The community garden experience

OUR COMMUNITY GARDEN STORIES

Download the Australian City Farms & Community Garden Network's Community Harvest magazine (pdf file) for more stories on community gardens. See the link on the home page

NSW

Sydney region

Bidwill - a community starts to garden
Slowly, community gardening is moving west in Sydney. Kerryn Valeontis, a member of the Gardens for Western Sydney team, reports on a new community garden at Bidwill

Claymore estate
The Claymore community gardens have been part of the rehabilitation of an area with social problems

Eastern Suburbs Community Garden... There's more than a beach to Bondi

Before Waverly Council decided against renewing the lease and before the gardeners packed up their water tank, shed and other belongings and left their work of years, Eastern Suburbs Community Garden was perhaps the most productive, best organised community garden in the Sydney region. This article was published in 2006, not long before the garden was vacated but before knowledge of council's action was known. (ABC Organic Gardener archive)

Eveleigh Street Community Garden
The story of a community garden's persistence, change and decline in an inner-city Aboriginal community

Garden of celebration... Western Sydney's garden of celebration
Kerryn Valeontis, a member of the Gardens for Western Sydney team, reports on how a religious institution embarked on a journey of community gardening

Glovers Community Garden... Paradise - it's in the Inner West

Glovers Community Garden in Sydney's oldest. Hidden on a slope above a sports field near a branch of the harbour, the community garden has seen a variable participation over the decades. Just a couple years ago a new group of gardeners started to revive the garden. (2006. ABC Organic Gardener archive)

Glovers Community Garden
Sydney's first community garden is nearly 20 years old

St Clair Community Farm... Persistence and healthy food -
Persistence and the health of her children were the key ingredients for Sue Hendry when she set out to establish St Clair Community Farm in Western Sydney in 1992

Stella Maris - garden in a school
Not far from Manly's main surfing beach is a compact garden demonstrating no-waste gardening techniques

UNSW Community Permaculture Garden
Fruits and nuts, chickens, annual vegetables, people and imagination are the ingredients that have combined to create this multiple-use food forest
(story + photo essay)

UNSW Community Permaculture Garden... Gardening the university
A 1999 story about the UNSW Community Permaculture Garden whhc was then at the height of its productivity.

Waterloo Community Garden... Making a start
Starting and maintaining a community garden in inner-Sydney brought plenty of challenges to Rhonda Hunt

Wooloomooloo Community Garden
Between the towers of Sydney's central business district and the apartments of Kings Cross is a compact, intensively gardened patch of public open space

Regional NSW

Albury-Wodonga... Gardening the borderlands
Rebecca Chettleburgh discusses her experience in tapping council, community and TAFE to educate gardeners in Albury.

Habitat in Harmony between the swales
In NSW's Hunter region, innovative community gardeners have found a cheap way to water their plants

Kooragang City Farm - still evolving after eight years

Rob Henderson reports on the development of Kooragang City Farm in the Hunter Valley. Published 2004.

VICTORIA

Melbourne

Flemington Community Garden
Residents of the state government's Flemington high rise now have a large allotment garden to supply their herbs, vegetables and eggs

Fig Tree Community Garden
Overcoming initial challenges, gardeners at Fig Tree Community Garden have high hopes for the future

Garden of Eden... Once a station, now a garden

East Melbourne's Garden of Eden bloomed on what was one a railway station on the St Kilda line. Like some other community gardens, Garden of Eden branched out into sustainability education. (ABC Organic Gardener archive. 2005 )

Regional Victoria

Geelong West Community Garden... Nearly 20 years and still going strong

Geelog West Community Garden has proven to be a durable place in the landscape of this regional Victorian city. First published in the 2004 edition of Community Harvest, journal of the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network

QUEENSLAND

Beelerong City Farm... Beelerong - productive oasis in Brisbane's east

It's Morningside's hidden gem. Beelerong Community Farm is a suburban hub where food is grown and preserved, wasterwater treated for irrigation, community groups find acceptance and people meet. (2005. ABC Organic Gardener archive)

Beelerong City Farm
Marion Forrest describes how Beelerong city farmers are rejuvenating council land, producing fresh, local food and saving seeds only kilometres from the city

Northey Street City Farm - visions of sustainability at Breakfast Creek
Creating links with employment, TAFE, high school, indigenous and community education programs is building a productive relationship between the community and government sectors at Northey Street City Farm in Brisbane

Regional Queensland

A community garden in the tropics
Mackay Community Garden gets going in tropical North Queensland

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Gardening, education and health
Wynn Vale Community Garden is many things to its gardeners

Kurruru Pingyarendi - turning the circle from fear to cooperation at Gillies Plains
It' s hard to imagine the area where I live without the Kurruru Pingyarendi (Turning Circle) Garden. Sue Berry reports from Gilles Plains, Adelaide.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

FINCAing Fremantle
Innovative design in Western Australia has combined a community garden and a city park

< top

PAGE UPDATED... Thursday, 7 June 2007