THE team at Broken Hill’s Royal Flying Doctor Service Wellbeing Place have been working on a new garden of edible and medicinal native plants.
Wellbeing Place seeks to provide mental health, alcohol and drug counselling along with classes and workshops with a focus on wellbeing from the centre at 343 Blende Street in Broken Hill.
Vanessa Latham, the senior mental health alcohol and other drug manager at RFDS said the new garden will offer an outdoor option for counselling sessions as well as workshops that educate people about indigenous plants.
“It’s really cutting edge because no one has done this with these plants before, in terms of propagating” she said.
“It’s a great learning opportunity for non-Indigenous locals to learn from Indigenous locals about native plants.”
One such local is Barkindji / Malyangapa artist and RFDS senior Aboriginal health worker David Doyle, who contributed many of the concepts for the garden and will be helping to plant and care for it.
“The garden is the result of years of workshops and trips on country, carefully selecting plants for their medicinal and culinary benefits” he said.
“Each plant has been chosen to stimulate the senses while showcasing the value of native flora.
“The goal is to inspire confidence in the community, showing that these resources are readily available, both here and in the wild, and to foster an appreciation for their sustainable use, ensuring they can be relied upon for generations.”
The idea for the garden came about while PhD candidate Sophie Zaccone was working on a research project in Broken Hill on psychology and landscape architecture.
“We [Ms Zaccone, Ms Latham and Mr Doyle] started meeting here at the Wellbeing Place on the weekends, and it was centered around learning about Barkindji edible and medicinal plants” Ms Latham said.
“It felt like a really nice thing to engage in. Something that brought people together, and particularly encouraged cross cultural learning. So the community garden felt like a no brainer.”
Ms Zaccone, the landscape architect on the project said it was important that more endemic local species are used in landscape design.
“It’s aesthetic and horticultural qualities showcase how to design with, cultivate, eat, grow and appreciate the local species that are featured in the design” she said.
“Working on this project has been a real privilege for me.”
The garden is currently in the first phase of construction, which has seen Mr Doyle and friends begin painting a mural designed by local artist Tanya Quayle.
The next phase is to begin propagating indigenous plants and placing them in raised planter boxes throughout the courtyard.
Indigenous edible and medicinal plants being considered for the garden include quandong, ruby saltbush, lemongrass, and bush bananas.
Ms Latham said the garden will be used “for community gatherings and events of any kind, but particularly to acknowledge and celebrate Indigenous knowledge and culture.”
