[permaculture-oceania] Award ceremony attarcts participants from far afield

[Russ Grayson]

AWARD PRESENTATION ATTRACTS GARDENERS FROM WIDER METRO REGION

The presentation of the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network's
annual award for excellence to Eastern Suburbs Community Garden, on 31 July
2006, attracted participants from a wide area of the Sydney region.

More than 60 people attended the brief ceremony in the community garden. As
well as Eastern Suburbs community gardeners, City of Sydney waste educator
and community garden liaison, Michael Neville, brought a council mini-bus of
people from the 10 or so community gardens in his local government area and
the Ethnic Communities coordinator from Department of Environment and
Conservation brought about 14 of her community sustainability educators to
the event.

AWARD FOR ACCOMPLISHMENT
The Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network's Fiona Campbell came
over from neighbouring Randwick City Council, where she is council's
sustainability education officer, a role that involves liaison with
community gardens in that council's area. Two staff of Waverly Council, in
whose local government area the garden is situated, attended.

The award, which was voted on at the Australian City Farms & Community
Gardens Network annual conference in Adelaide last April, recognises the
community garden's achievements in innovation and outreach. Eastern Suburbs
gardeners have advised and assisted other communtiy gardens in the city.

On behalf of the Network, Fiona Campbell presented the award. Russ Grayson
outlined the work of the national community gardens network, describing how
local government - and state government - Australia-wide now recognises the
contribution of community gardens to a region's sustainability, particularly
in areas such as community food security, active recreation, sustainability
education, crime reduction (a finding of recent UNSW-UWS research) and the
development of a sense of place and community.

In response to an Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network media
release, the previous day the local paper, Wentworth Courier, send a
journalist and photographer to the garden. The award will be mentioned in a
few days in an interview on local public radio.

AN EXEMPLARY GARDEN
Eastern Suburbs Community Garden has consistently displayed high, year-round
productivity. The garden contains allotments that are managed by individuals
or families and a large, circular shared garden managed by crop rotation in
which garden teams learn the different suites of plants over the course of
the year. This is one of the innovations for which the award was made
because it integrates sound horticultural, organic gardening practice with
learning.

In making the award, the nationwide Australian City Farms & Community
Gardens Network also recognises that the Eastern Suburbs community
gardeners:

- have integrated effective landscape and horticultural design to produce an
edible landscape with visual appeal; a functional aesthetics is important to
community gardens on public open space
- provide services to the community beyond being a place where people can
grow fresh, nutritions food; the garden hosts visits by local school groups
and provides a venue where people with disabilities can assume a useful role
- demonstrates water-efficient gardening techniques
- provide a community focus that is family-friendly.

A SUCCESSFUL THIRD PLACE
Like other community gardens, the Eastern Suburbs garden functions as a
'third place'. 

Third Place is the idea of author Ray Oldenburg, who describes it in his
book, 'The Great Good Place'. Third Places  - the first being the home and
the second the workplace - are informal gathering places which nourish
relationships, help create a sense of place and community, provide a
diversity of human contact and the opportunity for friendships, encourage
learning and the tolerance of people that are different, invoke a sense of
civic pride, allow people to relax and are socially binding because they
encourage sociability instead of isolation.

Third Places enrich public life and democracy, especially the direct
democracy of participatory decision making. Here, citizens meet to develop
friendships, discuss issues, and interact with others.

A GROWING PRACTICE - GROWING FOOD IN CITIES
At a time when the United Nations actively promotes urban agriculture -
community gardens can be seen to represent a type of citizen 'garden
agriculture' - and research such as that by Urban Agriculture Network
president, Jac Smit (editor, 'Urban Agriculture' [UNDP, 1996, Smit et al]
see also 'Growing Cities, Growing Food: Urban Agriculture on the Policy
Agenda' [DSE, 2000, Bakker et al]) - it is likely that food production
within cities will become even more important to feeding populations
worldwide.

The role of community gardens in Australia is likely to become even more
important if the predictions of the peaking of oil production - which is
likely to bring higher food prices - eventuates, as predicted by oil
industry representatives and economic commentators.

Eastern Suburbs Community Garden is on Waverly Council land and is presently
awaiting a renewal of its lease.

...Russ Grayson (media liaison, Australian City Farms & Community Gardens
Network) - info at pacific-edge.info 0414 065 203

More information on Eastern Suburbs Community Garden:
http://www.communitygarden.org.au/experience/gardens/og_escg.html

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RUSS GRAYSON
journalism, online content production, photojournalism, instructional
manuals, media services for overseas aid

PO Box 1045, Manly, NSW 1655 AUSTRALIA
info at pacific-edge.info
P: 0414 065 203
www.pacific-edge.info

TerraCircle international development team, Oceania
www.terracircle.org.au

Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
www.communitygarden.org.au
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^