Simply Homesteading
Your Catering Team
Nici & Bronte (daughter) are our resident wholefood cooks & recipe creators. Our aim is to energise & invigorate our students through fresh & nutritious food, whilst sharing tips with those seeking a life of regenerative wellness.
Nici holds an Advanced Certificate of ‘Nutrition & Health’ and has extensive studies in ‘Australian Native Herbalism’.
Limestone farm kitchen is where Nici & Bronte get their Homesteading on with fermenting, pickling, preserving, infusing, bottling & baking.
Utilising our 'beyond organic' farm fresh produce.
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Your PDCHC Lead & Guest Teachers
Limestone Permaculture is fortunate to have a swag of highly skilled teachers across a range of environmental disciplines and all within our local region. Their diversity of backgrounds, skills and approaches guarantees inspiration & greater understanding within your course learning experience!
Lead Teacher > Brett Cooper - Limestone Permaculture
Permaculture Principled Micro-farming & Homesteading
Brett is certified by Permaculture Research Institute for his PDC and has been an avid gardener for over 35 years.
He has over 22 years experience in Permaculture Principled Practice and Demonstration, the first 8 years spent as an Urban Permaculturist in Newcastle NSW & the last 14 years on their rural permaculture homestead > Limestone Farm @ Stroud Road NSW.
Brett has a PDC through PRI, a Cert IV in Permaculture through the Riverina TAFE, undertaken an Advanced Design Process Course with David Holmgren & Dan Palmer, Holistic Management Course with Brian Wellburg, Introduction to Biodynamics with Charlie Arnott.
He is a Carpenter & Joiner by trade, has years of experience in Building & Landscaping, carries Diplomas in Project Management & Business Management.
Brett is currently the President of the Midcoast Growers Network & a produce judge for Stroud Show.
In the past, has been a director on the Gloucester Food Hub, coordinator for the Mayfield Community Gardens, manager for the Stroud Growers Market and Chief Steward of the ‘Produce Pavilion’ at the Stroud NSW Show.
Lead Teacher > Will Power - Maplewood Permaculture
Permaculture & the Design Process
Will is a local permaculture designer and educator.
He and his wife Anthea both completed PDCs at Limestone Permaculture, and together run their small farm and design business, Maplewood Permaculture.
​Their farm is on two acres in Paterson, which they are continuing to develop as a model of applied permaculture and regenerative principles.
Will has worked in school teaching and leadership over the last ten years, has a Certificate IV Permaculture with TAFE NSW and the National Environment Centre, and has also studied:
- Naturalistic garden design
- Pasture cropping and grazing management principles.
He believes in simple human-scale solutions and favours working by hand to produce permaculture property designs.
An early design of their farm Maplewood was featured in Sowing Seeds magazine.
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Lead Teacher > Anthea Power - Maplewood Permaculture
Permaculture & Social Systems Beyond the Landscape
Anthea is passionate about the application of permaculture beyond the landscape, and projects that get communities working toward common goals. Through her business 'Maplewood Permaculture' with her husband Will, she has been involved in community projects ranging from designing school and community gardens, to free workshops, educational forums, as well as starting Permaculture at the Pub which now has three regular events each month, with more in development.
After completing her PDC at Limestone Permaculture, Anthea went on to complete her Permaculture Teacher Training certification with Hannah Maloney and Brenna Quinlan. This helped deepen her knowledge of both teaching and permaculture, while expanding on her toolbox of teaching methods.
Engaging young people in permaculture is another area that Anthea is enthusiastic about, running a local school gardening club and developing educational programs for preschool and school settings.
Guest Teacher >Andrew & Emma Yeo - Yeo Farm ​
Haling from a traditional farming background in the mid-west of NSW, Andrew & his wife Emma moved to Bulahdelah to become modern regenerative farmers & grow a thriving farm business.
Andrew is improving their beautiful property daily using permaculture principles & regenerative practices, his vision is to have a resilient lifestyle that provides healthy fresh food for his family and community whilst enhancing the fertility of his farm.
Holding a Permaculture Design Certificate & various other holistic and regenerative farming skills, Andrew practices & demonstrates Yeoman's 'Scale of Permanence' and 'Permaculture' as an overreaching philosophy to plan & future proof 'Yeo Farm'
Their water retention land-forming techniques has enabled Andrew & Emma to run a successful 'paddock to plate' lamb operation inside a short time frame and through one of the driest season in 40 years.
Yeo Farm demonstrates real regenerative farming techniques & practices which will value add your course learning experience!
Guest Teacher > Lee Field House - Island Biologicals
Lee and his his partner Kirsty own & operate 'Island Biologicals' on the Mid North Coast, where their aim is to utilise the magic of worms to create products which maximise the health and vigour of soils and plants for all!
Lee's philosophy is that 'Nature Knows Best' & 'Life Creates Life', which suits him perfectly for the passion he has for regenerative systems that enhance not only the plants, but also animals, landscapes, people, communities and businesses.
Lee's in depth knowledge encompasses the promotion of healthy soils specialising in natural bio-stimulants that are packed with living microbes, enzymes, hormones & fulvic acid.
Lee also is a long standing permaculturist with a PDC under his belt.
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Guest Teacher > Ben Sharp - Beneficial Ag & Garden
Ben brings to the course:
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25 years of Horticultural knowledge and working experience growing a wide variety of plants in both aesthetic and productive settings.
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21 years of Managing staff in both Horticultural and Agricultural enterprises including all aspects of the farm business
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A deep passion coupled with knowledge and understanding of soil, and the importance of health that thriving soil brings to the environment, which includes all organisms including humans!
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A deep knowledge of regenerating landscapes for improved ecological, financial and community resilience and sustainability.
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A unique ability to make observations and ask often uncomfortable probing questions to both identify causal factors and empower and encourage others to do the same.
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A visionary perspective of Agriculture, which challenges current paradigms and provides a bright outlook for opportunities in the future.
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A practical and mechanical mindset with the ability to visualise improvements to efficiency and positive outcomes of regenerative systems and to construct or modify machinery, infrastructure and equipment to facilitate these outcomes.
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The ability to share my knowledge in a way that is practical, easy to understand and absorb and get fulfilment from watching new knowledge blossom.
Guest Teacher > Marnie Johnson - Misty Ridge Permaculture
Marnie is an experienced gardener and long-term permaculture practitioner. Moving to Gloucester NSW in the early 1990’s she studied horticulture, obtained her TAE and is now a qualified horticulture trainer and assessor.
Marnie has worked within her community & government organisations for years demonstrating & training others in plant-based food system set-ups, horticulture and marketing of organic vegetables, fruit and herbs.
Marnie will be presenting our ‘Plants in Permaculture’ unit for Limestone Permaculture’s PDC course.
Marnie believes strongly in sharing knowledge and experiences and is continually learning from others and trialling different methods to adapt to the changing conditions and circumstances!
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Guest Teacher > Kellie Wall - The Pickled Patch
The Pickled Patch is a permaculture and fungi urban farm located on the stunning hunter coast of New South Wales.
Kellies mission is to teach people easy and interactive ways of growing beautiful edible and medicinal mushrooms at home using recycled and reusable containers, in the garden, and on logs.
She believes in sustainable farming practices that promote a healthy environment and community.
Kellie is passionate about creating a more resilient life for her family & sharing the knowledge of permaculture!
Specialising in urban farming, mushroom cultivation, and homesteading.
Guest Teacher > Rick Barker - Tilligerry Permaculture
Richard Barker is a permaculture, environmental and societal sustainability advocate who supports research, education and design in sustaining practices and management.
A remediation advocate of 30 years’ experience, he combines opportunity with multiple solutions, developing all natural environmental and societal synergy, stabilisation and enhancement solutions through technically astute practical processes successfully implemented across the globe.
He is the founder of Tilligerry Permaculture Research and Education Farms, as demonstrations of the shared success model.
As a Polyculture Permaculture and Societal practitioner Rick Barker brings together approaches and experience from Australia and around the world that when applied, have solutions for everyday living.
A colleague of Bill Mollison, Rick continues to design and share learning's wherever invited locally and internationally through positive creative activity.
A blending of traditional cultural awareness with contemporary advancements in sustainable living, utilising conscious functional design are growth attributes.
Tilligerry Permaculture Research & Education is example focused, showing simple solutions to inspire, empower and improve.
Guest Teacher > Garry Williams - Empowered Offgrid
Garry Williams started his journey into Permaculture and Renewable Energy back in 1991, starting a business and developing a sustainable property, building with hardwood & poured earth & living on off-grid power.
He spent the 1990s educating himself and others on Permaculture at Djanbung Gardens with Robyn Francis, as well as running workshops on the Mid North Coast focusing on alternative building and energy systems.
He spent the 2000s involved in his local community of Wootton NSW, establishing the 'Wootton Community Network', a community run café, coordinated sustainability fairs, workshops and influenced community development in the region for over a decade.
All the while running a business installing Off-grid Solar Systems and electrical contracting as his livelihood.
Garry has 31 years of experience and is a veteran in the industry, with over 200 Off-grid systems installed, as well as 'Hybrid', 'Solar Pumping' and 'Grid Connect' systems.
Having lived Off-grid for 23 years in Wootton, and living currently in Morpeth mostly Off-grid, his experience and knowledge is not from a textbook but from practical application and this has been gained by experimenting with the emerging technologies as they arrived on the market.
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