I LOVE renovating, fixing up and taking an ugly duckling space and turning it into something really special. Hubby and I have spent the past decade or so doing that to our 40ft caravan…and we are almost done…but there is still a verandah to go on… Anyway. As part of the latest renovations, I wanted…
I have spent the last 13 years working in community development in Outback Australia and there is one thing I have noticed…things aren’t getting better, despite best intentions and millions of dollars and some good ideas. The reason I believe is that the model for community development is flawed, fundamentally, because we have government and…
We had a gorgeous hour and a half in THE Hungry Spirit garden with 7 children aged 2-9 on 24th September for our Kids In THE Garden Workshop. Together we enjoyed learning about worms, picking cabbages and mulberries (their red fingers and lips gave the sneaky picking away!), digging in the dirt, planting seeds, transplanting seedlings and…
As part of THE Hungry Spirit Masterplan we will be creating a Food Forrest on site, to show how we can create a productive, edible landscape in a semi-arid environment. We are planning to host a workshop on this later in the year. They have been applying the principles of the Food Forrest in the middle…
We celebrated an incredibly delicious winters weekend after rain in Lightning Ridge (dam was FULL) at the Grow Your Life – Introduction to Permaculture. With 17 students from across the Murdi Paaki region; including people from Dubbo, Tooraweenah and Gilgandra, Coonamble, Brewarrina and Walgett as well as a couple of Lightning Ridge locals, we had…
We aren’t Africa, in western NSW, that’s obvious, but many of the challenges we face could be argued to be similar. Hunger is not from lack of food, but from the wrong kind. Land degradation is from over farming and ill considered land use. Drought is consistent and I think is a reaping of what…
With the conversation in western NSW constantly turning to drought, The Hungry Spirit Centre for Semi-Arid Sustainability at Lightning Ridge is attempting a new strategy – re-inspiring food producers through permaculture. The Centre has engaged the services of world-leading expert, Nick Huggins, to travel to Lightning Ridge on 27/28 June to host a 2 day…
The first ever Hungry Spirit workshop was hosted on Saturday 21st February and 16 enthusiastic participants rolled up their sleeves, donned their gloves and big hats and got in and blitzed the garden, filling it with love, seedlings and seeds! Workshop facilitator Rebel Black was chuffed that so many people had traveled so far –…
My husband and I are LOVING our little jaunt up the west coast of Australia sampling the fine produce on offer, but I have to say that the food available for easy consumption is pretty dismal and in most places, you have to really hunt out the local produce. We were pretty disappointed when we…
If you would like to join Nick and Rebel for an Introduction to Permaculture in Lightning Ridge on 27/28 June – click HERE