Melliodora: Ten Years of Sustainable Living

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 large format 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. 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.

Published 1995, reprinted 2001
Melliodora Publishing
Softcover, b&w, diagrams, illustrations and photographs throughout, 297 x 420mm (A3).
ISBN: 0646269909

The updated eBook

The eBook includes all the original book text Melliodora: Ten Years of Sustainable Living (1985-1995), along with high resolution zoomable graphics and full colour high resolution versions of the photos as well as linkable new photos of key views showing the changes and growth over the following decade (1995-2005). Available here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Holmgren is best known as the co-originator with Bill Mollison of the permaculture concept following the publication of Permaculture One in 1978. Within the growing and international permaculture movement, David is respected for his commitment to presenting permaculture ideas through practical projects and teaching by personal example, that a sustainable lifestyle is a realistic, attractive and powerful alternative to dependent consumerism. As well as constant involvement in the practical side of permaculture, David is passionate about the philosophical and conceptual foundations for sustainability, which he explored in Future Scenarios (2009), and Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (2003/2017) and his most recent book RetroSuburbia (2018). With an increasingly high profile as a public speaker, David Holmgren provides leadership with his refreshing and unorthodox approach to the environmental issues of our time. David lives with his partner Su Dennett at “Melliodora“, a one-hectare permaculture demonstration site at Hepburn Springs, Central Victoria, Australia. Visit his web site at holmgren.com.au.