In 1994 After 8 years traveling around the state living on small rural properties in country towns we purchased this place in Monbulk/Olinda on the East of the hills above Melbourne Australia. This 12-15 acres was first settled in 1897 & has been a cut flower farm since 1907 with deep red loam soils and a water right to the creek as the bottom, the aspect is Nth Nth East with good established trees throughout.

The first thing needed was adequate fencing to house our loved Rare Breed Animals and Poultry, these help manage the Heritage orchard & the fire risk,  these supply raw ingredients for our BD composting.

Silvia and I are interested in so many areas that we don't have time to be experts in one single field, our yearly travels and living in 4 different geographic locations within the state of Victoria have increased our practical skills, particularly in small scale systems for animals and fruit & veggies.

This has resulted in us running our own courses in animal husbandry, organic growing and design. we also ended up being involved and leaders of local & state community groups.

In 2002 Peter quit what some would call a good job to become a full time Permie.

Now in our 2010 update we have since purchased some extra govt land adjacent to us mostly all bush, other things have als changed such as the opening of a Nursery selling 600 varieties of fruit trees, completion of 2 classrooms one for cheese, wine making and other food classes while the other has many varied classes from Permacultutre Design Certificates, soils & compost and now Biodynamics.

The collection has grown to over 1000 heritage fruits varieties mainly due to the Government closing down the Govt collections so we have been compelled to save these for the future of all Australians.