A community not-for-profit group set out to create jobs for local refugees, and ended up with one of the world’s largest urban permaculture farms | HatAlexander
The land had little going for it when Wollongong not-for-profit group Green Connect selected it as the site of their new urban farm.
Green Connect Farm in Lake Heights, south of Wollongong has helped refugees and other gain employment. Standing left to right: Su Meh, Emily Henderson, Pleh Meh and Kylie Flament, general manager of Green Connect.A decade later, it has become one of the largest urban permaculture farms in the world and attracted international attention, with Green Connect winning the 2021 Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Innovation for Sustainable Development Award.
The farm arose from a gap in employment prospects for refugees living in Wollongong, which is one of the largest settlement areas for refugees in Australia.The refugees, who arrive mostly from Central Africa and the border region between Thailand and Myanmar, already had farming skills. But they could not get jobs.
Last year, 73 per cent of the staff who left Green Connect went on to gain other employment or go into mainstream education.