Pip People

Robyn Rosenfeldt, founding publisher and editor

Where do you live, and on what sort of property?

I live in Pambula on a two and a half acre property on the edge of town.  I live here with my partner, my three beautiful children, and at last count three sheep, four   chickens a rooster and five ducks.

How did you get into permaculture?

I got into permaculture through a love of gardening and growing my own food but soon realised permaculture was so much more than gardening. After completing my PDC (permaculture design certificate) I realised it was my mission to combine my passion for permaculture with my love of publishing, photography and writing and   create Pip Magazine.

What do you do for Pip?

I started Pip. Pip is my baby and I am the publisher, editor, art director, photographer, writer, book keeper and tea lady.

What’s next in your permaculture journey?

My property is a work in progress. Between creating a magazine and looking after my family I spend time growing food and creating a beautiful space to live in. To keep me sane among all my commitments I surf and do yoga.


Kel Buckley, managing editor

Where do you live, and on what sort of property?

I live on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula with my partner and two kids. We share our quarter-acre block with one dog, half a dozen chickens and about 50,000 bees.

How did you get into permaculture?

As food growers, seed savers, bee keepers and strivers of sustainability, permaculture got into us as we looked for ways to further reduce our impact on the earth and   our reliance on consumerism.

What do you do for Pip?

As Pip’s managing editor, I oversee the production of this terrific title, ensuring an inspiring, informative and accurate magazine is delivered to the printer on time and   to style each quarter.

What’s next in your permaculture journey?

The global pandemic quashed our plans to complete a PDC this year, so that’s first on the list. From there we’ll work towards designing our forever property where we aspire to regenerate, educate and implement ways to tread even more lightly on our planet.


Maude Farrugia, artist and editorial contributor

Where do you live, and on what sort of property?

I live on Wurundjeri land, in a little house on top of a big hill in Melbourne’s north. We live on one sixteenth of an acre, and we try to make every little bit of our patch   as permaculture productive as possible. I live with my partner, two kids, chooks, quails and bees surrounded by a wonderful neighbourhood.

How did you get into permaculture?

I found John Seymour’s “Fat of the Land” in an op-shop when I was sixteen and decided there and then that I wanted to be a subsistence farmer. Since then I’ve been on a journey of Wwoofing on farms, starting community gardens and living in the country before finally finding my way back to my place in the (edible) urban jungle.

What do you do for Pip?

I write, doodle and cook up ideas for our Pip blog and magazine.

What’s next in your permaculture journey?

Our family are starting a microbakery from our back-room this year, and helping launch a food co-op and School Strike climate justice group in our local area. As well as working hard to finish retroburbia-fying our house and garden in our spare time of course!


Emma Gibbs, communications and content manager

Where do you live, and on what sort of property?

I live in an inner suburb of Brisbane with my husband and our two sons (5 and 2 years old). My eldest son would also count the worms from our worm farm as his “pets”!

How did you get into permaculture?

I stumbled upon Pip and the world of permaculture via way of the zero waste movement. A few years ago my husband and I started living a sustainable lifestyle, dramatically reducing the amount of household waste we produce and avoiding plastic wherever possible.

This led to growing some of our own food, composting, installing solar, and striving to reduce our family’s overall carbon footprint.

What do you do for Pip?

I’m responsible for managing Pip’s online content (writing, editing and commissioning articles), social media channels, newsletter, content marketing and PR.

What’s next in your permaculture journey?

I’d love to complete a permaculture design certificate as we are planning on moving to acreage sometime in the future and I’d love to put these skills to use on our own property. Getting some chickens is also on the wish list, among many other things!


Goldie Rutherford, digital marketing manager

Where do you live, and on what sort of property?

I live with my wife and two children in Bega, on the NSW South Coast. We’re currently renting in town, which limits our ability to go all out with our gardens. Fortunately we have a great landlady, who has given us the go-ahead to put in a few garden beds.

 How did you get into permaculture?

I grew up on a little farm in New Zealand. Although I’m not sure whether they knew it as permaculture at the time, my parents were using a lot the principles of permaculture in our gardens. I’ve also spent a lot of my life on or around organic and bio-dynamic farms and gardens.

What do you do for Pip?

Nerdy stuff. Essentially my role is about looking at ways to get our message in front of as many people as possible, and making the experience of accessing our digital content as easy and enjoyable as possible for our awesome readers.

What’s next in your permaculture journey?

At this stage I feel like I need to just keep learning, finding small ways to implement and improve upon the little bits I know. I know there is a lot more I can be doing to be more sustainable, even as a renter.


Gabrielle Oldaker, marketing strategy

Where do you live, and on what sort of property?

I live in a an inner city townhouse in the North of Melbourne wth my little girl,  partner and our fluffy Norwegian forest cat Soski.

How did you get into permaculture?

Through Pip Magazine!  Well, more specifically Robyn the founder of this little beauty. She  talked to me about setting up a permaculture magazine for some time before she launched and her interest sparked mine and I have consumed to learn through all the amazing content created.

What do you do for Pip?

I oversee Marketing and Partnerships for Pip Media. My role is to help more people to get in front of our content and grow the opportunities to work with such an amazing community  of environmentally minded people.

What’s next in your permaculture journey?

We’re still newbies on the permaculture journey with so much to learn. Our next adventure is building small space planter boxes in our limited garden including worm towers and growing more of our own plants at home.

Cindy Minahan, customer service and admin

Where do you live, and on what sort of property?

I live on a rural property about half an hour hr inland of the southern NSW coast. 

My partner and I are finishing a self-built, off-grid, shipping container house, with as many upcycled and second-hand materials as possible. This has been both fun and necessary. We couldn’t get a mortgage and we both get a lot of satisfaction out of thinking, designing and making things “outside-the-square”.

How did you get into permaculture?

I think I practiced permaculture even before I learnt about it. Growing organically, finding inputs that performed more than one function, and trying to care for people, the planet and reduce waste. An organic garden is my happy place.

When travelling in northern India, I often saw signs in the middle of nowhere; “there is not room for anyone’s greed but there is room for everyone’s need”.  That has always stuck with me.

What do you do for Pip?

I help out with admin and customer service at Pip HQ. If you’re a subscriber, a stockist or an advertiser, we will probably cross paths!

What’s next in your permaculture journey?

Continuing to rebuild vegie gardens and orchards that were lost in bushfires, building our own beehives (for native and European bees) and planting out hundreds of natives trees and shrubs that I have propagated to replace habitat and food sources. 

My big sustainable living bug-bear is soft plastics. It will be a joyous day when there is a workable nationwide soft plastics recycling program in Australia and I want to contribute to that cause.

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