Housing NSW zeroes community garden
- Author:
- Michael Gormly
- Posted:
- Thursday, 23 July 2009
The community garden in Woolloomooloo was really starting to look good, with over 100 local participants, seedlings bursting forth to greet the coming spring, and local kids directing their tagging and art skills away from the streets onto the garden walls. Then Housing NSW evicted them with only four days’ notice.
Yes, a new site was being sought with the help of Council, but in the meantime everything on the 30m x 35m site had to be gone by 7am on Monday, July 20, or else be bulldozed by contractors. The blunt letter threatened that anyone found on the site after that date would be charged with trespassing.
This presented the gardeners with a dilemma as they had nowhere to store such a large garden – so the eviction effectively doomed the popular project.
An email battle broke out between Housing NSW, which owns the site but has left it vacant for decades, and Carl Kneipp, who has been working to establish the gardens for some years. He set up and incorporated Greening Woolloomooloo Inc. to provide a legal structure for the voluntary project and won a grant of $5,000 from Landcare and support from the City of Sydney.
Mr Kneipp queried the stated intention to begin excavations when no Development Application had been lodged, and the bureaucrats claimed the gardeners had never been authorised to occupy the site – even though Housing NSW had previously stumped up $1,500 for a set of large rectangular pots for the project. They remained on the site for some months until they were stolen by two men and a truck after Housing NSW had left the fenced site unlocked, says Mr Kneipp.
Only two weeks before the eviction notice, Clover Moore MP and Minister for Housing David Borger had checked out the garden on a walk through Woolloomooloo.
The alarm went out and distressed locals descended on the site to save whatever plants and materials were moveable. Mr Kneipp called a site meeting on Friday, July 17. Three Council officers turned up, as well as the project’s pet possum, but no-one from Housing NSW was able to make it – ironically pleading short notice.
High-profile local artist Rozee Cutrone also attended. She had been co-ordinating an art program in the garden aimed at engaging local youth, teaching them art skills and encouraging their efforts towards making a social contribution instead of antisocial tagging.
Centrepiece of the emerging gallery is a giant mural by Jarad Kelly, based on a C18 Japanese woodcut surrounding a modern, angular spraycan piece reminiscent of a flying dragon. Young locals practise on other walls, inspired by the Kelly piece, says Ms Cutrone.
Then came redemption, of a kind, after The City News asked Minister Borger for a comment. At 5.23pm on Friday, the following reply arrived:
“The commencement of work at 174 Dowling Street Woolloomooloo which was due to occur on Monday will be deferred until further discussions take place with key parties.
“Housing NSW is talking to City of Sydney to try and identify alternative sites for the garden.”
It seems a funding windfall from Kevin Rudd’s economic stimulus plan requires a large stock of new social housing to be built very quickly, hence the hasty decision to use the site and the sudden eviction.
While this is great news for Sydney with its spiralling housing costs, the gardeners had still not been told of the reprieve by Saturday afternoon. They were still frantically trying to find new homes for their plants and chattels when The City News informed them of the Minister’s intervention.
Deputy Lord Mayor Marcelle Hoff, who is out of town, sent an advisor to the site meeting.
“I’m pleased to see that the Minister has deferred the eviction,” she said. “We at Council are certainly doing all we can to support this community and help them save their garden.”
There are no plans to re-house the possum.
by Michael Gormly
The garden's mascot possum, well fed but soon to be homeless. Watching on are garden volunteers.
The original gardener Carl Kneipp, with rake, in front of Jarad Kelly’s mural
This young sweet corn will never yield a crop
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July 23rd, 2009 @ 3:50 am
Urban Community Gardens can move. We don’t like to, but we can and we need to be flexible. The problem here is 4 days notice and the disconnect with the bureaucraZy. Once planted, the integrity of the garden needs to be maintained. After the harvest, CG’s can initiate the transition.
August 6th, 2009 @ 12:08 am
[...] over the eviction by Housing NSW of Woolloomooloo Community Gardeners with only four days notice, he granted a reprieve saying “Housing NSW is talking to City of Sydney to try and identify alternative sites for the [...]
November 30th, 2009 @ 10:50 am
Still no activity at the Dowling street site. Meanwhile, we lost the interest and passionate energy of some of sydney’s finest aerosol artists who were willing and able to work with the youth free of charge. they were snapped up by other areas dealing with similar projects – and they got funding too.
I don’t want to hear another complaint about Woolloomooloo Youth and their tagging or anti-social and sometimes violent behaviour.
we could be using the site now and in fact it would not be a problem – Its all about the paperwork and in a village like Woolloomooloo, I think it would be best to replace the workers that deal with these issues. Housing NSW needs fresh new blood with fresh and progressive thinkers. I’m available. LOL!
November 20th, 2010 @ 10:47 am
What incentive do people that live in housing nsw really have. They get you a place tell you its your home and now after 20yrs of settling in getting the grounds and the house nice. Bonding with the people in your street.Having your children grow up there and think it is there home only to be told you are being relocated as it is under occupied. as you have one room that is empty at present as one of your children has decieded to give it a go flatting with friends. What i would like to no from housing is what is going to happen to my child who is only 19 now if his flatmates move out and they cant afford to stay there not like he can come home i guess they dont give a shit just another kid on the streets or hey he could come back to me to the two bedroom place they are going to downsize me to and then be told by them i cant have him there it is overcrowding so where does housing get off on destroying familys. Housing helping people years ago but not now they are miss leading them and turning there lives upside down. So for anyone out there that has been told this is your home now dont be fooled as i was