How does a working-class kid from Brunswick become a permaculture farmer in the Yarra Valley, with no farming background, no land, and no plan? Matt Daniele's answer spans 30 years, a shiatsu vision in Melbourne, solo hiking in Tasmania, WWOOFing on organic farms across England and Costa Rica, and co-founding Australia's first certified organic heirloom seedling nursery at CERES.

This is one of the most honest, grounded conversations we've had on Farm Change. Matt doesn't romanticise the journey. He traces it step by step - the Italian family values that shaped his relationship with land and food, the trades career that funded his freedom, the moment a mountain ash tree hit him like a bolt of energy in a dark Tasmanian auditorium, and how a soccer game led to a career at CERES Brunswick that changed everything.

If you're thinking about a tree change, a career pivot into farming, or just wondering whether it's possible to build a life around permaculture without a trust fund or a farming family - this one's for you.

🌱 Topics covered:
→ Growing up Italian in Melbourne - backyard gardens, big families, Brunswick
→ Leaving school at 16, buying property at 25, the Italian family way
→ How CERES Brunswick sparked a life-changing interest in organic food
→ Solo hiking in Tasmania and the moment permaculture clicked
→ How The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho shaped his thinking
→ Completing a Permaculture Design Certificate at Southern Cross Permaculture Institute
→ WWOOFing in Devon, Wales and Costa Rica - learning by doing
→ Co-founding Australia's first certified organic heirloom seedling nursery
→ Teaching horticulture to people with disabilities at CERES
→ Finding Peace Farm in the Yarra Valley through a letterbox drop

🔗 Links
Peace Farm (Yarra Junction): https://peacefarm.com.au
CERES Community Environment Park: https://ceres.org.au
Yarra Valley ECOSS: https://ecoss.org.au
Farm Change Substack: https://farmchange.substack.com

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Chelsea has been running ECOSS, a 17-acre community environment hub in Wesburn, Victoria, for over a decade. She also lives at Moora Moora Co-operative Community, one of Australia's oldest intentional communities. In this conversation, she shares what it actually takes to build regenerative community infrastructure: the failures, the grants, the asbestos, and the $50,000 nursery order that never got paid.

This is one of the most honest conversations we've had about the business side of not-for-profit social enterprise, and what it means to build a life centred on ecological and social sustainability.

🌱 In this episode you'll learn:

• How ECOSS transformed a former industrial chicken farm into a thriving permaculture community hub
• Why the $50,000 nursery order was a classic not-for-profit business mistake, and what the "Madagascar lesson" means for any purpose-driven organisation
• How the ECOSS disability inclusion garden (funded through NDIS packages) creates a two-way model of community care
• What 50 years of Moora Moora Co-operative Community teaches us about intentional living that lasts
• Why farm resilience depends on diversification from Jean-Martin Fortier's intensive model to Joel Salatin's Polyface approach
• Chelsea's take on why everyone in the city is quietly on a journey out of it

👤 About Chelsea & ECOSS
Chelsea is the Executive Officer of ECOSS (Ecological & Social Sustainability), a community environment hub at 711 Old Warburton Rd, Wesburn VIC. ECOSS runs food relief programs, disability inclusion gardens, First Nations cultural events, a weekly produce market, and much more.

🔗 ECOSS website: https://www.ecoss.org.au

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