Community
5 March, 2025
Community gardens need help from Mount Isa volunteers
The Burke Street gardens need a helping hand while a regular helper has medical treatment.
Rain, hail or shine, Nancy Greensill can be found at the community gardens along Burke Street tending to a wide range of fruit and vegetables for Mount Isa residents.
However, a garden accident last year required Nancy to undergo shoulder surgery, which reduced her ability to do the necessary work at the North West Queensland Indigenous Community Social Services (NWQICSS) gardens.
The community gardens now face imminent closure unless willing volunteers can be sought in the next few weeks to assist while Nancy undertakes more medical treatment.
Despite her injury, Nancy and her husband Wayne still spend several hours tending to the gardens every morning and also open the gates to the public on Saturdays between 7am to 9am where a bagful of vegetables can be purchased for a simple cash donation that is given to NWQICSS.
The gardens have become a hub for many international migrants to the city, especially those from south-east Asia and India, because the gardens specialise in growing produce that cannot be easily purchased at the local supermarkets.
Nancy said she had spent six years building the gardens into a year-round affordable harvest that feeds many people across the city, with a selection of fruit and vegetables ranging from stables such as pumpkin, mango, beans and capsicum, to popular Asian product such as bitter melons and malunggay.
Nancy told North West Weekly that she hoped to see the gardens continue under the stewardship of volunteers and that she was willing to assit with training anyone interested in the task.
“There used to be people who would volunteer sometimes to help but they grew busy and could no longer attend,” she explained.
“A lot of people don’t like working in the heat – but I open the garden very early in the morning so that we can work as the sun is still rising.
“The garden beds are here and everything is planted, but we need help with watering and weeding and collecting the vegetables.
“Some of the things we grow here cannot be bought at the supermarkets in Mount Isa – you would have to go to Townsville or Brisbane to find them.
“I have to go for more medical treatment in April and if we cannot find some help then it might have to close.”
Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Good Shepherd Parish office on 4749 8555.