Sydney City Farm

Would you jump at the chance to help create a fabulous Spring event to celebrate what a City Farm can bring to Sydney? Then we want you!

We aim to hold a public event at Sydney Park in October – and we want those Sydney City Farmers who are interested to have the chance to help us in the initial planning right through to the organization of the event.

All you need to do is send us an email at sydneycityfarm@gmail.com by May 20^th with the subject “Help with Spring Event”

Include your name and contact number so we can contact you to discuss your level of involvement.

View the Updated Callan Park Master Plan and hop on a free bus tour of the site on Saturday May 14th.

Complete the online survey at Callan Park your plan: Your Plan site

The bus tours will be facilitated by the Master Plan consultants. There will be three bus tours 10.30 am, 12.30 pm and 2.30pm

RSVP to: Annalene Lourenco annalenel@lmc.nsw.gov.au or Nelly Freitas nellyf@lmc.nsw.gov.au

There is still a week to let City of Sydney Council know how you feel about the proposals in the Feasability Study – the feedback period was extended until March 28th to allow more people to respond.

WE NEED YOU TO GIVE the CITY of SYDNEY FEEDBACK ABOUT THEIR PROPOSALS

Simply answer these four questions and send to

rgrayson@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

1. If a city farm were located at Sydney Park, St Peters, would you be interested in visiting the farm?

2. If a city farm were located at the Powerhouse Museum, would you be interested in visiting the farm?

3. Would you be interested in participating in farm activities? (eg. growing vegetables composting etc)

4. What other activities would you like to see included in the city farm? (e.g. education in sustainability, bee keeping, organic cafe etc)

5. Would you support representatives of the Sydney City Farm Group being on any initial management committee of the farm?

OR

read our summary of their study and write a short proposal in your own words

New City Farm Vice President Vanessa Pilla represented the Sydney City Farm group at a public information stall in Sydney Park on Saturday 12^th March.

“The people who came were very supportive of the plan to have a City Farm in Sydney Park. We on the Committee really encourage all our City Farm supporters to let City of Sydney Council know that you want clear community representation on any interim management committee to plan the next steps.”

Read our submission here

As Sydney City Council selects a tender for a feasibility study on where to put the city farm, the project is getting real.
Now we need to build the city farm community so that when we get a site for the farm, we can work together and start building.

Over the next few months we’ve organised stalls at organic markets and festivals to spread the word about city farm.

Volunteers needed: Help spread the word at market stalls

It’s a perfect time to get even more involved and help out. We’re looking for people to volunteer a morning or afternoon to help man the City Farm stall.

If you would like to help, please call Liesje on 0425 200 355 or write us an email at sydneycityfarm@gmail.com

The dates for stalls are:

May
23       Primo Italiano Festival – Stanley Street, Leichaardt

June
5          SMH Growers Market, Pyrmont (TBC)
19        Everleigh Markets, Newtown

July
3          SMH Growers Market (TBC)
17        Everleigh Markets

August
7          SMH Growers Market (TBC)
21        Everleigh Markets

September
18        Everleigh Markets

It’s a surprisingly easy day and you meet lots of nice people. At the stall we will explain the concept and how people can get more involved. We’ll also be selling seedlings and t.shirts to make it more fun.

Let us know if you can help out on any of these days by emailing sydneycityfarm@gmail.com.

If you can’t make it, do the next best thing and mention the city farm concept to a friend. Join our facebook group,  and invite some friends to join the discussion about what they want at the Sydney City Farm.

Thank you for your ongoing support,
Elsa and the City Farm team.

Often when I meet people and tell them about the vision to create a City Farm and sustainable living centre in the heart of Sydney, they look into the distance and start imagining their farm: ‘It could have a bike repair workshop… and a Saturday growers market … and an and interweb of paths that wind through the orchard. There would be a solar house and an organic cafe…’ But everyone has a different idea of what the perfect city farm would be, and we want to record all these ideas to combine the best ones, and hit the ground running when we get a site.

So tell us: What does your City Farm look like? How does it run? What events do you have? And what do you want to grow?

Write your comments as a response to this blog and we will make sure they get considered in any proposal for the City Farm.

UPDATE FROM EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Andrew provided an update on activities since the last meeting, key points were:

1. Contact has been made with Sydney City Council to discuss alternative sites to commence the Farm while the Callan Park community consultation process continues.
2. Executive Committee is in the process of arranging a meeting with Jamie Parker, Mayor of Leichhardt, to discuss alternative sites in the Leichhardt Council area.
3. Andrew and Liesje recently attended the Callan Park mental health workshop organised by Leichhardt Council.  Key take away was that there are many views on mental health and on how to utilise the Callan Park site.

Andrew made the point that the Sydney City Farm Executive Committee was still committed to Callan Park, however, given the length of time to run on the community consultation process other sites would be considered as an addition the the eventual Callan Park site.

UPDATE FROM THE SUBGROUPS

Seedling  group
Sky ran through the draft proposal prepared by Rhys.

Suggestions/comments provided by the Group:

• Emphasise “edible” seedlings
• Explore use of glasshouse in Balmain
• Include photos of backyard seedlings on SCF webpage
• Approach Leichhardt Council on growing seedlings on public space
• Change wording from virtual farm to networked farm
• Donation concept supported
• Liaise with local nurseriesplus

Action
• Rhys to contact Victoria, Maureen, Chris, Peter and Dave to join the Group.
• Rhys to email Chris regarding promotion/website ideas

Proposal writing group
Dave provided an update on the proposal writing group.

Suggestion/comments provided by the Group:
• Grant should include funding for admin/marketing person
• Executive Committee to consider grant sign off process
• This group aims to support other subgroups

Action
• Andrew to attend the next subgroup meeting
• Group to prepare submission for council grant closing 10th August
• Dave to contact Douglas and Jeanette to join the Group.

Training Manual Group
Celia provided an update of the training manual group.

Suggestions/comments from the group
• Reference website for content
• Consider the 30 second radio grab
• Link into Sydney Food Fairness Alliance conference

Action
Liesje to email Linnet for review of proposal

Alternative Site Group
Andrew provided an update of the alternative site group

Suggestion / comments from the group
• Consider 68 William St as a Site

Action
Executive Committee to arrange meeting with Verity Firth to discuss alternative sites

Next Meeting: Saturday 15th August, 11-1pm, Cane Room, Callan Park.

On a beautiful, sunny Saturday, over 250 people came to the unique and historic Kirkbride building in Callan Park, to hear our vision for the farm and eco-education centre. Both Carla, our manager, and Rod, our architect, spoke and showed images for half an hour, and then led our audience on a tour of the proposed site for the farm.

Rod Simpson takes the audience on a tour of the site

We believe the State Government is about to announce their decision on the fate of Callan Park, based on a report being written by SHFA (Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority)

It seems, from media reports, the most likely outcome is for Sydney University to take over the whole site.

If this is the outcome and there is no mention of the Sydney City Farm on the site, the fight will really begin - we will be calling, along with our friends at Friends of Callan Park, for a proper and open, public masterplan process – to create a plan for Callan Park that will genuinely take into consideration the wishes and needs of the community.

The best way to tell the Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, we are serious, is to show him we have a large, supportive and vocal community behind us.

Our public meeting has helped enormously – we now have over 800 members, both financial and non financial, and we urge you to tell your friends to join too. The feeling was one of overwhelming support for the idea. If we stand united, we can realize the dream…

We must have Callan Park for the community!!

If you would like to download a transcript of excerpts from our presentation, click here

Our public presentation is on soon!

On Saturday, 12th July from 12 noon for an hour, we’ll be presenting our vision to you, our wonderful supporters.

It’s at the Sydney College of the Arts main lecture theatre, in Callan Park – Balmain Road, Rozelle.

We, along with the whole community, are still waiting for the release of the report being prepared by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and the announcement of their recommendations for Callan Park.

We still hold out some hope we may be included, but if not, we will really need you with us, for the fight.

This is why we ask you to come to the meeting and bring your friends. The best message we can send to Frank Sartor is that you, the community, support this idea with a passion.

We’ve been working on all fronts to get our message out over the last 6 weeks and it’s working. We’ve had stalls at either Orange Grove School, Marrickville Markets, Rozelle Markets, Balmain and Leichhardt every weekend. Our trusty committee members and helpers have done a great job so far, struggling out of bed at some ungodly hour!

As a result we’ve had an increase in membership to over 600 – both financial and subscribers. Donations, membership fees and t-shirt sales have helped to boost our meagre resources.

But the most important aspect of this is the overwhelmingly positive feedback we’ve received wherever we present the idea to people. This alone should be enough to convince us we’re on a winner, and definitely to convince the politicians. If only they were on the ground, at the markets and out in the community with us…

We’ve also had success with sponsorship. A banner company VFX have donated over $1000 worth of printing for the 2 banners we have across Norton St and Balmain Rd at the moment. Leichhardt Council has also been supportive, both financially and morally.

Please come to our meeting and continue to support us – it’s the best way to send a message to the state government that we are serious about the Sydney City Farm and Sustainable Education Centre at Callan Park.