Amid a tangle of roads, concrete and steel in East Perth a small patch of green land is offering more than an environmental vision.

City Farm, once a polluted scrap metal yard next to the railway station in City Farm Place (see location map below) is testimony to believing in a dream and working to make it happen, according to founder and past president of Men Of The Trees, Rosanne Scott.

The degraded piece of inner city land is now home to thriving organic gardens and possibly the largest number of earthworms per square metre in Perth. The rewired and refurbished warehouses play host to workshops, seminars, art exhibitions and plenty of good parties.

"We have school kids, youth and social work experience students, people with disabilities, mental health patients and people from the Justice Department. A number of City of Perth and East Perth based busineses and organisations spend volunteering days with us" states Rosanne Scott.

Rosanne and friend Joanne Tucker came up with the City Farm dream while working with Men Of The Trees nearly a decade ago.

"We talked about having a place in the city with a nursery, gardens, soup kitchens; a whole educational facility where young people could tend plants, meet each other, learn skills and find respect for themselves," Rosanne says. "It took a while to come about".

A swag of letters asking for suitable land yielded only one reply - from the East Perth Redevelopment Authority. EPRA let City Farm get underway on land that had been set aside for a carpark.

The deal was temporary - two years and then the bulldozers would roll in. Along with other City Farm stalwarts Chris Ferreira, Coral Buscombe, Thomas Scott, Neal Bodel and Clayton Chipper, Roseanne turned the dream into reality despite having an address valued at about $10 million.

"The Authority were always straight with us, but we feel we achieve a lot more than a carpark," Rosanne says, referring to the ongoing battle for survival. "It was a dream to set this place up. You don't walk away from a dream."

2009 and 2010 - New growth at City Farm

Perth City Farm is pleased to announce that it has been successful in obtaining Lotterywest funding valued at $281,000 to upgrade the offices and the two warehouse areas to convert these to a standard that would be more useable by wider community. This funding also includes a community kitchen to the required Health standards enabling the kitchen to be used in connection with the warehouses to stage community events.

The good news does not end there. City Farm has, in partnership with West Coast, Central TAFE and Growing Communities WA, been successful in obtaining a Department of Education, Employment and Work Place Relations(DEEWR) grant to development a Training Cafe at City Farm. This has been a dream that started more than 12 years ago. This grant is valued at over half a million dollars and includes a fully outfitted sustainable solar powered Cafe.

These grants will go a long way to help achieve the new MOTT strategic direction for City Farm which is planned as the MOTT Education Centre and Community Engagement Head Quarters.

Follow the development of the Lotterywest and DEEWR funded program through the monthly photographs below starting with the site in its initial state in November 2009:

November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010