The concept of permaculture was developed in the 1970s by Bill Mollison, the father of permaculture, and David Holmgren. However, the beginnings of permaculture go back further. Bill grew up in a small village in Tasmania, Australia, which he described „could have existed [like this] as early as the 11th century.“ For a living, he and the people in the village went hunting, caught fish, grew food, and baked bread. Each of them had several „jobs,“ no one a „real“ one. Bill dropped out of school at the age of 15 after his father died, to help out in the family bakery. He spent much time at sea and in the Tasmanian rainforest/bush. In 1954 he joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to research native plant and animal species. Over the next few years, he witnessed more and more parts of the natural world in his homeland being destroyed. Fish stocks and large parts of the bush began to die. Out of anger and rage at the industrial agriculture that was causing so much damage, Bill decided to develop an agricultural design that did not destroy soils and the environment. The cornerstone of this design was his observations in nature. For example, he observed that plants naturally form communities to benefit each other. In an endeavor to „develop some mental discipline,“ he entered graduate studies in biogeography in 1966.. After graduation, he remained at the University of Tasmania and taught as a lecturer in the field of environmental psychology. While there, in 1974, he met student David Holmgren and began working with him to analyze land use patterns that worked in harmony with nature. They also took into account Aboriginal observations and traditions, as well as insights from the Japanese Masanobu Fukuoka and his revolutionary „do-nothing“ farming method. In 1978, Bill and David published „Permaculture One,“ introducing permaculture to the world. For his work, Bill received the Right Livelihood Award in 1981. Originally developed only for agriculture, Bill and David expanded permaculture to other areas of life shortly after their book was published.