Holmgren said his writing life had been an evolving expression of permaculture ethics, principles and practices that increased society’s collective potential to survive and thrive in challenging futures. 

From his debut publication of Permaculture One (1978), written when he was just 23 years old, to the international best-seller Permaculture: principles and pathways beyond sustainability (2002) to his latest acclaimed book, RetroSuburbia: the downshifter’s guide to a resilient future (2018), Holmgren has led with ideas on sustainability and permaculture.

He said the evolution of his books draws on many of the themes he discussed in his first book. 

“Permeaculture One emerged from work I was doing as a student. Many of the ideas were those of my mentor,” he said.

His second book was published to reposition the success of permaculture in relation to gardening, farming and in an Australian context, self-reliant lifestyles. 

”It was to say permaculture was a much bigger thing; a way of understanding the whole world.The subtitle ‘beyond sustainability’ was deliberately meant to shock as sustainability was only just becoming the norm by the early 2000s,” he said.

Holmgren said RetroSurburbia was a consolidation on permaculture theory, to help people understand the idea was not just about gardening and farming, but about a way of systems thinking by which society must begin to think about adapting to a future it cannot control, rather than sustaining what we already have.

‘It aspires to empower people to make positive home-based lifestyle changes allowing us to live better with less, enjoy food abundance and collectively flourish.’

‘In writing books, I am always looking to ground big picture systems thinking in practical solutions accessible without the need for support or permission from governments, corporations or mass media,’ he said.

Since its release, RetroSuburbia has captured huge media attention and is going into its first reprint.

Holmgren has been a guest on Jon Faine’s The Conversation Hour and on ABC 774’s Morning Breakfast. He has also spoken on Radio National’s Big Ideas podcast. He has featured in many publications, including The New York Times. 

One idea Holmgren speaks about in his books is systems thinking. He said instead of pulling things apart and dissecting them, he is of the view that society should view the issues it is facing with a holism view. 

A point discussed in his latest book is the difference between suburban and true urban. Holmgren said Ballarat and even Daylesford would now be classed as suburban, while suburbs in inner Melbourne were seen as true urban. 

He said the major difference between the two is land ownership as there are fewer impediments to people taking control of their own lives in a suburban context.

“In an urban environment you often have to work in the public space, where there are lots of advantages like collective scale, social interaction and shared resources. But to get that working you have to get all the approvals, have meetings and risk management approved,” he said.

“Whereas when it’s your own place, you can decide to put in a veggie garden and go ahead with it. You can experiment with radical fringe experimentation like compost toilets,” he said. 

His work openly discusses the grey areas of sustainability which government funded sustainability initiatives often do not touch on. One great example of dissident political action is keeping chooks in residential backyards. 

“So many people are now keeping chooks in their backyard and doing it well. This has meant the law regulation has changed and the old ideas that they would be smelly and polluting have become redundant.”

He said societal changes often came down to normalising behavioural changes and that experimentation was important.

“If you do something at a small-scale household level, if it doesn’t work, there aren’t big consequences. Whereas if you try to implement big scale changes in the corporate world, say at McDonalds, and it doesn’t work, it’s really serious because the consequences affect so much.”

Holmgren is positive about our ability to adapt to the “fairly dark clouds of the future we are facing”. 

“I’ve written a lot about climate change, financial instability, resource depletion and the geo-political shift which will mean big changes to a country like Australia,” he said. “But my positive view is there is so much capacity for behavioural adaption.

“We have so much capacity, not just to share resources, but also to reuse them. Some of us can be very reasonably clothed by only purchasing clothing from Op Shops. That is an example of the super abundance that has come from the economy we have had in the past.” 

“There is an enormous capacity for people not to just get by, but to actually thrive with a fraction of the money and resources. I don’t think these opportunities have ever existed before in history,” Holmgren said.

Holmgren, will speak at two events at Daylesford’s Words In Winter festival this August. 

At the first, he will explore the question of whether a book can change the world. With author Cate Kennedy he will discuss the power of ecological writing in the world’s transition to a carbon-positive, low-energy future. 

In the second, Holmgren and his team will present Inside RetroSuburbia – The Makings of a Book, outlining their book creation and distribution process.