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How ACFCGN started
The Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network (ACFCGN) was established in 1994 as a result of study of community gardens in Australia, which identified that very few gardens were aware of the existence of any other gardens 9. ACFCGN’s initial focus was to put gardens in touch with each other to share information, knowledge and support. State coordinators were chosen due to their knowledge of ‘who’s who’ and of the activities and bodies surrounding organic food production, community gardens, permaculture and community-oriented ‘sustainability’. The New South Wales coordinators were chosen due to their extensive experience in permaculture teaching and their involvement in Permaculture Sydney, which had made them fundamental individuals within such circles in Sydney. ACFCGN’s role and the evolution of this ACFCGN’s initial role was to put gardens in touch with each other. Over time, this has evolved such that ACFCGN now acts an advocate for community gardens and mediates in negotiations between community gardens and regulatory bodies. The network can provide gardens with support and information regarding incorporation, insurance, promotion and gardening techniques such as composting; it can also provide support and documentation of the benefits of community gardens when these spaces are threatened 10. The coordinators follow the principle of skills transferral, whereby an educator enters a situation always with the aim of their own redundancy 11. The network structure reflects this; the coordinators see ACFCGN as a decentralised network, rather than a centralised authority, and their role as mediators between other bodies. Much of their activity involves or aims for, putting appropriate individuals in touch with each other and leaving further interaction up to those individuals. Action within ACFCGN is left up to the individual, who informs ACFCGN and invites other members to participate; thus, the perception of both the gardens and ACFCGN as a member’s own space, is emphasised. This approach reflects the coordinators’ perception of the primary role of community gardens within richer countries as spaces for community development and learning, whereby the means (gardening) is almost arbitrary. This stands in contrast to issues such as food security, which they encounter in their work in the Solomon Islands’ community gardens. Much of the current means of information dissemination throughout ACFCGN within NSW reflects the coordinators’ involvement with Permaculture Sydney (PSA) 12. ACFCGN also uses electronic information flows. A temporary website exists, with a new site being developed next year; in the meantime, some individuals are finding information and contacts via the site for Vancouver based organisation Cityfarmer. One Sydney resident found out about community gardens in Sydney in this way, while an international permaculture discussion list based in the United States was a route to the UNSW Permaculture Community Garden. A quarterly newsletter, Community Harvest, is produced and sent to all members, but most announcements are made via email, as it is fast and cheap and ACFCGN is unfunded. The coordinators described email use by some members, whereby network announcements were received by an individual, who then forwarded it on through their own networks. ACFCGN’s reliance on email for information dissemination has raised some issues, as not all gardens or members use this, so miss announcements and engagements. Further, information flow on the email list is fairly unidirectional, from the coordinators to a subscriber list. The coordinators stated that many recipients are content to receive messages, while others are unsure how to access addresses from email messages in order to disseminate information back to the group. Another issue facing ACFCGN is the current reliance upon the coordinators, although this is slowly decreasing. As with gardens where the work becomes focussed on one or two core individuals, the coordinators see this as unsustainable and emphasised the desired devolution of organisation to other network members. This is seen as a means to insure that ACFCGN is seen as a community space, so a current goal is to assess what members want from ACFCGN. |
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