it will also let you know of anything you need to take to class with you.

Please make sure that you give us a valid email address and mobile number as any course changes will be communicated via sms or email.

Students are required to be 15 years old and above at the time of enrolment.

Click here to read our Refund Policy

We keep our class sizes small so that you get a better experience. Avoid disappointment, enrol early!