Image Room to grow in the new shadehouse.

A not-for-profit disability enterprise, Park Lane Nursery is a native and indigenous plant nursery which supplies more than 300,000 native tubestock plants to a wide range of customers every year. The nursery also provides contract gardening, tree planting, landscaping and other farm contracting services, but its real point of difference is the training and employment provided for people with disabilities.

Since its establishment 21 years ago, the nursery has trained and employed about 70 people. It also has lifestyle programs, including customer contact in the retail nursery, for those with higher needs.

Operating from leased premised on a 3ha site in Wangaratta, Park Lane Nursery has long-established clients in the commercial revegetation markets, with many large forward contracts in place. The retail nursery also caters for smaller individuals and organisations.

A 2012 strategic plan identified infrastructure upgrades and investment as essential to the nursery’s continuing success. Reconstruction and relocation of a large 18-year-old shadehouse would provide space for retail expansion, and increase capacity to train and employ more people with a disability.

“The nursery has grown in fits and starts,” says Park Lane Nursery CEO, Scott Grant. “One of the issues identified was the need for workflow management. By relocating and rebuilding the shadehouse we have achieved a really cohesive flow between our operations shed, the poly houses and the shadehouses right next door.”

Project aims

These included:

• Salvage much of the steel and relocate 40m
• Attract generous discounts from local suppliers for new materials
• Arrange volunteers to undertake appropriate work
• Include new concrete paths, multi-function benches and a new irrigation system
• Involve other community groups, such as the community work crew from the Beechworth Correctional Facility.

www.parklanenursery.com.au