Community Garden in line for award
Published on 19 December 2019
The efforts of Gannawarra Shire Council and the Leitchville community to beautify the back yard of the Leitchville Rural Transaction Centre is in the running for an annual local government award.
The Leitchville Community Garden Project is a finalist in the Special Projects Initiative category at the 2020 LGPro Awards for Excellence.
Completed in October 2018, Council worked with the Leitchville and District Development Group, Leitchville Men’s Shed, Leitchville Primary School and the wider community to transform the space into an area the community is proud of.
“At a completion cost of $8,550, the development of the Leitchville Community Garden may have been one of the smallest projects completed in the 2018/19 financial year, but it is one that has brought joy to Councillors, Council staff and the community,” Mayor Lorraine Learmonth said.
“Leitchville residents identified the need for a community garden space following the relocation of the town’s library branch to the Rural Transaction Centre in 2017. Within a short period, Council worked with the community using recycled goods and plants from Council’s nursery, to create a new space the town can be proud of.”
The garden’s features include tables and chairs, built-in game boards, raised accessible vegetable garden beds that the community is encouraged to tend to, and a water tank. There is also a large mural created by the Leitchville Primary School students.
“More than 12 months after its opening, residents continue to use the garden as a place to socialise and relax,” Mayor Learmonth said.
“The vicinity has become a ‘civic hub’ for the community, linking in with the adjoining Rural Transaction Centre, local bakery and the free camping precinct.”
It is the second consecutive year Council has been announced as a finalist in the LGPro Awards for Excellence, with the Sustainable Gannawarra initiative taking out the Sustainability Initiative title at this year’s awards.
Category winners for the 2020 edition of the awards will be announced during the 2020 LGPro Annual Conference Dinner, being held in Melbourne on Thursday, 20 February 2020.