Bill Mollison

by PJC · Published February 18, 2014 · Updated June 20, 2014

Bill Mollison is a name that should be familiar to most people who’ve had any exposure to Permaculture, as he is the co-originator of the term and practice (with David Holmgren), and probably its most widely-published author and widely-traveled teacher and promoter. He was 50 years old when the seminal Permaculture One was published in 1978, so he’s getting on in the years now and recently does less touring, speaking, and teaching.

Bill laid the foundation for most of what we’re practicing and learning, by compiling indigenous wisdom from all around the world, with sustainable “best-practices” of all sorts, mixing those with a huge helping of scientific curiosity, acute observation of nature, and common sense, filtering it all through his rough-and-tumble personality and incisive wit—to become the set of concepts, ethics and techniques commonly referred to as Permaculture.