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Bronwyn Rice is a Sydney-based permaculture designer with broad experience in landscape design, horticulture and as coordinator of the now-ended Rotary International's Trees for Survival program. Bronwyn has completed post-graduate studies in Social Ecology at the University of Western Sydney. In this story from the Winter 1992 edition of Permaculture Web, Bronwyn describes her involvement as a design consultant in the starting of Eveleigh Street Community Garden. The garden, in the inner-urban Aboriginal community known as The Block, provided a positive focus to an area better known for crime, drug use and conflict with police. The Eveleigh Street Community Garden started as an idea between a group of women, including Maragret Vincent and Cathy Smith, on 'The Block' in Redfern. They sought International Women's Development Agency sponsorship and raised funds through various church and private groups to buy tools and employ a perma-horticulturist (me!). South Sydney Council agreed to provide fences and connect water to a plot of land next to Murawina preschool, a playground and a railway line. Making a startWe started by meeting to form a plan and began collecting the materials with which to build: the SRA donated sleepers, soiled straw came from Redfern Police stables, tools from a local nursery and so on. Local men, on the Community Development Employment Program, were involved with building different aspects of the garden such as bed edges, a concrete slab for a shed, maintenance etc. as part of their skills training. Children a big partChildren are a big part of the garden and occupy a large part of adult time. They play, garden. fight, go away, come back, garden, fight and play some more. All the while they ask questions: "what's that?", "can you eat it?", "can I have some for my mother/ brother/ granny/ cousin?" "what can I do?", "can I have a job please?". No wonder things grow well in this garden. There is so much activity and energy on The Block. The life force is irresistible. The gardenThe garden is fenced against dogs and strangers to the area - there's been no vandalism or theft at all. It consists of annual beds and various trees, shrubs and herbs. There is:
So, the garden is growing, not only in complexity and yield but also in concepts as the notion of planting and greening Redfern spreads beyond the original allotment. There is a lot of interest in 'bush tucker' and endemic species plus other tree crops like mulberry, mango, peach and citrus. Second seasonThe garden is now in its second season and first crop rotation. The sheet mulch beds are full of worms. We've built our first self-sourced compost heap and collected and stored seeds for next summer's crops. Future evolution unknownHow the garden will evolve is unclear. Like any good permaculture garden it provides food in a supplementary way, education about food and how great it tastes when it's fresh, a play space, a meeting space, an inspiration and a highly visible and tangible counterpoint to commonly held perceptions about Redfern and Eveleigh Street in particular. Murawina has started its own sheet mulch garden for the children there during the day and some of the women on The Block have, or are about to start, their own sheet mulch gardens. Updating the storyThe fact that Eveleigh Street Community Garden persisted in some form or another is evidence of its durability in a community under considerable social, economic and political stress. South Sydney Council provided support to the garden. When participation declined some years ago, the site was planted to a larger number of perennial plants including bush food tree crops. While the site is still in existence, use had by late-2001 declined due to the demolition of housing in Eveleigh Street for the area's redevelopment. < top PAGE UPDATED... |
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