{"id":422539,"date":"2026-01-19T04:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T04:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422539\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T04:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T04:21:25","slug":"cross-cultural-sharing-is-at-the-heart-of-townsvilles-community-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422539\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-cultural sharing is at the heart of Townsville’s community garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

After fleeing the devastation of war in his home country, Ukrainian refugee Roman Parasyuk dreamt of having space to grow food for his family.<\/p>\n

But settling in a unit in Townsville in northern Queensland with his wife Olga and their two young sons offered few options for the novice gardener.<\/p>\n

“I always dreamed of having a little bit of soil to grow herbs and vegetables and flowers,” Mr Parasyuk said.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the Townsville Community Garden committee heard the family’s story and allocated them a 144-square-metre plot.<\/p>\n

Three years later, Mr Parasyuk has two plots he cultivates, where he grows bananas, tomatoes and other tropical fruits.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Roman Parasyuk grows tropical produce from his plot in the Townsville Community Garden. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)<\/p>\n

He is one of more than 80 gardeners at Townsville Community Garden, which has become its own multicultural ecosystem for sharing produce and agricultural expertise.<\/p>\n

The gardens were established in 2001 on 1.6 hectares of Townsville City Council land beside the Ross River in Railway Estate and cost members between $40 to $155 per year per plot.<\/p>\n

But unlike common neighbourhood gardens, these gardens have plots large enough to feed whole communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Parasyuk learns through watching YouTube videos and sharing knowledge with fellow gardeners from more than 14 different cultural backgrounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Townsville Community Garden sits on council land next to the Ross River and is divided into 57 individual plots. (Supplied: Townsville Community Garden Incorporated)<\/p>\n

Finding a haven<\/p>\n

The Parasyuk family moved to Townsville as refugees after the war in Ukraine began in 2022.<\/p>\n

Though their home in Kyiv did not have room for a garden either, the family wanted to grow produce like their relatives in rural Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“When I was growing up, my grandmother, she showed me [how to garden],” Mr Parasyuk said.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

“Every day I’m trying to learn new stuff,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When you come here, you can talk to people and learn about other cultures and develop yourself.”Feels like home<\/p>\n

About 100 metres from Mr Parasyuk’s garden are thriving breadfruit trees \u2014 a starchy staple ingredient in Pacific Islander diets.<\/p>\n

They, and the many coconuts scattered on the ground, make fellow gardener Lafoga Viliamu feel like he’s back home on Tokelau \u2014 a coral atoll near the equator.<\/p>\n

\"Pacific<\/p>\n

Coconuts and fish made up the bulk of Lafoga Viliamu’s diet when he was growing up. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)<\/p>\n

“We grow heaps. We get the coconut, our mums and the elders love the coconut,” Mr Viliamu said.<\/p>\n

“We caught a few shark from here and cook with coconut cream and curry.”<\/p>\n

Regular flooding doesn’t faze Mr Viliamu and other members of the Tokelauan community who helped establish the gardens as a way of continuing their culture 4,500 kilometres from home.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

The Tokelauan community regularly shares its knowledge with other members of the garden. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)<\/p>\n

They have also passed down their culture to new generations born in Australia.<\/p>\n

The plots are filled with yams, breadfruit \u2014 a traditional fruit from the island \u2014 bananas and Pacific spinach.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Tokelauan community grows coconuts and other produce typically found in the Pacific Islands. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)<\/p>\n

The community actively invites gardeners from other cultures to share knowledge and tips to enable the plots to thrive.<\/p>\n

“We work together, it’s part of our culture. You have to help one another,” Mr Viliamu said.<\/p>\n

“If we get our food ready, we share it with other people in the garden.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A communal spinach garden has been created and gardeners can take what they need. (ABC News: Emma Jones)<\/p>\n

Produce from around the world<\/p>\n

For some communities, the plots are how they put dinner on the plate each night.<\/p>\n

Gardeners from El Salvador and Zimbabwe use their plots to grow rows of corn, which is a staple in their diet.<\/p>\n

Sitting side by side are gardens belonging to members of Townsville’s African, Indian, Korean and Pacific Island communities.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

John Eckersley says gardeners need to be willing to maintain their plots in order for the community to thrive. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)<\/p>\n

Garden committee secretary John Eckersley said the garden operated under the philosophy of the fable about the Little Red Hen.<\/p>\n

“For those who are willing to be involved, we are delighted to share and to work with them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But those who are not willing to be part of the community \u2026 will have to part company sooner or later.”<\/p>\n

\"family<\/p>\n

Gardeners share general upkeep of communal spaces such as walkways and meeting areas. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)<\/p>\n

For him, the key to a thriving community has been the gardeners’ willingness to keep returning and working the land.<\/p>\n

“What we’re looking for is people who will garden, who will appreciate the opportunity and will make good use of their garden,” he said.<\/p>\n

“How we do things here is quite different from how other community gardens operate.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After fleeing the devastation of war in his home country, Ukrainian refugee Roman Parasyuk dreamt of having space…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,5214,222289,10235,222287,78250,85,6649,222286,222288,114331],"class_list":["post-422539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-community","tag-community-garden","tag-gardening","tag-growing-food","tag-multiculturalism","tag-sports","tag-townsville","tag-townsville-community-garden","tag-veggie-gardening","tag-volunteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}