We are Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar, and at the end of 2006 we packed up our former lives as New Media Artist/Consultants and prepared to move to the country to live simply. And so on New Year's Day 2007 we left inner-city Melbourne and headed for Nick's family farm in the hills near Mudgee NSW Australia. Since then, we've been turning the back paddock of said family farm into Milkwood - a 20 acre small-holding consisting of a clapped-out creekflat and a hillside on Campbells Creek.

We're using Permaculture principles to make Milkwood a safe and happy home, and also turning it into a Permaculture Demonstration Site, which will highlight how Permaculture can be applied to 'marginal' land (rocky, low fertility soil, previously overgrazed, generally not expected to support any significant agriculture by western standards without massive chemical inputs) and, over time, result in a truly productive and stable ecosystem.

Originally (and still) part of the Wirudjeri nation's land, Campbells Creek has seen an explosive gold-rush followed by sheep farming since being settled by us whiteys in about the 1850's. The air here is clean, the nights are clear and the rainfall is low.

Along the way with this journey we've started up Milkwood Permaculture, a Permculture education business which offers short and more intensive courses in sustainable farming techniques + Permaculture, and also offers Permaculture design and consultancy. We're confident that the future of resilient communities rests on those communities' ability to meet their basic needs for clean water, efficient shelter and good food, and we want to be part of giving people access to ways to do that using ethical, organic techniques.

This website catalogs our journey from start-up to wherever it is that we end up with this project, with all the thrills and spills of being young farmers along the way. We're sharing information and resources about how to do things as we learn about, read and experience them. We invite you to come along for the ride and get some virtual dirt under your nails. We also love feedback and suggestions, so feel free to get in touch.