permaculture

[lfl@intrex.net]

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:03:58 +1000, in alt.permaculture Chookie
<ehrebeniuk@fowlspambegone.com.au> wrote:

Dear Permaculture Friends,

We are writing to ask for your support in the campaign to save the
University 
of New South Wales Permaculture Garden.

The Department of Facilities at UNSW recently informed the volunteers
who 
manage the garden that the site is about to be closed to students,
staff and 
the wider community. The move is part of a restructuring at UNSW that
will see 
the Ecoliving Centre relocated (minus the garden) to another part of
the 
campus. Facilities are reportedly concerned about volunteers remaining
in the 
garden without a continued presence in the Ecoliving house. This
is despite 
the fact that the garden has been entirely managed by volunteers
throughout 
its 11 year history - the first several years of which predated the
arrival of 
Ecoliving.
 
The new plan for the site is to 'landscape' it for use by the
childcare centre 
next door. While the childcare centre has expressed an interest in the
environmental education potential of the site, they plan to remove
'high 
maintenance plants' and to build a fence around the site (the garden
has 
always prided itself on being open access). The childcare centre has
so far 
refused requests for continued access by students, staff and the
community in 
the garden due to concerns about public liability.

We believe a solution can be found that would not only ensure
optimisation of 
the garden as an educational resource for children at the childcare
centre, 
but that would also preserve the educational, research and
recreational 
potential of the site for UNSW staff, students and the wider
community. We 
propose a model in which the garden would be managed by a voluntary
body ( 
e.g. a voluntary association) whose membership would pay for insurance
and 
which would be overseen by a steering committee comprised of
University staff. 
We are also offering a professional built environment design that
would keep 
the garden safe for supervised children without compromising its
integrity as 
a student/staff research and educational site and as a model of urban
food 
production.

We are in the process of approaching UNSW staff to invite them to
serve on the 
garden steering committee and to raise awareness of the University's
plans for 
the site which have so far been conducted in secrecy.

Please help us bring the value of the garden to the attention of UNSW
decision 
makers by signing the attached petition. Or write to the Director of
UNSW 
Facilities, Alan Egan (<mailto:a.egan@unsw.edu.au>), and the Deputy
Vice 
Chancellor (Academic), Prof Richard Henry
(<mailto:r.henry@unsw.edu.au>), 
to express your concern at the University's plans to close the garden.

Please also disseminate this email as widely as you can.

Many thanks!

Tim Luckett & Gour Sen (Ecoliving Garden Team)
Mary O'Connell (Arts in the Garden Team)
Kristina Warton & Tamara Rouse (Chicken Team)
Julian Craig (UNSW Student Gardening Club)

<end forward>


They don't seem to have the petition online yet, but I will keep you
posted.

-- 
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia 
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans.
You may 
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and
wrinkled."
Kerry Cue