Kempsey tucks into a new bush tucker garden
Published on 06 July 2022
Residents who want to learn more about native plants, bush tucker and local Aboriginal history can now do so through an innovative bush tucker garden at Kempsey Library.
Kempsey Shire Council launched the great new facility with an opening and planting event hosted and led by local Jamie Locke from Gone Native, a local indigenous nursery.
Nearly 100 residents attended this free public event that also featured beautiful catering by Jason and Roxanne Ridgeway of Artisan Kitchen.
On the menu was a selection of delicious pastries flavoured by bush tucker such as Davidson plums and mountain pepper leaf, bush baklava and relishes with bush tomatoes and chillies.
Native bush tucker plants were given to attendees to take home as well as fact sheets on how to grow these.
The Kempsey Library Bush Tucker Garden can be found at the front of Kempsey Library and contains native fruit trees with garden beds labelled in English and Dangghati language. The plants in the garden include feather leafed banksia, lomandra (matte brush), blue flax and native sarsaparilla.
The garden and event are amazing examples of Council and the community working together to combine existing local knowledge and skills, great local businesses and a huge community appetite for learning more about their environment.
The garden was funded out of the NSW Government's Public Library Infrastructure Grant funding and the event was delivered under the NSW Government’s Festival of Place Summer Night Funding.
Here are some pictures from the opening of the Kempsey Library's Bush Tucker Garden