Re: Re:Keylines

["Australia Felix Permaculture" <pcorgbgo@bendigo.net.au>]

Hi Bob,

Check out the Keyline Designs Website www.keyline.com.au for more info or
fill out the order form directly at http://www.keyline.com.au/form01.htm .

The latest book on Keyline is a summary of the four books written by the
late P.A. Yeomans edited by his youngest son Ken B. Yeomans. The other books
are:

The Keyline Plan
The Challenge of Landscape (my favorite)
Water for Every Farm
The City Forest

Only one other book on the subject has been written to my knowledge has been
published, and it possibly describes the concept better than all the rest
is:
The Geographic Basis of Keyline by Professor J. Macdonald Holmes. A very
rare book - in fact almost impossible to get. I obtained a copy years ago
and its fantastic. It was written at the time when Keyline was in what you
might call its halcyon period.

Today its very difficult as government water authorities and downstream
irrigators are making it real hard to establish upper catchment keyline
systems due to over regulation and laws that take away the landholders
ownership of water that falls on their land, and will likely require
licensing and payment for access rights. Keyline promised to put the power
of water into the hands of the landholder and improve the sustainability of
farms in an unparalleled way, put the big government irrigation and soil
conservation schemes were just too strong. I can see that before too long
some smartarse will suggest that pattern cultivation will contribute to
salinity by moving runoff for infiltration into recharge ridges, and that
environmental flows to creeks and rivers are compromised by the significant
reduction in runoff that pattern cultivation creates.

P.A. has a real bitch about all of this in his own style, as too does his
son Ken in the latest available Keyline book. Like so many things,
government, ignorance and big business self interests get in the way of a
potentially great thing. Its not over yet though.....

Allan Yeomans (P.A.'s middle son and owner of the Yeomans Plow company) also
has an prepublished online book out which takes up the provocative mantle
his father left behind. Its called, "Green Pawns and Global Warming". Its
available at http://www.yeomanskeyline.com/welcome.html . There is also
stuff relating to Keyline, particularly pattern cultivation, which is
another angle.

I also wrote some articles on the topic in "Town & Country Farmer" a couple
of years back. These are available through the publisher.

Yours and Growing,

Darren Doherty
www.australiafelix.com.au



----- Original Message -----
From: <UrbanHarve@aol.com>
To: permaculture <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2000 2:55 AM
Subject: Re: Re:Keylines


> I would appreciate knowing how to get a book on keylines. As far as I can
> tell, everything is out of print. Is there a source?
>
> Bob Randall
>
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