Uniting Kildonan’s Coburg nursery Peppertree Place to close due to declining sales

VOLUNTEERS have been told a much loved cafe and nursery in Coburg is set to shut, leaving more than 20 people without a place to work.

Peppertree Place is set to close down in a shock to volunteers. Picture: Andrew Tauber

MORE than 20 regular volunteers will be without work at the end of the month after Uniting Kildonan announced it would be shutting down Peppertree Place.

The Coburg nursery and cafe was opened in 2003 and is run by Uniting Kildonan, on land owned by Coburg Uniting Church.

After speculation it would close in November, volunteers were told on Wednesday that the nursery would be closed to the public at the end of August.

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An urgent business item put forward by Moreland Councillor Natalie Abboud was passed unanimously that night for council officers to work with the Save Peppertree Place campaign and attempt to find a body to take over the site.

Eleisha Mullane, a volunteer with the campaign, said she was fearful the church would sell the land.

“A model that would be ideal would be for council to auspice it and run it like a neighbourhood house,” she said.

The cafe and nursery will shut its doors at the end of August. Picture: Andrew Tauber

Uniting Kildonan executive officer Joanna Leece said the nursery was run as a social enterprise and would be shut because it was not making enough income through plant sales.

Ms Leece said the volunteers would be provided with options to continue with the organisation in a different role and discussions were underway about the future of the one paid part-time staff member at the site.

“It’s an important space, it’s a special place for the community. However it is not Kildonan’s decision about what happens there in the future,” she said.

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