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The Macedon Design Retreat


  • Wellsprings Retreat, 33 Emerald Ave, Macedon, Victoria. 33, Emerald Avenue Macedon, VIC, 3440 Australia (map)

A two day residential course for landscape designers Hosted by Stephen Read Landscape Design.

Grow your business, increase your influence, get inspired.

Book now

RETREAT OUTLINE

Saturday - October 14:

Arrival and introductions. 10.30
Know your clients. 11.00
Lunch 12.30
Collaboration- matching your clients' core values. 1.15
Meditation and gentle yoga - Kym Oliver.  2.00
Afternoon tea. 2.45
Marketing workshop - Rody Bajo from Whisper Media. 3.00
Working on your business. 5.00
Break 5.45
Dinner 6.30

Sunday - October 15:

Meditation and gentle yoga - Kym Oliver. 7.30
Lessons from Yoga - keynote Kym Oliver and Stephen Read. 8.15
Morning tea .9.15
Engaging with nature - ancient garden secrets from Japan - Keynote Katharina Russell-Head. 9.30
Freedom from your comfort zone - field trip to Hanging Rock including lunch. 10.30
Sense of Place and why is it important - keynote Stephen Read. 1.00
Course wrap up. 2.00
Retreat closed (free to explore Macedon). 2.30

Investment $400 (including all meals)


ACCOMMODATION CHOICES

The Macedon Ranges has a lot of accommodation on offer, from Bed and Breakfast and wineries to budget accommodation, including motels and the Mt Macedon Hotel. I would suggest staying as close as possible to Wellsprings Retreat; the Black Forest Motel is within walking distance and offers clean and affordable rooms.  The Hollyhock Bed and Breakfast is only a hundred meters from Wellsprings and has views to Mt Macedon.

If you have a car or can organize a lift with a fellow retreat participant, then the townships of Gisborne and Woodend are less then 10 minutes drive and have a larger selection of accommodation. If you need help to find somewhere to stay or would like to share accommodation with someone else from the retreat, please call me and I will be very happy to assist. Stephen 0418963885

How to get to Macedon 

Macedon is about 60km North West of Melbourne off the Calder Highway, and a 30 minute drive from Melbourne Airport . If you prefer to catch public transport, there is a Vline service from Southern Cross station. 


KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Katharina Russell-Head - No ordinary Garden

Katharina grew up in a garden, wept when trees were felled, laughed when it rained, and spent her weekends helping to plant veggies, build retaining walls, and design new dreamscapes.  She studied languages so that she could travel to beautiful places, wild and cultivated, taught school and university, then designed gardens that show how life-enhancing our physical environment can be. Every experience has contributed: study of Landscape Architecture and Japanese Landscape Construction, design in Europe, music, literature… but it is her encounter with the study of Japanese Garden Art in Kyoto, Japan, that has had the greatest impact.

W. www.noordinarygarden.com  | E. katharina@noordinarygarden.com


Kym Oliver Wellsprings Retreat

Stillness and spirituality have always been of interest to Kym, even as a young child. So when the opportunity arrived, Kym travelled to India and lived in an ashram from 2002 – 2005. Her purpose was to find inner calm and to seek answers to those deep philosophical questions that we ponder: What is my purpose? Is there a God? Why is the world the way it is?

When Kym and her husband returned to Melbourne, they sought a quieter life and moved to the Macedon Ranges to achieve this goal. Soon after meeting some locals, Kym was requested to teach yoga, meditation and Vedanta philosophy.

Kym has become passionate about sharing the knowledge acquired in India and since 2005; Kym has conducted many workshops and retreats in Victoria, India, Bali and Vietnam. Kym offers regular yoga, meditation and philosophy classes at her studio in Macedon where she also offers “Bed and Breakfast” accommodation. Kym has experienced first hand the power of Vedanta philosophy, Hatha yoga and meditation, without which, life is harder than it has to be: “Without an understanding of some basic fundamental laws of life, we continually stumble over the same rock!”

W. www.wellsprings.net.au


Stephen Read

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With more than 25 years’ experience designing gardens of all sizes in Europe, the UK, and Australia I have developed a unique process of collaboration with my clients. The outcome is a garden landscape that is a timeless expression of the home it is set in as well as the personality and vision of the current owners and a place where form and function are perfectly blended. A well-designed garden, like everything else that has the organic elegance of simplicity, grows in beauty and value every year and adds to the value and desirability of your property.


Rody Bajo - Whisper Media

There is one irrefutable fact about the world we live in. It’s changing! Technology is evolving at an alarming rate.
People are adopting this technology and adapting in unprecedented ways. It gives them the power of choice.
The power of who to buy from, who to reward, and who to punish. The power to tune in to any message…
… and the power to tune out the noise.

These changes give our competitors the the power to start new things with the press of a button.
The market is bombarded with noise, and competition is growing by the day.
Businesses are overwhelmed with choices, information, and endless stream of constant change.
And the brands that make a difference, the ones that seem to break through the noise…

… just …whisper!

W. wispermedia.co

 
Later Event: November 17
Garden Design Masterclass