About
This project will help the Aboriginal-led gathering place, Willum Warrain, to realise the potential of their Bush Nursery and consolidate it as a viable social enterprise that both supports the resilience of their community and of the wider non-Aboriginal community.
Through ongoing employment of their Lead Hand, this project will support them in nurturing and maintaining cultural practices that are crucial to their community's health and wellbeing. Alongside community health and resilience, this project will also support rehabilitation of a now 3ha leased property, the MasterPlan for which the local council recently granted approval.
As the only Indigenous-led native foods business on the Peninsula, the Foundation’s support will help expand Willum Warrain’s profile and role in this growing industry through attracting retail sales and securing wholesale orders from Mornington Peninsula restaurants and wineries, as well as enabling them to scale up production and generate income. For example, Willum Warrain’s Cultural Immersion Tours for schools, and community and corporate groups, partly focus on the property's plants that are grown in the nursery and visitors often buy the plants afterwards.
Willum Warrain also receive many requests from schools seeking help setting up bush tucker gardens and are finding increasing interest from local farmers. They are also exploring micro-employment opportunities arising from producing cosmetic and botanical products.
This project will contribute to long-term community and ecological climate change resilience.