David Holmgren was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1955. As a child of working class political activists he was greatly influenced by the social revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s. While travelling around Australia in 1973 he fell in love with the Tasmanian landscape and joined the innovative Environmental Design School in Hobart. Over the following three years an intense working relationship with his mentor Bill Mollison led to the development of the permaculture concept and set the course of both mens lives. As the young co-author of Permaculture One in 1978, David shunned the limelight and focused on further developing his practical and design skills for a self-reliant lifestyle. Since then he has written several more books, conducted workshops and courses throughout Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, the Americas and Europe. As a consultant designer he has developed a great expertise in the temperate landscapes of south-eastern Australia with a strong bioregional focus on his home territory. Since 1985 he has lived with his partner Su Dennett in Hepburn, central Victoria, on their property Melliodora, one of Australia's best-known permaculture demonstration sites.Within the international permaculture movement, David is respected for his commitment to presenting permaculture ideas through practical projects. Together with Su, David teaches by personal example that a sustainable lifestyle is a realistic, attractive and powerful alternative to dependant consumerism. This book is the distillation of a life lived by the principles of permaculture.