A green birth
Greening a pocket of the desert in the far north of Australia’s Kimberley region is no small ambition – but that’s what the Wangjatjunka community is doing with ICV’s help.
The aim is to develop a native plant nursery and garden {preliminary work pictured] that beautifies the landscape, improves local diet and provides income for the unemployed.
The environment surrounding the community which is half way between Broome and Alice Springs had been badly damaged by the cattle industry.
Volunteer Phil Heaton is working with local Nicholas Angie, who has been one of the driving forces behind the scheme.
Nicholas left school when he was 11 but, now in his 30s is studying horticulture through TAFE.
Nicholas and Phil have planned the project, welded the infrastructure, cut and galvanised pipe-work and mesh, collected seeds, built fences, and manufactured and installed gate posts and shade cloth.
Phil is a retiree and has plenty of experience growing vegetable gardens and projects rehabilitating environments.
The site involves at least nine stages with Phil planning to travel from his home on the Central Coast of New South Wales to the Kimberley every three months until the plants are established.
The project has been given new impetus with changes to the Commonwealth Government’s Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) Program that encourage Indigenous Australians in find more sustainable employment.
The project links many elements of the 180-strong community. The primary school, which recently established its own veggie patch to teach kids about nutrition, is keenly learning from the ICV supported project.
