Melbourne-based Jesuit Social Services volunteers Celine Ruse, Anne Zevis, Sue Evans, Lesley Gillespie, Mick McGarvie and Cath Bates, and co-founder of Wine X Sam Bronwyn Dunwoodie, worked hard on revitalising the garden at a fire-affected Avenel property.
Photo by
Billie Davern
Gardens can grow back, just not always on their own — that’s why a team of Melbourne volunteers travelled up the Hume Fwy and put their green thumbs to work at an Avenel property.
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The gardeners hail from a branch of Jesuit Social Services, an organisation dedicated to shaping a future free of inequality, prejudice and exclusion.
“We’ve all come to work in the place which we call the Ecological Justice Hub,” volunteer Mick McGarvie said.
“(The organisation) wanted to have an arm of their services related to addressing disadvantage through ecological or environmental means.”
At the hub in Brunswick, the team members maintain a flourishing garden, create renewable energy through food scraps, make their own compost and even teach the community how to live more sustainably.
But why extend their services to Avenel? Co-founder of Wine X Sam Bronwyn Dunwoodie is the answer.
While the house was saved, the surrounds of the Avenel property have been scorched.
Photo by
Billie Davern
Ms Dunwoodie became involved with the organisation after her children graduated from Xavier College, a school of Jesuit-denomination in Melbourne.
With gardening being a passion of hers, when she realised that she could contribute to the garden at the hub, she was sold.
“This group of people are just so incredibly beautiful, they’re so confident, and they just get on,” she said.
After the bushfires began, the Brunswick gardeners knew they wanted to help.
While Ms Dunwoodie wasn’t as present at the hub due to being in “too many places” across the state at once, they still connected with her to figure out how they could offer their services.
“Our initial thought was, we know somebody who’s right in the middle of those fires – let’s find out what use we can be to that person, or her neighbours, and that’s why we’re here today,” Mr McGarvie said.
Ms Dunwoodie knew exactly who the team could support: a tenant of hers living in the Avenel area.
While the house of this tenant remains intact, his car and the possessions loaded inside were lost to the blaze, as was his garden.
“There’s all these things about fencing and stock feed, but nobody talks about gardens,” Ms Dunwoodie said.
“Gardens don’t get insured, and they’re often a real passion and love that have taken over years to create, and all of a sudden, that’s been ripped away from people.
“Having that sign of growth, that it could return, you’re not just going to look at black devastation and soot and dust — it just says, life will begin again, and I think that’s important to give people that sense that it will come again.”
The gardeners created a green sanctuary in a day.
Photo by
Supplied
In a day, the team transformed the front yard from a blackened reminder of a traumatic day into a flourishing symbol of growth.
Mr McGarvie said the volunteers could all walk away with a sense of accomplishment.
“We regard this as a really valuable day for us, we love doing this, it really gives us a kick to see what we can do in a few short hours,” he said.
“(The tenant) is effusively grateful, he told us this morning how thankful he is for all of us coming.”
Through personal insight, Ms Dunwoodie said she knew how the tenant would react when he returned home.
“When he comes home tonight, he will think, ‘I can be welcomed, and my house is a place again that is a sanctuary for me, rather than something that brings back trauma’,” she said.
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