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
30/10/08
at 10:37
What’s wrong with having cows or sheep? They could keep the grass down, saving Leichhardt Council the costs associated with mowing. And teach city kids about the kinds of animals that live on farms. I dont think cow pats smell worse than dog poo, and at least they help plants grow!
04/11/08
at 14:19
The idea is that there will be no grass to mow within the Sydney City Farm. The vision is to use the space to grow fruit producing plants and vegetables, not to retain unusable grassy slopes that require maintenance.
12/11/08
at 07:49
It would be difficult to fit enough grazing land into the plan for a flock of sheep or a herd of cows, but one or two would be great for kids.
Hopefully we can work out a way to have a few more animals than just chooks and ducks.
16/11/08
at 21:12
It is with disappointment that I read that SMH reporter Nick Galvin considers the SCF vision to be “radical”. We all know that somewhere deep within ourselves that our present technology-based fixation and consumptive lifestyles are simply not sustainable and anyone with a shred of awareness will be seeking some way of redressing the effects of our current exploitative ways towards the land. I would thus suggest to all that the SCF proposal is simply “common sense” in an increasingly chaotic and unsustainable world. I believe that this project will be an opportunity to celebrate the return of common sense and will be a safe place for us to review where we have gone wrong and to provide a non confronting way in which we can learn what we each can do to steer this out of control ship we are finding ourselves in back onto course. More visionary than radical, unless one finds the need to challenge our wayward path too uncomfortable.
17/11/08
at 18:06
Yes, we will certainly be having a milk cow and a few animals for the kids enjoyment and education (and adults too!) … just not acres of grazing land.