Regional communities, like their metropolitan counterparts, brim with equally diverse populations, yet often struggle to attract appropriate funding for community events and spaces. Local councils face an ongoing dilemma, striving to balance the needs and preferences of their community against the limited resources available to meet them.

In Kiama, NSW, a decade-old community garden was in danger of being dismantled when the land it was situated on was slated to be subsumed by a larger development project. Through innovative collaborations and creative thinking, a new project was developed to enshrine the community garden as a place worth saving: an inclusive gathering space where everyone is welcomed regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, ability, socio-economic status, or any other factor. Enter the Kiama Community Garden Intergenerational Song-growing Initiative.

Combining the energy and resources of several smaller entities (including child-focused, young adult, and older adult groups) and facilitated by a local music therapist, the community garden was supported to offer music therapy sessions within the garden space, for older and younger community members of all abilities, and incorporating the garden’s permaculture principles of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share.

Through shared musical activities, participants established new connections and friendships, learned from each other, and reaffirmed their passion for retaining the space as an accessible and sustainable community-nurtured haven. The program demonstrated the value of the garden space and from this creative journey, the community successfully petitioned their local council for it to be separated from the original development application and maintained in its own right, in perpetuity.

This presentation offers insights for attendees toward engaging with far-reaching community endeavours, through respectful, integrative collaboration in which everyone has a place, purpose, and passion.