Interns a barrowful of laughs, by the shovel load. Our interns work and sometimes get to play together. Here Megumu Ogata is practising a bit of shovel leaning (she is not very good at it) while Leyla Cabugos from Santa Barbara, USA, is attempting to meditate while being wheelbarrowed around by Shinji Kuno.

Internships: Temporary slow downs

While we love to have interns here at The Seed Centre, we find that a great deal of our time goes into training them. That means projects that require long periods of uninterrupted concentration are neglected. We have therefore made the decision to postpone having any interns from July 2003 until we have made a substantial start to building the Seed and Food Education Centre that will house training facilities, the seed bank and offices. We anticipate reopening applications for internships by the middle of 2005.

We offer training in Permaculture gardening, seed production, seed banking and networking to people who are either keen to work, or are already working, on Permaculture and seed saving projects overseas or in communities. We choose only people who are seriously committed to acquiring and passing on skills in community seed saving.

Interns learn all stages of seed production, from seed to seed, to observe and record varieties and the many aspects of seed banking. Past interns are now working in projects in the Pacific, South East and South Asia and South America.

Training

The training process is participatory and tailor-made to each intern's needs and interests. It includes:

• formal one-to-one sessions with Jude and Michel Fanton who are the directors of The Seed Savers' Foundation, and with the seed banker Loretta Faulkner;
• on-the-job training under the supervision of these people and long term volunteers;
• research projects - tailored to your needs - in our extensive ethno-botanical library.

Subject areas and activities include:

• Nursery skills - viability tests, sowing seeds, caring for and transplanting seedlings;
• Gardening - transplanting, labelling, recording, hand pollination
• Seasonal Seed production - selection, collection, recording, drying, cleaning
• Seed banking - accessioning, databases, storage methods, distribution
• Seed networking - newsletters, media, curators, regeneration of seeds

Projects at the Seed Centre

In 1999 a mixed orchard was planted according to the plant area of origin and surrounded by perennial borders of comfrey, lemongrass etc. There are sections on the Mediterranean region, the Andes, Central Asia and South East Asia.

In 2000 we built a small bamboo structure with a shingled roof, established a chicken run and made plans for the construction of a new seed bank and office.

In 2001 we improved our system of labelling and trialling varieties with the recording of fifteen varieties of sweet potatoes, with the increase in the production of bulk seeds of many varieties of vegetables, in particular lettuces; we enhanced our website.

In 2002 we maintained all of the above, devolved to over thirty local seed networks around Australia and improved the recording of performance of varieties.

In 2003 we kept on maintaining, ran an open day in May with over 1000 visitors, sold seeds produced on the land, some interns produced booklets for presentations to national events and pruned the fruit trees heavily as they are now sizable.

Charges

Training fees are negotiable for interns and for external students. Scholarships for overseas seed workers are available on request. Shorter term training attracts a higher weekly charge than longer.

Your Multicultural Hosts

We have been hosting over a hundred people, and receiving visits from many more, from a diversity of countries. We speak French and some Japanese.

Accommodation

This is flexible as Byron Bay offers many options. We are able to send you a list. We have budget intern accommodation here and sometimes a room in the family house is available. A charge will be made on a sliding scale according to length of stay and means.

Placement

Seed Savers has good project partners in the Pacific, S E Asia, South America, Africa and the Indian subcontinent and may be able to negotiate placement with one of these projects. <

Courses

We run six-day courses on volunteering overseas in the first week of each April and October. Five of our interns first made contact with us as participants of these courses.

Annual Conference

Each last weekend in October we hold a conference with speakers in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. In even years it is held near a capital city and in odd years at The Seed Savers Centre.

Location - The Seed Savers' Centre, Byron Bay

Training is carried out at the premises of The Seed Savers' Network comprising an office, seed bank, one acre of Permaculture gardens and the Fanton home.

The site is mostly level ground with rolling edges, adjoining railway and council land and wetlands. It is just 2 km from the Post Office and 600m from the beach, 400m to a golf course. Since early 1998 gardens have been established on the rapidly diminishing lawns. There is a brick house and a large shed allowing space to process seed parcels and winnow, clean, condition and store seeds.

The site is used to teach biodiversity conservation in a Permaculture context, showing the harvesting and processing of products grown at the Centre and demonstrating urban food production and best seed production and saving practices. It is a repository for under-utilised fruits, nuts, original vegetables and fibre, forage, medicinal and oil producing plants, with a special collection of gingers, bananas and yams.

Varietal Trials

We do grow-out trials on some of the thousands of species and varieties from the seed bank and network. Being in the subtropics and having fine dark loam on yellow podzollic clay, the site is suited to a wide range of plants. The seedbank accessions are being grown out, compared, documented and rejuvenated progressively.

Plant Conservation & Utilisation

Utilisation of plants is very much linked to their conservation and is an important part of our project. We acknowledge that there is a lot of know-how in developing countries where the corporate sector has not yet totally spoon-fed the masses. We therefore particularly welcome visitors, interns and teachers from the two thirds world. The Centre attracts masters and students of traditional farming practices, food and spice preparation, fibre manufacture, bamboo craft, traditional types of agriculture including traditional pest management and indigenous microorganisms.