Beelarong Community Farm Inc
and Sustainable Living Centre
PO Box 350 MORNINGSIDE Queensland 4170
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25 January, 2001 Beelarong Community Farm is a small farm in the centre of Brisbane where people can enjoy their leisure in a farm setting. Run by volunteers the land was supplied by Brisbane City Council, and since its inception in 1996 has been supported by Councillor Sharon Humphreys of Brisbane City Council. It also serves as a model for urban dwellers of Permaculture and sustainable living. Visitors can see the entire system, from the collection of rainwater, to the use of this water for the composting toilet, use of solar energy to generate electricity, to power the pumps, and then the reticulation of the treated water which is then transformed into plants and flowers. Even the area lights on the farm are solar powered. Regular courses are held on solar cooking using solar ovens. There is a clear demonstration that wastewater such as grey water from washing, or effluent from toilets, can be recycled if treated properly. It is also a demonstration of how to turn an effluent problem into an oxygen generation opportunity. The facility is a demonstration of urban sustainability for large area users such as local government and industry.
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28th
January, 2002
Click here for a tour of Beelarong City Farm
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The farm is also constructing a unique design where the grey water of a house (shower and bath and laundry) is cleaned and used to irrigate a garden, which is built onto the house. Vegetables and flowers can be grown and tended without the owners having to go outside in the sun or rain.
Outside the house a raised-bed garden has been built for older people to access without bending, or disabled people in wheelchairs can tend the garden in the shade of a shadecloth roof.
Permaculture principles are used throughout. No chemical fertilisers, insecticides, or pesticides are used. Instead, no-dig gardens supply their own fertiliser (ground in most of the farm has been transformed so that it is now full of earthworms.)
Ditches catch rainwater runoff, and weed barriers of lemon grass and comfrey prevent the spread of weeds. Community gardens have been set up so that people can tend their own garden and grow fresh vegetables and flowers.
At the lower sector of the farm is a creek frontage, and a tidal lagoon demonstrates a wetlands area.
Visitors are welcome to visit the farm Wednesday mornings, at York Street, Morningside.
At the lower section of the farm is a creek frontage, and a tidal lagoon demonstrates a wetlands area.
Visitors tend community gardens to grow their own herbs and vegetables, and regular courses are held on permaculture, no-dig gardening, camp cooking, use of herbs, and portable gardening.
Picnic facilities are available for visitors in this delightful setting.
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