Program

Saturday 12 November

morning: kandos community hall

8:45 Registration opens

9:20 Welcome to Country - Lyn Symes

9:30  Introduction to forum

♣ 9:50    Keynote

Bruce Pascoe: Farming the Land as if it was Australia

10:50 tea & coffee

♣ 11:10    Morning talks: land stewardship & soil biology                                                                           

Larry Towney: Fire, stars and seasons - Indigenous methodologies

Jill-Moore Kashima: Reading the landscape & interactive change

Simon Mattsson: Making the most of your soil’s biological potential

        discussion

12:30 Collect lunch and prepare for departure to Marloo. Attendees will be driven to and from Marloo in hired buses and some cars. All attendees must depart from outside Kandos Hall (even if you have your own car). 

1:00  Departure for Marloo from outside Kandos Hall. 

afternoon: marloo

♣ 1:15pm Picnic lunch and tour at Marloo, Mt Marsden

Stuart Andrews of Tarwyn Park Training demonstrate how he is rehabilitating degraded areas of Marloo with the techniques of Natural Sequence Farming pioneered by his father Peter Andrews. Participants will also be introduced to the Hemp Initiative, the first project of the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation. Inaugural KSCA land art residency artist Gilbert Grace will discuss the Hemp Initiative with Klara Marosszeky, CEO of Australian Hemp Masonry and President of the Industrial Hemp Association. Other members of KSCA will also be present to explain the School’s ethos and aspirations.

4:30pm Buses and cars depart from Marloo and return everyone to Kandos Hall

evening: kandos community hall

♣ 6.30pm Foragers Feast

Guests will be treated to a dinner hosted by celebrated forager and artist Diego Bonetto and long-time collaborator chef Joey Astorga. Hand-crafted dishes will feature weeds and other wild edibles from the local area. And when we say "hand-crafted dishes", we also mean that the serving plates will be made from Rylestone clay! Please note, this dinner is BYO.

Sunday 13 November

morning: kandos community hall

9:00 Arrive for morning session

♣ 9.15 Morning talks: action, energy and economy

Mark Branson: Introducing the Crudine Ridge Wind Farm.

Adam Blakester: Disruptive entrepreneurship: lessons from Starfish Initiatives

Jason Tuckwell: Action and Nature: the Evolutionary Emergence of Creativity

discussion

10:35 tea & coffee

Tracy Norman: the Dungog Festival and other stories of rural ambition

Gerda Roelvink: Transforming farming/transforming economy

discussion

11:50 Collect lunch and prepare for departure to Ganguddy/Dunns Swamp outside Kandos Hall. 

12:10 Buses and cars depart for Ganguddy/Dunns Swamp camp ground. 

afternoon: ganguddy (dunns swamp), wollemi national park

12:30 Arrive at campground, and walk 5 minutes along edge of swamp towards Platypus point until we reach 'shady monolith section'.

12:40 ♣ Open air forum at Ganguddy (Dunns Swamp), with sandwich lunch

An inclusive discussion featuring artists, writers and growers who are responding creatively to land issues, hosted by MECOfrom the University of Wollongong, including: Lucas Ihlein, Artist as Family & Kirsten Bradley.

2:10 Walk to Pagoda lookout (15 minutes)

2:35 ♣ Haydn Washington talk and discussion at Pagoda lookout. 

In our final session, the sandstone pagodas of Ganguddy provide a majestic setting for a talk by renowned environmental scientist and writer Haydn Washington. The surrounding Wollemi national park, the largest wilderness in NSW, will provide a fitting context for Washington's insights into the steps required to achieve eco-sustainability, and the reasons this is within the reach of Australians more than we might think.

3:30 Return to campground, relax, swim.

4:30 Buses and cars return attendees to Kandos Community Hall.