[Scpg] THE KEYLINE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED ONLY SLIGHTLY FROM THE ORIGINAL BOOKS BY P.A. YEOMANS. THIS EXPLAINS CURRENT THINKING.

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

THE KEYLINE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED ONLY SLIGHTLY FROM THE ORIGINAL BOOKS 
BY P.A. YEOMANS. THIS EXPLAINS CURRENT THINKING.

http://www..yeomansconcepts.com.au/basis-of-keyline3.htm

Keyline planning is based on the natural topography of the land. It 
uses the form and shape of the land to determine the layout and 
position of farm dams, irrigation areas, roads, fences, farm 
buildings and tree lines.

Keyline topographical concepts are often taught in university town 
planning courses.

Keyline is an agricultural system in which great emphasis is placed 
on processes designed to increase substantially the fertility of 
soils. Emphasis is placed on the creation of a soil environment that 
rapidly accelerates soil biological activity, thus vastly increasing 
the total organic matter content within the soil.

Keyline lay-outs of farm and grazing lands also incorporate designs 
permitting the storage of run-off water on the farm itself. This 
effectively spreads the often irregular rainfall patterns so common 
to Australia, and in consequence enhances rural production.

Keyline lay-outs and practices are designed and predicated to the 
concept that farming systems that improve the fertility of soils, and 
food production from these soils, must be profitable to the man who 
farms the land.

Keyline concepts are totally against the current artificial and 
dangerous practice of concentrating run off water into manufactured 
disposal drains designed to remove, as rapidly as possible, run-off 
water off a rural landscape. The rapid evacuation of rainwater to the 
nearest ocean, in this, the driest of the world's continents is 
particularly illogical. In addition, this practice can and often does 
create more disastrous erosion than it was ever expected to cure.

Keyline considers as totally erroneous the belief that soil creation 
is an infinitely slow process and soil once "lost" is lost forever. 
In fact soil fertility, and even soil itself can often be created 
faster than it can be eroded.

Keyline practices, once implemented, effectively eliminate soil 
erosion, even as a possibility. The battle against soil erosion and 
the concept of "soil conservation" as a significant issue becomes 
totally meaningless.

The name Keyline was given to the particular contour that runs 
through the point, in all small headwater valleys where the slope 
change occurs. This contour is the primary contour in Keyline 
planning. Among other things it delineates the transition contour for 
cultivation, above which all "contour" cultivation must proceed up 
the slope, and below which all "contour" cultivation must proceed 
down the slope.

The result of such "Keyline Pattern" cultivation is that an overall 
drift of surface runoff water occurs which prevents runoff 
concentration and the resultant gutter erosion from occurring. It 
increases the time of contact between the rain and the earth. It has 
the effect of turning storms into steady soaking rain.

The Keyline contour need not be on the individual farm. It is only 
necessary to know whether the contour to be paralleled is above, or 
below a relevant Keyline. In this way "drift" in either direction can 
be determined and implemented. Paralleling up, or paralleling down 
from a contour can direct the drift of rainwater away from erosion 
sensitive valley floors.

The inversion of soil layers is quite contrary to Keyline concepts 
and in fact contrary to almost every type of soil fertility building 
practices anywhere in the world. All cultivation, in fertility 
enhancing agriculture is best done using an adaptation of the "forked 
stick" plough of ancient times. Our own original cultivation 
experiments used a variety of earth moving rippers until we 
discovered the Texas built Graham Hoehme Chisel Plow. We redesigned 
the old Graham Hoehme Chisel Plow to suit the more extreme conditions 
usually found in Australia. The plough was developed and promoted. 
The acceptance and almost universal adoption of chisel ploughs has 
been one of the most beneficial and noticeable changes in Australian 
agriculture this last century.

We found over time that the chisel plow required more fundamental 
refinements. It was good but it was still not the ideal implement for 
rapid soil development type agriculture. It was virtually incapable 
of one-go deep tillage without excessive soil profile disturbance. 
The current Yeomans Plow thus evolved. And the modern subsoil plough 
was born. These implements achieve virtually the ultimate in Keyline 
cultivation requirements. They are able to operate well into the 
subsoil without the usual, dilution by mixing, of the shallow topsoil 
with the huge bulk of infertile subsoil underlaying it. The concept 
of the narrow tine subsoiler we developed is now receiving wide 
spread acceptance by both farmers and other manufactures.

This new plough has allowed for much accelerated Keyline soil 
development progression by eliminating the need for the time 
consuming, yearly increase in cultivating depth necessary with the 
chisel plow

Keyline layouts for rainwater collection, storage and irrigation has 
many advocates especially following the experiments on Keyline 
techniques by Sydney University and promoted as "water harvesting". 
The universities lack in not also realising the importance of fertile 
soil, as a most economical water storage medium, limited the worth of 
their studies, and to some extent also restricted its acceptance.

The refinement of Keyline techniques following P.A. Yeomans' the 
original books has seen a greater emphasis on determining the most 
economical planning sequences for larger water storage sites, and 
even more rapid fertility build ups. Larger farm dams have tended to 
prove more viable.

A development program and layout for a property, with a sequence of 
operations based on relative economic viability of the individual 
stages, and including the location of tree lines, road ways, water 
storage dams, fence lines and houses is now easy and so totally 
logical. It is now a simple matter to determine a complete farm or 
property design, often in a matter of a few hours

While Keyline designs are based on the topography and geology of the 
land, individual properties, unfortunately, are shaped by an historic 
location of survey lines, and such lines generally bear no 
relationship whatsoever to topographical land forms. In consequence 
idealised Keyline systems are usually hampered a little by the 
restraints of farm boundaries. A major requirement of Keyline designs 
is then to utilise the landform and topography, within the restraints 
imposed by these boundaries. But that's easy.

Co-operation between farmers to their mutual benefit would eliminate 
these design restraints and make for huge economic savings and create 
viability for water harvesting and storage systems that otherwise, 
just possibly, could not exist. This coupled with correct cultivation 
and soil development techniques to enhance biological activity would 
more rapidly, vastly increase the fertility of all our soils, to all 
our benefit.

The following information is taken from:
PRIORITY ONE Together We Can Beat Global Warming by Allan J. Yeomans 2005

Keyline planning is based on the natural topography of the land and 
its rainfall. It uses the form and shape of the land to determine a 
farm 's total layout. The topography of the land, when viewed in the 
light of Keyline concepts, clearly delineates the logical position of 
on-farm dams, irrigation areas,roads,fences and farm buildings. It 
also determines the location of tree belts to provide shade and give 
wind protection. Keyline concepts also include processes for rapid 
soil enrichment. The shape of a landscape is produced by the 
weathering of geological formations over millennia. The processes are 
always the same.

And so the topography of agricultural land has a basic fundamental 
consistency. It is the inevitable nature of land shape that river 
valleys collect water from smaller creek valleys. They in turn are 
fed their water from still smaller valleys, until finally the water 
derives from the very first, or primary valleys of the catchment 
area. In any country,anywhere,when rain shapes the land over long 
periods of time, it inevitably creates and determines the topography 
of that land. Ultimately, at the extreme upstream of any river system 
there always exists thousands of primary valleys. The only variation 
to consistent topographical shapes occurs where geological features, 
such as hard rock outcrops modify normal surface weathering.




At the end of all these branches, sub-branches an sub-sub branches 
are thousand of even smaller valleys that are the primary valleys so 
important in Keyline planning. The map is of northeast New South 
Wales and southeast Queensland and shows part of the catchment areas 
of the east Australian inland rivers system.

A contour is a line meandering over the ground, always at the same 
height above sea level.The name Keyline was given to a single, very 
unique contour that occurs in all primary valleys. As you walk up the 
watercourse in a primary valley, the slope of the valley floor will 
suddenly increase. That point of sudden steepening is the "Keypoint " 
of the valley. A contour line surveyed to run through this Keypoint 
becomes the Keyline contour for that valley. Because of the 
consistency in water-formed topographical land shapes there is always 
a Keyline.

The Keyline is always the primary contour and guideline that tells us 
which way to cultivate when attempting contour cultivation. It is 
also a logical starting point for any farm layout planning,and 
supplies a fundamental principle on which modifications to existing 
layouts can be based. In planning the layout of a farm or ranch it is 
often the case that no other contour lines on the property need be 
surveyed and pegged, just the Keylines for each primary valley. 
Keyline contour surveying expenses therefore are always minimal. 
Normally when any conventional contour ploughing is undertaken,a 
contour line is first pegged or otherwise marked on the ground, then 
ploughing commenced.

Cultivation runs are made somewhere between the valley centre line 
and the adjacent ridge. The first furrow is ploughed adjacent to, and 
parallel to the marked contour line. The second run is of course 
adjacent to the first and so on. Let 's say, for illustration that 
each run is ploughed below the previous run, as in the diagram on 
page 134. Because of the natural topography of rain formed land 
shapes,cultivation runs soon and inevitably depart from the original 
and accurately marked contour. This always happens and usually after 
only a few parallel runs.



This diagram indicates the terms used in describing Keyline concepts. 
Contour intervals are drawn in from the 130-foot line to the 260-foot 
line.

In conventional contour cultivation this effect is never appreciated 
and, more often than not, is seen as an apparently unexplainable 
irritation. Or it 's ignored and invariably to the detriment of the 
land. Because of this off-contour drift, water flow can be directed 
the wrong way and contour cultivation then creates the very erosion 
problems it is supposed to solve.

Keyline cultivation centres on the planned and logical use of this 
"off-contour " cultivation and water drift phenomenon. In the 
illustration the length of the guide contour shown might be a few 
hundred yards long and the picture represents an area on the side of 
a primary valley. The slope of the land surface is always a little 
steeper at one end of this line than at the other end.

This difference is important in understanding Keyline cultivation. In 
the illustration, when ploughing by paralleling the guide contour and 
then progressively progressing down the slope, each successive 
cultivation run will be slightly lower at the steeper end of the 
paddock. This follows as each pass with the cultivator will always 
have the same width, but across each width the vertical height will 
be slightly different.

Inevitably, after just a few passes, the ploughed furrows will no 
longer be on a true contour. They will now have a defininite fall 
one-way or the other, in this case to the left. Rain run-off will 
therefore tend to have a positive flow, or drift along the now 
slightly descending furrows.

Now, if on the other hand the ploughing starts parallel to the true 
contour but this time ploughing progresses up the slope, then each 
successive cultivation run will be slightly higher at the steeper end 
of the cultivation area. Again the individual cultivation runs will 
no longer be true contours. The drift of rain or irrigation water 
run-off will be reversed. The water will move to the right. It 's 
logical to delay the concentration and velocity of rainwater wherever 
possible so it makes sense to give water a bias to move out form the 
valley centre and not into it. Such drifts dramatically minimize the 
all too common rapid concentration of rainwater in valleys.

The hundreds of furrows in Keyline pattern cultivation spread the 
water and inhibit concentrations. In total contrast the contour banks 
or drains advocated by standard soil conservation practices are 
designed to rapidly concentrate water into a valley, which naturally 
increases its eroding action. Understanding this fundamental concept 
gives us control of rainwater drift and ?ow over the land surface. Of 
course if an area, for some extraneous reason is always too wet, 
reversing the sequence of cultivation will dry it out. The Keyline 
contour is extremely important in contour cultivation. Above this 
unique contour the valley is steeper than the adjoining ridge. Below



Illustrating how cultivating parallel to a contour line inevitably 
forces succeeding ploughed furors away from being true contours.

the Keyline the valley is matter than the adjacent ridge. Thus 
cultivating parallel to the Keyline contour and moving up the slope 
drifts water out of the valley and cultivating parallel to the 
Keyline contour and moving down the slope also drifts water out of 
the valley. If this phenomenon is not recognized, what is supposedly 
contour cultivation can manufacture the erosion that contour 
cultivation is traditionally believed to prevent. This subtle but 
critical feature occurring in all natural landforms determines 
surface water movement and this must be appreciated before attempting 
contour ploughing.

The Keyline contour is thus the "transition " contour. Above the 
Keyline, contour cultivation runs must progress up the slope. Below 
the Keyline, contour cultivation runs must progress down the slope. 
The result of such Keyline Pattern cultivation is that the overall 
drift of surface run- off water tends to always drift run-off away 
from the wet valley floor and out onto the dryer ridge. Erosion 
caused by rainwater flow is effectively eliminated. Normally most 
water erosion occurs down the centre line of a valley and results from


The solid lines are true contours. The dashed lines depict parallel 
cultivation furors.
The diagram above left shows a primary valley and its Keypoint along 
with its associated Keyline.

Cultivation has proceeded from the Keyline up the slope and also from 
the Keyline down the slope. Both drift the run-off rainwater away 
from the valley floor. Above the Keyline cultivation must always 
start at a true contour and parallel up the slope. Below the Keyline 
cultivation must always start at a true contour and parallel down the 
slope. In other words all cultivation runs must always parallel away 
from the valley's Keyline.


In the diagram above right the upper cultivation is correct and is 
proceeding away from the Keyline. But note how in the lower 
cultivation area the runs are starting at the 130-foot contour and 
proceeding towards the Keyline thus forcing runoff to concentrate 
into the valley centre.

the excess concentration in water volume and water speed that 
normally occur there. Keyline pattern cultivation spreads the ?ow out 
over a wide area, rendering it harmless. It also markedly increases 
the time of contact between the rainwater and the soil. Water has 
more time to be absorbed. Keyline pattern cultivation has the effect 
of allowing heavy storm rains to be absorbed more easily into the 
earth. Generally such absorption only ever happens with steady 
soaking rain.

Keylines in adjacent primary valleys are always slightly lower as you 
proceed down the main valley or watercourse linking the primary 
valleys. The location of farm dams or ponds are decided by using that 
valley 's Keyline to determine the highest water level for the 
proposed dam.

A Keyline contour drain can then collect any run-off and help ?ll the 
dam. Because of the drop in height of successive Keylines, an outlet 
pipe through a dam wall will generally approximate the level of the 
Keyline in the next valley downstream.

Generally, with very minor adjustments in levels, dam sites can be 
logically linked so each Keyline dam can feed, via a contour channel, 
to the next lower dam. These contour drains are can be the same as 
conventional soil conservation drains but must be almost ?at to 
prevent the erosion soil conservation drains can cause. A fall of 1 
in 500 or even 1 in 1, 000 is usually plenty. Installing a big outlet 
pipe is wise when constructing a farm dam as this gives absolute 
control of the system and pumping becomes unnecessary. Everything is 
done by gravity. The design of farm dams, constructed with large 
irrigation pipes a foot or more in diameter, buried under the dam 
wall and fitted with valves, and farm dams that can be filled or 
emptied by contour drains, is a Keyline concept.

It is a concept my father borrowed from his experience in gold mining 
and gold washing in Australia and New Guinea. In gold mining, water 
often has to be transported for miles, usually through diffcult 
country and it must be done cheaply. In gold mining, even more so 
than in farming, water itself is gold. Water's collection, storage 
and cost are of critical importance. The placement of dams with their 
feeder and delivery channels

\

An irrigation drain with two ?ags in position in readiness to hold 
back and over flow the water stream



Canvas wall being used to ?ood irrigate hill side land after previous 
Keyline pattern cultivation. The water, released by the valve in the 
back of the dam wall, moving along the drain under gravity has 
reached the ?rst ?ag, ?lled it, and just commenced to ?ow over the 
lip of the drain to irrigate the land below. The fence in the picture 
is constructed to form the upper limit of the irrigation paddock.

P.A.Yeomans demonstrates his system.

determined by the relevant Keyline contour is the logical adaptation 
of old mining water handling techniques to agriculture. I once found 
an old contour earth drain, miles long, in the hills near the town of 
San Andreas in California. It must have been hand built by some of 
the "forty-niners "to wash gold from their claim.

To me it looked exactly like a Keyline drain on my father 's farms. 
As sometimes can happen, storm rains occur when farm dams are already 
full. But that 's O. K. as the Keyline cultivation patterns in the 
valleys effectively spread the width of the moving floodwater and so 
decrease its velocity. The valleys become covered with a wide sheet 
of slowly moving water. Even in steep country the land won't erode. 
Keyline 's cheap efficient dam construction and water transport 
systems mean that increasing grass and crop production by irrigating 
from the on-farm water storage ponds can vastly accelerate soil 
fertility development. To irrigate using the Keyline systems the pipe 
through the dam wall is turned on, flooding the Keyline channel to 
the next dam. This channel can then be blocked with a pegged down 
sheet of canvas (called a "?ag ")forcing the water to over flow the 
channel and good down the slope.


Aerial photo of the trees on Nevallan.Using Keyline design principals 
either land is cleared, or on cleared land trees are planted, to form 
both windbreaks and shaded areas for livestock. Trees are ultimately 
harvested and the tree belts replanted.

The patterned cultivation spreads the water with ample consistency. 
The canvas wall is then moved further along the feeder channel to a 
new location and the process is repeated. Each move takes just a few 
minutes. In very ?at land a slightly different system is used. Either 
way a person can comfortably irrigate and control water flow rates 
easily exceeding one acre-foot per hour (one mega litre per hour). 
The per-acre cost of irrigation equates to simply interest cost on 
the capital to create the dams and the contour channels, plus the few 
minutes required for each move.

  There is no cheaper form of irrigation. Keyline principles are 
totally against the concept of concentrating run-off water into 
manufactured disposal drains that are specifically designed to remove 
rainwater off the farm as rapidly as possible. Yet the supposedly 
safe rapid removal of water off a farm is the basis of all current 
soil conservation principles.

In Australia, the driest of the world 's continents, such advocacy is 
almost criminal. Using Keyline design principals either land is 
cleared, or on cleared land trees are planted, to form both 
windbreaks and shaded areas for livestock. Trees are ultimately 
harvested and the tree belts replanted. The other major facet of the 
Keyline system involves the soil itself.

Keyline uses concepts of rapid and economical soil fertility enhancement.

As Keyline developed it became obvious that rapid increases in soil 
fertility from the substantial increase in soil biological activity, 
could and should be an underlying fundamental of all farming 
endeavours. The soil in Keyline philosophy is never cultivated by 
turning the earth upside down.

Cultivation is only undertaken using modern versions of the forked 
stick of ancient agricultural practices. The Graham Chisel Plow was 
used for years for Keyline soil development until we developed, in 
the 1970s an efficient and practical implement, capable of effective 
subsoiling as well as filling the role of a chisel plow. This 
implement reached deeper into the soil than a chisel plough but with 
considerable less soil pro ble disturbance.

The resulting improvement in soil fertility, with either implement 
not only increases crop yields and food production, but also 
simultaneously reduces costs.
Additionally, less water is required if irrigation. For more on 
subsoiling see EXTRA:THE FORKED STICK AND THE SUBSOIL PLOUGH in 
PRIORITY ONE Chapter 8.

  Soil is never homogeneous even if it appears so. In any soil, 
individual bits randomly clump together and form crumbs or 
aggregates. The better the soil, the greater the quantity and mass of 
aggregates within the soil. The bits in the aggregates tend to hold 
together much more tightly than the assembled aggregates hold to each 
other. The degree of aggregation de fines "soil structure ".
Soil aggregates however, can easily be broken up and destroyed by 
tumbling in a cement mixer. Either wet or dry, the aggregates break 
up. Excessive soil cultivation has the same effect. Land is sometimes 
cultivated several times to produce a "fine seed bed "in which to 
sow. This is a mistake. It is a harmful practice and is being 
abandoned. Edible crop seeds germinate within soils when humidity 
levels are high and air is available, not in water saturated soil.

However, in any crop preparation prior to planting, at least one 
cultivation is required, both to loosen compacted soil and act as a 
weed killing operation. The much-publicized arguments promoting the 
concept of "minimum tillage "is primarily an argument that the weed 
killing cultivation should be abandoned and herbicides be used to 
control weeds. In the so-called "zero tillage "concept, crops are 
supposedly to be grown using only seed and chemicals.

Many farmers have tried zero tillage but found (as one might 
expect)it doesn 't work. The shape and the size of the aggregates in 
soil vary considerably. They are typically the size of very small 
pebbles. The spaces between the aggregates (called pores)can fill up 
with air and water. If the aggregates hold together well and resist 
crushing, and have a good general shape so that the pores form nice 
little connecting channels, then the soil is said to have a good 
"structure ".

The tiny ?brous roots of plants and grasses love to meander down 
through the maze of passages in a well-structured soil, hunting for 
nutrients. All those little pores and channels have the ability to 
hold water. The volume held is termed the "field capacity ". Field 
capacity is designed as the measure of a soil 's capacity to retain 
water for plant use. Retention is a critical factor so field capacity 
is usually considered as the volume of water retained in the soil a 
couple of days after heavy soaking rain. It is what is retained after 
excess water has had time to drain away. Field capacity determines 
how long soil life can function and operate efficiently before 
another rain shower becomes essential. Rich, humus-laden soil has 
excellent field capacity. Poor soil has very little. Sand has almost 
none.

Organic farming and Keyline farming practices massively increase 
yield capacity, thereby decreasing rainfall and irrigation 
requirements. To initiate the soil building process in Keyline (and 
in any natural fertility enhancing process), it is first necessary to 
grow a "crop "of almost any form of vegetation. That crop dies, drops 
litter, or sheds root matter, which in turn decomposes to become soil 
organic matter and ultimately stable humic acid. The crop need not 
necessarily have accepted commercial value. It only needs to be 
voluminous and readily decomposable. The use of limited quantities of 
chemical fertilizers, such as lime or superphosphate, to stimulate 
the volume or mass of that initial crop is, unlike strict organic 
farming mandates, perfectly acceptable in Keyline development, but 
only in the first year.

After that, chemical fertilizers must be avoided to ensure a rapid 
increase in active soil life. It is acknowledged that efficient 
biological soil development processes are impossible with continuing 
high chemical use. If not constituting the first crop, then grasses 
and legumes should be utilized in the second growth phase. This 
second crop has definite commercial value. It can be eaten off 
periodically, or it can be regularly forage harvested. Keyline 
concepts beginning in the early 1950s have consistently advocated the 
overstocking of con ?ned grazing areas for short periods such as a 
few days, then moving the stock animals onto a new area to produce a 
constantly decomposing mass of root matter.

This procedure is discussed in Chapter 8: HOW WE CREATE FERTILE SOIL 
TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING . This same procedure has just recently been 
adopted and promoted as "cell grazing " or "rotational grazing "by 
the new "holistic " agricultural consultants. Cell grazing concepts 
however, form only part of the broader concepts of soil fertility 
enhancement. T

he development and enrichment of fertile soil are processes that have 
been known for centuries. Keyline soil enrichment systems merely 
streamline the process. Organic farmers are usually familiar with the 
general techniques. In Keyline the soil building process is 
accelerated by subsoiling with an implement that guarantees minimum 
soil layer disturbance. This is then coupled with rotational grazing 
and, ideally, with low cost irrigation. The objective in Keyline is 
to always make the creation of healthy fertile soil a profitable 
endeavour for the farmer. There are several facets of Keyline. Over 
the years since its inception many have been adopted singularly and 
have proved profitable even in isolation. Farmers have adopted 
Keyline layouts for rainwater collection, storage, and irrigation,



A Graham Plow especially built for a Queensland farmer. It was 69 
feet wide,and believed to be the largest plow in the world at the 
time (1955). (from THE CHALLENGE OF LANDSCAPE .P,A. Yeomans 1958.)

especially following the successful trials on Keyline techniques by 
Sydney University at their McGarvie Smith Animal Husbandry 
experimental farm at Badgery 's Creek NSW in the 1960s. The 
University very successfully promoted the Keyline concepts as a form 
of "water harvesting ". Although Badgery 's Creek is in the same 
county as Yobarnie and Nevallan, the soil types are not absolutely 
identical, but the University found the bene ?ts indeed were. Here in 
Australia I am often asked, "Have Keyline concepts been taken up by 
many farmers?". Yes they have. Over the last fifty years I have seen 
Australian agriculture change dramatically. Many of the facets of 
Keyline have now become "conventional "agriculture in this country.

  We see Keyline concepts and philosophies adopted everywhere. We see 
it in the establishment of tree belts, the design and location of 
farm dams, the general use of contour drains, not to supposedly 
prevent erosion, but to convey water to and from farm dams and to 
good irrigate from these drains. We see it in the widespread adoption 
of non- inversion tillage practices with the widespread use of chisel 
ploughs and the heaver subsoiling ploughs developed from them. We 
also see farmers minimizing or often eliminating their use and 
reliance on agricultural chemicals.

This change has come despite considerable resistance by the 
Australian soil conservation establishment to most of the concepts of 
Keyline thinking. It is a marketing reality that big money talks. In 
consequence, and by a variety of means, government agencies 
everywhere are coerced by the agrochemical companies into listening 
to and accepting almost as gospel, the promotional material the 
companies produce. Most governments now accept the fabricated concept 
that bene ?cial agriculture totally relies on and is dependent on, 
high chemical inputs. Such indoctrination unfortunately prevents both 
the enrichment of the world 's soils and the entrapment of carbon 
dioxide into them. In addition to their use in agriculture, Keyline 
topographical concepts have been included in several university 
architectural and town planning courses in Australia, the concept 
being that the layout of large-scale subdivisions and even whole 
towns could be planned based on the concepts.

Keyline concepts and designs are becoming increasingly widespread as 
time goes by. Professor Stuart B. Hill, Ph. D. , who holds the 
Foundation Chair of Social Ecology at the University of Western 
Sydney, and Martin Mulligan, a lecturer in that faculty, and who is 
also editor of the journal Ecopolitics:Thoughts and Action, recently 
co-wrote an excellent Australian historical book Ecological Pioneers .

  In discussing my father and the concepts involved in Keyline 
designs, they say:- "Despite its marginalisation by conventional 
agriculturists, Yeomans ' approach to ecological design was, as 
mentioned above, one of the main sources of inspiration for the 
development of "Permaculture ". The birth of this movement dates back 
to 1972 when Bill Mollison -a psychology lecturer and well-known 
"identity "at the University of Tasmania, and David Holmgren -a 
student in the Environmental Design Course at the College of Advanced 
Education in Hobart, began an unlikely but highly productive 
collaboration.

The extroverted Mollison has gone on to establish an international 
reputation as the "father "of Permaculture; giving inadequate credit 
to Holmgren and virtually none at all to Yeomans.(wes says-Not 
True=Bill M. always gave great credit to PA Yeoman at all PDC courses 
over the years) Holmgren 's story is certainly less well known, but 
of great importance in tracing the lineage of ideas that have 
manifested themselves in Permaculture design practices. "

Keyline practices, once implemented, effectively eliminate all soil 
erosion. The "battle against soil erosion ", the concept of "soil 
conservation ", and the costly bureaucratic industry these buzzwords 
have created, become irrelevant and unnecessary.

Keyline, like classic organic farming, is a soil creation system. It 
is not a soil conservation system at all. Soil conservation is a 
negative term and implies merely delaying some inevitable future 
situation where apparently all the World 's soil will be gone.

The Keyline system as originally conceived was not designed to 
produce organic food, nor was it designed to assist the mitigation of 
Global Warming. It was designed to develop poor land into good land, 
and it was designed to make farming pro ?table in the quickest most 
efficient way.

To me, Keyline became important in relation to Global Warming and 
organic farming because it was a tenet of Keyline philosophy that the 
best path to achieve its objectives was via the creation of highly 
fertile soil. And fertile soil is humus-rich soil, and forming humus 
consumes huge quantities of carbon dioxide. Although Keyline concepts 
were never designed with the prevention of Global Warming in mind, I 
believe that the widespread adoption of Keyline principles is 
probably the most practical and profitable change that agriculture 
should embrace to achieve that worldwide imperative.
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