Wollert Community Farm - Creating Connections

Yarra Valley Water, Whittlesea Community Connections and Melbourne Polytechnic are working together to create a new community farm.

The farm will be a place for the local community to connect, learn and prosper through environmental and agricultural activities. The Wollert Community Farm is being built on the buffer land around Yarra Valley Water’s Aurora Sewerage Treatment Plant.

Developed as a partnership between Whittlesea Community Connections (WCC), Yarra Valley Water (YVW) and Melbourne Polytechnic (MP), and supported by the City of Whittlesea, the Farm is an environmental education hub and local food system that aims to restore nature and ensure that local community members can live and eat well.

Through this partnership:

• YVW is providing the land and access to Class A recycled water.
• WCC provides programs and activities that help people break the cycle of disadvantage.
• MP brings teaching expertise and motivated students.

More than a farm 

Through a program of planned activities, the farm aims to:

• Make better use of the buffer land by growing seedlings, providing volunteer, training and employment opportunities and implementing regenerative farming practices. 
• Enhance biodiversity through conservation and land management initiatives to protect nationally threatened and endangered species such as the Striped Legless Lizard, Growling Grass Frog and Golden Sun Moth.
• Create opportunities to involve First Nations and land management groups in initiatives to protect endangered grasslands and embed Traditional Custodian principles of caring for Country into land management at the site.

By working closely with Wurundjeri Council’s Narrap resource management team, the farm will implement a First Nations-led, holistic approach in caring for Country in collaboration with nugal biik ranger groups.

Find out more about the farm on the Whittlesea Community Connections website.