A Callout to All Permaculturists on the Gold Coast, Queensland

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Note: This is a preliminary concept plan only. As the garden develops, further
consultation will be undertaken with the members and other stakeholders
to drive the finished ‘product’. The garden will be organic and will incorporate
many Permaculture design principles.

What: Queensland Southen Beaches Community Gardens Open Day and Working Bee
When: Saturday 31 July 2010, from 1pm (Sausage sizzle from 3pm, finish by 4pm)
Where: Tugun Community Centre (Please bring own gardening tools.)

During my internship (at the Permaculture Research Institute Aus) I had the privilege of getting involved with some dedicated community minded people. I met Margot James, a focused, determined lady on a mission to set the ball rolling on a project called Southern Beaches Community Gardens. It was named this for a very good reason. The Southern beaches take in a handful of suburbs from the Queensland Border up the coast approximately 12km to Palm Beach. So this has set the framework for not just one garden, but a network of gardens and has started cementing some form of future food security for the southern Gold Coast.

I’m a part of the steering committee whose main focus is to ensure that members of the garden group are supported in their activities as the garden develops, and to promote the principles of Permaculture design science to the Southern Gold Coast. On a personal level I want the Gold Coast to live and breathe Permaculture. The Gold Coast is the second largest city in Queensland with around 600,000 residents. It’s also the sixth most populous city in Australia.

I need the help of closet Permaculturalists – who I’d ask to dust off their design manuals and come and help push the Permaculture barrow and make this a world class demonstration community garden in our backyard and set the bench mark for all community gardens in the Gold Coast City.

And with all of the hard work of the committee now paying off we are ready to start DIGGING!!!

A massive thank you goes to Gold Coast division 14 councilor Chris Robbins for her support and the substantial funding of $30,000 for 2010. Thanks also to all of our sponsors and especially the Tugun Community Bank who have started their sponsorship of the garden with $1,000. Their support will be ongoing over the years and we will be supporting the bank in any way we can. Local partnerships are very important to the community garden and we would love to hear from any individuals, groups, government departments or businesses that would like to be involved.

So on Saturday 31 July from 1pm we will be holding our official opening and inaugural working bee.

On that day we will be planting a variety of fruit and nut trees donated by the Gold Coast City Council as well as 50 other beneficial nursery and nitrogen fixing species donated by local native nursery Gecko Regen. A “no dig” garden will be work-shopped and also a composting workshop held by Permaculture practitioners.

Imagine the possibilities…

This is very early stages so we would appreciate that everyone bring gardening tools that may be of use on the day (i.e. shovels, wheelbarrows, etc.), as we don’t have a supply of tools at this time. Also, we want this garden to run in as much of a recycling way as possible, so if you have anything you don’t need any more – hold on to them until we have a shed that we can store them in.

We have set up a Facebook page, so please feel free to visit us at Southern Beaches Community Garden and invite your friends to become members as well. We will be posting all future workshops and social events here as well as sending out the usual emails.

The lawn is just itching to be liberated

Over the next month or two we will be holding regular workshops on various subjects to help us all bond together and help us all become educated in the many facets of gardening.

Looking forward to seeing you all then!

P.S. I’m also calling anyone with specific skills – e.g. composting, tree planting, Permaculture, or no dig gardening – to please contact me on the details below. We would like to empower people within the community to share their skills with all of us.

Nick Huggins
e: hugginsn (at) bigpond.net.au
p: 0417 010 965