Working Together on the Coonamble Community Garden
Building stronger connections between Aboriginal youth and Landcare.
Collaborations - LP004-003
The issue
Over the last couple of years the Coonamble Local Aboriginal Land Council (CLALC) has been developing a community garden on a two-hectare site that they own and manage. Initial funding saw the erection of a gene around the site, the installation of water tanks on the existing shed and the building of pathways, a barbeque and a toilet block. Additional bits and pieces of funding enabled the completion of these projects and the construction of some raised garden beds. However, CLALC needed some more funding to plant out these garden beds.
The solution
Coonamble-Castlereagh Landcare saw an opportunity to get involved in the community garden, assisting the Land Council with funding from the NSW Landcare Program Working Together Small Grants Program and embarking on a project designed to bridge the gap between Landcare and Aboriginal youth.
The project involves a group of Aboriginal boys supported by the Clontarf Foundation at Coonamble High School, spending their Wednesday afternoons in the garden, planting native plants and looking after the garden.
The native plants will be purchased with the $1000 in funding from the Working Together Small Grants Program and the grant will also provide the boys with a barbeque after a hard afternoon's work in the garden.
The impact
The project is having a really positive impact not only on the community garden but also on the Aboriginal boys. Taryne Albert from the CLALC said that the garden provides a positive environment for older boys to spend time in outside of school.
"They get a bit of ownership - they see something they've actually grown from the start, along with teaching them about healthy eating and all that sort of stuff. It's just something different than skate parks and computer games," Ms Albert said.
Coonamble High School Captain and Clontarf boy Kyle Wiggins is looking forward to getting to work in the garden and working with native plants -"I thought it would be cool because we don't have anything else like it , so it would be something new for us to get involved in and say that we did it!"
This project is just the beginning and it is hoped that there will be more opportunities for funding work in the community garden and elsewhere with the Clontarf boys, from further rounds of the Working Together grants program.
Key facts
- The Clontarf Foundation along with Coonamble Local Aboriginal Land Council and Landcare are working in collaboration to build and rejuvenate the community garden.
- $1000 Working Together grant funds plants for the Coonamble Community Garden