#ruby thorburn

Over the pandemic lockdowns, many of us were alarmed by images of empty supermarket shelves and supply shortages. Rather than running out and hoarding toot-roll, a group of young people saw it as an opportunity to provide for the vulnerable in their community and rethink how public space was being used.

Al Wicks says they’d “always had the pipe-dream of doing community gardens…over covid me and my friends started getting worried about food security for vulnerable people in the community”.

One of these friends was Ruby Thorburn, who says “there was an overwhelming sense of fear, seeing these empty supermarkets. We wanted to produce food overnight…to avoid red tape and bureaucracy and use direct action”.

In response, they formed “Growing Forward”, a community organisation dedicated to setting up guerrilla community gardens in underutilised public space. We’re visiting a site they’ve successfully converted from forgotten space to thriving community gardens with a purpose.

What started out with a bit of rule bending, has now garnered support of the whole community – including the council.

“We looked around and found a plot of land that was owned by the state government, but had been abandoned for over 90 years. Our neighbour works in council and looked into contamination reports that had been done on the soil and found it was good” says Ruby.

Leaning on Ruby’s permaculture background, they conducted a site assessment and identified a tap for water supply and a promising full-sun aspect. “The goal was community food resilience, and to get people thinking differently about food”.

After speaking with local indigenous elders to gain their permission to use the land, the group studied successful guerrilla community gardens to try to replicate what factors had made them work.

The first was wide community consultation. Every house in the surrounding area to the proposed garden was repeatedly doorknocked, to canvas any issues or concerns with establishing the garden- and identify anyone who was willing to help. Flyers were also distributed.

The next was rapid implementation. “Our goal was to set it up in 2 days, to skip the uncertain period where people are not sure what’s going on” says Ruby. “We just went ahead and did it” says Al.

“We brought in about 20 m2 of soil, and spent our personal money on it” says Al. “It took about a day to get it all in, there was a lot of community support”. While a lot of elbow grease went into the set-up, there’s no permanent infrastructure, which helps avoid the ire of bureaucrats

The first garden is at West End, in inner-south Brisbane, and it’s been a total success. Occupying around ¼ acre, it’s ringed by edible native plants with mounded beds of vegetables inside.

Everything grown goes back into the community to feed those who need it most. “The founding principles were doing free work for the community, and the produce is free”. “We have signs saying this food is going to vulnerable people, and it seems to work”.

At West End the produce goes to refugees living in the community, so Al and Ruby asked the refugee community organisation what they would like to eat. Accordingly, the fare is a little more diverse than what’s on offer at the shops, with sweet potato, okra, cassava, elephant foot yams and papaya thriving. It’s also become a place for meetings and picnics.

The approach has been a big success, regularly supplying food to community organisations and those most vulnerable, as well as building local connections. The program has expanded.

Featured Plants:

PAW PAW - Carica papaya cv.

SWEET POTATO - Ipomoea batatas cv.

CHILLI - Capsicum cv.

PUMPKIN ‘JAP’ - Cucurbita maxima cv.

OKRA - Abelmoschus esculentus cv.