Community ProjectsSurveyingSwalesWater Harvesting

Life at Zaytuna: Surveying for Mullumbimby Community Gardens


Geoff Lawton and Jennette Martin (Community Gardens Coordinator)
check the site plan before starting to survey

Today we headed east to "the biggest little town in Australia" (I don’t know how they came to take that name, but I’m sure one of our readers can enlighten us). Mullumbimby (or just ‘Mullum’ to the locals, or ‘Mumblebum’ if they’re feeling chipper), with a population of only 3,129, is a pretty little village in Byron Shire – close to the famous surfing town of Byron Bay.


Nadia gets started on the dumpy level

We made our way to Mullumbimby on a ‘return of surplus’ trip – i.e. to give a little back to the communities surrounding us. A few progressive thinking people in the township had been pushing the local council to allocate a little local land on the outskirts of town as a community garden site – where families and individuals could share resources and work together on individual allotments to provide some of their own needs. After three years, they secured a five acre section positioned at the north end of Stuart Street. Geoff offered his help to advise on the broad design elements and earthworks.

Our mission today was to peg out contour lines so that an earthmover can subsequently excavate some swales to improve the site’s hydrology.


Click for full view
This is a more-than-180 degree ‘before’ panorama of the site. I will take
another in a few months to track progress, and a few months after that….

The site is very flat indeed – only being about 60centimetres from its highest ‘elevation’ to the lowest point. The section is currently covered in a thick mat of kikuyu grass, and a river ambles past one edge of the site – a site that is prone to flooding during heavy rains.


Hunwi Howarth, a friend of the project, already enjoys some quiet time with nature

From looking at the site, Geoff could see that water would be an issue – both in excess during downpours, and in scarcity when it’s dry. When dry, pumping from the river is not an option. Thoughts on pumping town water up to a water tower for watering the gardens were quickly dismissed as the height required for pressure sufficient for irrigation would be price prohibitive. A small tower is still on the cards, but for drinking water and washing only.

Either way, the hope is to secure some subsidised allowance of water from the regional council for their irrigation needs. As gardens will be organic, focussing on soil building and compost, etc., the site’s water requirements will be minimised in comparison to a ‘conventional’ monocrop based system.

At the moment the plan is to dig swales – four in total – to help moderate water flows during floods, and to hold the water for slow soakage into the site for conservation against the dry periods.


PRI intern, Craig Gallagher gets some survey practise in

These initial earthworks will also provide the main frame design within which more detailed design elements can be incorporated.

Some of the plans for the site include:

  • organic garden beds
  • worm farms
  • compost systems
  • a sandpit and playground for children
  • a herb spiral
  • an outdoor kitchen with cob over
  • workshops on different subjects

The community garden will become more than just a source of food, but a great way for the people of the region to work, socialise, share knowledge, eat and play together – and an excellent introduction for children to Permaculture systems and the joys of working and playing in natural surrounds.

Plot sizes will vary to meet the varying needs of individuals and different sized families, and the allotments will be rented out at a very low cost – the largest is only AU$48 per year. The cost of seedlings to get started are very low, so with just a little nurturing the potential to save money whilst improving lifestyle and health is huge.

I will personally enjoy watching this develop over time, but for now I’ll place below a few more pictures of today’s visit and work for your viewing pleasure. May it inspire some of you to consider what might be possible in your own community.


Geoff and Nadia have worked together on many sites


Rows of pegs for the earthmover are the aim of the day


A Kodak moment with Siobhan O’Reilly and Craig Gallagher


A willy wagtail acted as quality control inspector for the work


The sun sets through the woods at the site at home time


Time for just one more shot before we go

Resources:

 

4 Comments

  1. Can the photographer responsible please share some tips and elaborate on his/her equipment? These photos are stunning, and in my mind the PC movement could really benefit from prettier, more compelling documentation like this!

  2. Hi Greg. I’m the guy behind the lens as well as the keyboard. Re tips, hard to do via a blog comment box. I found several years of trial and error works though! :)

    Re equipment, am using a pro-end digital SLR and miscellaneous lenses, etc.

    Glad you appreciate it. I agree that we need more quality documentation of Permaculture, and better PR in general, if we’re to drive sustainable design systems into mainstream thinking and action.

  3. Well lemme hazard some guesses then – you shot with both a very wide angle and a very long lens. For the wide shots you often shot into the sun, lighting the foreground with a flash. You used the long lens primarily for people/portraits and kept the depth of field shallow (wide iris).

    Looks like you probably post-processed for maximum contrast and saturation as well…

  4. Hey, you don’t need any tips! :)

    All correct, except I didn’t do too much re contrast and saturation. The shots that look saturated are pretty accurate – it was late in the day, the magic hour, where colours come up nice on their own.

    In case it helps, I have five lenses in my kit: an ultra wide as you correctly guessed, a wide-to-semi-tele, a tele zoom, a 50mm fast lens (f1.8) and a macro.

    I don’t give a brand name, as what I’ve done can be done with any decent SLR with good lenses, regardless of brand – and we don’t need to encourage the whole logo thing, huh. :)

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