General News
15 February, 2024
Dunolly’s share table supporting community
The Dunolly Community Garden is offering support to local residents by operating a share table for anyone to pick up or drop off fresh produce, as well as fruit fly traps to combat the invasive species. The community group, founded in 2010, meet...
The Dunolly Community Garden is offering support to local residents by operating a share table for anyone to pick up or drop off fresh produce, as well as fruit fly traps to combat the invasive species.
The community group, founded in 2010, meet weekly on the Dunolly Kindergarten grounds to tend to their fruit trees, garden beds and herb gardens.
President for the Dunolly Community Garden, Veronica Palmer, said she started the share table to ensure the group’s excess produce didn’t go to waste.
“I’d rather see someone else in the community use the food than see it going into the compost,” she said.
“It’s rewarding to know it’s touching the people in the community, even on our Facebook posts, a lot of people share that joy of dropping off zucchinis or cucumbers.
“We all grow produce at home, but the joy of being together and working together in an area that we all love, and then being able to share that through the share table is like the icing on the cake.
“It is available for everyone in the community, don’t feel pressured to put something back on the table, there is enough food out there that if you want it, take it.”
Two years ago, the community garden was ravaged by a fruit fly population residing in a street tree, causing a considerable amount of produce to be contaminated.
Since then, the community group has supplied free fruit fly traps, provided trap formulas and information sessions to residents who have also been affected by the pest.
Secretary for the Dunolly Community Garden, Lisa Mahon, said extra precautions and constant monitoring is needed to combat fruit fly.
“There were heaps of fruit fly which was really sad because we had to throw around 30 percent of our produce out,” she said.
“A friend of mine worked in fruit fly programming in South Australia in Berri, and she came over and she gave us a free workshop which was just amazing.
“One of the points she made was if you really get onto it, you can really reduce the numbers but if you don’t do anything it will become a real problem.
“Sometimes there’s things that are much better if you do it as a community-wide approach — there is no point in tackling fruit fly here if they are breeding everywhere else.
“We are pretty much on top of it now but it is one of those things we want to continue to be wary about.”
The Dunolly Community Garden were concerned to hear the Black Plum Prunus Nigra tree species was a part of the Central Goldfields Shire Council’s free street tree program, due to its potential to harbour fruit fly.
The community group have advised residents to participate in the program by picking one of the four other tree species on offer.
Former team leader with the Riverland Emergency Fruit Fly Eradication program Sue Blandford, who covered an area which has seen 46 fruit fly outbreaks since 2022, said the species is not suitable as a street tree.
“As a street tree, they belong to no-one and the only way to get rid of or contain fruit fly is to be extra vigilant,” she said.
“Maintaining that tree is an ongoing twice a day process if you really want to stop fruit fly.
“In the right weather conditions, which we have been having recently, there is a very high chance that fruit fly would infest in those trees even if sterilised.
“Over winter it can take months to be a problem, but over the spring, summer and autum period, it can take less then three weeks before a major outbreak can happen again.
“Council should save all the problems and just not offer it.”
Central Goldfields Shire Council mayor Liesbeth Long said council consulted expert advice before offering the tree.
“The species used by council in its tree planting program are selected from recommendations by Agriculture Victoria, in addition to advice from our own arborist. Black Plum Prunus Nigra produces a very low-yield, inedible fruit, not known for hosting fruit fly,” she said.
“The fact is, home-grown tomatoes, apples, apricots and cherries are far more likely hosts for fruit fly, but no one would suggest discouraging people from raising their own crops or removing trees from their gardens.
“There are many species of fruit fly, and we recommend that residents inform themselves from reliable sources such as Agriculture Victoria, rather than focus on particular tree species in their area.
“If anyone has any concerns about pests or infestations in their district, they should contact council in the first instance.”