Category — Australia

Features Murray Hallam Practical Aquaponics

Reporter: Michael Usher
Producers: Danny Keens, Hannah Boocock

Excerpt:

For many Australian families, putting enough food on the table is a daily struggle. And things will get worse before they get better.

You see the world’s got too many mouths to feed and we’re fast running out of good farming land.

It’s being overgrazed, gobbled up by sprawling cities, or sold up to foreign interests.

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At the Collingwood Children’s Farm, the only farm in the Southern Hemisphere recognised by the European Federation of city farms, Ela milked a cow, demonstrating a skill she gained during 35 years living on the Phoenix Farm settlement in South Africa, and also fed pigs and goats.

Ela is the first person of such international social and human rights standing to publicly visit the farm.

Australia India Institute
25 February 2013

Internationally renowned social activist and granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, Ela Gandhi has visited Melbourne to engage with women victims of domestic violence and visit other institutions aligned with her and her grandfather’s belief of non-violence.

The eminent South Africa-based thinker and advocate of Gandhian non-violent solutions participated in a program of events framed around the theme Global Problems, Local Solutions which included a visit to Collingwood Children’s Farm, the Hanover Welfare Services shelter for homeless people, and the University of Melbourne’s Early Learning Centre.

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“I stand in front of one of our mango trees which has at least 300 beautiful Bowen mangoes on it. This year has been a great season for mangoes in our sub tropical climate of Brisbane.”

Cityfood Growers is located in Samford, Queensland, Australia

Cityfood Growers Blog post
Jan 4, 2013

Excerpt:

You can extend the cropping season of your mango trees by choosing early, mid and late cropping varieties (cultivars). In addition, you can also choose cultivars that are more dwarf in size as the mango trees can grow quite large, up to 15m high) if not pruned. In our Gardener subscriber site, you can find a large number of mango cultivars grouped into cropping, dwarf and heritage and sorted based on your local climate profile. The cultivar we grow at our place in Brisbane is Kensington Pride which is a very common Bowen mango variety for Australia.

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Aquaponics and algae farms will help change Australia’s food industry

By Geoff Wilson
Aquaponic Network Australia
Vol 2, No 1, Jan 15. 2013

Excerpt:

Early signs of massive changes in the $100 billion a year (retail value) Australian food industry include:

Considerable new Australian investment into large-scale and home-scale urban and peri-urban aquaponics for production of more valuable, organic, fresh healthy foods such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs, many vegetables, most herbs, plus some fruits.

Pioneering new investment into urban and peri-urban algae-growing industry – to provide important food additives such as essential oils and high quality food proteins, feed proteins plus petroleum-competitive local transport fuels.

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The kitchen garden where much of the produce for the menu will be grown

Excerpt from restaurant’s website:

Chiswick’s’s unique 150 square metre kitchen garden links the kitchen to its beautiful garden surrounds and provides fresh, home-grown produce. With plantings rotated by season, the garden has a trellised section, potted herbs and garden beds created from natural timber sleepers. Chiswick has a dedicated gardener who tends the garden and works with the chefs to decide on the best seasonal plantings.

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Country life for city folk

Excerpt from Farm’s website:

Only 5km from the centre of Melbourne, nestled on a bend of the Yarra River lies seven hectares of paddocks, gardens, orchards, rustic buildings and shady trees.

Established in 1979 the Collingwood Children’s Farm is a not-for-profit community resource providing country experiences for city people.

Open every day of the year. Visitors can milk the cow at 10am and 4pm, bottle feed young lambs (seasonal), wander around, feed the animals, help with farm chores, go into the paddocks with the sheep and goats, cuddle a guinea pig, waddle with the ducks, feed the chooks, look for eggs or just sit and unwind under a shady tree or on the banks of the Yarra river.

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Perth City Farm showcases innovative urban farming.

Perth City Farm is an urban community garden, education and network centre that operates on permaculture principles. We promote healthy environments that are productive and diverse.

The East Perth City Farm was founded in 1994 as an initiative of the Planetary Action Network (PAN), the youth branch of Men of the Trees in Western Australia.

Before becoming an organic permaculture centre, the site was used as a scrap metal yard and a battery recycling plant. Perth City Farm has transformed the site in order to demonstrate how heavily degraded land can be rehabilitated.

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New gardens in public places in Australia

By Russ Grayson
Australian City Farms and Garden Network
Oct. 2012, 50 pages
(Must See. Mike.)

Excerpt:

I SUSPECT it’s been going on a long time, however my formal introduction came when a woman in Sydney’s southern suburbs showed me how she had colonised a part of her footpath and replaced the lawn with a rich and tasty blend of vegetable, herb and pawpaw.

That must have been around 25 years ago and it made me aware of the potential of the footpath as a place for the cultivation of food and other plants and as a place for civic engagement with public open space… what local government calls the ‘public domain’. At the time I didn’t think that the idea of gardening your footpath would be something that attracted people, but I was wrong.

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Download ‘Getting Started in Community Gardening’ here.

The City currently has 15 community gardens which are run by the community and used for growing herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruit and for conserving rare plants and seeds.

Latest community garden unveiled

A special community garden project on Phillip Street, Waterloo, was unveiled at a Sydney Green Villages workshop presented by ABC Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis on 10 March 2012.

The bright orange garden beds filled with plants and flowers, were built by a group of men and women who live in the public housing towers across the road, or in nearby refuges. The four planter boxes have been installed behind the Wateroo Salvation Army Community Centre.

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Nicolette Boaz with her footpath garden. Photo by John Allpeyard.

“I’m happy to take it out, but you have to give me a reason, otherwise I’m not removing it and I’ll fight for it.”

By Shae Mcdonald
Wentworth-Courier
3 Nov, 2012

A community garden in Bondi will be no more after Waverley Council ordered the owner to remove it.

Nicolette Boaz planted the garden on her adjoining neighbour’s side nature strip on Simpson St five years ago, after she said it wasn’t being used and resembled a “sandy wasteland”.

After replenishing the soil, she planted herbs, fruit and vegetables for herself and her neighbours.

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A huge range of greens and other vegetables is grown on a suburban block. (Gold Coast Permaculture)

Interview with participants

By Bel Tromp
ABC Rural
10 August 2012

Charles Hamilton, co-manager of the Gold Coast Permaculture Urban Farm and Community Garden; Dan Smith, one of the workers at the Gold Coast Permaculture Project; Kristine Marshall, Coordinator Design Services, Economic Development and Major Projects, Gold Coast City Council.

The Gold Coast Permaculture Project sits on a large suburban block, alongside the car dealerships and fast food outlets in the commercial heart of Southport.

It’s turning large volumes of waste matter from local businesses into high-grade organic compost, and growing vegetables to sell to locals.

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Minister for Health, The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP with Stephanie Alexander. Photo by Marcel Aucar Photography.

Government makes new commitment to healthy eating program

Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association
Thu, 02/08/2012

The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden National Program, which is teaching healthy eating habits to primary school aged children all over Australia, will receive a further $5.4 million investment from the Gillard Government.

This will build on the $12.8 million committed in 2008-09 over four years for the development of the program.

Announcing the three-year funding at Meadows Primary School in Victoria, the Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, said the program would now reach up to 400 new schools, as well as the 170 that had previously participated.

“This is great news for kids all around Australia, who will grow, harvest and prepare fresh food, helping to improve their nutrition as well as developing lifelong healthy eating habits.” Ms Plibersek said.

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Urban agriculture of the community kind is on the rise, but UNSW research suggests the health benefits go way beyond what ends up on the dinner table.

Rise of the urban jungle

By Steve Offner
University of New South Wales
June 19, 2012

For the people who use it, it’s simply “the garden in the park”.

Tucked against a picket fence, the series of raised garden beds are filled to overflowing with rich soil, seasonal vegetables, herbs and the odd flower “to attract pollinators”.

“What makes the garden unique is that we are in a public park, so there’s no gate. It’s open to people walking by and it’s open to whoever wants to access it,” says Sarah van Erp, spokeswoman for the group that tends the garden in Waverley in Sydney’s east.

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School gardens are helping kids learn, but they also need to know how to cook the produce.

By Lauraine Jacobs
The Works
January 31, 2012

Excerpt:

Kiwi kids must learn to cook. If I had my way,or at least the ears of our Prime Minister and his Cabinet, I’d be pushing hard for such a vital life skill to be part of every primary, intermediate and secondary school curriculum.

On a morning visit to East Tamaki Primary School late last year, I arrived in time to see children carrying wicker baskets overflowing with freshly harvested lettuces, carrots, potatoes and kale marching behind a modern Pied Piper of food, chef Sid Sahrawat. They had gathered produce from the school’s garden and were off to join classmates to cook lunch with one of Auckland’s more creative chefs.

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Birdies Modular raised garden bed system with the 4 shapes that can be configured from the 1 Birdies Modular raised vegetable bed kit (Standard Shape, Long Narrow, Square or Rectangular).

Birdies Raised Vegetable Bed

From their website:

Our patented modular raised vegetable bed is a world first and proudly Australian. The product is a 4 in 1 raised vegetable bed kit manufactured from quality Australian corrugated steel and available in three heights, making vegetable growing easy for all ages.

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A thriving best-practice disability enterprise

By Mandy Nolan
Echo
Issue 26-50

Excerpt:

On Saturday June 2 the Byron Bay Herb Nursery celebrates 20 years in the game.

As anyone who runs a commercial venture knows, two decades in a highly competitive industry is a great achievement. It’s not unusual for operators to open and close quickly, often within the same month.

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Photo by Lisa Claessen.

“Don’t you think it’s rather funny that you are taking these kids into the city to learn about the country?”

By Lisa Claessen
Telling Tales
May 20, 2012

Excerpt:

Our school is about an hour from Brisbane, close to Gatton University and it’s catchment area is wide. Although we are situated in an area surrounded by fields of vegetables, beef cattle and the occasional dairy, many of our students have little experience with agriculture. Interestingly enough, I am also witness to a growing trend of students who have not been privee to growing up on a farm, expressing a desire to pursue a career in agriculture. It also has to be said that there are some students off farms who have a desire not to continue, or who wish to pursue a career in something else, who may then come back and continue farming.

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A booming population needs to be housed, but it also needs to be fed

By UNSW Australia
University of New South Wales
Executive Producer: Mary O’Malley
March 27, 2012

By 2050 more than twice as many of us will be living in cities. While urban agriculture of the community kind is on the rise, commercial urban farms are under threat.

More than 60% of Sydney’s fresh produce is grown close to the city, the bulk of it coming from commercial gardens.

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Monash university students (left) Bianca Jewell and Ali Majokah plan to tranform this paddock into a farm. Photo: Joe Armao.

Students cultivate an idea to feed body and mind

By Benjamin Preiss
The Age
March 27, 2012

Excerpt:

If Ali Majokah’s plan succeeds, an empty paddock in Melbourne’s south-east will become a sprawling city farm tended by an army of volunteer students.

Monash University has allowed a group of students to use the vacant land in Clayton, which they will turn into a community market garden.

Once complete, it could be one of the biggest city farms in suburban Melbourne. The students will start in a small section of the sloping field, which is bigger than four football ovals, and fan out across the property.

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Federated Farmers President Bruce Wills on his Hawke’s Bay farm. Photo by Dave Hansford.

The farm days would hopefully attract city people to the possibility of a career in farming

By Tim Cronshaw
stuuf.co
16/03/2012

Excerpt:

City people will get a taste of country life at the Federated Farmers Farm Day at Eyrewell Station this Sunday.

Urbanites are being invited to visit the dry stock farm run by government-owned Landcorp Farming to learn about farming during farm walks, talks and demonstrations.

The Farm Day is a national event hosted by the federation to expose city people who might not otherwise get an opportunity to visit a farm and get a close look at livestock.

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