Learn how to integrate permaculture into every aspect of your life.
LIVE ONLINE
Permaculture Design Course
with David Holmgren, Beck Lowe & Guests
Opening for registrations soon
13th July - 14th December 2023
Invite David Holmgren into your home
Access a wealth of information to build resilience in your own patch.
Build community, expand your knowledge, design your life and land with guidance from permaculture co-originator David Holmgren, Beck Lowe and a team of inspiring permie practitioners.
The Course
A Permaculture Design Course has the power to change your life.
Learn from experienced and enthusiastic permaculture tutors, including David Holmgren and Beck Lowe, from the comfort of your own home.
The PDC is capped at 26 students with live sessions each week, so there will be plenty of opportunity for everyone to participate, be involved in discussions and get to know one another.
Participants will work on a design project of their own choice throughout the course – a great chance to design or re-design where you live, or another area of interest.
This PDC allows those who would not be able to attend our residential PDC, due to distance or other factors, to have a learning experience with permaculture co-originator David Holmgren.
The live online course runs for 23 weeks, with live sessions every Thursday morning. See dates and times here.
This course goes beyond land-based design, bringing permaculture to all aspects of human living.
The learning will be structured around Holmgren’s 12 permaculture principles, as detailed in Permaculture: principles and pathways beyond sustainability.
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Dates and times
July - December 2023
Dates and details to be confirmed.
13th July - 14th December 2023
Thursday mornings: 9:30am – 12:45pm (AEST/AEDT)
Live online sessions will be held weekly adding up to the standard 72 hours of PDC content, all live online.
Each week bonus material will be provided, to be viewed and/or read in the participants’ own time, and participants will work on their design project throughout.
Live online sessions will be held weekly on Thursday mornings AEST/AEDT.
This adds up to the standard 72 hours of PDC content, all live online.
This time zone should work for those in eastern Australia and some of the Americas.
Each week bonus material will be provided, to be viewed and/or read in the participants’ own time, and participants will work on their design project throughout.
Online PDC class dates
Thursday mornings: 9:30am – 12:45pm (AEST/AEDT)
July: 13th, 20th, 27th
Aug: 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st
Sept: 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
Oct: 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th
Nov: 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th
Dec: 7th, 14th
Tutors
Learn from our experienced team, including permaculture co-originator.
You will learn from the co-originator of permaculture, David Holmgren, experienced permaculture educator, Beck Lowe, and a team of excellent permaculture practitioners and tutors.
The team has a depth of practical and theoretical knowledge to cover the myriad facets of permaculture.
Guest tutors include:
Su Dennett (Melliodora)
Uncle Charles Davison and Jen Ridley
Meg Ulman and Patrick Jones (Artist as Family)
Ostii Ananda (Castlemaine Permaculture Hub)
Ian Lillington
Live a more sustainable life
Retrofit your house, your community and yourself.
Design a resilient system in the face of growing uncertainties.
Join a growing community of like-minded people.
Course structure
Live weekly interactive classes on a wide range of permaculture topics.
Students will have pre-recorded viewing, or sometimes reading, material to watch or read during the week.
The first part of each session will generally consist of a live Q&A with a tutor or guest discussing this pre-recorded material. This format allows participants to have more interactive time with the presenters, to go into more detail on the topics discussed, and to tailor questions according to their interests.
The second part of the session will generally be a live presentation or activity with a tutor, or will include live, virtual visits to some of our favourite permaculture sites.
Beck Lowe will be facilitating all classes.
Much of the pre-recorded viewing is based around the online tour of Melliodora with David Holmgren and Su Dennett, giving an insight into this long-running, productive permaculture property. You will have lots of opportunities to ask them both further questions live online.’
Course content
You will learn permaculture ethics, principles and design, and their application across the domains, so you can integrate them into all aspects of your life.
This course will equip you with the foundations of permaculture.
Topics include:
- permaculture ethics and principles
- ecology and natural cycles
- weather and climates
- soils
- permaculture food growing
- energy literacy
- reading the landscape
- appropriate technology
- built environment
- design processes and practices
- animals in permaculture
- health and spiritual wellbeing
- urban retrofitting
- finance and economics
- community strategies
With permaculture, you can design the world you want to live in.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course, but please read the Essence of Permaculture if you have not yet done so. We will send you a link to the free PDF download.
All other titles and writings by David Holmgren are highly recommended. Please have a look through our online store or visit your local library.
Are you an Australian Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander?
If so, you are warmly invited to apply for a scholarship for the Holmgren Design online PDC.
Gadigal Elder Uncle Charles Davison and his partner, Wiradjuri woman Jen Ridley, guest teachers on the PDC and co-sponsors of the scholarship with Holmgren Design and Beck Lowe, will be available throughout the course to provide mentorship to support both you and Holmgren Design as the course provider, with culturally appropriate course content, protocols and communication. To receive an application, please email [email protected]
Online PDC
$1,190
Payment plans now available. See details.
Payment Plan Details:
50% paid up front.
50% balance of payment.
Full payment must be finalised two weeks before the start of the Online PDC.
Details of final payment will be emailed to you.
Online PDC
$1,190
Registrations are currently closed.
Join our Wait List to be notified about new dates.
Frequently Asked Questions
PDC stands for Permaculture Design Course. This has been the standard format for permaculture training since the 1980s.
If you undertake this course you will be joining a body of many thousands of PDC graduates around the globe. The traditional PDC is 72 hours and covers various aspects of permaculture design. Holmgren Design PDCs also focus on exploring how permaculture principles can be applied to all areas of life – not just a block of land.
David Holmgren, the co-originator of the permaculture concept, is a major tutor on this PDC, leading about one third of the sessions. One of the advantages of undertaking this PDC is the amount of time you will get to interact with David, both through his formal presentations, and his informal Q&A sessions. The remainder of the sessions will be led by Beck Lowe or one of our talented guest tutors.
Unlike some other online PDCs, we have a full 72 hours of content delivered live online. We also have about an hour per week of pre-recorded content that participants are expected to watch in their own time. We think this provides a good balance between learning in a group and managing your own study time.
We realise that online study is not for everyone – we’d rather be outside in the garden away from the screen too!
We specifically run this course for people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to do a PDC in their local area, or who particularly want the input from permaculture co-originator David Holmgren. We encourage you to look into your options for a local PDC before you enrol in this one.
But that said, we aim to make this PDC as comprehensive and participant-focused as possible with live interactive presentations, classes and tours. Although you won’t get to experience the fieldtrips live, you will be able to see working permaculture properties and meet the people who steward them. And you will be working with a supportive group of likeminded participants throughout.
Before you enrol, please ensure you have the time available for the classes, the required viewing/reading and for working on your designs.
Attendance at all classes is expected, but we understand that sometimes you will have to miss a session due to illness or prior commitments. We may sometimes be able to record classes with prior notice. You must attend at least 75% of classes to receive the certificate at the end.
As is traditional with PDCs, you will also be required to present a permaculture design you have developed towards the end of the course. We are quite flexible about what projects students use for this design, but most participants choose to work on their own property, or the property of someone close to them.
As well as working on your design and attending classes, you will need to find an extra hour or so each week for the required viewing/reading/activities.
We also suggest other resources each week, so if you are really keen, you can spend as long as you like in private study!
Yes, our residential Ashram PDC will be running again in March 2024. To be notified when registrations open, please email [email protected] with an expression of interest.
There are always more expressions of interest than participant spaces for our Ashram PDCs, but unfortunately we don’t have the time or energy for more than one residential PDC per year. This new offering will enable more budding permies to access the wealth of David’s and other tutors’ permaculture knowledge. It also allows those who would not be able to attend our residential PDC, due to distance or other factors, to have the PDC experience.
We understand that the AEST/AEDT time zone will not suit everyone, but we expect participants to be present at each session (with occasional absences for illness etc).
Running future online PDCs in different time zones is a possibility we are actively exploring. If you are in a different time zone and might like to do a future course, please email an EOI with your preferred time zone to [email protected].
We encourage your partner/housemate to enrol with us so you can experience the PDC together. It isn’t appropriate to have people who are not part of the group listening in.
Class material, such as notes and links to resources, will be held in the online Holmgren Design Hub. This is an easy-to-navigate system where everything you require will be set out in weekly sessions. It also allows you to chat with other participants between sessions.
The live classes will be held via Zoom – if you don’t already have it, this is free to download and use.
The faster your internet connection the better for interacting online. If your internet is slow or unreliable we recommend you go to a friend’s place, a local library or community centre for the live classes if possible.
You will need:
- Latest version of: Google Chrome, Firefox, MS Edge, or Safari. Google Chrome often works best.
- Your browser must have JavaScript enabled.
- Speakers/ headphones and microphone (built-in is fine) are required.
- Internet connection with 2.5 Mbps+.
- To check that firewalls do not block the video content.
All classes will be conducted in English, so your English must be of a standard that you can participate in class discussions in real time.
As this is a new course, we cannot offer a concession price, sorry! We may be able to on future courses.
If you are an Australian Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander, you are warmly invited to apply for a scholarship for the Holmgren Design online PDC.
Gadigal Elder Uncle Charles Davison and his partner, Wiradjuri woman Jen Ridley, guest teachers on the PDC and co-sponsors of the scholarship with Holmgren Design, will be available throughout the course to provide mentorship to support both you and Holmgren Design as the course provider, with culturally appropriate course content, protocols and communication.
To receive an application, please email [email protected]
We only accept credit card payments made via Stripe which also includes a small booking fee. Your booking is only complete once the funds have arrived in our account.
Sometimes circumstances change and you are unable to attend a course you have paid for. If you notify us at least 21 days prior to the course commencement, we will refund your course fee minus a $100 admin fee OR you can apply the full amount as credit towards a future course.
If you notify us less than 21 days prior to the course commencement we can only provide a refund if we have someone on the waiting list to do the course. We are happy for you to transfer your place to someone else as a private arrangement. Just let us know.
Holmgren Design reserves the right to cancel or discontinue advertised courses due to unforeseen circumstances. If we are forced to cancel a course, you will receive a full refund.
Need to know something else?
Send us a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.