Danial Lawton

Danial Lawton is a permaculture consultant and environmental engineer. His practice is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, with a regional office in Conondale, Queensland, and it leverages satellite intelligence and remote sensing technology to provide permaculture designs to clients across six continents.

He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science with a double major in ecology and conservation biology and in land and water management, a Master of Environmental Management and a Master of Environmental Engineering, all from Griffith University. He is the son of Geoff Lawton, the permaculture teacher who founded Zaytuna Farm, and describes more than twenty years of his own intuitive permaculture experience. His earlier roles include water systems manager at Tagari Farm and farm manager at Zaytuna Farm for the Permaculture Research Institute in Australia.

Much of his work is in earthworks and water. He says he has put in hundreds of kilometres of swale and has developed swale construction standards that other earthmovers use, and his service list covers precision-engineered dams, leaky weirs and aquaculture ponds built not to blow out during a storm, together with swales, contour trenches and passive water catchment to hydrate a landscape. He has taught the subject publicly as well, including a workshop titled The Magic of Swales in Australia in December 2019.