About us
Permaculture Design & Living
At Golden Bay Sustainable Designs, we provide sustainable design and consulting services and use Permaculture Ethics and Principles to help people to be able to live sustainably and to create a healthier place for future generations. We turn gardens into edible food forests, design water catchment systems and help you save money and energy in your home with passive solar solutions; which is all about learning and living with nature to live sustainably.
When we mimic nature, we are essentially giving back to the things that sustain us. When we learn to read these patterns, then we become custodians of the land.
Who is GBSL?
FOUNDER
Craig Clitheroe
Craig Clitheroe is the founder of Golden Bay Sustainable Living, a passionate gardener, Permaculture Designer and Practitioner. He has extensive experience in growing food in Perth's sandy soils, building fertility using waste resources found throughout suburbia and has grown edible gardens successfully.
Completing his Permaculture Design Certificate with Geoff Lawton in 2022, and filming a documentary about Permaculture with other Permaculturists as well as David Holmgren, Craig has gathered knowledge and experience and applied this hands-on, to transform houses, gardens and landscapes into a sustainable and abundant edible landscapes and resilient homes.
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a holistic approach to sustainable design, which means it considers the entire ecosystem and its interconnectivity with everything around it.
Permaculture was established by Australians David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, initially as a way to farm sustainably. They identified in the 1970's that modern farming was having a huge impact on the environment from industrialisation, and asked the question of how it could be done if you took into consideration the three aspects of agriculture, ecology, and landscape design. It was from this question, that they realised that if you mimic nature's productive systems, like a forest except you replace plants with edible species, you could grow an abundance of food and improve ecosystems.
Permaculture co-originated by two Australians, David Holmgren and Bill Mollison in the 1970's, as they attempted to create a way of life that incorporated all elements needed to sustain human habitation. Initially it was identified as a way to farm sustainably. It was identified in the 1970's that modern farming was having a huge impact on the environment from industrialisation, and so David and Bill looked to find a solution that would resolve this, and asked the question of how it could be done if you took into consideration the three key aspects aspects of Agriculture (How we grow food), Design (How we put things together), and Ecology (natural Systems) and how they could work together to create a sustainable system. It was from this question that they realised, the most abundant and efficient ecosystem which grows plants and animals is a forest. So, what if we grow our food as a forest, then we can grow food sustainably. This was then coined Permanent Agriculture (Permaculture). This idea of mimicking nature then expanded into all aspects of human behaviour and became the foundations of Permaculture Design. For a more detailed explanation, please watch the video.
The aim is to create systems that are productive, resilient, and beneficial to both people and the environment.