About the Gardener

 

I am an aspiring Renaissance Man living in a small city in country New South Wales.

I love life, beauty, ethics, and goodness in all things.

My mission in life is to live an honest life based on applied Christian ethics that shows an ongoing commitment to social and ecological sustainability, and in doing so bring about change towards an ethical, equitable and sustainable world with individuals and organisations through advocacy, teaching and environmental design.

I am long-term separated on the way to being divorced, with a gorgeous adopted baby daughter currently living overseas, several special women in my life, an aged father, Tessa a Shepherd/Rottweiler, 2 cats Fred and Mr Tumnus , 3 Hi-Brown chooks, 1 new and ‘hen-pecked’ Frizzled Silky Rooster, and two rather snooty alpacas out on Hippie Chic’s hobby farm which I look after.

I am a sustainability educator and Permaculture Designer living outside Canberra. I lecture and tutor at the University of Canberra on sustainability and I have had a lifelong commitment to the praxis of social and ecological sustainability.

At the practical level, I am actively involved in the research, design and implementation of on-ground sustainability measures from suburban households to large rural properties. Including riparian zone restoration, raised bed organic gardens, renewable energy, energy efficiency and the implementation of whole farm planning.

I own and operate a brilliantly designed little Ozzie front-end loader called a Mini Dingo. (www.dingo.ws) I have used this for everything from trench digging, landscaping, moving wooden railway sleepers for raised garden beds, cleaning out sheep footbaths, clearing the underneath of sheep shearing sheds through to ripping tree lines and digging fence postholes.

My research interests in an interrupted PhD are on combining those experiences that transform our lives with the power of narratives and storytelling. There are many names for the life changing events including: Aha, Eureka moments, Road to Damascus, Epiphany, Oh Shit, critical incidents and many others; and I want to chronicle these through the personal narratives of people committed to social and ecological sustainability who have experienced these events how these dramatically or slowly change our lives; and then how we can incorporate and bring about life changing events through the storytelling of sustainability educators. The draft title of v.5.2 is Personal Narratives on the Pathway to Sustainability: identifying and creating transformative or ‘aha’ experiences in the storytelling of sustainability education.