Back to nature at Bourke’s Community Garden
Bourke has a reputation for some of the best green thumbs in the region and now you can get your hands dirty and share a common bond of the botanical kind at Bourke’s new community garden
Located at 23 Anson Street, the community garden is a partnership between REDIE, the Bourke Aboriginal Corporation Health Service (BACHS), the North West Academic Centre the Sydney Botanic Gardens Community Greening team, and the University of NSW Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture.
Phil Pettitt from Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, Gavin Gibbs from REDIE, and Charlene Noye from BACHS were on site last week, observing the work that has been done by a group of visiting landscape architecture students from UNSW in collaboration with the Bourke community.
“This site has been here for 20-odd years and was pretty overgrown when we inherited it, and we have tried to develop it into a green space for everyone in the community,” Gavin said.
“A lot of hours and manual labour has gone into the garden which is a place where people can come and harvest, learn how to grow and eat healthy basic vegetables at home.
“The main word is community, it’s open for everybody at structured times and when we harvest, we get this beautiful produce for our community.
“If you have an interest, you can have some input - hold the hose, have a chat, a cup of tea and share the knowledge, because we all know a little bit and if we put that together there it is - you have community,” he said.
Phil Pettitt is head of Community Greening at the Sydney Botanic Gardens and became involved when the UNSW, REDIE and BACHS invited his team to collaborate on the Bourke project.
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