Three decades of reciprocal nurturing – and counting
Dedication is the best way to describe the effort made by Carol McMurray, who over 35 years has transformed a bare patch into a blooming beauty.
THERE’S SOMETHING to be said about community mindedness that applies in spades to Carol. Just as a parent nurtures a baby and tends to their needs in an unselfish way, so Carol has been nurturing this patch of the Munibung Creek catchment in a similar fashion.
“I’m convinced that the greatest depth and breadth of benefits a home garden can provide are only accessible to those in intimate contact with it”, writes Michael McCoy (Gardening Australia magazine, December 2024).
This can surely be applied to the Magic Garden, as it has become known, at the end of Gorleston Terrace, Cardiff. It is the result of what could be termed ‘reciprocal nurturing’, says McCoy. One derives benefit from the nurturing, and is nurtured in return.
In issue 47 we reported on how the garden reserve is under threat. In: Save Munibung Creek ‘Magic Garden’ it was our contribution to raising awareness about this landscaped area that provides far more than a pleasant vista for our human senses.
It is an integral part of a creek catchment providing habitat for wildlife that desperately need corridors of native plants, such as those established here, to feed and breed. The site does more than nurture human needs, it nurtures native wildlife needs as well.
For the sake of a couple of metres, this lovingly tended verge garden has to supposedly be sacrificed in the name of progress.
There is value in what Carol and Tex have done and are doing. Value that can fly under the radar and go unnoticed. But hang on a minute. Staff at the nearby Bluebird Early Education Centre know value when they see it.
“Staff bring children to the park each week as part of their natural learning activities. ” says Carol. “The children love it. They call it their ‘magic garden’. The children come in different groups of either 8 or 10 with 4 teachers – it’s just beautiful.”
This is something to be celebrated. What started out as one small act ‘prettying’ up a ‘no-through-road’ has turned into a refuge for wildlife that doubles as a teaching / learning outdoor classroom.
To rip it up? Is that the best we can do? What message does that send to the little children – the adults of the future? Do immediate pre-conceived plans, have to run rough-shod over the benefits to nature and local people – to not give a second thought to how this will be perceived by the children and their families who benefit from what Carol McMurray does? It doesn’t have to be an either / or. We can have both. They can co-exist.
In a statement from Wests Group, the proponents of the development to build industrial storage sheds on the car park site, say: This is subject to normal Council process, and we respect that process.
Council is assessing a Development Application and is bound by planning laws. It is Wests who can advise Council that they would be prepared to amend the application to adjust the building alignment, such that it permits the green space to remain intact. An area that the previous owners of the Workers Club were pleased to see landscaped and enhanced by Carol McMurray.
It’s a credit to Carol and the local community that they are committed to doing all they can to protect this patch of urban greening that has effectively been gifted to the community for free. Call it a labour of love if you will, but without these ‘gifts’ made for the common good, the world would have even more concrete and steel than we already have. To strike a balance is all that Carol and the locals are asking for.
Watch the story featuring Carol McMurray and local residents, on NBN News, with reporter Montanna Clare, broadcast 6.00pm Saturday January 11, 2025
… From MMM Issue #48, Feb-Mar 2025