Permaculture Out West

Posts Tagged ‘community garden’

Don’t forget, this Sunday, 21st August is our regular social event at the Dancing Dog cafe in Footscray from 3-5pm:

These regular gatherings are aimed at inspiring and facilitating the building of a resilient, nurturing and empowering community in the west.

Each gathering includes a speaker or activity around a topic, as well as time to share your thoughts and to enjoy a drink with and meet other locals.

This month our theme will be Community Gardens and Edible Landscapes. Come and here members of the Maribyrnong Community Gardens Working Group inspire you with their vision for an edible Maribyrnong and their immediate goal of a pilot garden within the next year.

Everybody welcome!

If you haven’t been to an EmPOWering Community Drinks yet, one of our POW’s aims through this and other projects is to inspire and empower people to turn the West into the place they want it to be. This may be as simple as hosting a regular sewing circle at their home once a month or it could be as big as the project in this video. The point is that 2 people with a vision and the courage to give it a go, transformed their city. How exciting!

Building a Park in the Sky

Background: Between October 2009 and 2010, Permaculture Out West petitioned Maribyrnong Council not to sell the old Maidstone Hall at 16 Thomson St, Maidstone and won! Subsequently, Council voted to seek Expressions of Interest to lease the site. POW submitted an Expression of Interest to turn the site into a community market garden and “village well”. Our Expression of Interest can be found at this link: Permaculture Out West EOI 2.

Update: Council met on 15 February this year to consider the proposed lease of Maidstone Hall and resolved as follows:

1. “Endorse the suspension of the Expressions of Interest process to lease Maidstone Hall, 16 Thomson Street, Maidstone, until a suitable site for the relocation for the Footscray Senior Citizens Centre is found”

This means our Expression of Interest is on hold until further notice. Presumably, it also means that Council might decide to relocate the Footscray Senior Citizens Centre to the Maidstone Hall site. If this happens, there should be appropriate processes and opportunity to express your views. However, if you do feel strongly about the possibility of the Senior Citizens Centre being moved to the site, we urge you to express your views to your local Councillor in writing.

POW will keep you updated, but it is unlikely we will hear much until much later this year.

Werribee Park Heritage Orchard is holding  a grafting day this Saturday, 17th July from 10am to 2pm.

Enter at gate 2, (the main gate) then follow signs down to grafting shed.

• Watch grafting demonstrations by Pete the Permie and others.
• There will be tours of the orchard
• Dress appropriately, sturdy shoes etc.
• Bring lunch and drinks, there is hot water on-site.

For further information, contact Richard Hawkey: 0428 329 450

To see a map, click here

For more information about Werribbee Park Heritage Orchard or to subscribe to the WPHO newsletter, visit http://www.my-book-cafe.com/newsletter.html

We have finally received official notification that Council will be voting on what to do with the Maidstone Community Hall this Tuesday 20th July.  The meeting is open to the public and it would be good to have  strong showing of POW supporters. It starts at 7pm. The Agenda for the meeting, including the Officer’s Report and Recommendation for the site will be available at www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au from Friday 16th July. Please click on a link below to see the official letter from Council. Thank you.

letter re council meeting 20 july 2010

Last month POW received a call from a council officer in charge of writing a report regarding the old Maidstone Community Hall. We were not permitted to see the full report. However, we understand that it covered various options open to council regarding the site, one of which was leasing it at a peppercorn rent to a community consortium of which POW would be part. At least one other option was a commercially run community service.

The report was to be addressed by Council at its general meeting earlier this month. But we understand it has been postponed, we think until July.

POW is concerned that a commercially run community service on the site would require substantial development on the site and would be against the spirit of Council’s decision to keep the land for the community and we have been urging our members and supporters to write to the Councilors expressing their views.

Please be aware however, that the Councilors did not request this report. It has been put before them by the officers, for reasons not fully understood by POW. At this stage, therefore, we have no reason to suspect the Councilors are backing away from their earlier decision.

We will keep you posted about Council’s decision

It’s been a busy few months for all of us at POW, but we’ve finally got around to planning a thank you social event for all of you who helped us keep Maidstone Public Hall in community hands. We’ve also just been asked by council to have some input in to how they might best use the site in future, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to hear from the locals. As things stand, Council has not decided what to do with the land. Our submission still stands, but if you have any other ideas for the site or if you’d just like to express what’s most important for you, then come along and have a chat. We’d love to see you.
When: Wed 26th May, 6pm
Where: Maidstone Community Centre, 21 Yardley St Maidstone
What: Dinner and drinks – please bring a plate and whatever you wish to drink

Please RSVP to info@pow.org.au

This coming Tuesday, Council will decide on our proposal to save from sale the old Maidstone community hall site in Thompson St. Please come and show your support. Tuesday 16th March, 7pm Council chamber, corner Hyde and Napier Sts. There will be opportunity to ask councillors questions at the beginning of the meeting, so please be on time and bring a pertinent question.

The agenda for the meeting, including the officer’s recommendation to council can be viewed from Friday 12th March at www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au. Councillor’s email addresses can also be found on the Council website. They’d love to hear your thoughts on the officer’s report when it is published.

Details of our submission can be found here.

Want a bigger garden?

Or a chance to share seeds, cuttings, seedlings and ideas?

A group of people are interested in starting a Community Garden and want to hear from others in the Avondale Heights area who might want to dig in!

Following the success of the Keilor East garden allotments – in Tuppall Reserve (see Melway 15 E9 home.vicnet.net.au/~eksscg) – the time is ripe for a similar scheme in Avondale Heights.

Possible locations could be in the communal – but largely unused – open spaces behind Ridge and Glamis drives; Arcade Way and Rimcross /River drives, or behind Park and Prospect drives.

What do you think?

Come along and have your say – good or bad – at a public meeting on Thursday, March 18, from 7.30pm at Milleara Primary School GP room, off Glamis Drive, Avondale Heights.

Contact Ann – annstevens@optusnet.com.au

A number of meetings are going to be facilitated by VillageWell at the Braybrook communitygarden to gather ideas for how the Braybrook Community Garden can best be utilised now, and in the future.

Public meetings will be held in February and March. Please have a read of these flyers to find out more.

Braybrook Community garden – February meeting

Braybrook Community garden – March meeting