Title: Sustainable Living at Melliodora Hepburn Permaculture Gardens
Description: Throughout the first 10 years of the ‘Melliodora’ project (1985–1995), David Holmgren kept detailed records and photos, which have been collated into this very unusual 80 page book. It has A3 size landscape pages, so at a single opening it covers your desk! Each spread has a theme – such as house design, orchard, or animals with maps, plans photos and text.

The book was written inside the property it is describing – it’s a kind of autobiography. It was written over a five year period, and with property “established” the text was revised with the benefits of hindsight. It is ideal for anyone seriously interested in sustainable living – both at a practical level and with a good dose of Holmgren holistic thinking.

The meticulous detail allows the reader to trace the development of the property from the purchase of a steep weed-infested site, through the early stages of blackberry slashing, dam construction and tree planting to the “finished” product of family home, office, workshop, greenhouse, and integrated living systems with perennial plants and a range of animals fulfilling many functions.

Hepburn is in central Victoria, 470 metres above sea level, in the Great Dividing Range, north of Melbourne. It is an arboretum for cool climate Permaculture and the book has an extensive species list (over 170 listings). Twenty years on from the first draft of “Permaculture One”, this book shows that Permaculture works…—Author website
Subjects: Hepburn Permaculture Gardens, Hepburn, Victoria, case studies, permaculture, organic gardening, designs and plans, dwellings, environmental engineering, domestic architecture, environmental aspects of domestic architecture, design and construction, urban agriculture, Gardening, Gardening and horticulture, Environmental studies, Outdoor life, Architecture
Places: Hepburn
Time periods: 1985–2005