Vacancy in Suburbia - Information Guide

SUBURBAN POLLINATORS

BACKYARD POLLINATORS

+ VACANCY IN SUBURBIA

B A C K Y AInformation R D Guide POLLINATORS

What being a Suburban Pollinator is and why you should become one today!

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BACKYARD POLLINATORS

SUBURBAN POLLINATORS

BACKYARD POLLINATORS

BACKYARD POLLINATORS

BACKYARD POLLINATORS

thank you to our sponsors...

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CONTENTS

Chapter

The Overall Picture Suburban Pollinators 1

- Who are we?

- Who is this for?

- How to read your deployment kit

- Our Vision and Why

- Becoming a member

Background Context & Knowledge Case Studies Around the World 2

- 3000 Acres, Melbourne, Australia

- Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen, Scandanavia

- Lufa Farms, Montreal Quebec

- Organoponicos, Havana, Cuba

- Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin, Germany

- Rooftop Honey, Melbourne, Australia

- WWII Victory Gardens, Worldwide locations Vacancy in Suburbia 3

- Potentials in Vacant Spaces

- The Effects of Urbanisation

- Vacancy in Keysborough

- Types of Vacant Spaces

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Suburban Pollinators

- Who are we?

- Who is this for?

- How to read your deployment kit - Our Vision & Why - Becoming a member

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS Who Are We?

WHO ARE WE?

Suburban Pollinators is a community organisation, sponsored by the local City of Greater Dandenong council, that focuses on rehabilitating the ecological services and systems in our suburbs to ensure a sustainable future.

We are people who see how our actions - particularly in the buying and demand of fruits and vegetables - can affect our world’s landscapes, climate, and biodiversity, effectively, the ecology, and want to do something to stop this.

We see potential within the suburban scale, due to the close distance to the rural - vast landscapes with minimal road networks and thriving native biodiversity, and the actual amounts of underutilised landscapes available.

guide to uncovering the potentials in our landscapes, and we can effectively use them to create productive and interactive landscapes within our case study site of Keysborough. We hope through our movement, we can revitalise neighbourhood connections and encourage awareness of the consequences of our actions onto current ecosystem services.

We hope you join us on this journey, and if by the end, you have some great ideas on how we can continue to make our suburbs thrive, we would love to hear from you!

So come on, and get Pollinating!

Yours sincerely,

The deployment kit that you are reading, and we hope you’re reading it because your passions and interests align with ours, is your

Suburban Pollinators

SUBURBAN POLLINATORS

ECOLOGICALLY-DRIVEN SUBURBAN LIVING

BACKYARD POLLINATORS

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS Who Are We?

SUBURBAN POLLINATOR HEIRARCHY

SUBURBAN POLLINATORS BOARD OF ACTION 5 Suburban Pollinators are chosen by members to be on the Board of Action based on their knowledge of ecological processes, social networks within the community and their enthusiasm and passion within the Suburban Pollinators.

The board is situated alongside members from departments of council, giving members the opportunity to work in conjunction with council and input into the future developements of Keysborough and potentially the rest of the municipality.

TWO DIVISIONS

residents

5 5 residents selected by members

homeowner

council

BOARD OF ACTION

P

CM

CS

dept. City Planning, dept. Community dept. Corporate Design & Amenity Services Services COMMUNITY OF KEYSBOROUGH

local business owners

community establishments

GM dept. Greater Dandenong Business

ES dept. Engineering Services

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS Who is this for?

WHO IS THIS FOR?

Homeowners + Tenants

Community Institutions

Local Business Owners

Particularly targeted to Homeowners and Tenants, Suburban Pollinators allows you to use your underutilised nature strips and front yards in a productive and profitable way for yourself, the community and the ecosystem.

Community Institutions such as schools and sporting clubs can offer vacant space within the bounds of their property to be used as community gardens that can grow produce to be sold at local Park Markets, or used within the institution.

Grow produce right outside your front door, and sell it for profit at your local Park Market, where you can also attend educational workshops about agriculture, horticulture and the ecology.

If public parks are too far away for local residents, you may also consider offering extra land and parts of your venue to be used as intermediate Park Markets and educational workshops.

We are looking for local business owners to help sponsor and build a partnership with the Suburban Pollinators! There are a range of ways you can do so, through supplying materials and tools to build our kit of parts and related accessories, to using our produce in your your stores or restaurants, to even lending an academic hand in guest lectures and workshops for the community.

By actively helping in some way, each participant is eligible to recieve discounts on the food they produce or help to produce.

The more you help out, the more benefits your recieve.

It’s another way that Suburban Pollinators makes fighting for our cause easy and rewarding to do.

In doing so, you have the chance to get your name out and produce local relationships across your suburb!

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS

How to read your Deployment Kit

+ HOW TO READ YOUR DEPLOYMENT KIT

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Your Deployment Box

Vacancy in Suburbia

Kit of Parts Deployment Guide

Made of strong, mdf, this is your deployment box, made to last for as long as your crops do, and even longer!

Here you will find all you need to know about the Backyard Pollinators, our vision and why and how we’re planning to implement it in your suburb, as well as information about where Victoria and Keysborough sit in the fight against the destructive consequences of Urbanisation to our Ecology!

This booklet will be your go-to guide, from when you’re looking to start your own home-grown crop, to selling it to your neighbourhood friends, to knowing what to plant to ensure proper pollination and how your efforts can lead to a council response for the future of your suburb.

Enjoy learning!

Strewn in amongst your Kit of Parts, you will also gain a deeper understanding of why ecology is so important for your crops to grow, and how you can help make a difference and give natives back their rightful home in your neighbourhood!

Use this to store your Deployment Kit booklets, near-future released booklets and your own notes, recipes and instructions.

Customise it and keep it in a place you can constantly keep an eye on!

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS

How to read your Deployment Kit

LEXICON

To make sure that you’re on track with our Suburban Pollinator jargon, we’ve compiled a quick lexicon or glossary for you to refer to at any

Ecological Design “in the broadest sense, eco-logical design emerges from the dynamic relationship between ecology and decision making” Nina-Marie Lister, Ecological design or Designer Ecology This relationship should be symbiotic, in that your decisions should be based and catered to ecological systems, while the decisions you make can change these systems, causing you to change decision again.

Ecosystem Services Collective word for the benefits humans recieve from ecosystems.

They are formed from complex interactions between the living and non-living components of the environment.

Some services include: Products obtained from ecosystems (food, water, minerals, medicinal resources) Cultural Services (reflection, aesthetic experience, spiritual enrichment) Regulating services (carbon sequestration, pest and disease control, purification of air and water, biodiversity)

New Urban A utopian-like suburbian culture, that blurs the lines between private and public and encourages social interaction between anyone and everyone. The New Urban is deeply integrated and built upon ecological foundations. It is the aim of the Suburban Pollinator

time! We hope that it clears up any confusion you may have about particular words.

Painted Landscapes “Landscapes may be more instrumental in its effects (harvesting stormwater... enhancing species biodiversity, maturing complex ecosystems, providing space for new public uses and programs, catalyzing forms of urban development, and the like), than when landscape is simply painted as a benevolent scene, perhaps beautiful but inevitably passive in its effects.” James Corner, Intermediate Natures: The Landscapes of Michel Desvigne The Painted Landscape identifies landscapes created for purposes of aesthetics or simply recreation, and asks why paint our landscapes and cover a problem, when we can have such productive landscapes combined with aesthetics, that work to solve issues such as habitat loss in cities?

Park Market An intervention deployed by Suburban Pollinators that operates as a hybrid market that stores and sells fresh, local produce and park dedicating space for a native vegetative nursery and a market square with picnic facilities for a recreational outing.

Vacancy The notion of Vacancy does not reject spaces of their current uses, but rather, sees “vacant” spaces as underutilised land, with the opportunity to maximise its potential and further push the ways to productively use the space. It is akin to a hotel vacancy, where a hotel may not be filled but still have vacancy - room available, or moreso, room in a vacant landscape to improve on.

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS

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Our Vision

‘THE NEW URBAN’ OUR VISION

AIM

are created to primarily act as beautiful scenes, rather than having the ability to exist as something more. We believe that all landscapes Our aim for the Suburban Pollinators is to educate people on have the potential to be something productive and great, however the importance of the ecology and fragility of ecosystems. We are some landscapes are still underutilised, they’re simply painted. From excitedly exploring ways that can demonstrate this knowledge and be our perspective, these are referred to as vacant spaces. This is not to integrated within our own daily lives, changing the ways we interact say that they are void of any current use, and so we aim to explore the with each other and the landscape. different potentials in these vacant landscapes.

THE VISION Our vision looks to creating the New Urban, an almost utopian way of living in which our suburban landscapes become landscapes of production and interaction. The property lines of public and private are blurred and your front yard can double as agricultural land and a place for residents to walk into and have a chat with you about the great eggplants you produced the week before.

This vision is of what we call the New Urban - a revitalisation of current suburban models, using ecological concepts as the drivers for change.

While we are focusing on revitalising the suburb of Keysborough, we see the New Urban as one that suburbs across Victoria are able to adopt and in doing so, see productive and continuous landscapes spread throughout Victoria, presenting a new way of living, enriched with ecosystem services, biodiversity, local produce and strong social connections with our neighbours all throughout our suburb.

HOW WILL WE DO THIS? When James Coner refers to the ‘Painted Landscape’ (ref to: Lexicon, Painted Landscapes above), he talks about landscapes that

WHAT ARE THE POTENTIALS? Our research at the Suburban Pollinators focuses on the effects of urbanisation on ecology, or more specifically, how current food models are detrimental to habitat, ecosystems and the landscape itself.

Since the 19th century, we have seen the world’s population move from only 3% living in urban areas to almost 60% by 2030 (Cloas, J., 2013, UN-HABITAT - United Nations Human Settlements Programme).

This move has implications on our cities’ structures. They grow dense, using up as much room as possible to cater for population growth, leaving no room for local food production. This requires land to be cleared far away, destroying native forests and bushland to make way for agricultural production and the associated infrastructures, and it is here that we see our potential.

Unlike cities, suburbs have much more open space, including median strips and nature strips. People have front yards and back yards, and there are community establishments such as sporting clubs with large ovals. These landscapes are connected and at times vast, but are also underutilised. Through these vacant spaces, we see the opportunity to rectify current food models that not only destroy our landscapes but emit incredible amounts of CO2 into our atmosphere.

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Melbourne’s Green Wedge - land reserved for non-urban use

Potential connected productive corridors

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The New Urban - not confined to one suburb, but can be adapted by suburbs across Victoria creating connected corridors or food, ecological and social production

“when productive spaces become part of a coherent network, ...they gain significance and meaning as an urban landscape”

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS Our Vision

+ WHY:

CURRENT FOOD MODELS

Currently, our ‘fresh food’ travels thousands of kilometers across the state, the country and sometimes even intercontinental, just to reach your plate. In that time, over 5.5 Mega tons of Carbon Dioxide emissions (Mt CO2-e) have been released into the atmosphere, and your produce has been packed, re-packed, frozn, re-frozen and dried of most nutrients. So much for ‘fresh’. The processes that go into packing our food and distributing it to is clearly unsustainable for the earth’s atmosphere.

habitats due to road infrastructure. When barriers such as these highways are introduced into a landscape, they reduce the ability for many species such as the native Echidna, or the Growling Grass Frog to pass through without being hit by fast-moving cars. This results in a lack of biodiversity closer to our cities because animals simply cannot make it through ths dense network of barriers. We need to start considering new ways to move our food with less impact on these species.

Food miles traveled for a shopping basket also have tremendous effects on the physical landscape, seeing a disconnect through

“food miles measures the distance food travels between production and consumption and the results can be alarming.

MALLEE

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GOULBURN VALLEY HWY HUME FWY

NORTH EAST

WESTERN HWY LODDON

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GIPPSLAND

CENTRAL HIGHLANDS MELBOURNE

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Current food hubs across Victoria with the expansive road network used to reach them. Note the large distance between Melbourne and the hubs

Researchers at CERES found that a typical melbournian shopping basket has traveled a staggering 70,000km - almost two loops of the globe�

Choice Online, 2008

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS Our Vision

+ WHY:

CURRENT FOOD MODELS

The following page shows an infographic of current food models, looking at the process as food travels from the farm and to the supermarkets. Measurements are based off Australian Data, looking at food travelling from East Gippsland, to Bairnsdale and then to Supermarkets in Melbourne.

The page after demonstrates the New Urban and how can retrofit the current food model into our sububs without such a detrimental effect to our ecosystems.

* Data is sourced from: - Abraham, A. B., 2007, Food Miles in Australia, A Preliminary Study of Melbourne, Victoria - Poirrier, A., -, Sustainability Programs, Food Chain Intelligence Standard Metrics measured as “MT CO2-e” Mega tons of Carbon Dioxide Emissions per year

So let’s go from this...

1. CROP PRODUCTION & HARVEST

WATER IS CONTAMINATED BY FACTORY WASTE SPILLING IN

LAND IS CLEARED AND HABITAT LOST TO MAKE WAY FOR FARMS

2.4

0.013

MT CO2-e /year

MT CO2-e /year

1HOUR

(TRANSPORT 1) packaged

PESTICIDES SPRAYED ONTO THE FOOD YOU EAT

LOSS OF HABITAT FOR SPECIES

packing house POLLUTED WATER

1.5HOURS

0.58

MT CO2-e /year

(TRANSPORT 2) frozen

factory

0.8HOURS

1.25

MT CO2-e /year

(TRANSPORT 3) reboxed and frozen

storage and distribution LACK OF BIODIVERSITY IN URBAN

IGA stored

(TRANSPORT 4) distributed to shops

4 HOURS

1.24

MT CO2-e

OJ (BERRI) AVG DIST. TRAVELLED 2,023.74KM

COLES stored

PORK SAUSAGE (HANS) AVG DIST. TRAVELLED 25,165KM

APPLES AVG DIST. TRAVELLED 112.01KM

WOOLWORTHS stored

Habitats are maintained and trees don’t have to be cleared to make space if we use existing land

Transport your produce by bike

2. Drop your produce off at the Park Market. It’s close by so you don’t have to drive!

1. Grow fresh produce on your doorstep!

Park Market

Corridors are made from continuous plantings

Homegrower

3. Drop-off or pick up fresh produce

Wheelie Wagon

Collection Hub

Turn your nature strip into a bioswale to filter bad chemicals out of stormwater

Beehub

Increased biodiversity

Let them pollinate!

Make use of vacant spaces by growing produce

Distributional and Recreational Bike Trail

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS Our Vision

... to this!

+ THE NEW URBAN Welcome to the New Urban! A place where growing food in your front yard is the norm, and bees surrounding your native flowers is celebrated. The New Urban is the product of retrofitting current food models in surbia, and occupying - whilst small -connected patches of land in order to produce food, native plantings and compost for nutrient-rich soils.

Our new food model looks towards the homeowner, and placing the food supply into their hands. Working together with other homeowners, we hope that productive corridors will form.

located within walking distance. Here you can drop off your produce and recieve monetary benefits, as well as socialise and interact with fellow members and new comers. The Park Market is designed to become a social hub within the suburb, concentrating small populations of Keysborough into one main area which allows for you to regularly see your neighbour ten houses down for instance. People from all walks within the community will have a place to socialise and share their own recipes for food dishes, to compost mixes, what plants they’re growing and more!

This new social concept is a product of designing through ecology.

Within the New Urban, we as Suburban Pollinators, plan to This notion of ‘conncted landscapes’ in order to encourage species implement interventions which will see the accessibilty of fresh food movement, is also beneficial for us as humans in that outdoor spaces increase, while at the same time, provide more habitat and ecosystem are easily accessible and connected throughout the suburb. Front services for species and residents. These interventions are included fences can be removed, as the nature strip becomes a linear park within our infographic, such as the Park Market and the Collection strip. You can easily stop by a neighbour’s house, and explore what Hub, and will be explained on the next page and n your second book, their front yard has to offer. the Kit of Parts Deployment Guide.

The New Urban is a an ecologically-driven revitalised suburbia, In terms of structure, food is grown in planter boxes in the front that encourages you to interact with your landscape, and share your yard of a Suburban Pollinator. When produce is ready to be harvested, experiences with your fellow neighbours. they are taken to the Park Market, a revitalised park space generally

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS Phases of Implementation

+ PHASES OF

IMPLEMENTATION

To reach the New Urban, we have developed a phase implementation system, in which, interventions or models will be deployed in stages into Keysborough to be used by bother Suburban Pollinator members and residents.

The phases are broken down into two, with the first setting the foundations for a productive landscape, both ecologically (through established butterfly corridors and nutrient-rich soils) and socially, seeing a rise in neighbour interaction and contentment with one another. Interventions within this phase are fairly modular, in that they can be removed and shifted if needed and do not cause permanent damage to the landscape The second phase is much more permanent, aiming to see median strips widened and road networks

change in width and shape. It will also see vacant spaces around Keysborough transform into outdoor recreational spaces with related infrastructure and facilities.

The phases rely on the the support, participation and demand of members, as well as the state of the ecological services we are aiming to rehabilitate or introduce.

Beside is an example of what theses phases may be and the effects they may have on the suburb.

The phases are discussed in depth in the Kit of Parts Deployment Guide, the second book in your deployment kit.

phase

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set of Com Park Ma m rke ope unity ts o n sp Inst pen ace ituti o for pro ns len Mo l and ductiv d re m sc a e em pe ber Par s re s k M sul ark t in Ove et l mo ra hun ocatio re ns Tac dred hgl oss sight a n us ac ings Em Spa ergin ative uleatu of e ces g o s thro ccup chidna , ugh atio out n o Key f Vac sbo ant rou gh

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65,000 Suburban Pollinators

start 5 years

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phase es Vacant Spac Occupied Re-Intruduced Native Species

23,250 Suburban Pollinators

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NEW URBAN

Phase Implentation Diagram depicting the effects interventions have within the suburb

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Mem b

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SUBURBAN POLLINATORS Becoming a member

+ BECOMING A MEMBER

So what are you waiting for? Here are the steps below, for you to become a Suburban Pollinator and fight for your future and the future of our planet, today! It’s as simple as following these 5 steps:

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Attend a free session

Every Sunday Morning at 9am at your nearest Park Market (ref. to Kit of Parts Manual for locations), you’ll find us hosting a free session on tending to your own suburban veggie box!

We’ll also explain to you a bit more about Suburban Pollinators and give you a free pack of seeds to start growing at home!

Participate in our 4 week program

If you like what you see after your free session and want to keep ‘growing’ your knowledge, then you can sign up for our 4 week hands-on program at your nearest Park Market, where you’ll learn all you need to being a certified Homegrower. We’ll even have a graduation ceremony for you!

It only costs $30 for a full year’s membership per family, meaning you’re entitled to a discount on all produce sold at our Park Markets and the funds will go to ensuring you get better quality and continuous training and an ever-growing Kit of Parts!

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Apply for your Kit of Parts

Depending on the type of Homegrower you’d like to be, simply fill in an application at the end of your 4 week program (don’t worry, you can take your form home if you need a chance to think), and we’ll send you the corresponding package in a week’s time. Just think!

Homegrown, nutrient-rich carrots in your front yard in no time!

Enjoy your harvest

Whether you’re growing food, planting native species or making some funky compost, you’re bound to have a blast, especially when you share your own methods and recipes with your fellow neighbours. So don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Remember, the dirtier, the better!

Business at the Park Market

With all this produce you’re growing, you’re bound to have some spare. Come down to your nearest Park Market and make some cash by selling us your products and feel proud knowing you’re the person behind your neighbour’s next homemade meal. And being a member means you get discounts on all sorts of goodies at the Park Market!

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Case Studies Around the World

- 3000 Acres, Melbourne, Australia

- Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen, Scandanavia

- Lufa Farms, Montreal Quebec

- Organoponicos, Havana, Cuba

- Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin, Germany

- Rooftop Honey, Melbourne, Australia

- WWII Victory Gardens, Worldwide locations

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CASE STUDIES AROUND THE WORLD

+ CASE STUDIES AROUND THE WORLD

Here are some projects that have given inspiration to the rise of the Suburban Pollinators. We’ve included them so you can see how

movements similar to ours have been introduced around the world.

We hope that they leave you as inspired as they have for us!

3000 Acres, Melbourne, Australia 3000Acres is a movement aiming to “bridge the gap between people who want to grow food, and local councils... who hold the keys to vacant land”.

3000acres seeks vacant land across Melbourne that can be used as small community gardens for locals to readily grow fresh produce.

What makes the Suburban Pollinators different however, is being able to distribute food produce across a suburb, rather than in a concentrated hub. Our system also relies on strong ecological foundations and actively promotes this knowledge.

Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen, Scandanavia A town created out of a squatted military area, the local community thrives on a strong social connection with each other, feeding into their urban planning systems. Front fences, if present, are low, enabling residents to catch up with passerby outside the house. This friendly atmosphere also sees residents dining in a communal kitchen at least once a week.

The idea of private in this town is blurred, with residents focused on putting money made from the cannabis dealers that essentially founded the town, being put back into their local economy to be used for public open spaces or improved educational systems. The community has a strong input and say in the development of the town.

Lufa Farms, Montreal Quebec Lufa Farms is a greenhouse built upon a rooftop - space the founders deemed as “vacant”. From it, they were able to produce an incredibly productive farm within the city of Montreal. What is interesting about this project, is the logistical system used to distribute food. The use of a website allows users to see the produce available in the week and make an online order. When the produce is ready, it is harvested and distributed straight away, to residents close by, therefore reducing both food miles and nutrient loss from the harvested produce

Organoponicos, Havana, Cuba Often referred to as Cuba’s Agricultural revolution, Organoponicos (a system of urban organic gardens) came about during the collapse of the USSR, seeing Cuba’s main food import collapse and the majority of the population going hungry. Organoponicos are urban gardens set up in the vacant streetsides and lots of Cuba, seeing only 16% of food now imported and more than 35,000 hectares of Havana’s land used for agriculture. Local homeowners, as well as business can own an organoponico, making it a natural lifestyle and seeing the agricultral workforce jump from 9,000 (in 1999) to 44,000 (in 2006). (Knoot, S., Monthly Review, 2006)

Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin, Germany Quoted as an “urban garden growing fruit and vegetables and running social activities to get locals and kids involved in gardening and their urban environment” (Prinzessinnengarten User), the Garden works as an informal community garden combined with a park. It is an active hub in the heart of Berlin, where people come to trade tips on gardening, and try to produce fresh local produce in the urban landscape. It is evident throughout the garden’s public website, how passionate and proud the locals are of this haven.

WWII Victory Gardens, Worldwide When food shortages began during World War II, in Australia, Prime Minister John Curtin launched the ‘dig for victory’ campaign, asking people to grow their own produce to help Australia out of a food shortage. The same ideas were launched in the UK and the US, where people began using parks for agricultural production.

Unfortunately, these victory gardens are not around, however it shows how landscapes can actually be productive. The Suburban Pollinators takes the idea of a Victory Garden, and asks YOU to grow food YOUR yard to stop the destruction of our fragile ecology.

Rooftop Honey, Melbourne, Australia Rooftop Honey is an organisation that introduces bee keeping and the important of bees as pollinators into the city of Melbourne. They ask people to sponsor beehives around the city so that we can ensure there is pollination for our urban flowers, and to strengthen the dying bee population. Sponsors are able to visit their beehive, participate in beekeeping workshops and recieve a share of the harvested honey every season.

The Suburban Pollinators works in a similar way that sees beekeeping more accessible and visible in the suburban landscape, and is sponsored by donations to the Suburban Pollinators, with harvested honey being sold at the Park Markets.

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Vacancy in Suburbia

- Potentials in Vacant Spaces

- The Effects of Urbanisation

- Vacancy in Keysborough

- Types of Vacant Spaces

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VACANCY IN SUBURBIA Potentials in Vacant Spaces

+ POTENTIALS IN

VACANT SPACES

From our case studies, we can see how seemingly vacant landscapes contain the potential to be productive - something other than just ‘painted’, terminology that James Corner lends us.

So why must we wait for an emergency such as food shortages in Cuba and during WWII to be on our doorstep before we begin to act?

Through Suburban Pollinators, we hope to erradicate the threat of an emergency in our fragile ecosystem - the risk of wiping out for instance, bees - the most important species when it comes to pollinating our crops and other species of flora, which without it could potentially wipe out thousands of farms across the globe. Our easy, accessible and beneficial methods make fighting urbanisation and its effects on our delicate landscape less of a war, and much more natural.

Vacant spaces are our deployment fields for our Kit of Parts, setting up investments for the future, rather than barracks and defences for an emergency.

As Peter Spooner states in his book, ‘Highway Landscape Design’ (1990):

“Recreation... in a strictly literal sense... means revitalisation of any sort”

It brings to attention, a new head space in which we understand our landscape, and certainly highlights the potentials of painted landscapes. Rather than Recreational Parks that support the outdoor activities of human life, why can we not take it one step further and allow for the revitalisation of our ecology and the contextual landscape upon which it sits?

Within the following pages, you will find current (although subtle) cases of painted landscapes in victoria, and how urbanisation is one of the causes of this.

Through landscape ecological practices, we hope to negate this, removing the need for such dividing infrastructure by creating strong and connected corridors. By targeting the intermediate land, the suburbs, between the heart of urbanisation - the city, and the end of it - the rural, we hope to achieve this connectedness - of landscapes with potential, landscapes of production and landscapes of opportunity.

“the question is how do we usher in a period of reform? To usher in a period of reform, you need a countermovement, a social movement powerful enough to force us to institute reforms�

Eric Holt-Gimenez Exec. Director of Food First

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VACANCY IN SUBURBIA The Effects of Urbanisation

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GEELONG PORT PHILLIP BAY FRANKSTON

Urban Growth Predicted Urban GrowthGrowth 2013 Urban Predicted Urban Green Wedge Growth 2013 Location Main Highways/ Green Wedge Freeways Location Main Highways/ Freeways

Melbourne Urban Growth Boundary 1971 and its relation to the Green Wedge

“though cities occupy just 2 percent of the earth’s surface, their inhabitants consume

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Urban Growth Predicted Urban Growth 2013 Green Wedge Location Main Highways/ Freeways

Melbourne Urban Growth Boundary 2013 and its relation to the Green Wedge

75% of the planet’s natural resources”

Rashid Faridi, 2013 “Urban Biodiversity is important in cities”

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VACANCY IN SUBURBIA

The Effects of Urbanisation

+ ISSUES IN THE

GREEN WEDGE

The Melbourne Green Wedge is a band of land around the outskirts of suburbian Melbourne to serve for non-urban developments.

It is essentially open space for species and biodiversity to thrive, for agricultural land, and for national parks and the like.

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Michael Buxton writes in the Age, an article about the importance of these green wedges, and that we should (on the topic of the greend wedge) “protect Melbourne’s open spaces from developers (as it) is vital to our city’s survival as a viable place to live”. While Burton is correct in saying that we must maintain and fight for our green wedges, there is an issue in the idea of the gren wedge itself.

While it is a haven for biodiversity and ecosystems, it is more or less, disconnected from the urban, with only th South East Green wedge MELBOURNE

WERRIBEE

PRINCES HWY

filtering into suburbia.

What Suburban Pollinators aim to do is rectify this thinking of reliance on a band dedicated to ecology and instead, allow for ecology to be integrated into our urban planning and designs, therefore, strengthening our “relationship with our rural hinterland” LILYDALE

As more and more people move from the rural to our cities, the emphasis on maintaining a green wedge rather than lose it to urban developments becomes stronger. By integrating the ‘green wedge’ ideals into our suburbs, we can effectively reduce this risk with awareness for our ecology being a driver in aspects of future planning.

RINGWOOD

DANDENONG

BERWICK

PRINCES HWY

GEELONG PORT PHILLIP BAY FRANKSTON

“If we can’t protect our green spaces, who on earth can?”

3,367,741 estimated resident popn 1998

2000

1,287,196 ppl

2002

2004

200

“our relationship with our rural hinterland GOULBURN VALLEY HWY

CALDER HWY

CRAIGIEBURN

is critical to the survival of Melbourne as MELTON

WESTERN HWY

LILYDALE

a viable place to live... Lose it and our city MELBOURNE

RINGWOOD

becomes just another casualty to anonymous WERRIBEE

DANDENONG

global urban sprawl, another city that has PRINCES HWY

BERWICK

PRINCES HWY

GEELONG

obliterated the last vestiges of nature” PORT PHILLIP BAY

FRANKSTON

Michael Buxton, 2002 “Melbourne’s choice: Green belt or Urban sprawl”

metropolitan

2008

06 rural

4,108,541 2010

2012 1,425,185

2014

3

VACANCY IN SUBURBIA

The Effects of Urbanisation

SUNBURY

MELTON

TULLAMARINE GREENSBOROUGH

RINGWOOD

MELBOURNE

WERRIBEE SOUTH EAST GREEN WEDGE

DANDENONG PAKENHAM

PORT PHILLIP BAY

GEELONG FRANKSTON

MORNINGTON

HASTINGS

LAND VALUES AROUND GREATER MELBOURNE - Resources are found closer to the fringe of the green wedge.

High Value Agricultural Land

High Value Horticultural Land

Ramsar Wetland

Green Wedge

Environmentally Significant Land

South East Green Wedge

To provide for the use of land for agriculture.

To recognise, protect and conserve green wedge land for its agricultural, environmental, historic, landscape, recreational and tourism opportunities, and mineral and stone resources.

To protect and enhance the biodiversity of the area.

To encourage use and development that is consistent with sustainable land management practices.

Purpose of the Green Wedge Zone, City of Greater Dandenong Planning Scheme, 2009

Land Values around Greater Melbourne

Mappings of resources and typologies within Victoria demonstrate what urbanisation is doing on a - Natural Diverseinfrastructure Landscapes areand found withinout or past global scale:and pushing density to the edges. While the Green Wedge Zone is Green Wedges designed to be a place of Agriculture and Biodiversity amongst others, this solution still does not provide a connection to these resources within the city. There is an increasing need to reduce the difference between the rural and the urban.

“many major cities in the "world" have a limited supply of food on hand... that makes cities highly vulnerable to anything that suddenly restricts transportation, such as oil shortages. The farther we ship food, the more vulnerable our food system becomes”

Brian Halveil “Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a Global Market”

3

VACANCY IN SUBURBIA Vacancy in Keysborough

+ KEYSBOROUGH:

THE PROTOTYPE

A south-eastern suburb, Keysborough is set up as our case-study site, our first suburb to deploy our New Urban Model, due to its current state of development and new influences.

Originally, towards the south, Keysborough was made up of agriculturally land, but has since seen the removal of this landscape for road network infrastructures and new residential development.

There is opportunity to re-integrate an agricultural landscape back into Keysborough.

New residential developments in contrast to the established housing towards the north of the suburb allow for an interesting

dialogue for how we may set up within. It also allows us to test two different styles of living, as new residential developments include in their plans, extensive space for recreational walks and lakes, while established housing areas consist of generic open park spaces.

Keysborough’s abundant vacant spaces also let’s us play around with vacant space arrangements. Within the next pages, you’ll see how urbanisation has affected Keysborough and how it is important that we shift our headspace to see vacant spaces as land with potential. Over time, we hope to be able to deploy our models into suburbs closer to Melbourne.

CITY OF GREATER DANDENONG

MELBOURNE

KEYSBOROUGHKEYSBOROUGH

MELBOURNE

CITY OF GREATER DANDENONG

CITY OF GREATER DANDENONG

CITY OF GREATER DANDENONG

SOUTH EAST SOUTH EAST GREEN WEDGE GREEN WEDGE

DANDENONG BYPASS

ESTABLISHED RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS

EASTLINK

KEYSBOROUGH INDUSTRIAL INFLUENCE FROM DANDENONG SOUTH PREVIOUSLY AGRICULTURAL LAND

(GREEN WEDGE OVERLAP) AGRICULTURAL LAND

BANGHOLME

NEW RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT

DANDENONG SOUTH

Wa ter cou rs Pe rm e Are a an e We nt Wa tla ter nd b Are ody Bu a ilt Up Are as

lin Da e Gra mp ss Sa y W Da nds oodla He mp rb nd Da Sand -Ric h mp s H San erb R d Cre ekl s Her ich b-R ine ic H Flo od erb-R h pla i c h Wo Sw in Ri p o am py arian dland Sw Ri am par Woo dl ia p Sw y Scr n Wo and am ub od lan py d Gra Woo dl ssy Pla and Gra ins We ssy t Gra Wetla land ssy nd s W He oodl alt hy and Pla Woo ins dla n G Pla rassy d ins Wo Gr od Co assy W land ast al D etla n Co ast une S d Mo sai Ba cru nk c sia b Wo od lan d

Cre ek

3

VACANCY IN SUBURBIA

Vacancy in Keysborough

EVC Map of Keysborough & Surrounding Context from 1750

EVC Map of Keysborough & Surrounding Context from 2005

As more people populate suburbs, our precious, productive and diverse landscapes are demolished leaving native species’ habitats fragmented and disconncted. What happens next is a homoginsation of the landscape and therefore the species of flora and fauna present.

From the maps above, we see the remnants of Healthy Woodland, Damp Sands, Plains Grassy Wetlands, Swamp Scrub Mosaic, Swampy Riparian Woodland, Scrubland, and Creekline Grassy Woodland to name a few. While we cannot go back, it is our mission to at least provide connected and viable corridors for our native species to once again claim our lands and produce rich and fertile soils and ecosystems as they once did before.

3

VACANCY IN SUBURBIA Vacancy in Keysborough

+ RECREATIONAL: SHIFT IN HEADSPACE

As discussed previously, Peter Spooner’s definition of recreation Galen Cranz talks about the strength that comes from connected leaves us with an exciting opportunity to revitalise recreational spaces systems. By considering recreational space purely as space to play in Keysborough. and relax in, then we disadvantage ourselves. However, if we consider recreational space as a space to reivitalise, and therefore Currently, the City of Greater Dandenong boasts about the large see opportunity in vacant spaces, our landscapes can become amounts of recreational space, however, these open spaces are more connective, and therefore, efficient at being accessible for all unconnected from each other, and to an extent, disconnected from residents, as well as acting as strong corridors for the movement of some of the Keysborough population due to the parks being too far flora, fauna and humans alike. to walk to.

“after 1965... ideas about the significance of open and green space gathered strength from the new concept that parks, streets, plazas and empty lots were parts of a continuous system. Citizens and professionals viewed all unbuilt space as potential sources of psychic relief�

Galen Cranz, 2000 Changing Roles of Urban Parks

3

VACANCY IN SUBURBIA Vacancy in Keysborough

1

4 3 2

Classified “Open, recreational space”

6 5

Including: +1 Frederich Wachter Reserve +2 Tatterson Park +3 Keysborough Community Park +4 Keysborough Reserve +5 Bowman’s Redgum Reserve +6 Parkmore Soccer Club Low Connectivity and access across suburb

5

4

1

Shift in understanding of “recreational spaces” to “landscapes to be revitalised” (vacant spaces) results in increased Connectivity and Matrix. Much more available space distributed throughout.

3

2

Landscapes include: +1 Walking Trails +2 Private Open Space +3 Community Open Space +4 Median Strips + Existing Parks & Reserves

3

VACANCY IN SUBURBIA

Types of Vacant Spaces

+ IDENTIFYING

VACANT SPACES

The following images will demonstrate what a vacant space may look like in Keysborough, and the type of vacant space it is so that you can

OPEN SPACES

MEDIAN STRIPS

NATURE STRIPS

be aware of the underutilised land in Keysborough the next time you step outside!

COMMERCIAL OPEN SPACE (COMMUNITY ESTABLISHMENT OPEN SPACES, PUBLIC OVALS, GOLF COURSES)

PRIVATE OPEN SPACE

TEMPORARY LAND

“in learning our way to [sustainability], we must make brave choices.

Humans must relearn to live within nature, and perhaps, through design, reinterpret our relationship with it. �

Nina-Marie Lister Sustainable Large Parks: Ecological Design or Designer Ecology?

SUBURBAN POLLINATORS

ALEXA ONGOCO : S3388923

BACKYARD POLLINATORS