Final straw? Darebin bans balloons, other plastics from council parks

Balloons, water bottles and other plastics, including bags, straws and cups, are to be banned from public land in part of Melbourne’s north in a bid to reduce pollution.

There'll be no balloons at your next park party.

Darebin Council, which includes Northcote, Thornbury and Preston, has voted unanimously to prohibit single-use plastics from being used or sold on council land.

“They are polluting our parks and waterways, including our many creeks,” Greens councillor Trent McCarthy said.

The ban includes the use of balloons at parties, festivals, workshops and markets and during election campaigns on all council property, including public parks. 

Read the story by Chloe Booker in The Age - “Final straw? Darebin bans balloons, other plastics from council parks.”

Wonderful site in Shepparton for a community garden

Community gardens provide wonderful
food and the immeasurably valuable
community bonding.

Shepparton’s Karibok Park appears to be a perfect spot for a community garden.

It is a small piece of public land, close to many houses, easily accessible and apparently no longer used.

Surrounded by Archer, Vaughan and Rowe Streets and some public building, the small open are was once used for cricket, soccer and a spill-over car park for events at the nearby Shepparton showgrounds.

 It would be perfect as s community garden and with support from the City of Greater Shepparton, could be developed as an example as to how other small and largely disused public spaces could be used to help feed the city.

Beyond the “feel-good” aspect of such a garden, it would have an entirely practical aspect in that it would help boost their larders of many people who are going to find their diet intolerably squeezed as the noose of climate change begins to tighten and food supplies become increasingly tenuous.

The idea that Karibou Park become Shepparton’s first real community garden takes on a rather pressing urgency in the reading of a story in today’s Melbourne Age headed: “Climate body fears for food supply”.

Community gardens not only provide a reliable and wide range of food they also have wonderful community bonding values.

Greater Shepparton's CEO, Gavin Cator, has inspected several such gardens overseas.