THE CORE TEAM…
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President — Jane MowbrayJane Mowbray has been a community gardener at Glovers Garden and a seed saver for about 15 years. She worked in state education for 32 years teaching primary students, writing curricuum material and being a maths consultant. Now gloriously retired Jane enjoys part time work in sustainability education, gardening and leading seed saving workshops. She is a member of the Inner West Seed Savers and helps to maintain their seed library at the Bower In Marrickville. Jane has been on the executive of ACFCGN since our Melbourne conference in 2007. |
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Secretary — John McBainJohn has experimented with methods of producing food from urban waste for over a decade, and in 2013 incorporated the urban food project Sustainable Urban Nutrition (SUN) : SUN He is admin for the WA Community Gardens FaceBook page and the WA Community Gardens website. John’s three favourite community gardens in Perth are: Perth City Farm; Fremantle Environmental Resource Network and Murdoch Community Garden. Watch his short film of ACFCGN’s Ambassador Costa Georgiadis. |
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Treasurer — John BrisbinJohn chews on a mash-up mantra: “i am what i eat | i am the change i want to see”. Ruminations continue. His business interests are expressed through BoaB interactive (http://www.boab.info), based in MT Molloy, Far North Queensland. He was befriended by Jude and Michel Fanton in 1997 and became enchanted with Australia’s blossoming community food systems. Determined to contribute, he founded Australian Community Foods in 1998 and met Russ and Fiona along the way. In 2002 he earned a Masters in Social Ecology for his research into local food systems and an entropy-grounded theory of ethics, and became more involved with ACFCGN in 2007. Currently John and wife Caroline are opening up the heavy shale/clay soils and fascinating district of Mount Molloy with an eye toward patterning a tropical pharmacy community garden. |
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Media Officer — Russ GraysonINSPIRED by the idea that we can make our cities places of opportunity, my interests are in developing a resilient urbanism to which end I work with communities on initiatives that make our neighbourhoods safe, sustainable and convivial places to live. My focus has been on community food systems and the social capital that develops when communities collaborate in creating them, but it extends beyond this. My approach is guided by the philosophy of: work with those who want to learn; work where it counts. I:
Currently — thanks to a background in journalism — I am media liaison for the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network. |
ORDINARY MEMBERS — state representatives
NSW
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Emma DaniellEmma is a horticulturist and landscaped designer, an early member of the Randwick Community Organic Garden and one of the team that restarted the garden on its present site. Emma mentors community gardeners at the Waverley and Rose Bay Community Gardens in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs; leads PermaBees at the Randwick’s Permaculture Interpretive Garden. She also works on Marrickville Council’s compost program. |
Northern Territory
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Naomi LaceyNaomi is a permaculturalist who is passionate about promoting healthy food systems, sustainable lifestyles and cultivating community. She helped to establish the first community garden in the satellite city of Palmerston in Darwin and is currently the chairperson for the garden. Naomi believes that community gardens are a wonderful way of promoting her passions and that they are the ideal place for people to come together and share in so many ways. |
South Australia
VacancyText to go here. |
Tasmania
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Nel SmitNel believes every child should experience the magic of growing, harvesting and then eating food from the garden. Nel works for Greening Australia at the Sustainability Learning Centre in Hobart. She works with teachers supporting food gardens in schools and early learning centres.
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Victoria
Western Australia
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Charles OtwayCharles is the treasurer of PermacultureWest and remains active in state umbrella and local permaculture, community garden and transition groups. With his wife Jolene and daughters Indi and Alex they run Terra Perma Design in Perth. While he works on designs for clients, his preference is always for the ‘client’ to be trained to become the designer, creating and shaping their own ecosystems. As the old saying goes,
Teaching systems thinking, ecological concepts and seeing the pennies drop in a room as people experience new ideas is the best part of his job. He teaches permaculture because it is time well spent and work worth doing! |