Australia: Tears as workers move in on Collingwood Children’s Farm community gardens
About 20 green thumbs rallied outside the gardens on Monday, awaiting the arrival of the bulldozers and ready to protest against what they say is the first step in the destruction of decades of cultural and community history.
By Cassandra Morgan
The Age
February 14, 2022
Excerpt:
Since then, more than 100 people who used to work the plots have been locked out while the gardens have become overgrown.
The community gardeners say the safety issues could be addressed if they were allowed back on site, but management maintains major works are needed to reach the required standards.
The gardeners fear that, once the site is razed, the farm might switch to a social enterprise community garden model, without individual allotments.
Management says it has consulted extensively with the gardeners despite disruptions from COVID-19, and wants to open it to the wider community, not just those who have a space allocated in the 70 plots.
They say it will remain a community garden, and the model will depend on feedback from the community, who have welcomed the chance to develop a new garden on the site after more consultation.
“Yarra is becoming more dense, more populated. We have a legal obligation to ensure that the work that we do here at the farm benefits people experiencing adversity,” farm chief executive Conor Hickey said.
