Food Forest Journey

Permaculture consultation › Mackay & Central Queensland

Mackay & Central Queensland · Leg 01 · Mackay → Bundaberg

Permaculture consultation in Mackay and Central Queensland

Mackay is home. The route starts and ends at Kuttabul, north of the city, where an old pub has become a living hub with a food forest establishing on 14 acres and an exotic fruit nursery. Everything I plant in other people's gardens here, I am growing, eating and failing at there first.

The banana farm's valley in the hills behind Mackay

A permaculture consultation is where every garden on the route begins: a paid walk over your land in Mackay, Kuttabul, the Whitsundays, Sarina, Rockhampton and Bundaberg to read it, understand what you want from it, and agree on the first move. Nothing is designed, quoted or planted before it.

Permaculture consultation$250$50 deposit holds your date; $200 on the day.More on the main page →First plantingFrom $1,000Earthworks, soil, planting, mulching and the knowledge to tend it.More on the main page →Annual stewardshipFrom $500/yrA return visit and an in-depth site report each year.More on the main page →

I travel the east coast two to three times a year, so there are plenty of chances to book a consultation and begin a long-term relationship with Food Forest Journey.

Monsoonal subtropics: what this climate asks for

Mackay is monsoonal subtropics, not true tropics: a wet summer driven by monsoonal lows and cyclones, then a long dry winter. A garden here has to survive both ends of that year.

So the work leans on mulch volume, shade layers and tough support species. The wet season's water has to be caught and held in the soil for the dry months, and the layout has to stand up to wind. A consultation here spends a lot of its time on where water comes from, where it goes and where it sits.

Plants that tend to belong here: Bananas, papaya, mango, jackfruit and black sapote for the canopy and fruit; turmeric, ginger and sweet potato underneath; pigeon pea and cassava as fast support species to shade, feed and chop and drop. The final list always comes from your site, not from a template.

How a consultation works

  1. Book the dateA $50 non-refundable card deposit holds your date and puts you on the regional route, so I know to be in your area.
  2. Walk the landSoil, sun, slope, water, access and what is already growing, and what you actually want to eat, and how much tending is realistic.
  3. Choose the first moveWe agree on the highest-leverage first phase and what your budget could realistically create. The remaining $200 is paid on the day, with no obligation to book a project.

More on what we look at and what you leave with: permaculture consultation on the east coast.

Gardens on the route nearby

Questions

Do you do permaculture consultations in Mackay?

Yes. Mackay & Central Queensland is part of the Food Forest Journey route (Leg 01 · Mackay → Bundaberg). I come to your land for a site discovery: $250, a callout fee for travel, time on the ground and the reading of the site. A $50 card deposit holds your date; the remaining $200 is paid on the day.

What happens after the consultation?

If you want to go ahead, the first planting starts from $1,000 and the budget is split between materials and labour at $50 an hour. Annual stewardship, from $500 a year, brings me back each year with an in-depth site report. There is no obligation after the walk.

When will you be in my area?

I travel the east coast two to three times a year, so there are plenty of chances to book a consultation and begin a long-term relationship with Food Forest Journey. Mackay is home base, so the northern end of the route has the most flexibility. Send your location and I'll tell you when I can walk your land.

Elsewhere on the route

Book a permaculture consultation

Send your location, a few photos, your goals and a rough budget. I'll tell you where your land sits on the route and when I can walk it.

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