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Local Government documents

POLICIES ARE DOCUMENTS that make community gardens happen. They enable local government to accept applications for assistance by community gardening groups, to assess these and identify what assistance council can offer.

Community gardeners adopt policies and guidelines to make gardening convivial and enjoyable and to manage their gardens effectively.
Presented here are links to local government policy documents as well as to other documents that local government and community gardeners have adopted.

Local government, institutional and state government staff are invited to contact the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network regional contacts to discuss matters of policy and practice. In some cases, Network contacts are available to make presentations to council and other organisations on matters of policy, practice and organisation around community gardening and associated community food systems.

Links to council documents

Comments (16)

  • Helen Kosac
    29/09/2009 at 7:36 am Reply

    Hello, we are planning to start a community garden garden in Dulwich Hill in Sydney. I have the task of assisting with drafting a Code of Conduct. I have not been able to find a sample of one on the web. Any chance a sample document from another community garden can be emailed to me?
    Great website by the way- it will be very helpful to our group.
    Thank you
    Helen

  • Lue Fagan
    15/02/2010 at 1:52 am Reply

    Hi Helen
    We are also in the process of starting a community garden in Nelson Bay and have to start with the basics…Aims & Objectives, Code of Conduct etc etc etc etc
    Was wondering if you had any response from your email
    Cheers Lue Fagan
    Tomaree Community College
    Nelson Bay

  • Anna Povey
    02/03/2010 at 6:13 am Reply

    Hi Helen and Lue
    We are also starting a community garden in Trevallyn, and have the same basics to get sorted (objectives, constitution, incorporation). Code of Conduct sounds a good idea too.
    When you get a response to your email, we would love a copy too!
    Cheers
    Anna Povey
    Trevallyn Sustainability Group
    Trevallyn

  • media
    02/03/2010 at 6:44 am Reply

    Local government sometimes asks applicants for assistance with community garden start-up for:
    – evidence of incorporation and public liability insurance (try the Landcare insurance broker for a cheaper rate)
    – management plan, which can include a code of conduct.
    I produced a few notes on contents of a management plan for a Sydney community garden start-up, excluding a code of conduct, that I could provide.
    A code of conduct could include:
    – how gardeners treat each other (ie. civility)
    – an agreement on how conflict will be resolved (need a procedure that new gardeners sign on to when joining a garden.

  • Chris Dillon
    10/03/2010 at 1:27 am Reply

    Hi There,
    Our organisation is trying to get involved with several community gardens as we a Job Services Australia employment provider. We are looking at community gardens as a way of getting some of our job seekers job ready and/or into further training in a related field.
    I was just wondering if there were any other community gardens out there who have a working relationship with a job services Australia provider where their job seekers get work experience/training from your community garden?
    I would be interested to chat with you to see how things are going (good & bad experiences).
    As I said earlier we are trying to get involved in several community gardens in W.A. Some are already established and some are yet to get off the ground but we are the drivers in these ones and are in the process of getting other organisations involved as well as the communities.

  • Reena Robins
    08/04/2010 at 8:23 am Reply

    We are just beginning to organise a garden in Subiaco, WA. Rather than try to reinvent the wheel we should really like to view a sample constitution from another garden to get us started.

  • jenny Brown
    10/04/2010 at 6:15 am Reply

    Hi Reena,
    We are just finishing Incorporation documents for Manly Vale Community Garden. I can send these to you. They are a modification of Meadowbank ‘s rules(which are a modification of the Model Rules (office of Fair Trading))
    WA Office Of Fair Trading would have templates
    Jenny

  • Max Van Vugt
    14/04/2010 at 6:42 am Reply

    Hello to Reena, Anna, Lue and Helen, and others just starting their community garden groups.
    After many months in preparation we have just completed the setup of our organisation. We are now at the stage of starting the physical setup of our garden.
    Jenny is correct in saying that each State Govt will have a form of “model rules”. To put it simply if you wish to operate on public land you will want to become an Incorporated Association (not-for-profit organisation). The easiest way is to adopt the “model rules” as your organisations’ constitution. This is the legal framework for how you will conduct your organisation with regard to members rights, committee meetings, voting at meetings, etc. You are then essentially a formal “club” and will be able to open a bank account, get insurance, and also apply for govt grants if any available in your area.
    You will still need to create the following:
    1/ Aims and Objectives. We started with a mission statement and then a dozen or so objectives in point form.
    2/ Membership rules. You will want your members to fill in a membership form so that you have contact details etc. At this point you can set some rules for behaviour. From all experiences that I have read about this document is most important to cut off any potential disputes.
    3/ Garden rules. What you can plant, whether you can use irrigation or fertiliser may be clear in your mind but others may have different ideas.
    I hope this helps. I know it took me months to work out the above.
    Please feel free to ask any questions.
    Max Van Vugt
    Grow For Life community garden
    Brisbane Qld

  • Reena Robins
    17/04/2010 at 2:26 am Reply

    We have received a couple of sample constitutions. Thank you. Now we would like to have a look at a Memorandum of Understanding between the garden and the Council. Any out there? What a wonderful and helpful site this is.

  • george schmid
    12/05/2010 at 2:49 am Reply

    We started community garden in sandgate last year.
    We are still debating charter, constitution with no end in sight.
    Is there a sample constitution from another garden available?
    Please e-mail , or advice on site. Thank you.
    Kind regards George

  • Sue Mossman
    09/07/2010 at 6:12 am Reply

    Does anyone have a garden risk assessment? And what about child protection when young people may visit or work in the garden?

  • Tan
    29/07/2010 at 9:08 am Reply

    Hello there,
    I’m doing a research project for university on community gardens and water management in Sydney. I was wondering if anyone would know if there are any practices or policies in place that outlines water management in community gardens or where I might find information regarding water management in comm. gardens? Any help is appreciated.
    Thanks.
    Kind regards,
    Tan

  • Alexander
    02/09/2010 at 6:35 am Reply

    I was wondering if any one knows a comm.garden in St lucia,Indooroopilly ,Brisbane area.
    Thanks
    St Lucia

  • Justine Brooks
    04/04/2011 at 2:11 pm Reply

    Hi Anna (Povey)
    We are in the inital phases of setting up a Community Garden at the new Windsor Health and Wellbeing Precinct ( Windsor Park).
    We havent decided on a model at this point and are looking at benchmarking and gathering information.
    Would you be willing to share your information / templates etc that you used for the Trevallyn Garden?
    Justine

  • Amber McCallum
    10/02/2013 at 3:31 pm Reply

    Here is the Link to East Freo Farm (Perth) Rules of association … a google docs guide for all those wanting to follow suit and trying to get started in the Community Garden scene
    http://eastfreofarm.weebly.com/documents.html

  • ACFCGN
    10/02/2013 at 5:51 pm Reply

    Thanks for that Amber, we’ve put up a link to the East Freo Farm documents on this websites community garden documents:
    https://legacy.communitygarden.org.au/2013/02/10/east-freo-farm-documents/
    Thanks for the info.
    ….Fiona

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