The Tyranny of Straight Lines

"In 1953 I realized that the straight line leads to the downfall of mankind. But the straight line has become an absolute tyranny. The straight line is something cowardly drawn with a rule, without thought or feeling; it is a line which does not exist in nature."
Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 2000, 1985.

The designs of P. A. Yeomans were also the enemy of  'the straight line', obeying the lines and geometry of natural land shapes to create landscapes of unsurpassed efficiency and beauty. His designs penetrate the seemingly chaotic and random shapes of natural landscapes, to reveal the symmetry, geometry and rhythm of the underlying lines and patterns. 

Although P. A. Yeomans is best known for his work with agricultural landscapes, his design principles are universal to all landscapes shaped by water run off and include designs for cities and towns. His final publication The City Forest  (Yeomans, P. A., The City Forest : The Keyline Plan for the Human Environment Revolution, Keyline Pub. Pty., Sydney, 1971), he describes his two broad classes of landscapes:

1. The Wide Enfolding Landscapes of Nature
2. The Special Purpose Landscapes of Man

 P. A. Yeomans was born in 1905 and died in 1984. His legacy was a great and lasting gift to all humanity, offering all of us the opportunity to reconcile with our landscapes and living spaces. He has never received the acknowledgment or recognition for his discoveries that he so richly deserves. Most of the population who could benefit most from his insights and understanding have probably never heard of him.

It is clear that for many who are familiar with the work of P. A. Yeomans found his work to be both extraordinary and impressive. Below are some of their acknowledgements: 

“My father often said that Australia had everything except a good rainfall, and what the country needed was a high range of mountains down the centre of the continent, so that we would get the rain we needed. I regard Keyline as that range of mountains”
John Darling. 1958. Yeomans P.A. 1958. The Challenge of Landscape. Sydney: Keyline Publishing Pty Ltd.

“But I was fascinated more than by anything else with the work of Mr P.A. Yeomans of Sydney, Australia, whose Keyline System seemed to me to possess the perfect beauty of truth”
E.F. Shumacher. 1985. Sholto Douglas, J. & A de J Hart, Robert. 1976. Forest Farming. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.

“The recent death of Mr P.A. Yeomans, the keyline farming system developer, was a loss to the farming community not only in Australia but all around the world. He placed a high value on trees for protecting soils and ameliorating the environment. Indeed the authors believe his keyline farming technique is one of the best bases for an agroforestry system.”
Reid, Rowan & Wilson, Geoff. 1985. Agroforestry In Australia And New Zealand. Victoria: Goddard and Dobson.

“One of the great prophets and exponents of better farming systems, a man whose discoveries and conclusions have gone sadly unrecognised, is P.A. Yeomans. His use of water movement over natural landscape can actually achieve a buildup in soil depth and fertility- the true answer to so many of these fearsome problems that surround us. His work bears much deeper study in Australia.”
Julian Cribb, 1982. ‘The Forgotten Country’, Australian Farm Publications.

“In such a world, the simple, undramatic contribution of P.A. Yeomans is not likely to reach the headlines of the newspapers, yet after three years of this type of cultivation, his waste land had become a rich and beautiful farm. Where there had been little or no soil there was seven inches or more of dark friable soil, with pasture roots reaching as far as 18 inches down into the subsoil.”
Sir Stanton C. Hicks. 1963. Professor of Human Physiology and Pharmacology, Adelaide University.
Our Biggest Problem is Protein Production. A lecture delivered by Sir Stanton Hicks in Germany at the 9th annual conference of the International Society for the Preservation of Nutritional and Vital Substances (1963).

The late Lady Eve Balfour, undoubtedly the most respected woman in organic agriculture ever, said of the Keyline system, “I  was a great admirer of P.A. Yeomans in Australia, and of his Keyline work - a lovely ‘whole’ concept. I think that he has contributed as much to organic agriculture as anybody else this century.”
Allen J. Yeomans. 1990. Presentation to Esalen Congress on Sustainable Agriculture. Big Sur, Califiornia. January 1990.

“The Yeomans flood irrigation technique probably applies to more land than any other system yet suggested because of its simplicity and versatility and to a greater number of landholders because of the cheapness of its installation and cost of operation.”
Campbell, Don. 1968. Drought. F.W. Melbourne. Cheshire Publishing Pty Ltd.

“And so the battle goes on. It has been my privilege to have been associated, at times very closely, with P.A. Yeomans in his early experiments on soil and water conservation and spray irrigation, and subsequently in his constructive methods of Keyline development. My own reversal of opinion from soil conservation to Keyline construction is as definite as P.A. Yeomans’s own.”
J. MacDonald Holmes. 1960. Professor of Geography, University of Sydney.1960. The Geographical Basis of Keyline. Angus and Robertson.

 

Publications

• Yeomans, P. A., The Keyline Plan (1954)
• Yeomans, P. A., The Challenge of Landscape : the development and practice of keyline, Keyline Pub. Pty., Sydney, (1958).
• Yeomans, P. A., The City Forest : The Keyline Plan for the Human Environment Revolution, Keyline Pub. Pty., Sydney, (1971). 
• Yeomans, P. A., Water for Every Farm: A practical irrigation plan for every Australian property, K.G. Murray Publishing Company, Pty, Ltd, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia (1973)

.