Tarwyn Park

Tarwyn Park Training – May 2012

Dave — Sun, 06 May 2012 09:28:53 +0000

‘Tarwyn Park’ The Home of Natural Sequence Farming Presents:

A two-day Intensive Workshop

‘Tarwyn Park Training’

A skill based training workshop to learn:

Day 1: How Tarwyn Park works as a functioning Farming System
Day 2: How to work with sloping landscapes using contours

Dates:

Local participants course - Monday, May 28th and Thursday May 31st 2012
Distant participants course - Tuesday, May 29th and Wednesday 30th May 2012

Venue:

Tarwyn Park, Bylong, NSW, Australia.

Times:

9.30am to 3.30pm.

Refreshments:

Lunch, tea, coffee provided

Investment:

$550 (Inc GST)
$495 – NSA Members (Inc GST)

Numbers will be strictly limited, book early to avoid disappointment

Contact Duane Norris

duane@nsfarming.com

You Are Invited to a Carbon and Water Symposium on Friday 6 May 2011

Dave — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:08:26 +0000

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We invite you to join us at a full day symposium on Friday 6 May, 2011.

The event – “Towards an Ecologically Integrative Climate Paradigm“ – is hosted by the School of Social and Political Sciences, and Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney, the International Journal of Water, and the Natural Sequence Association Inc.

International keynotes will feature European research into the New Water Paradigm, exploring its potential for moving Australian responses to the climate crisis in a more ecologically responsible direction.

We also hope to move the Australian climate debate beyond the policy deadlock created by the current deeply partisan approach to climate politics. It is time to replace the politics of competition with a politics of communication.

We will be in the rotunda at International House, City Road near Cleveland Street. Registration is at the door:

Corporate $80
Waged $50
Students $10

If you would like to attend the event, please email Duane Norris at duane@nsfarming.com right away, as the day is catered and spaces will be limited.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Warm regards, Co-Conveners:

Ariel Salleh, Political Economy, University of Sydney and Duane Norris, Natural Sequence Association

PUBLIC SYMPOSIUM

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Towards an Ecologically Integrative Climate Paradigm Re-Coupling Carbon and Water Cycles

If international climate negotiations are locked in a serious conflict between the affluent global North versus ‘developing’ South, Australian climate policy is deadlocked by a superficial political contest between political Right and Left. Moreover, in Australia ‘economic solutions’ like taxes or trading are being proffered for ‘ecological problems’! This can achieve little on the ground – since economics and ecology deal with two different orders of reality. A higher level of public eco-literacy will be critical for sound climate policy.

Meanwhile, the press often plays the climate crisis as a highly antagonistic two-headed controversy between position 1 – denialists who argue that human impacts on climate are negligible, and position 2 – believers who argue that human impacts are significant and a result of carbon dioxide emissions. So far little attention has been given to a 3rd climate position, a body of scientific opinion that might help resolve many socio-political tensions by cutting to the real ‘ecological bottom line’. As Michal Kravcik one of the founders of this perspective points out: ‘Land use changes and water management are interconnected with climate stability. And what is more, water evaporation is actually the most important agent of energy transformation on earth’.

At international summits like Copenhagen and Cancun, attention has been deflected from this integrative climate paradigm. But recognition needs to be given to a range of first-order climate forcings and humanly induced causes of climate destabilisation as significant as carbon dioxide emissions. These include practices associated with deforestation, agro-industry, and urbanisation. The UN climate negotiations are promoting programs such as the Clean Development Mechanism, where forests in the global South are used as ‘passive’ carbon sinks for pollution from industrialised countries. But as Professor Wilhelm Ripl says: ‘What is overlooked is the fact that intact vegetation ‘actively’ helps manage the small water cycle, and keep the earth cool by converting sensible heat to the latent heat of evaporation.’

The human benefits of keeping such ecological functionings intact are enormous. And ‘the real bottom line’ for any society, including its economy, is ultimately a healthy ecosystem. – Our challenge is to achieve a climate politics that is at once responsive to local conditions, ecologically effective, socially democratic, and globally just.

This symposium is designed to enhance public and academic awareness of interactions between water, land, plants, and climate with a view to deepening climate debate and policy. Central to this integrative approach, is an understanding of how water and carbon cycles are interconnected. Two international keynote speakers, Dr Michal Kravcik of the People and Water NGO, Slovakia, and Professor Wilhelm Ripl of the Technical University of Berlin, will initiate this discussion along with leading Australian science researchers and policy makers. However, getting the science right is only half the story. The complexity of natural processes is overlaid by other ‘climate forcings’, such as social conventions, economic power, cultural assumptions, and even the philosophy behind different scientific methodologies. Each needs to be taken account of in the search for sustainable ecologies and societies.

For this reason, the event is a transdisciplinary collaboration between the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney, the International Journal of Water, and the Natural Sequence Farming Association. In addition to scientific papers, the meeting will showcase climate studies from the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney – work in political economy, anthropology, political ecology, and environmental ethics. Two recent climate focused publications put together by academics from the School will be launched on the day – the International Journal of Water and the Journal of Australian Political Economy.

The symposium will interest university workers and students, the public service, business, unions, teachers, farmers, environmental NGOs, and the general public. The low Registration fee is set to make the event as widely accessible as possible.

Climate change is a contentious political issue and rightly so, but this event is designed for problem solving and to encourage innovative non-partisan networking. The program considers several competing analyses of, and solutions for, the crisis. Speakers and participants are asked to leave political affiliations outside the door; to listen with an open mind; to comment respectfully; and to look for common ground. The community needs broad alliances supporting direct hands-on ecological action for climate. The current reliance on economic solutions to the crisis simply obfuscates the problem.

Co-Conveners: Ariel Salleh, Political Economy, University of Sydney and Duane Norris, Natural Sequence Farming

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We acknowledge and thank the following sponsors:

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PUBLIC SYMPOSIUM

Towards an Ecologically Integrative Climate Paradigm Re-Coupling Carbon and Water Cycles

9 – 5 Friday 6 May 2011 University of Sydney International House, City Rd near Cleveland St

PROGRAMME

9.00 Registration

Australian Waves (Eduardo Juárez Herrera: images)

9.30 Arguments for an Integrative Climate Paradigm

Chair: Duane Norris, Natural Sequence Farming Coordinator

9.40 A/Prof Clive McAlpine, Geography, University of Queensland Land Use Impacts on Climate Change: International Research Trends

10.00 Keynote: Dr Michal Kravcik, People and Water NGO, Slovakia The New Water Paradigm: Evapotranspiration and Climate Change

10.30 Open mike

10.45 Break

11.00 Building Ecological Knowledge on Water and Carbon

Chair: Ms Holly Creenaune, Friends of the Earth

11.00 A/Prof Willem Vervoort, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sydney Water, Carbon, and Sequestration: Where Are We in Terms of Science?

11.20 Keynote: Prof Wilhelm Ripl, Ecology, Technical University Berlin Water Loss, Carbon Loss, and Landscape Entropy

11.50 Peter Andrews OAM, Founder of Natural Sequence Farming Healing the Land by Re-Coupling Water and Carbon Cycles

12.10 Open mike

12.25 Launch:

Transdisciplinary Climate Studies at the University

International Journal of Water (ed), A/Prof Ariel Salleh, SSPS

Journal of Australian Political Economy (ed), Prof Frank Stilwell, SSPS Launched by Prof Simon Tormey

Chair, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney

12.45 Lunch

The New Water Paradigm and Urban Design (Marco Schmidt: images)

1.30 The Centrality of Carbon in the Climate Debate

Chair: Prof David Mitchell, Institute for Land, Water and Society, CSU

1.30 Prof Brendan Mackey, School of Environment and Society, ANU Why Australian Forest Ecosystems are Good Carbon Buffers

1.50 Carolyn Currie, Public-Private Sector Partnerships

Carbon Trading Does Not Work: How about a Carbon Swap Bank?

2.10 Dr Stuart Rosewarne, Political Economy, University of Sydney Social and Economic Contradictions of Carbon Pricing

2.30 Open mike

2.45 Break

3.00 Perspectives from Ethics, Anthropology, Political Ecology

Chair: A/Prof Ariel Salleh, Political Economy, University of Sydney

Panel:

3.00 Prof David Schlosberg, Government, University of Sydney Climate Change and the Tools of Environmental Justice

3.15 Prof Linda Connor, Anthropology, University of Sydney Miners, Farmers, Mothers, and Climate Politics in the Hunter Valley

3.30 A/Prof James Goodman, Social-Political Sciences, UTS Competing Priorities: Global climate policies versus local livelihoods?

3.45 Prof Andrew Biro, Political Science, Acadia University, Canada Water, Climate, and the Production of Scarcity

4.00 Open mike

Re-Coupling Water and Carbon Cycles: Jobs for Ecosystem Integrity

Chair: Prof Max Finlayson, Institute for Land, Water and Society, CSU

Informal panel and open mike:

4.15-5.00

Dr Michal Kravcik, People and Water NGO, Slovakia

Dr Paul Sinclair, Australian Conservation Foundation

Major General Michael Jeffrey, Outcomes Australia

Dr Pat Ranald, Australian Council of Trade Unions

Prof Wilhelm Ripl, Technical University of Berlin, Germany

5.00 Reception

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We will be in the rotunda at International House, City Road near Cleveland Street. Registration is at the door:

Corporate $80
Waged $50
Students $10

If you would like to attend the event, please email Duane Norris at duane@nsfarming.com right away, as the day is catered and spaces will be limited.

________________________________________________________________

Early settlement of the continent by people with European cultural assumptions disrupted established interactions of water, soil, and plants resulting in lost fertility. Moreover, agricultural practices such as clearing, burning, ploughing, draining, and irrigation, have implications for global warming. Soils hold twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and three times as much as vegetation. But carbon in exposed soil oxidises releasing CO₂ into the atmosphere.

Duane Norris & Peter Andrews, International Journal of Water, No. 5

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By the logic of the New Water Paradigm, it is deforestation, industrial agriculture, and urbanisation that determine climate by draining land, so that more solar energy re-enters the atmosphere as sensible heat, rather than latent heat of evaporation. Human made ‘hot plates’ lead to irregular precipitation and other climate destabilisation effects, but these can be mitigated through rainwater conservation and re-vegetation. This integrative paradigm combines the management of climate, water, biodiversity, and land, with implications for agriculture, forestry, engineering, urban design and regional planning.

Juraj Kohutiar & Michal Kravcik, International Journal of Water, No. 5

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Under natural conditions order is created by interactions between water, temperature, chemical gradients, ground surface, and organisms. However, in the ‘developed’ landscape, order is replaced by randomness … [In the healthy ecosystem] dissipative structures balance terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, returning short water cycles to the atmosphere. This ecosystem integrity benefits food production as well as climate.

Wilhelm Ripl, International Journal of Water, No. 5

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In the interests of not frustrating the growth objective, not only are polluters rewarded for their polluting activities, capitalising on the costs they have imposed on others, but a whole raft of rent-seeking and revenue-making opportunities is presented … Carbon capture and storage transforms the spent resources of depleted oil and gas reserves into valuable assets, and carbon trading promises to foster an extraordinary expansion in carbon futures and derivatives trade, while the forests of the South are transformed into sequestration sites to help the polluters of the North avoid any meaningful engagement in meeting emissions reduction targets.

Stuart Rosewarne, Journal of Australian Poliical Economy, No. 66

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‘Power to the People Building Sustainable Jobs in the Illawarra’, made no mention of the global warming impacts of steel manufacturing or coal mining … The architects of Australia’s NGO red-green alliance, the ACF’s Don Henry and the ACTU’s Sharan Burrows … advocated expanded industries, including ‘mineral wealth’, on the back of environmental technologies … [Astonishingly] the Green Jobs Illawarra Report to the State Government argued that coking coal was the key element of ‘green industry infrastructure’.

James Goodman, Journal of Australian Political Economy, No. 66

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Many community actions are not overtly political … and most participants would reject a cultural or political identification as ‘environmentalist’ (or ‘greenie’, which is used as a very negative epithet). But there is a significant broadening of discourses about land, nature, water and ‘the environment’, even among people for whom ‘climate change’ is an alien word.

Linda Connor, Journal of Australian Political Economy, No. 66

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Getting the science right is a necessary condition of planetary survival, but it is not a sufficient condition. Taking action to reduce climate instability will mean coming to terms with – the respective roles of business-as-usual and the climate justice movement – the reliance on reductionist scientific models by governments and agencies – the modernist faith in technological solutions for ecological problems – the externalisation of risk on to those without a political voice – the lack of class, race and sex-gender reflexivity among decision-makers. The media will be critical to moving beyond the feel good macho clash between sceptics and believers.

Ariel Salleh (ed), International Journal of Water, No. 5

________________________________________________________________

We will be in the rotunda at International House, City Road near Cleveland Street. Registration is at the door:

Corporate $80
Waged $50
Students $10

If you would like to attend the event, please email Duane Norris at duane@nsfarming.com right away, as the day is catered and spaces will be limited.

________________________________________________________________

Please help spread the word about this important symposium -

tell your friends…

“Like” us on Facebook - ”Tweet” about us on Twitter

Peter Andrews OAM

Dave — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:33:30 +0000

Peter Andrews, a farmer from the Upper Hunter Valley in NSW, has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)

Mr Andrews’ award is for “service to conservation and the environment through the development and promotion of sustainable farming practises”.

He is best known for advocating Natural Sequence Farming (NSF), a technique that restores natural water cycles, even in times of drought, by maintaining a cover of vegetation to stop the soil losing moisture and nutrients.

Restoring the land

Mr Andrews says it’s an honour to receive the medal, and adds that he hopes it might lead to a better understanding of how the Australian landscape works.

“Before European settlement, we had an amazing filtering system and groundwater storage system (based on dense plant cover) that maintained high levels of productivity under the extreme conditions we’ve got, and now we’ve more or less dismantled it.

“The issue that frustrates me is that the whole planet runs on sunlight and that’s got to be converted by plants to a product that everything in the food chain can use.

“These massive changes (we’ve made) in the way a landscape functions is exactly what we’re now experiencing. We just go from drought to excessive rain events, basically because there’s nothing managing those huge thermal energies that are released every day from the sun.”

Mr Andrews visits about 50 properties each year, teaching farmers how the natural system on their property works.

This year he plans to set up a train-the-trainer program so others can also teach about Natural Sequence Farming.

by Abbie Thomas, ABC. Read the full article

Mining in the Bylong Valley

Dave — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:58:44 +0000

by Hamish Andrews

This short video was put together as a school project by Peter Andrews’ 11 year old grandson, Hamish. It speaks simply and directly about the prospect of Hamish’s home, Tarwyn Park – and the 30 years of work that it represents – being lost forever for the sake of a coal mine. Hamish wrote the script himself, and took many of the photos.

Tarwyn Park is located near Bylong in the Upper Hunter Valley region of NSW, Australia. It is renowned nationally (and internationally) as the home of Peter Andrews’ “Natural Sequence Farming” approach to the restoration of detiorated landscapes and replenishment of natural water systems.

To quote prominent Australian businessman, Gerry Harvey: “The place should be a bloody shrine, not a hole in the ground. What the hell are they thinking?”

A very big thank you to John Butler Trio and Phil Stevens at Jarrah Records for their permission for Hamish to use JBT’s “Better Than” as the soundtrack, and to make this video available to the general public on Youtube.

Don’t Mine Tarwyn Park!

Dave — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:55:16 +0000

Save Tarwyn Park Website Launched

If you are as alarmed at that thought as we are then we urge you to YELL LOUD, YELL NOW and DON’T STOP YELLING until the State and Federal governments promise to protect Tarwyn and the Bylong Valley from destruction.

Save Tarwyn Park

Tell The World

Spread the word. Tell people about the travesty that mining Tarwyn would be. Use Social Networking like FaceBook and Twitter to tell the world!

Contact the Pollies: Visit SaveTarwynPark.org.au you can find more info on the relevant politicians to contact to voice you’re protest:

Mr George Souris MP
Mr Joel Fitzgibbon MP
The Hon. Tony Kelly, MLC
The Hon. Duncan Gay, MLC
The Hon. Kristina Keneally MP

Don’t forget:

Your local State MP (if in NSW)
All members of the NSW Upper House
Your local Federal MP
Your State’s Senators

Tell your Facebook friends.

Write a ‘Letter to the Editor’. (In fact, why not write several?)

Call talkback radio.

SAVE TARWYN PARK

Help Save Tarwyn Park and help the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance

by using their free envelope labels to add to your correspondence:

Get 30 Labels Free!

Tweet, blog and post yourself silly.

Network with anyone you know with an interest in Peter Andrews’ work, in restoring landscapes, in sustainable farming practices, in water management, in anything that’s relevant.

The time to act is NOW. Tomorrow will be TOO LATE.

What the hell are they thinking?

Dave — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 09:34:38 +0000

“Harvey Norman goes to bat for Bylong”

Mudgee Guardian. By Don Mahoney, 26 Nov, 2010

Harvey Norman executive chairman Gerry Harvey has spoken out against the proposed coal mining of the Bylong Valley.

Mr Harvey said proposals to mine the valley, including to Peter Andrew’s “Tarwyn Park”, home of Natural Sequence Farming, were “sheer lunacy”.

“Tarwyn Park is a living case study of how we can get it right when it comes to water use and sustainable agriculture. The place should be a bloody shrine, not a hole in the ground,” Mr Harvey said.

“The irony – and stupidity – of possibly losing a place like Tarwyn Park to mining is simply breathtaking. What the hell are they thinking?”

“Tarwyn Park” is regarded as a leading example of how degraded landscapes can be restored and natural water systems replenished.

If the coal mine goes ahead, the results of Mr Andrew’s revolutionary farming practices may be lost as the property lies wholly within the boundaries of the current exploration area.

… read the article

Tarwyn Park to Become a Coal Mine?

Dave — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 07:34:38 +0000

The Sydney Morning Herald (25/11/10), Melbourne Age (27/11/10), WAtoday (24/11/10) published this article by Ben Cubby, Environment Editor:

“Hunter stud owner shuts the gate to stop mining companies bolting across his land”

Is this Hunter Valley coal mine the future for Tarwyn Park? photo courtesy of Australian Longwall magazine and CSIRO

Peter Andrew’s Tarwyn Park neighbour, Craig Shaw, contacted TarwynPark.com.

“Just wanted to make sure you were aware of this article from today’s Sydney Morning Herald about the threat to Tarwyn Park from mining. It’s got a couple of great quotes in it from Gerry Harvey. I’m sure you’d agree: seeing Tarwyn potentially become a mine is soul-destroying and simply beggars belief.”

“I just wanted to clarify something, however.”

“I was with Stuart when he took the call from the Herald’s reporter and nothing was said that should have given that impression; sometimes I guess reporters don’t quite get it right. What WAS said was that negotiations regarding drilling were proceeding and that no access agreements had been signed at this stage, and signing wouldn’t happen until there was some reassurance regarding the potential impacts.”

(The article states… “But Mr Andrews has barred his gates to Anglo American Coal workers seeking to drill bores on the property to locate and measure the coal seams beneath it, and neighbouring landholders have followed suit

And yes, Craig I absolutely agree with you, it more than beggars belief.

Australia has so little quality farmland and to consider it should be desecrated for coal mining, a product that maybe one of the worst energy producing contributors to “Green House Effect” is sheer lunacy. It is beyond absurd that Tarwyn Park should be be underthreat.

To The Korea Electric Power Corporation and Australian miner Cockatoo Coal; back off, get your grubby mitts of Tarwyn Park.

Prevent Tarwyn Park & Bylong becoming a coal mine. Contact: Bylong Valley Protection Alliance

Tarwyn Park – Peter Andrews – NSF

Dave — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 01:02:08 +0000

Peter Andrews: bushman, farmer, horse trainer. Some consider him to be more than that. Many believe him to be a prophet of hope. Tarwyn Park, a horse stud that had once bred the famous Melbourne Cup winner Rain Lover, was dry, barren, salty and eroded. Now, it is always green, with water through the summer and frost tolerant in winter. Fertilizers and chemicals are not used, yet the soil is richer. Salinity has decreased and erosion stabilized. Fish are returning to the creeks. Using observation, logic, intuition and ’smart’ work, Peter Andrews has regenerated and saved Tarwyn Park, but while the land is healing,

It was at great personal cost

It was done after 30 years of battling neighbours, banks, bureaucracy, politicians, bankruptcy and even those closest to him. It was achieved by flying in the face of conventional wisdom. With a belief in himself and what is right; by not lying down and admitting defeat, he has embarrassed many of the experts who were unwilling to listen, learn or even consider change. At last, Peter Andrews, Tarwyn Park and Natural Sequence Farming are getting deserved recognition. But, there is a debt of gratitude not yet realized, so let it be said to Peter Andrews:

Thank you

No doubt, Peter Andrews will go down in history as a great man. This web site acknowledges him as a truly great Australian. Also, this web site is dedicated to several purposes: being a links resource for people who would like to learn more and to look at also improving their land. But possibly the most important lesson that Peter Andrews has demonstrated is that it IS possible to triumph against the odds, that we all should remember:

One person can make a difference!

Peter Andrews

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT PETER ANDREWS

If you go to the properties where Peter Andrews has been working, those
properties from the air are green. The neighbouring property is brown.

PROF. DAVID MITCHELL, WATER ECOLOGIST

I think it’s the most significant contribution to landscape restoration that I’ve seen in Australia.

PROF. DAVID GOLDNEY, LANDSCAPE ECOLOGIST

It’s resulted in a river recovery to our knowledge unprecedented in Australia.

PROF. RICHARD BUSH, HEAD ‘BARAMUL’ SCIENTIFIC TEAM

I’ll back him til the day I die. I know that what he’s doing makes a lot of sense.
I’ve witnessed it for years.

GERRY HARVEY, RETAILER & STUD OWNER

TARWYN PARK.COM - WEBSITE INFORMATION

First, visit the pages and view the programmes that started it all: “Droughts and Flooding Rain” (part 1 & 2) & and the follow-up programme ”Right as Rain” (part 1 & 2): at the ABC TV page
For more about Peter Andrews and Natural Sequence Farming visit: the Video Gallery
For articles and links about Peter Andews and Natural Sequence Farming visit: Peter Andrews & NSF
For information about other resources including the Natural Sequence Farming DVD and the 2 books published by Peter Andrews about the Australian landscape and Natural Sequence Farming visit: Resources
Visit the other pages for Links (including a link exchange program), NSW Parliament Report of Proceedings, Contact and About this website.