A $1 million Community Based Gardening Project in some of Victoria’s worst hit regions from the 2009 bushfires has resulted in a Community Gardens Manual that has been written to assist individuals and groups planning to set up a community garden or POD (Productive, Organic, Diverse) food growing space.
The material included and suggestions made are based upon the experiences of eleven regional Victorian communities who have each been involved in a Community Based Gardening Project between 2010 and 2013.
More than 300 requests have been received for the manual, which includes the bushfire community gardens in Toolangi & Castella, Jindivick, Yinnar, Beechworth and Yackandandah.
President of the Victorian Local Governance Association, Councillor Sebastian Klein, was at the launch held at the Toolangi and Castella garden in the Kinglake bushfire region, once a disused tennis court, it now features native plants and thriving vegetable gardens.
“The Community Gardens Manual provides an invaluable roadmap to accessing improved health and social connection through sustainable community gardening,” Cr Klein said.
Three of the five bushfire community gardens are in Independent MP Cathy McGowan’s electorate of Indi.
“The Community Based Gardening Project has proven itself as an initiative that brings communities together across Victoria,” Ms McGowan said.
“It has demonstrated the importance of assisting rural communities to heal after the impact of the February 2009 fires, and it shows how all our communities benefit greatly when individuals, groups, local government and philanthropic trusts work together.”
Coincidentally, Ms McGowan’s sister, Ruth McGowan, was Mayor of Baw Baw Shire when the Gippsland bushfires struck. She became personally involved in the gardens project, with a community garden created near her home in Jindivick.
Welcoming the launch of the Community Gardens Manual, Ruth McGowan said:
“When Mother Nature ‘rips you up’, destroys the local native forest and livelihoods and burns properties to the ground, it’s no wonder that our community spirit took a beating.
“In this environment, in 2010, a community garden became a perfect focus for our community to build hope in the future once the immediate work of the first year of recovery was over.”
While the manual is linked to regulations in Victoria, it has national applications.
The Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, which funded the $1 million project, announced a Stage 2 scoping study to assess the need for and viability of regional Community Garden Hubs as a practical new resource for such gardens.
Mr Hutchinson, chairman of the HMSTrust, has retained the original project manager to conduct the scoping study, which will assess the need, interest and viability of establishing new regional community garden hubs.
The study will look at an overarching strategy and the potential location of these regional hubs, as well as the provision of practical resources needed by rural community gardeners.
Free copies of the manual can be downloaded from the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust website, hmstrust.org.au/noticeboard
