Helen Macpherson Smith Trust

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‘A perfect focus for our community to build hope.’

Cathy McGowan launches an invaluable roadmap to accessing improved health and social connection.

The Helen Macpherson Smith Trust set aside $2 million for bushfire recovery projects within 48 hours of the tragic Black Saturday fires in 2009. $1 million of this was granted to Sustainable Gardening Australia for their proposal, ‘Community Based Gardening in Bushfire Affected Areas’.

The project has been an overwhelming success and has culminated in a new 90-page Community Gardens Manual that is intended to assist other rural and regional Victorian communities to create their own community gardens.  The manual was launched by the Independent MP for Indi, Cathy McGowan AO, in the Toolangi & Castella bushfire community garden.

“The Community Based Gardening Project has proven itself as an initiative that brings communities together across Victoria,” Ms McGowan said. “It has demonstrated the importance of assisting rural community to heal after the impact of the February 2009 fires, and it shows how all our communities benefit greatly when individuals, groups, local government and philanthropic trusts work together.

“Special thanks and acknowledgement must go to the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust for the project vision, and for providing leadership, resources and the support to enable our garden communities to achieve their aims.”

Coincidentally, Ms McGowan’s sister, Ruth McGowan, was Mayor of Baw Baw Shire when the Gippsland bushfires struck. She became personally involved in the gardens project, with a community garden created near her home in Jindivick. A second Gippsland garden was created in Yinnar. Welcoming the launch of the Community Gardens Manual, Ruth McGowan said:

“A community garden became a perfect focus for our community to build hope in the future once the immediate work of the first year of recovery was over.”

HMSTrust has retained Elaine Shallue, the gardens’ original Project Manager, to conduct a scoping study, which will assess the need, interest and viability of establishing new regional Community Garden Hubs.  That will provide the practical resources needed by rural community gardeners.

The President of the Victorian Local Governance Association, Cr Sebastian Klein, welcomed the launch of the Community Gardens Manual.

“Many communities and councils have been frustrated and surprised by how challenging it can be to create vibrant and active community gardens. The Community Gardens Manual provides an invaluable roadmap to accessing improved health and social connection through sustainable community gardening,” Cr Klein said.

Tabitha Barclay, from the Toolangi & Castella Community garden says, “The Community Gardens Manual is a fabulous account of the learning which came from the Bushfire Community Gardens project.  It provides practical, invaluable, grass roots information, which is flexible enough to be applied to most communities.”

Download your FREE copy of the Community Gardens Manual.