Melliodora Permaculture Tour: Holmgren & Dennett, Feb 2026

📅 February 2026 | 📍 Hepburn, Victoria, Australia | 🏷️ tour

The Permaculture Tour at Melliodora offers an immersive, full-day experience into one of Australia's premier examples of cool-temperate permaculture in action, guided by co-founder David Holmgren and Su Dennett. Scheduled for February 2026 in the Victorian central highlands, this tour transforms visitors from passive observers to inspired practitioners by showcasing how a one-hectare blackberry-infested wasteland from 1985 became a thriving, abundant food-producing landscape. Participants explore passive solar house design, mixed food gardens, mature orchards, dams for water harvesting, integrated livestock systems, and creek revegetation efforts—all maintained over decades with minimal external inputs. Ideal for homeowners with large town blocks, small rural allotments, or anyone interested in household-scale permaculture, the tour reveals the 'household economy' model: producing food, energy, and resources while creating a beautiful living environment. Morning and afternoon teas are included in the whole-day option, with BYO lunch under a 100-year-old pear tree or nearby café visits; a garden-only tour starts at 2:00 pm with afternoon tea. Attendees learn scalable principles like zoning, sector analysis, and edge maximization, directly applicable to diverse climates and scales. For permaculture practitioners, it's invaluable for seeing long-term evolution, troubleshooting common challenges like soil building in tough terrains, and integrating ethics of earth care, people care, and fair share. David Holmgren, a permaculture pioneer, shares insights on retrofitting existing properties and adapting to climate shifts. This event builds community, sparks innovation, and equips you with strategies for resilience, making it essential for regenerative farmers, designers, and sustainability enthusiasts aiming to replicate Melliodora's successes.