Community Garden Policy

A new Policy to support community gardens across Wyndham

Our new Community Garden Policy provides clear guidance on how community gardens can be developed in open spaces across Wyndham. It highlights the process from approval, establishment, management and maintenance of community gardens.

Community gardens play and important role in developing connections within local communities along with many social, cultural, environmental, and economic benefits. They are places that community can come together to learn and share, make friends, practice cultural traditions, and connect with nature.

This Policy excludes gardening on nature strips, gardens associated with community centres or gardening on private land.

Community gardens contribute to community wellbeing, increase mental and physical health, improve food security, and positively impact the environment.

Key Principles

The Policy is based on three key principles:

1. Community gardens will be located within Open Spaces so as not to comprimise the open space's function.

2. Community gardens will be the responsibility of an incorporated group to establish, manage and maintain

3. Community garden need to meet minimum standards

Policy Objectives

Community Garden’s will not be supported on Open Space land where contamination is known to exist or may be present through a past land use.

For an area within an Open Space to be deemed appropriate for use as a community garden, it must:

Be available long term
Not impact on current and intended activities within the Open Space
Not impact on visual surveillance/sight lines
Not impact on existing trees

Consideration must be given to:

Level of support from surrounding residents
Proximity to amenities, such as toilets nearby the site
How water will be made available for gardening

It is the responsibility of community groups to establish, manage and maintain community gardens. The community group must:

Be incorporated or operating under an auspice
Enter into a Lease agreement with Council
Have Public Liability Insurance (minimum 20 million)
Use their own funds to manage and maintain the garden
Secure funds to establish the garden
Provide a community inclusion plan
Provide evidence of support from the local community Provide an operational plan
Obtain all planning and building permits as required

If a community garden becomes unsightly, or if the group ceases to function, be insured or is no longer auspiced by an incorporated organisation, Council will terminate the lease agreement and the group must remove all infrastructure from the Open Space.

Community gardens within an Open Space must include:

A fence to protect the garden and delineate between the community managed space and Council managed space
A compost bin and waste management plan for excess garden waste
Storage, such as a shed
Access to water, such as rainwater tanks
Garden beds and paths
Seeds, plants, equipment, materials, and signage

Share your feedback

We want to hear your thoughts on our new Policy via the survey below. You can read the Policy via the Document Library on the top right hand side of the page before providing feedback. Your feedback will help finalise the document before it is endorsed by Council later in the year.