The official opening of the Beenleigh Community Garden was held yesterday, Saturday July 17, with a ribbon cutting, free BBQ, free plant giveaway and tour.

A small group of locals worked on an idea to transform an unused space behind the Beenleigh Community Centre and Police station to create a green oasis in the middle of the Beenleigh CBD.

Gaining permission from Logan City Council to use the land, together with the Beenleigh Community Centre’s permission, the group have worked hard from 2019 to bring their idea to life.

Community gardens are places where people come together to grow fresh food, to learn, relax and make new friends and being right in the centre of Beenleigh, it makes access easy for locals.

While the garden has been operating for a while, the team were excited to officially open the gardens and show the community the first phase of their creation.

Community Garden volunteer Sonya Burr said that the day was about bringing the community together.

“The garden is to give Beenleigh a space where people can learn about self sufficiency with gardening and what you can do in a small space and about bring the community together.

“We have had people from all walks of life come together for this collaboration and it is showing all the networks in Beenleigh working together.

“From my personal experience it been amazing having everyone from Beenleigh Men’s Shed, The Sewing Lair and lots of local Beenleigh businesses come together to help us.

“It is about health, about self sufficiency learning how to grow from seed to plate and what you can do in a small space and is a fun, healthy learning experience.

“We are also interested in bringing art and creativity into the garden as well and we really want to tap into the creative talent in Beenleigh.

“It is a beautiful space where people can chill out and enjoy.”

The reason it has been a little while for the garden to officially open is because there was nothing in the space except hard flat dirt.

“It has been going for a while because it was completely dead flat, and it took time to get all the hard scaping done and we all volunteer in our spare time.

“Once we got all the hard structures up and we got help from Bunnings, once the plants were in it just really exploded and we are hoping from today (July 17) people will join in and we will be having a lot of events throughout the year,” said Sonya.

While Logan City Council has not invested money, the approval to use and grown the space was an easy decision for them to make.

Councillor Karen Murphy said the group came to us for permission to use the alleyway for stage one.

“There is now a stage two for the Beenleigh Community Garden to establish further and support the other community groups within this location.

“They have a small steering group that is running this, and they would really like the support of extra community members by joining with membership for only $5.

You can find the Beenleigh Community Garden on the ground of the Beenleigh Community Centre, 10-12 James Street, Beenleigh.