RESIDENTS and visitors to Mansfield have a new cultural outdoor experience to enjoy, after the Ngobi-an Gadhaba Indigenous Garden was formally opened in the Mansfield Botanic Park last Tuesday as part of NAIDOC week, with Aunty Bernadette Franklin performing the welcome to country and smoking ceremony as part of the event.

Chair of the Gadhaba Local Aboriginal Network Aunty Ann-Marie Fletcher said the completion of the project in time for NAIDOC Week helps build understanding about the traditional owners in this area and how they lived in the region.

“With the name, Ngobi-an Gadhaba meaning 'learn together’, how apt it is to open the garden during NAIDOC week with this year's theme being Heal Country?” Ms Fletcher said.

“Ngobi-an Gadhaba has the capacity to foster reconciliation by bringing Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people together while preserving culture.

“It may also be used as a teaching resource for students and the broader community thus sharing traditional knowledge via a very modern technology, the QR code.

“We are grateful to Taungurung Land and Waters Council for hosting our information on their website and invite community members to take a self-guided tour, remembering that the garden will vary somewhat on a seasonal basis."

The garden includes 18 plant species and close to 600 plants with five interpretive signs complete with QR codes that link to the online portal, providing a self-guided tour.

There is a range of understorey plants as well as shrubs and trees in the garden, with signage recognising not only the Taungurung name for the plants, but also the botanical name and the common name.

"The experience showcases the significance of local plants used for food, medicinal, tools and fibre purposes by Taungurung people,” she said.

“The garden has great potential for ongoing use by local and surrounding schools, where Aboriginal culture forms part of the school curriculum or units of study and it has the potential to become a unique drawcard for Aboriginal tourism in Mansfield.

“Consumer demand for such tourism experiences is significant and continues to grow, especially from the international market.”

Five years in the making, Rosemary Brennan from the GLAN, expressed her profound sense of relief at finally accomplishing the garden.

“Although we had council approval early in the process, it was only on securing funding from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Korin Korin Balit-Djak fund that the project was made possible," she said.

“We are incredibly grateful to Liz Heta from the DFFH who was instrumental in this process, with development of the garden supported by a grant for $62,000.

“And we have worked alongside local council engaging them to facilitate project management of the garden.”

Mansfield Shire mayor Mark Holcombe said the 2600 square metre Gadhaba Garden is a fabulous collaboration with the Gadhaba Local Aboriginal Network (GLAN).

“The GLAN first approached council in 2016 about establishing an edible and medicinal indigenous garden at the Botanic Park," Cr Holcombe said.

"It recognises the Taungurung people, the original inhabitants and traditional owners of the land where Mansfield is located."

The spot chosen in the Botanic Park for the garden is quite a separate site, with the Gadhaba Local Aboriginal Network seeing the potential for this standalone native garden.

“As the trees grow up at the western end of the garden - close to the stones and the fire pit – it will become really quite gorgeous, providing a beautiful shaded spot,” Ms Brennan said.

“Angus Durkin from Elegant Landscape Designs was responsible for translating our ideas into set plans, and he did all the drawings on a pro-bono basis for which we are incredibly grateful.”

The plants were sourced from Cathy Olive at the Euroa Arboretum who provided the group with such an extensive list of suitable plants that it was almost difficult to make a final decision.

“The Euroa Arboretum uses local seeds to grow plants, and this was particularly important to the group,” said Ms Brennan.

“The plants are always great quality, and we had two groups from the local Howqua campus of Lauriston Girls’ School complete the planting program and they were fabulous.

“We are waiting on a few final plants for the garden, which should arrive in the next few weeks, and then the garden is complete.

“It’s been a long journey.

“And the garden is very new today, but come back in the future and you will get to enjoy our vision for the garden fully realised.”