Rooftop urban farm revealed at Frasers’ Living Building Challenge retail site

The Burwood Brickworks retail centre, designed to be the world’s most sustainable shopping centre, has revealed it will house a 2000-square-metre urban farm and restaurant on its roof.

The Burwood Brickworks retail centre.

Teaming up with environmentalist Joost Bakker on the project, building developer Frasers Property Australia is now calling for expression of interest from tenants wanting to take over the rooftop space.

Last year, Frasers executive general manager, retail Peri Macdonald revealed to The Fifth Estate intentions to create an urban farm that would be a financial boon for the developer.

Read Cameron Jewell’s story on The Fifth Estate - “Rooftop urban farm revealed at Frasers’ Living Building Challenge retail site."

Farmers on the front line of climate change

Not long after leaving school, I followed the well-trodden path of many farm girls and boys; packing my bags and joining a shearing team. Through 40-plus degree days of skirting fleeces and grinding blades (hot tip, this is not a good way to cool down) on the edge of the pastoral country during a Western Australian summer as a 17-year-old, I had no idea the suffocating heat was rapidly becoming a defining feature of our changing climate. Fast forward more than a decade and as I write this, in Crookwell, NSW it’s 38 degrees and a local sheep farmer has come in from an early morning start – forced to muster his lambs before the inescapable heat stresses livestock, and farmers. Shaking his head as the sweat drips down, he wonders how to adjust to temperatures 14 degrees above average.

Farmers, standing at the front line.

For most urban dwellers, summer means time by the pool and flocking to the nearest shopping centre when the heat becomes too much. For Australian farmers, summer means something very different. 

Read Verity Morgan-Schmidt’s story on The Border Mail - “Farmers on the front line of climate change.”