Australia: The plot thickens and stakes are raised in community gardens dispute
Collingwood Children’s Farm is a not-for-profit, inner city working farm situated on the Yarra River in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford, Australia.
By Bianca Hall and Rachel Eddie
The Age
June 18, 2021
Excerpt:
The relationship between Collingwood Children’s Farm and community gardeners has soured in the weeks since plot holders were suddenly locked out over safety concerns including snakes and the risk of being impaled by star pickets.
The gardens, used by locals for 42 years, have been closed and will be cleared by heavy machinery and rebuilt with new vegetable plots on the rich soil beside the Yarra River.
The farm has been seeking a third-party facilitator to consult with all stakeholders – rather than just a “small group of individuals” at the gardens – to decide what the rebuilt community gardens should look like after last week cancelling a meeting with plot holders.
Since its inception as a resource used mostly by Greek and Turkish migrants, the community garden has operated for local residents without backyards of their own.
The gardens have been a lifeline for locals such as Anna Krouskos, whose husband Dimitri – a popular fixture at the gardens – died of COVID-19 last year.
“He was a Greek farmer, and he just grew everything beautifully and I just couldn’t step into those big work boots,” she said.
