Wwoofer Profile
About Me
Personal Bio
Hello! I am originally from Bolton near Manchester in the UK and moved to Australia in 1997 after graduating as a Geologist. Most of my career has been in Geology, either on oil rigs or in mining, but I had a seven year stint in the middle trying to get a ‘normal job’ working in IT, Mortgages and then Telecommunications. During this period I got married and had two kids. In 2015 I left the workforce to owner build our house revonation, look after the kids and I discovered permaculture. Where had it been all my life!! I now understand why I dislike the corporate world so much.
Completing a Permaculture Design Course with Limestone Permaculture was one of the defining points of my life. Since then I’ve gone headlong into growing our own food and everything to do with an earth and community friendly existence. After getting involved with the Sydney Edible Garden Trail committee I ended up on Gardening Australia in November 2021. The clip is at youtube.com/watch?v=ytnyaDumKi4&t=98s.
Recently I’ve created my own business called Let’s Grow Shopping helping people design their gardens and I’m starting to do workshops for councils. letsgrowshopping.com.au.
When I’m not ‘working’ I’m upcycling all sorts of materials for use as house furniture or in the garden, playing guitar, soccer, or volunteering for Permaculture Sydney North as their secretary.
Why I joined WWOOF
Halfway through transforming the garden, I realised it was my apprenticeship. There is a burning desire somewhere inside to learn skills in regeneratively managing the land and animals, either commercially or just for the family group. I’ve been very inspired recently by Mark Boyle (The Moneyless Man) – making a life surrounded by a sharing community with a common purpose and minimal need for money (not too sure how I’m going to convince the family that this is the way to go though….)
My wife understands that I need to keep learning and WWOOF’ing is something I’ve had on my bucket list for a while. Any organic broad acre organic farming experience and associated living skills would be great! Ideally I’m looking to combine farm life (3-4 days during the week) and the family commuting back to Sydney at the weekends – but happy to discuss other arrangements.
My Details
Attributes
Languages I speak
Skills I would like to learn
Organic Practices, Permaculture/Biodynamics, Biodynamics practices and techniques, Regenerative Agriculture, Syntropic farming, Gardening, Propagating, Composting, Soil conservation, Animal Care, Beekeeping, Dairy, Mustering, Fencing, Natural building methods, Tool making, Mechanical, Cheese making, Preserving food, Wild food foraging, Fermenting food, Wine making, Marketing produce, Off-grid living skills, Environmental recovery/regeneration work
