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The Grow It Local Awards is an annual celebration of creativity and fun in homegrown culture.

Grow It Local - your local grow community - is proud to announce the third annual Grow It Local Awards, a community-minded celebration of creativity and fun in homegrown culture. Supported by the City of Burnside, the Grow It Local Awards encompass eight key categories and a search for the:

● Biggest vegetable

● Wonkiest vegetable / vegetable that most looks like..

● The why I love my patch award - only a grower knows the feeling

● Australia’s best chicken name

● Homegrown hero – community champion award

● School garden – growing the future

● Sustainable gardener award

● Homegrown harvest award

Broadcaster, author and Grow It Local co-founder Paul West (River Cottage Australia) noted “community interest in growing food has exploded and here at Grow It Local we’re all about making growing food simple, social and fun!”

Gardening Australia host and Grow It Local ambassador Costa Georgiadis commented that “cultivating diversity is central to the Grow It Local vision in our gardens, in our communities and for the planet too”.

To enter the Grow It Local Awards simply post a photo to #growitlocalawards on Instagram or Facebook tag @growitlocal and mention your council and the award category you are entering in the post copy. You also need to be a member of the Grow It Local community for which registration is a free and easy process at growitlocal.com.

Prizing from Seasol, Mr Fothergills and Grow It Local will be awarded to the winning entry in each category.

Entries are open until February 1 – March 30, 2023 and judges include Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis, Paul West and others.

You can check out the winners of the 2022 awards here.

For media inquiries contact:

Darryl Nichols:

0422-665-088

darryl@growitlocal.com

Photo credit: @kathshomeandgarden - Grow It Local Awards Wonkiest Vegetable Winner 2022

Earlier this year, sisters Amber and Penny Trappel submitted two entries into the Your Neighbourhood Budget (YNB) program.

Backed by the community, both of their entries were successful and have now been brought to life.

The first was a defibrillator in Tusmore Park and the second was a rock swap shelf, also in Tusmore Park, which was installed in late December.

The girls have been involved in rock swapping for a while now, and are active on the SA Rocks Facebook group, which has over 52,000 members.

According to the SA Rocks Facebook group, the popular initiative is “a little bit of creativity and nature play for kids and parents that live in SA, Australia. Let's go hunting for painted rocks in your local park, or paint some and hide for others to find!”

The process involves painting, dropping, finding and re-hiding the rocks. The postcode where the rock was decorated is painted on the back of the rock, so that whoever finds the rock knows where it comes from, and how far it has travelled.

Amber (12) and Penny (10) were invited along to Tusmore Park for the unveiling of the new rock swap shelf. Together with their parents Sharon and Ben and their friend Amber, the girls helped to paint the shelf in preparation for its debut to the community.

“It feels really good [that the rock shelf has been installed]. It’s really nice to see that it’s been done”, said the girls.

“It’s wonderful to see people walk past and show interest in the rock swap shelf,” said Sharon. “Let’s hope the word will spread among the community. It’s a great activity that gets kids outside, off screens, and spreads kindness”.

The girls found their first rock while on holiday in Point Turton. From there, they joined the SA Rocks Facebook group and have been involved in rock swapping ever since. The girls started getting inspired by other rock shelves they were seeing on the Facebook group, which was the catalyst for the idea of having a rock swap shelf in Tusmore Park, which they visit regularly with their grandmother.

The girls chose to decorate the rock swap shelf with pictures of flowers, bees, butterflies, fruit, and even a galaxy. Some simple instructions have been painted on the side of the rock swap shelf to teach those who are new to rock swapping how it works.

For those who are interested in getting involved, the girls’ instructions are simple: “take a rock, paint a rock, swap a rock… make your own rocks!”

“It’s really easy and inexpensive to get started – all you need is some acrylic paints or paint pens, a clear gloss to seal the paint and some brushes, which you can all pick up from Kmart or Officeworks”, said Sharon.

Get started today, and make sure to visit the brand new rock swap shelf in Tusmore Park to share your beautiful artwork with others!

The Burnside Family Church, located at 88 Lockwood Road, consists of two small church buildings. One is a bluestone chapel constructed in the 1860s, and the other a red brick church that was opened in 1939. Both these buildings retain all original detailing and stain glass windows.

The original stone church was built on land donated by Joseph Lockwood for the construction of a chapel for the Christian Church members. He had previously made his store in High Street available for their meetings and worship.

The first church was opened in 1864 and two rooms were added to the western end soon after. As the congregation grew the new church was constructed next door.

Images (L to R): Burnside Christian Church in 1939, courtesy of State Library of South Australia. Burnside Christian Church interior in 1940, courtesy of State Library of South Australia.

City of Burnside Mayor Anne Monceaux, who will represent the City of Burnside for the next four years, brings you the latest news in Burnside following the first meeting of the new council.

Updates include:

• Successful Carols in the Park event on Friday 9 December
• Magill Village Project opened on Saturday 3 December
• Recognising and acknowledging the efforts of our volunteers
• Christmas exhibitions at Pepper Street Arts Centre and Burnside Civic Centre
• Christmas Card Competition winner

Find out more in this edition of Burnside Highlights.

Join us to celebrate Australia Day on Thursday 26 January 2023 in Hazelwood Park.

The City of Burnside recognises extraordinary citizens and their remarkable and diverse contributions to our community each year on Australia Day. Help us celebrate what is great about our community by nominating someone you know for:

Citizen of the Year Award (aged 16+) - The most outstanding Citizen for Burnside.

Young Citizen of the Year Award (aged under 30) - The most outstanding Young Citizen for Burnside.

Community Event of the Year Award - A person or group who has staged the most outstanding community event.

The City of Burnside’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy includes a priority to reduce waste and increase recycling. To promote the use of the green organics bin for food waste, Council conducts bin tagging, a method of engagement that has been successful in Burnside and other councils.

We gratefully acknowledge the large-scale bin tagging project is supported by grant funding from Green Industries SA.

The focus of the bin tagging project is on food waste. Why?

There are numerous reasons why it is very important for food waste to go in the green organics bin. First, it is around five times cheaper to send food waste to be composted, by putting it in the green organics bin, rather than sending it to landfill. These savings keep the pressure off Council rates in the City of Burnside.

Using the green organics bin for food waste also makes good environmental sense. The contents of the green organics bin are turned into valuable compost, rather than being wasted in landfill. Composting food waste also generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than sending it to landfill.

How does this bin tagging work?

Bin tagging involves a quick check of the content of Council bins when they are on the verge for collection. The Council team then place temporary education notices (bin tags) on the bins. The tags provide feedback on the use of the bin for food waste. For example, if the green organics bin contains food waste, the tags provide positive feedback. If the landfill bin is used for food waste, the tags provide educational information reminding the household that food waste belongs in the green bin. The tags also provide information about the importance of putting food waste in the green organics bin.

Previous success

In 2021 sixty households were randomly selected to be a part of the bin tagging project and had their bins tagged three times. On the first check, 73 per cent of the households were placing their food waste in their organics bins. It was good to see that most households were doing the right thing! By the third check, six weeks later, 95 per cent of those households were placing food waste in their green organics bins, an excellent improvement!

As part of the ‘Smart Cities’ initiative, Council is installing parking occupancy sensors in the car parking areas of Langman Reserve, Chambers Gully and Waterfall Gully.

The sensors detect the occupancy of the associated parking area and relays the data via gateways to the ‘Cloud’, where the data is processed. The data is then relayed to electronic variable message signs (VMS), which will display parking vacancy numbers for each location. The two VMS are located at the entrance to Waterfall Gully Road and on the approach to Chambers Gully. Motorists will be able to see a real-time number that displays how many parking spaces are available at multiple car parks. This will save a lot of time for many people and help to reduce traffic during high demand periods.

Nominate Now for the Environment Awards

The City of Burnside held the inaugural Environment Awards in 2021. The annual Environment Awards celebrate excellence in sustainability practices within our community by showcasing our local champions who have demonstrated a substantial environmental impact.

Nominate an individual or group to recognise local environment champions.

Last year’s Local Sustainability Winner, Andrew Compton, was recognised for his work over many years at Waterfall Gully. Andrew says there are many people working away doing good things for the environment who often go under the radar. “They don’t want to blow their own trumpet but they should be recognised,” Andrew says.

Categories

Environment Action Champion - For an action, project or initiative which has a positive impact on the environment.

Prize: $250 Heyne's Voucher

Inspiring Garden - An inspiring garden offers a place to unwind and connect with nature. Open to any garden within the City of Burnside that inspires you.

Prize: $250 Heyne's Voucher

School Project - For a school project delivered by a student or group (including pre-school students).

Prize: TreeClimb Adelaide Voucher

Nominations Open: Monday 9 January 2023 at www.burnside.sa.gov.au/EnviroAwards

Nominations Close: Friday 17 February 2023.

Environment Day will be held on Friday 3 March 2023 (see Events on page 22 for details).

The summer issue of Focus newsletter is being delivered to letter boxes this week by Australia Post.

In this issue meet your newly elected Council Members, read about Bin Tagging, Water Smart Burnside, Magill Village Redevelopment, Environment Awards and more.

You can also read it online here.

In 1836, several olive trees arrived in South Australia aboard the HMS Buffalo with Governor Hindmarsh and his secretary George Stevenson. These trees were the beginning of the South Australian olive oil industry. Sir Samuel Davenport (1818-1906) of Beaumont House was responsible for the rapid growth of olives and the olive oil industry in the Burnside area.

Pictured below is a bottle of olive oil that came from that very plantation. This bottle is part of the Burnside Treasures collection which is viewable in the Local History Room in the Burnside Library.

Picture – Burnside Local History Collection