Djanbung Gardens will introduce you to sustainable living and design in practice including a wide range of alternative techniques and design ideas you can take home and adapt to your own backyard or rural property.

Gardens & Edible Landscapes

The extensive garden systems demonstrate a range of organic gardening techniques including companion planting, no-dig gardens, natural pest management, composting and edible landscapes introducing you to an amazing diversity of herbs, vegetables, edible flowers and bushfoods.

The gardens provide a constant supply of food for residents and friends, catering for courses plus a surplus for value-adding and trading at local markets.
Different gardens demonstrate approaches to terracing on slopes, creative solutions to waterlogging, integration with animal systems plus a range of trellises, arbours and garden water features.

Non-hybrid varieties are grown as well as many unusual heritage and tropical vegetables & spices.

Alternative Building & Technology

The hexagonal Permaculture Education Centre building demonstrates alternative building materials including earth bricks, ‘saw-ment’ (sand-sawdust- cement) panels, natural finishes & renders. Passive solar design features create a comfortable indoor climate.

Rain water collected in tanks provides potable water supply and water conserving technologies have been installed.

Waste treatment systems include constructed wetlands and flow forms for sewage effluent from the Education Centre and waste from the railway carriages is taken care of with the Rivercare 2000 Award Winning composting toilet 'Closet Deposit' and wetland greywater system.

The Farmstay & intern accommodation is in 3 old Queensland railway carriages placed as a U-shaped suntrap for natural cooling and heating creating a frost-free garden courtyard for tropical culinary plants.

Orchards & Poultry

A number of mixed species food forests and orchards feature use of micro-climate for warm temperate, sub-tropic and tropical plants and bushfoods. The integration of ducks, geese and chickens in orchard and food forest management controls weeds, provides manure and reduces pest problems while giving the poultry a pleasant natural environment to live in. Poultry recycle garden weeds and kitchen waste onto quality eggs and manure. Poultry include some old rare heritage breeds as well as farmyard classics.

Aquaculture & Water Systems

Aquaculture ponds and dams together with creative ideas for water management permeate the system. The large dam is stocked with freshwater prawns, Silver Perch and Australian Bass and attracts a diversity of wild water birds throughout the year.

A collection of unusual bamboos for crafts, building & eating, exotic spices, productive hedges and living fences, woodlot, wildlife habitat, animal forage systems and innovative garden structures are just some of the fascinating permaculture applications to be explored at Djanbung Gardens