The Acid Test
Holmgren's development of a rural settlement is perhaps his most significant design and test of his Permaculture principles. The settlement, known as the Fryer's Forest Ecovillage, is near Castlemaine, in Central Victoria, Australia. Central features of the village design are, the integration of domestic forestry with selective thinning for fire-safety (The harvested wood provides energy for domestic wood stoves), and the integration of the Keyline Design system of water storage and transfer with the Village road network and residential home site location. The water keyline storage system was the main design instrument for the regeneration of a landscape degraded by over 50 years of gold mining.
Despite the claims that permaculture provides sustainable solutions, there is currently no data available on the sustainability of the Fryers Forest settlement. Given the significance of water availability to the overall design, water levels may be one indicator of the success of the project. Due to an extremely long drought, (1994 to 2009) the water levels in dams became very low. However, rainwater supply to the community (via tanks catching roof run-off) was excellent and by early 2011 all dam systems were full to overflowing again.
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