In response to the charming, yet slightly misleading, article in our metropolitan rag, Carla Thackrah wrote a letter to the editor of Sydney Morning Herald (see full story below) to set the story straight. This is what she said:
Some of your readers might have grasped the wrong end of the smelly stick
from the headline in today’s report regarding the Sydney City Farm’s
proposal for a small section of Callan Park in Rozelle (”Imagine,
a cow pasture at Callan Park”).
We can reassure Inner West residents and visitors that they will not be
greeted by a vista of idly grazing cows, pigs and sheep. While the
vision includes some chooks, neither cows, pigs nor sheep, are on the
agenda!
Rather, the Sydney City Farm will be a sustainable living centre that
will showcase Sydney as a leader in eco-technologies and education.
The Sydney City Farm and Sustainable Living Centre will ultimately
leave Callan Park smelling like roses, not cow pats!
Carla Thackrah
Sydney City Farm + Sustainable Living Centre
Leichhardt
Field of dreams …
Carolyn Armstrong with her daughters, Emily, 3, and Jessica, 4,
passing time at Sydney City Farm’s favoured area of Callan Park.
Photo: Kate Geraghty
Nick Galvin October 27, 2008,
Sydney Morning Herald, Page 5
WHILE politicians, developers and residents have been brawling over the future of Rozelle's Callan Park, an alternative scheme for part of the controversial site has been quietly gathering support.
This radical vision would see cows, pigs and sheep grazing contentedly alongside organic veggie plots, while school groups learn about seed- saving and composting. Theatre performances would be staged adjacent to terraced water gardens and locals would sip fair-trade coffee in a cafe overlooking wetlands teeming with native wildlife.
Now, after the State Government's decision to hand the park to Leichhardt Council and squash Sydney University's development plans, supporters of Sydney City Farm believe their utopian vision has taken a huge step towards becoming reality.
"What it means is that now we have a site," said one of the scheme's key supporters, the architect Rod Simpson. "It's quite clear that what the university was doing was a land-grab."
The farm scheme is based partly on a successful project established in Melbourne in the early 1980s. The Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies is on the site of a former rubbish tip in inner-city Brunswick. Facilities on the 4.5-hectare site include a cafe, nursery, organic farm and community gardens.
Proponents of a similar scheme for Sydney are seeking three to four hectares of the 60-hectare Callan Park adjacent to Glover Street.
A horticulturist, Carolyn Armstrong, joined the city farm committee earlier this year and is a passionate supporter of the idea. "I've got two young kids and we live in Annandale with pretty much a concrete back garden and not much room for growing vegetables," she said. "When you don't have much room you need that extra bit of inspiration and I think the city farm would be a great way to do that. It's a good alternative for Callan Park."
The Mayor of Leichhardt, Jamie Parker, said the proposal merited "serious consideration", but it would be at least 12 months before a master plan for the park could be prepared.
"As soon as all this was announced my phone ran hot with groups calling to say, 'We want a sporting field here … we want the city farm … we want this and we want that,' " he said.
"We probably had bids for 400 hectares."
Link to this story at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/10/26/1224955855004.html