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Australia: And then the pandemic came: A tale of two community gardens

Georgina Bathurst in the Bourke Street garden.James Brickwood.

The garden’s membership doubled to more than 50 during the pandemic

By Danielle Mahe
Sydney Morning Herald
January 13, 2021

Excerpt:

Last year was meant to be the year when the Bourke Street Community Garden in Woolloomooloo could finally house the prized chickens for which the gardeners had been waiting for.

To mark the occasion, they had planned to hold a chicken festival, an open day to showcase the inner city garden with its new additions. It would be the first of the 23 community gardens in the City of Sydney council area to have livestock.

The chickens finally arrived in March. But so did COVID-19.

“It was very disappointing,” Georgina Bathurst, the garden coordinator said.

The festival plans had to be scrapped. It was the first of 23 community gardens in the City of Sydney council area to have livestock.

But the arrival of the chickens played a key role in helping the garden flourish during a time when many Sydneysiders would experience loss and hardship. The garden’s membership doubled to more than 50 during the pandemic and more residents took notice of it, which can be easy to miss as it is in an area that is far from peaceful: the garden is under a railway bridge and sits next to the Eastern Distributor.

“Often I’ll be in with the chooks or something, I’ll look up and there will be a gaggle of people at the fence looking in,” Ms Bathurst said.

Read the complete article here.