I was lurking around here last year some time, probably April-May but was in the midst of getting our old place ready to sell so I bookmarked this site for later. Well, later's now, and we've been at our new place for 6 months so I figured I'd sign up and say hi
Some details:
We're on 3 acres in central Victoria, Australia. "We" are me, my lovely partner, our almost 3yo daughter, a son due in May, and 3 khaki campbell sisters. Soil is dense black clay, former flood plain that goes from boggy standing water in the wet season (winter), to entirely dry impenetrable clay rock in summer. We have two seasons - frozen season and fire season, with bitterly cold winds blowing from the south or dangerously hot winds from the N/NW. Our place is basically all former pasture, with zero windbreaks anywhere and very little in the way of usable micro-climate.
I've started keeping a simple photo log of bits and pieces I get up to at our place - http://permaculturing.tumblr.com .
Unfortunately I'm pretty much restricted to being a weekend gardener, as I commute 4-5 hours per day to work in Melbourne as an internet nerd.
Tomorrow's a big day, I'm marking out a 1/2acre of contours for swale/mound planting ~70 black walnut, and ~30 blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) next spring. Much like George Collins, I'm planting these trees are for my kids -- although I reserve the right to fell one of each in ~35 years to build a guitar and some furniture.
I look forward to joining in the conversations here and hanging out more, as this place clearly lacks the egomaniacal dictator factor that I can no longer endure at a more populated permaculture forum.