COMMUNITY HARVEST
Newsletter of the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network – building local food cultures
COMMUNITY
WINTER 2005
Building
THE FACT that over 100 community gardeners registered for the 2005 Australian City Farms & Community Gardens conference provides evidence that community gardening and city farming - the terms are interchangable - is now an established practice in Australia’s urban areas. The movement started a hesitant expansion in the early1990s, with the establishment of Northey Street City Farm in
Brisbane and the Randwick, UNSW and Angel Street community gardens in Sydney. Melbourne and Adelaide already has a small number of community gardens.
introduced to government housing estates in NSW and Victoria, where the pioneering work of Cultivating Community continues thanks to Basil Natoli and Ben Neale.
The second half of the decade brought accelerating growth, with the appearance of the East Perth City Farm in Western Australia, the Kooragang City Farm in NSW’s Hunter region and more gardens in the capital cities. During this period, community gardening was
Many gardeners prefer to do little more than garden in the company of friends and local residents. This, of course, is the primary value of community gardens. Others have taken on a community development role by providing courses and workshops, cultural events and other community-building programmes. The result is a diversity of community gardens suited to different interests. Importantly, community gardening has become a part of the growing, local food movement which promoted the health, environmental and resource benefits of growing locally much of what we eat. ...Russ Grayson Rob Joynter tills the compost-rich soil of the Eastern Suburbs Community Garden in Bondi Junction.
www.communitygarden.org.au
WINTER 2005— COMMUNITY HARVEST
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