By Victoria Stone-Meadows
YARRA Valley Estate has been nominated for the Premier’s Sustainability Award for their latest environmental project.
The Premier’s Sustainability Award is given to people or businesses that promote a low-carbon future through practices, projects and community engagement.
The event and function centre in Dixons Creek won the award last year and are excited to be nominated again.
The project that got them the nomination this year is a permaculture edible forest that has been built by staff at the centre as well as volunteers from the community.
Yarra Valley Estate General Manager Katrina Reynolds said a lot of hard work had gone into the project and said being nominated for the award was a great success.
“We are hopeful all our hard work and dedication will be validated with this award,” she said.
The edible forest project is a roughly one-acre patch of the estate’s grounds that has different sections for varying types of edible plants.
“We have designed and constructed the forest with areas such as tea, barriers, sensory plants, wetlands, woodlands, Aussie bush tucker,” Ms Reynolds said.
“It is open to the public and the community and is a great way for us to engage the community with the venue that is only really open for functions and events.”
The project began in October 2015 and with the help of volunteers from Billanook College and Dixons Creek Landcare group, there are already about 1000 established edible plants.
“Every plant in the forest is edible or medicinal and every part of the plant is used,” Ms Reynolds said.
Sustainability and environmentally friendly practises are a core focus for Yarra Valley Estate and the business is dedicated to continuing the growth of the edible forest.
“Hopefully, in about four or five years we will have a large forest with a harvest in the summer and all items being used by our kitchen and the community with constant recycling and re-purposing,” Ms Reynolds said.
When announcing the finalists for the award Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said she was pleased to see Victorian businesses working for the environment.
“I congratulate each finalist for their exemplary work to mitigate the impact of climate change and to reducing emissions,” she said.
“It’s great to see such ingenuity and innovation in the way Victorians approach sustainability.”
