The Cape has followed the advice of Australia’s sustainability experts from day one and is a champion bill busting community. We have highly energy-efficient all-electric homes with no gas bills, tiny electricity bills and all homes have provision for electric vehicle charging. Over 25% of our homes are paired with electric vehicles which means petrol bills are a thing of the past for many households. We also have been very busy designing and building another first – our >$2 million community farm, with the growing areas coming on line this spring, and the farmhouse and community buildings to be completed in 2023. We are looking forward to a big harvest this summer!
In the past month, after a long talent search, we are happy to announce that we have employed a full time community farm manager, Adrian James, a Bass Coast local with extensive experience and qualifications in horticulture, permaculture, and all aspects of food production. Adrian is a qualified horticultural trainer and educator. Adrian has commenced full time work with us and is working with The Cape project team and our residents on the organisation of the community farm, and will oversee the farm to ensure it delivers maximum benefits for the Cape Paterson community. Designed and built by The Sustainable Landscape Company, The Cape community farm is an integrated community asset, including hundreds of water efficient low maintenance wicking beds for our members to grow food, a market garden area to supply a food box scheme, a farmhouse with kitchen for cooking and food preserving, a nursery for raising vegetable seedlings and landscape plants, an outdoor classroom area, composting facilities, beekeeping, a hospitality area, rainwater harvesting and water recycling, fruit trees and social spaces. The farm in future will also be able host community events, music, celebrations, education and much more. The Cape community farm has been designed to produce large amounts of food for our community, to reduce food bills, educate our local community on how to grow food at home, create great social spaces, host celebrations and events and provide undercover spaces for meetings and community activities. The community farm has a detailed business plan to provide it with a solid revenue base into the future. The Foodcube wicking beds used in the farm use around half the water of a conventional in ground or raised garden bed, helping to droughtproof the farm and reduce water use in future. The innovative design of the Foodcube has resulted in this system being selected and deployed by the Australian and New Zealand Governments to assist with food security projects in the Pacific Islands. We think community farms should be a feature in all new communities – they deliver a wide range of benefits – social contact, reduced food bills, reducing food miles to food meters, better nutrition, exercise, health and circular economy living.
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