A brief description of my work

This is a brief description of the work I have done in the last few years.I en devour to expand on all areas in this blog but it may be a bit mixed.

In 2005 I ventured of overseas during a study break from the Permaforest Trust www.permaforesttrust.org.au/ ,where I was studying Cert4 in APT Permaculture Design.I have always loved traveling and saw this time as valuable to get out there and practice what I had learnt.
I contacted a few agencies and ended up getting a posting in Aceh,Indonesia 12 months after the Tsunami,Boxing Day 2004.I spent 2 months in a place called Lamsujiin about 50km south of Banda Aceh as a volunteer assisting the Permaculture teacher Steve Cran.Greenhand Field School, Aceh Index


The Greenhand field school was being developed to train local displaced persons in Permaculture Design.As this was my first overseas gig,culture shock hit me as I had not done any real preparation on understanding this culture.
After Aceh I headed overland and sea thru northern Sumartra to Malaysia and then Thailand.While in Thailand I contacted a guy I met in Australia ,Darren Doherty,permaculture biz ,who had been working in Vietnam on a project to see if I could visit,seeing how I was so close.After some arranging I was on my way thru Thailand,Cambodia and into Vietnam.I met with Daz and ended up staying on the project for 3 months taking care of the earthworks being done on site, as I have experience in this field.
We extended a dam 4 meters deeper and used the material to buttrace another dam wall and build some road ways.We also constructed some culverts using cement and poly pipes,a ferro cement fertigation structure,2 coconut circles,installed irrigation to caccao plantation,installed poly pipe underground from a creek to a header tank.
I generally managed the contractors and oversaw the progress until Darren's return every month.
By this time I had learnt what to expect from different cultures and settled into doing what I think was good work.
I headed back to Australia and started my own business in earthworks consultancy and worked on another one of Darren's projects called Dalpura Farm.A 140 acre silva pastoral,agro forestry project in Victoria.
I did many things there including keyline ploughing,gardening,building wetlands with a bulldozer,planting forestry,managing forestry ect.
In search if knowledge I headed off again to New Zealand to do a PDC at Taranaki Environment Center.I ended up teaching the earthworks chapter as the teacher organized did not make it.I was very nervous but it was a good challenge.I was going to stay for the course for two weeks but ended up staying in NZ for three months.After Taranaki I went ot Rainbow Valley Farm as a volunteer helping with the maintenance of the property and managing the international wwoofers.www.rainbowvalleyfarm.co.nz/


This was a fantastic experience learning from two truely inspirational people.
Anyway,now I am back to do more out there in the world and looking for opportunities everywhere to do good.