By Bianca Hall and Rachel Eddie
The relationship between Collingwood Children’s Farm and community gardeners has soured in the weeks since plot holders were suddenly locked out over safety concerns including snakes and the risk of being impaled by star pickets.
The gardens, used by locals for 42 years, have been closed and will be cleared by heavy machinery and rebuilt with new vegetable plots on the rich soil beside the Yarra River.
Anna Poulentzas, Vaslios Mihopoulos and Anna Krouskos on the outskirts of the community gardens.Credit: Jason South
The farm has been seeking a third-party facilitator to consult with all stakeholders – rather than just a “small group of individuals” at the gardens – to decide what the rebuilt community gardens should look like after last week cancelling a meeting with plot holders.
Since its inception as a resource used mostly by Greek and Turkish migrants, the community garden has operated for local residents without backyards of their own.
The gardens have been a lifeline for locals such as Anna Krouskos, whose husband Dimitri – a popular fixture at the gardens – died of COVID-19 last year.
“He was a Greek farmer, and he just grew everything beautifully and I just couldn’t step into those big work boots,” she said.
But Mrs Krouskos has kept her husband’s garden going, as a link to the past and a way of growing the future.
Since its sudden closure, plot holders have been unable to retrieve their produce from the locked gardens.
They now believe the Collingwood Children’s Farm management have a new vision for the community gardens, with changes happening more broadly across the Melbourne institution.
As with everything, COVID-19 has trodden on the farm’s model and accelerated change.
The gardens have been deemed extremely risky.Credit: Justin McManus
Last year’s annual report foreshadowed “seismic” changes planned at the farm, moving to a user-pays model for many of its services.
“The farm just won’t be in a position to devote the $200,000 or more per annum to delivering no-cost community programs that it has in the past,” community engagement representative Steve Costello reported.
Among the changes mooted were seeking more partnerships with business, governments and philanthropy groups.
“While the farm remains eager to partner with schools and service providers to develop new programs that support young people and people experiencing adversity, these programs will need to be funded and the onus on securing that funding will fall on the school/service provider.”
Anna Poulentzas’ grandchild Jordan Oakley gets stuck in at a community gardens plot at the Collingwood Children’s Farm.Credit: Anna Poulentzas
Chief executive of the farm, Conor Hickey, said it needed to diversify its income and hire more staff to cater for growing demand from community groups.
“Our funds will always go to directly supporting those in the community experiencing adversity. After being closed for close to nine months due to COVID-19, we’ve explored a number of new ways to raise revenue. ‘Pivoting’ like all businesses have had to,” Ms Hickey said.
“We will always be a [not-for-profit] and social enterprise.”
More than 90 per cent of revenue at the farm comes from admission fees and wedding bookings, which was snatched away during on-and-off lockdowns that crashed visitor numbers from 15,000 a month before the pandemic to zero during closures.
In an email to Ms Hickey on behalf of a group of gardeners, plot holder Tim Handfield said there was a perception the farm was using safety issues to pursue a plan to replace the plots.
Farm management has stressed that existing gardeners will be offered plots in the new community gardens, “but with opportunities for greater involvement by volunteers and people of diverse abilities”.
The farm was acting on an external consultant’s report it commissioned, which found unacceptable safety risks such as snakes and star pickets were compounded by uneven ground.
Gardeners inspected the site from the sidelines on Tuesday with the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union — which has offered to do pro-bono safety work — having been denied entry.
The gardeners like Mr Handfield, who has had a plot for about seven years, believe the safety issues can be addressed without heavy machinery.
“There’s a lot of grief out there, being unable to access the gardens … The gardens have been a life-saving thing really for the whole of this whole COVID period,” Mr Handfield said.
Mrs Krouskos’ sister-in-law, Anna Poulentzas, has been involved with the gardens almost from the start. Her now 92-year-old father gardened there from the mid-1980s, she has laboured on and off there for years, and now her children and grandchildren work plots.
“Honestly, the safety issues,” she said. “As far as I know, there’s never been an incident … My husband had a fall down there, but he didn’t fall in the plot. He fell down on the bike path.”
Last week, gardeners pushed to work towards a joint statement of agreements with management and Ms Hickey has said she hopes they can create a better community garden.
“While we cannot keep everyone happy, we are confident that we can work together with our community garden members to create a safer, more inclusive community garden.”
MORNING EDITION
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.