courses
PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE (PDC)
Learn permaculture design and create thriving landscapes, households and communities. 100+ hours of learning and hands-on design experience.
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Get your Permaculture Design certification at CERES. Learn to live a comfortable, abundant life within the limits of our planet.
What will you find at the PDC course at CERES?
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Learn from Experts
Learn from a crack team of tutors applying permaculture in innovative ways in their lives and landscapes.
Inspiring Learning Environment
Attend class at CERES famous permaculture park in Brunswick.
Exciting Excursions
Visit diverse permaculture sites in Melbourne and regional Victoria on immersive weekend trips.
practical design toolkit
A trusty toolkit and process that you can use to work with nature (rather than against it) in any context.
hands-on experience
Hands-on permaculture design experience, working with a real-life client.
pattern reading
Learn to read landscapes and the patterns – weather, water, plants – which form them.
Grow your own food
Get growing and eating, no matter how small your space is.
community building
Meet a whole bunch of new pals who share your values.
You’ll be mentored by
Joel Meadows is an educator, designer, builder, illustrator, sculptor, grower and musician. Joel runs The Green Hand Institute offering permaculture education and developing technologies that make living sustainably more achievable: think rocket stoves, innovative beehives, human-powered transport, biochar makers and more. He has illustrated two books: David Holmgren’s ‘Principles’ and ‘The Rocket Powered Oven’ with Tim Barker.
Joel lives with his family on the fringe of Castlemaine in their owner designed and built passive solar straw bale home(which we are lucky enough to visit in the course).
Kat Lavers is a small space food gardening specialist with a background in permaculture design, teaching and facilitation. She has a breadth of training experience working with residents and local government as well as refugee communities, aid agency staff and even Mongolian nomadic herders.
Her award-winning house and garden, ‘The Plummery’[Link to Happn film], is a 1/14th acre urban permaculture system that produces almost all the vegies, herbs, fruit and eggs consumed, recycling all organic waste on site and harvesting the majority of power and water used by the household.
When she’s not teaching permaculture and organic gardening, Kat designs community gardens and urban agriculture projects with local councils and communities.
Beck Lowe is an experienced educator and designer with over 15 years of experience working in inner city, suburban and rural areas. She is particularly interested in household resilience and community building.
Becke worked in partnership with David Holmgren on the book RetroSuburbia – an exploration of how suburban life has changed over time, and a positive vision of where it may go(with a specific look at Melbourne).
Taj Scicluna is a permaculture educator and designer who aims to inspire and educate people to live more nourishing and sustainable lifestyles.
She runs Botanical Education, a business which fuses her love for herbalism, foraging, writing, cooking, ecosystem health and personal health. An engaging and passionate educator, you’ll find Taj leading many classes here at CERES. Taj enjoys supporting people to bridge the gap between themselves and ‘nature’ and to remember their place in it.
Adam Grubb is the co-founder with late great Dan Palmer of the Permablitz volunteer backyard makeover network and the business Very Edible Gardens, where he continues to design and build permaculture inspired gardens.
He’s a Triple R alumni as host of Greening the Apocalypse and is the co-author with Annie Raser-Rowland of The Weed Forager’s Handbook and The Art of Frugal Hedonism and the kids’ book Let’s Eat Weeds.
How It'll work
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who is the pdc course for?
Our award-winning programs teach students about sustainability and community with hope. Students leave with an increased sense of agency and an understanding of how they can be a force for a better world.
- Unique, hands-on learning experiences that create a memorable day for students.
- Immersive urban farms, biodiverse wetlands, native bush and cultural villages that bring topics to life.
- Passionate and experienced educators.
- Curriculum linked programs that complement what students learn in the classroom.
what's included?
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course pricing options
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Alumni Success Stories
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A permaculture life with Meg Sheehan
Meg Sheehan is a CERES Permaculture Design Course alumni, community...
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Coming Home To The Wild with Catie Payne
Catie Payne is a Nature-Based Leadership Training (NBLT) alumni, occasional...
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Eight Tips for Building Biodiversity in Your School
At the ResourceSmart Schools Southern Progress Workshop held in November...
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Saving water at Killara Primary School
Saving Water at Killara Primary School Congratulations to Killara Primary...
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