Farmers Join City to Soil

MEDIA RELEASE




CAP: (l-r) Agronomist Chris Houghton, City to Soil (Groundswell) Project Manager Simone Dilkara and Andrew Sieler ‘Strathmere’, Yarra, prepare for the on-farm trial of compost.


From City to Soil … farmers join unique composting trial

Two Goulburn area farmers have volunteered for a unique composting program involving organic waste from households being used to improve agricultural soils. The farmers will establish trial sites to test the benefits of compost compared to unfertilised soil and land treated with superphosphate.

Goulburn Mulwaree Council is currently preparing the compost for use on the farms. It is collected through an initiative known as City to Soil, which involves organic kitchen and garden waste being collected from some 9000 households in Goulburn and Marulan on a monthly basis.

This organic waste will then be transformed into high quality compost at Goulburn Waste Management Centre before being transported to the farms from autumn next year.

Andrew Sieler, who runs the 600 acre fine wool property ‘Strathmere’ at Yarra, said he joined City to Soil to both support efforts to reduce landfill and assess the benefits of compost in a farm environment.

"The project has a lot of potential to remove waste from landfill and put something back into soils at the same time," Mr Sieler said. "We don’t really use compost on a larger scale and it will be interesting to see what happens. If it turns out to be commercially viable for Councils and landholders then it will benefit everyone."

The second farm involved in the trial is the 800 acre Narranbulla Partnership at Marulan. Farm Manager Mark Hart, who runs Angus cattle at Narranbulla, said involvement in City to Soil provided an opportunity to further their interest in organic fertilisers and assess the viability of compost on a commercial farm.

"We have always been interested in organic fertilisers and when we saw an Expression of Interest advertised, we thought our property would be suitable for the trial," Mr Hart said.
The on-farm trial will involve both farmers setting aside approximately 30 acres of land. This will then be divided into three plots, with one left unfertilised, one treated with the commonly used superphosphate and the other fertilised with the City to Soil compost.

Agronomist Chris Houghton will oversee the trial and assess the stocking rate of each plot, measured in DSEs (Dry Sheep Equivalent). "The three plots on each property have a uniform soil type and pasture," Mr Houghton said. "Soil tests have been taken before the trial starts and we will assess each area for carrying capacity over the next two years. Both Strathmere and Narranbulla are ideal for the on-farm trials as they have large enough areas with consistent soil. Andrew and Mark are both happy to fence off around 30 acres for the trial to take place."

Mr Houghton said the Goulburn and Marulan communities had been very supportive of the City to Soil program. Organic kitchen waste, plus garden waste, has been collected from the Goulburn suburb of Eastgrove since July this year. Specially designed kitchen waste bins are now being delivered across the remainder of Goulburn and nearby Marulan.



"I have been really impressed with the level of enthusiasm shown by the community," Mr Houghton said. "City people are interested in the whole food cycle and feel that by having their organic waste composted they are contributing to the quality of food they receive and helping farmers at the same time. Particularly with the drought we have seen in recent years, City people know that farmers do it tough and want to help."

Goulburn Mulwaree is one of four Councils involved in the City to Soil Project, which is being implemented through a project known as Groundswell. The other Council areas involved are Lachlan, Palerang and Queanbeyan.

Groundswell is funded by a $1.96 million grant over three years from the NSW Environmental Trust.

MEDIA INTERVIEWS:
Please contact:
Agronomist Chris Houghton on 0409 816 433.
City to Soil (Groundswell) Project Manager Simone Dilkara on 0447 273 099.
To arrange an interview with Andrew Sieler, please call Simone Dilkara or Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Communications Unit on 4823 4412 or 4823 4548.




CAP: (l-r) Farm Manager Mark Hart and Andy Divall from ‘Narranbulla’, with agronomist Chris Houghton and City to Soil (Groundswell) Project Manager Simone Dilkara on the site where compost will be trialled at the Marulan property.

Goulburn Mulwaree Council
LOCKED BAG 22 GOULBURN NSW 2580
Telephone: (02) 4823 4444
Fax: (02) 4823 4456
www.goulburn.nsw.gov.au

Lots and lots of compost!

Thought you might like to see Goulburn's first WHOLE of town City to Soil collection. Here it is - almost 100 tonnes of food and garden waste composting along nicely. David our composter extraordinaire has really got the process down pat - the temperatures have been hovering around 60 - 70 degrees, and everything is breaking down beautifully. It even smells nice!

And what about contamination? Well, I am very very happy to report that Goulburn and Marulan folks were EXCELLENT at keeping contamination out of the collection. The biggest problem we are having is with people putting their lawn clippings into plastic bags - please don't they STINK! and it can be quite tricky to get the grass out of the bags without breaking the bags up and leaving bits of plastic in the compost.

Well done Goulburn and Marulan folks! I can't wait to get out there and see how this week's City to Soil collection is going.

North Goulburn Environmental Education Afternoon

Groundswell Project Manager Simone Dilkara with Goulburn North Public students Jacqui Oberg and Jarrod Whittaker.

Your project manager had a lovely afternoon at the North Goulburn Public School Environmental Education Afternoon.

North Goulburn Public School has a great system in place for collection food scraps for their wonderful worm farm. Worm castings are used on the school veggie garden and veggies from the garden are used in the canteen and in various recipes concocted by Mrs West.

Students can become members of the Garden Club which meets each lunch time to tend the garden.

Anyway, yesterday was an Environmental Education Afternoon. In addition to worm farming, planting potatoes, trees and flowers and finding out about WIRES, students got the opportunity to find out more about City to Soil. Now these guys already know a LOT about composting and recycling - but it was good to go through our particular composting process, the MaxAir bins and Biobags and to explain what can go in the City to Soil collection and what can't.

I feel very confident that the families belonging to North Goulburn Public School students will be very well informed about the new City to Soil collection!

I had a lovely afternoon and it was a PLEASURE to meet such clever, lovely environmentally aware young people.

City to Soil rolled out accross Goulburn Mulwaree

media release from Goulburn Mulwaree Council

Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s groundbreaking City to Soil initiative will be provided across Goulburn and Marulan this month.

City to Soil is being expanded after a successful trial in Eastgrove over the past three months.
Goulburn Mulwaree Council Facilities Engineer Andrew Galland said he hoped the remainder of Goulburn and Marulan supported the program as residents had in Eastgrove.

"This will be one of the first community wide collections of compostable organic waste in Australia," Mr Galland said.

"We have been thrilled with the response to the program in Eastgrove and I hope the remainder of our community will be as supportive. City to Soil will be provided to all residents that currently have a monthly green waste collection."

Residents across Goulburn and Marulan will receive a free, specially designed MaxAir kitchen top bin and compostable biobags for the collection of food scraps. The bins, a year supply of biobags (a roll of 150 bags), a sticker and an instruction leaflet will be delivered to homes over the coming days.

"The contamination levels in the green waste we’ve collected have been extraordinarily low, which is an excellent effort from Eastgrove’s residents," Mr Galland said.

"In the first collection made in July, Council collected 9.16 tonnes of combined food and garden waste from Eastgrove, with only 7kg of contamination removed, which is unbelievably low.

"The Eastgrove trials have helped us finetune the composting process at the Goulburn Waste Management Centre, and we are confident that we can handle all the kitchen waste from Goulburn and Marulan."

Most residents should have the bins for the October green waste collection, however some residents may not receive them in time. These residents will receive their bins in time for the November green waste collection.

Compost test sites to be finalised

Groundswell Project Manager Simone Dilkara said two trial sites to test the compost will be finalised shortly.

"We had 35 farmers who wanted to be involved in the trials and responded to the Expression of Interest," Ms Dilkara said.

"The response shows that farmers are really interested in composted products, soil health and chemical fertiliser alternatives. It shows that Goulburn Mulwaree Council is really on the right track – the community supports the project, and farmers really support the project."

MEDIA INTERVIEWS: Please contact Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Acting Facilities Manager Andrew Galland on 02 4823 4488 or Groundswell Project Manager Simone Dilkara on 0447 273 099.

Goulburn Mulwaree Council
Telephone: (02) 4823 4444
www.goulburn.nsw.gov.au

And just a little bit more.....

Just a few more photos from Condobolin - because the bins look so wonderful!

More from Condobolin

Here is a photo of Trumby picking through the City to Soil collection. You can see a plastic bottle in the middle of the mix - this was just about the only piece of contamination.

The collection was very very clean - just this bottle, a few cans, some polystyrene food trays and one bag of general rubbish. Well done Condobolin!

And at the end of a long day - here is Sonny and his very first pile of compost-to-be, all sprayed, sorted, covered and ready to start fermenting.

Condobolin gets behind City to Soil

Everyone we spoke to in Condobolin this week let us know how excited they were about the new City to Soil collection, and what perfect sense it makes to compost food and garden waste rather than sticking it into landfill. Everyone LOVES the new Biobags and MaxAir bins.

You can see from the photos how free of contamination the collections were.