Case Studies
Perth City Farm

Design Feature

Type of Project
Placemaking
State
Western Australia
Location
Urban
Perth City Farm is a not-for-profit organisation located in East Perth, next to the train line, and 1.8 kilometres from the Perth Central Business District (CBD). It includes an ethical farm and nursery, and is run by a team of dedicated workers and volunteers. Their focus is building relationships between people and the environment.

Perth City Farm is a Men of the Trees initiative, and was founded in 1994 on the site of a former scrap metal yard and battery recycling facility. This site underwent significant remediation and is now a thriving community garden specialising in small scale poultry production, permaculture (including organic produce and nursery items), and also acts as a hub for local growers and community, through venue hire and regular Farmers Markets.
Sustainable urban food production
Perth City Farm has become a Western Australian icon for environmental sustainability and community engagement, offering education tours to school groups and work experience (through the state’s Work for the Dole program) and environmental learnings to a range of community members. For more than 20 years, Perth City Farm has engaged with community, private and government sectors to promote PEACE, an abbreviation for:
  • Permaculture and the environment,
  • Education,
  • Arts,
  • Community and personal development, and
  • Enterprise

Perth City Farm is located on a site within the East Perth urban renewal area near North Metropolitan TAFE, and was formerly used as an engineering workshop by Mobil, a depot for Perth’s trolley buses, and an engineering foundry. The half-hectare site contained dilapidated warehouses, a courtyard and a vacant lot. Initially, the City Farm team secured a two-year lease from the former East Perth Redevelopment Authority for the site.
The brief for the initial design features included:
  • Incorporation of the environment, education, arts and healthy food all in the one place.
  • Transformation of the warehouses into an education Centre, a small café and coffee shop, and an art gallery.
  • Outbuildings to be used as a blacksmiths workshop and an artists’ studio.
  • Connections to buildings through an open courtyard and cultural square.
  • Contamination removal of heavy metal and chemical pollution.

Now almost 25 years on, the site has tranformed since its original inception.
  • Incorporating the environment into education is still a huge factor, as is promoting healthy lifestyles and low impact, sustainable living.
  • The summer Twilight Market series focuses on eco-friendly home and beauty products, upcycled and recycled artisan creations, and features a wide variety of organic, vegan and vegetarian food options. The Saturday Farmer’s market remains Perth’s longest running farmer’s market featuring biodynamic and organic sellers, harvest from the Perth City Farm gardens, local honey and eggs, organic pantry items and eco-friendly home and beauty products.
  • The warehouses are no longer art gallery spaces, but are instead hired out for events. Almost every weekend there is a wedding at Perth City Farm, connecting people from all over Perth (and often the world) to this beautiful space and creating lasting impressions in the minds of those that can’t believe a farm exists in the City! The spaces are also often hired by other nonprofit and environmental groups for fundraisers and expos, hired privately for art classes and workshops, theatre events, dance showcases, among other things.
  • The on-site Café is now a privately run business on the site specialising in healthy meals with organic and biodynamic produce, often from the Perth City Farm gardens.
  • The large open courtyard is still the perfect centre of the farm and serves as a space for community events, lunches, markets and many other things!

The site is now a thriving community garden and cultural hub, and has secured a 40-year lease with the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority (now DevelopmentWA). Through a management committee, staff and dedicated team of volunteers and workers, the farm is able to showcase permaculture and sustainable environments, run rehabilitation working programs, and maintains strong links to nature and the arts, through education and enterprise. 
Project team
  • Men of the Trees (parent organisation)
  • Community volunteers
  • Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority 

Project Cost
Ongoing 
Health Value
  • Perth City Farm provides a healthy food environment for workers and residents of inner Perth. The farm showcases the paddock to plate concept and produces food that is bought by the on site cafe to increase food security of residents and workers. Everything grown at the farm is sustainable, ethical and organic.
  • Located within the CBD and near to Departments of Health and Education, Aboriginal Health Services, educational institutions and St Bartholomew’s House (accommodation for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness), the sustained production and access to vegetables and fruit is key to the promotion of health through nourishing foods.
  • The weekend marketplace attracts a mix of sellers of fresh and packaged food items that are organic, biodynamic, in organic conversion, or produced ethically and sustainably.
  • Educational visits and tours to the farm allows for programs to showcase plant and poultry-based food production. Educational materials support the concepts of food variety and quality to provide secure, sustainable food environments that relate to the health of all Australians. These messages align with the Australian Dietary Guidelines and reinforce health promotion messaging in school curricula.

Economic Value
  • Attraction of growers and sellers to Perth City Farm marketplace on a weekly basis, provides an opportunity to improve local food security and provide an additional healthy food outlet of high quality produce at a reduced cost.
  • Employment of voluntary labour and workforce rehabilitation workers ensures operation at a low cost. Perth City Farm also contributes to local employment through the hiring of occasional contractors, and training workers to build Western Australia’s economic value.
  • The produce grown in the gardens is sold from the City Farm Stall at the Saturday farmers market – this comprises a fresh produce revenue stream for the farm.
  • The on site cafe is a separate business that leases the land from City Farm providing a further income stream. The Café operates independently and purchases a lot of their fresh produce from City Farm and other organic sellers.
  • Perth City Farm leases private office space.
  • By growing food produce and selling to the community through the markets and on site cafe, profits are re-invested into the organisations, growing the WA economy. Local food growing and supply, recycling and renewable resources reduce overheads.

Environment Value
  • Perth City Farm has built environmental integrity within the CBD through an ecologically sustainable design that is resource efficient, utilises recycling, protects food diversity and provides easy access via public transport. The farm provides a living example of the productive use of unused inner-city land. Furthermore, it demonstrates a working and successful model of crossover land use; sustainable food and living practices that can be translated into other localities.
  • Perth City Farm has included a Community Recycling Hub where people can recycle their hazardous household items like fluorescent globes, mobiles, batteries, and printer cartridges, as well as non-recyclable items.
  • The organisation plans to collect reusable items for community initiatives (e.g. UpLift – a bra recycling initiative that distributes bras to people in poverty).

Social Value
  • Perth City Farm promotes social inclusion by offering a community facility where everyone is welcome. Activities and opportunities are available for residents, workers and visitors to socialise.
  • The site provides learning experiences to people of all means and ages by teaching skills that can be used in the workforce and at home, facilitating social capital and community engagement, and educating people in permaculture and sustainable living practices.

Use Value
  • Arts and health come together at Perth City Farm in an environment of learning with nature. Perth City Farm partners with Western Australia’s Work for the Dole program to provide work experience, skills and valuable knowledge via different programs, including horticultural experience and training in administration techniques.
  • Perth City Farm offers environmental education and gardening workshops for community members, school groups and volunteers. TAFE students visit the site and learn about permaculture through programs to understand sustainable living and the importance of cultural links to the natural world.
  • Enterprise education through venue hire and lease, and training workshops supports a range of activities in one location.

References

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