At Casino Forest Garden, the community can forage freely for food.
Susanna Freymark
First there was good news and then some (very) bad news for the volunteers at the Casino Forest Garden in North Street, behind the Casino RSM Club.
Garden member Kate Hawkins said the luscious forest garden represented thousands of hours of volunteer time since 2020 when the community approached the RSM Club to use the vacant block for a garden.
“We’ve just won a $350 grant from the Casino Lions Club to establish a blueberry patch and plant some more fruit trees,” Kate said.
That’s the good news. 
Casino Forest Garden members.
The bad news is that the RSM Club is selling the North Street site and it will be used for a residence.
Casino RSM Club chief executive John Walker said the club has a significant land holdings of both developed and vacant land in the Casino CBD.
“It continually reviews these investments to ensure best value for our members,” Mr Walker said.
“Holding surplus vacant land is costly and in line with a refocussed property strategy and the Richmond Valley Councils recent CBD study, which seeks to revitalise Casino, the Board has determined to focus on potentially developing some of its vacant adjoining Convent Parade land for additional retail space and community benefit and divesting other properties it owns in North St to allow that street to return to residential.
“The property at 89 North Street is being sold to allow a new residence to be built. A further property at 99 North St was recently sold to allow it to be renovated as a private home.”
Kate has set up a petition – Save our Casino Forest Community Garden.
“This is a garden created by community for community, where people can learn about gardening and edible plants they can grow locally, and gather to connect with others,” Kate said.
“This is such a special place.”
Butterflies in the Casino Forest Garden.
The garden has become a thriving ecosystem, home to many birds other wildlife, Kate said.
“Anyone who has been in the garden recently would be familiar with our lovely family of fairy wrens who flit from tree to tree.”
The garden was started in 2020 and volunteers turned the vacant block into a luscious garden with fruit trees and native trees that provide both edible fruits wildlife habitat.
There is a walkway at the edge of the garden which is regularly used as a shortcut for people walking, cycling or on mobility scooters going to the shopping centre behind the garden, Kate said.
The members were planning to reach out to the Casino Youth Hub and connect young people with the garden and help them with ‘food literacy’.
Could the garden and its members move to the Casino Community Gardens on the edge of Queen Elizabeth Park in Hartley Street?
“Different gardens operate differently,” Kate said.
A member wokring in the community garden
“Our philosophy was along permaculture lines and the food was available for the community to forage for themselves.”
In March this year, Richmond Valley Council called for Expressions of Interest to run the Casino Community Gardens in Hartley Street. There are rules and insurance requirements to run this space.
The Casino Forest Garden in North Street has a few weeks of growing before the site is bulldozed, sold and a house built on it.
Children like to pick the wild raspberries in the garden.
“Gardening is an act of hope and a promise to the future, “ Kate said.
“You plant a tree knowing it will take years.”
The Casino Forest Garden no longer has years – in a matter of weeks it will be no more.
How the North Street block looked at the beginning of the Casino Forest Garden.
For Kate, losing the green space where food was grown without sprays and was available for free to everyone, is heartbreaking.
The petition is to show the RSM how much the space means to the community, she said.
Photos: Contributed
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