Talk:Bill Mollison

DOB

I've looked high and low for Mollison's date of birth. Anyone know? Alpheus (talk) 01:14, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

4th of May, according to one story in his autobiography (Page 361 or 369 or so). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.137.141.139 (talk) 14:20, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Does anyone know more about his science credentials?

I was watching a youtube video that referred to him as an ecologist, so I came here hoping to find out. Is he really a scientist, or was that just someones idea of an honorific title to give to him in appreciation of his advancement of agriculture (in their opinion). Does he have an education in a science field? Has he been working for an institution, or publishing scientific literature?--Opcnup (talk) 04:48, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

According to an obituary by Graham Bell at Permaculture.co.uk:

"Upon receiving his degree in bio-geography, he was appointed to the University of Tasmania where he later developed the unit of Environmental Psychology. During his university period (which lasted for 10 years), Bill independently researched and published a three-volume treatise on the history and genealogies of the descendants of the Tasmanian aborigines" - https://www.permaculture.co.uk/news/14747980157497/bruce-charles-bill-mollison-1928-2016 --Danylstrype (talk) 10:53, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

Shouldn't his bio be more complete?

This is from his book Permaculture: A Designer's Manual.

Bill Mollison was born in 1928 in the small fishing village of Stanley, Tasmania, Australia. Bill Mollison left school at the age of 15 to help run the family bakery. He soon went to sea as a shark fisherman and seaman bringing vessels from post-war disposals to southern ports, and until 1954 filled a variety of jobs as a forester, mill-worker, trapper, snarer, tractor-driver and naturalist.

Bill joined the CSIRO (Wildlife Survey Section) in 1954 and for the next nine years worked in many remote locations in Australia as a biologist doing field work on rabbits, locusts, muttonbirds, and forest regeneration problems with marsupials. In 1963 he spent a year at the Tasmanian Museum in curatorial duties, then returned to field work with the Inland Fisheries Commission surveying the macrofauna of inland waters and estuaries, recording food chains and water conditions in all the rivers and lagoons of Tasmania.

Returning to studies in 1966, he lived on his wits running cattle, security bouncing at dances, shark fishing, and teaching part-time at an exclusive girls' school. Upon receiving his degree in bio-geography, he was appointed to the University of Tasmania where he later developed the unit of Environmental Psychology. During his university period (which lasted for 10 years), Bill independently researched and published a three-volume treatise on the history and genealogies of the descendants of the Tasmanian aborigines. In 1974, he and David Holmgren developed and refined the permaculture concept, leading to the publication of Permaculture One and Permaculture Two.

Since leaving the University in 1978, Bill has devoted all his energies to furthering the system of permaculture and spreading the idea and principles worldwide. He has taught thousands of students, and has contributed many articles, curricula, reports, and recommendations for farm projects, urban clusters and local government bodies. In 1981, Bill Mollison received the Right Livelihood Award (sometimes called the "Alternative Nobel Prize") for his work in environmental design. In recent years, he has established a "Trust in Aid" fund to enable permaculture teachers to reach groups in need, particularly in the poorer parts of the world, with the aim of leaving a core of teachers locally to continue appropriate educational work.

Bill Mollison is one of the Directors of the Permaculture Institute, which was established in 1979 to teach the practical design of sustainable soil, water, plant, and legal and economic systems to students worldwide.

Charliemagee (talk) 23:34, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

References

Death of Bill Mollison

According to the current page, Bill Mollison died today. There's no reference on the page, but I heard it first from a friend who's also involved in permaculture. This is the biggest loss for SpaceShip Earth since the death of Buckminster Fuller. I presume this is true, so this is no longer a biography of a living person, and it would be great to do a sprint on improving this page to reflect the massive contribution Mollison made during his life. -- Danylstrype (talk) 09:42, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

Without proper source of information regarding Mollison's "death", I think it is quite premature to change wikipedia's page as it favours an unsourced spreading of information and eventually favour rumour over information.Karmai (talk) 09:55, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

Fair enough. Just found confirmation here: https://www.permaculture.co.uk/news/14747980157497/bruce-charles-bill-mollison-1928-2016

Just to be clear, I didn't make the edit adding his date of death, and I think this page needs improvement anway, even if reports of his death had turned out to be greatly exaggerated. --Danylstrype (talk) 10:28, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

This is indeed the most "viable" source of information (which gives the date of 24th while previous info was 25th...). So far I think we can say that the info is poorly sourced and following wikipedia's good practicies we should wait for better verifiability of the info Karmai (talk) 10:36, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

The official announcement from the Permaculture Research Institute, confirming the date of death, is here: http://permaculturenews.org/2016/09/25/bill-mollison/

See also: http://permacultureaustralia.org.au/2016/09/25/farewell-bill-mollison/ and http://permacultureday.org/in-memory-of-bill-mollison/ --Danylstrype (talk) 04:21, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

Inappropriate disclaimer about "tree crops"

The current page says: "Considered to be the "father of permaculture"[1] (although Joseph Russell Smith was the first to write about a system of permanent agriculture in a book entitled Tree Crops, published in 1929, and also a book from 1910 entitled Breeding and Use of Tree Crops)"

This disclaimer is based on a common misunderstanding of permaculture as a specific style of agriculture or gardening, rather than an ecologically-inspired design system. A food forest certainly can be one outcome of a permaculture design process, but so can an organic backyard garden. Fom the Wikipedia article on permaculture: "a system of agricultural and social design principles centered on simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems." I think this reference to tree crops should either be removed, relocated to a more appropriate part of the article, or perhaps moved to a section in the permaculture article on precedents/ influences. --Danylstrype (talk) 04:21, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

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