Greening Kensington - An Interview with Rachel


April 11, 2014

The Kensington urban forest consultation was held on March 16 as part of the Kensington Community Festival. More than 80 members of the community joined Councillor Arron Wood, Cr Cathy Oke and Cr Rohan Leppert, and City of Melbourne staff to plan Kensington's future urban forest.

Rachel, a City of Melbourne resident, participated in the consultation and had this to say after the event...

What was your main motivation for attending Greening Kensington?

I am distressed about the state of the environment but I feel like I can’t 'touch' all these great spaces because they belong to council or utility providers.

What was the most interesting aspect of the workshop for you?

Information - the quality of the information presented, the amount of work that the team had conducted, the extremely high quality of presentation materials. I adore infographics - they speak volumes to me!

What is one thing that you learned, that you didn’t know before?

About the canopy! How much the shade reduces the heat load in the city. It made me think about urban planning, young trees with no shade, all these 'low maintenance' paved backyards, and the removal of nature strips.

What is your favourite green space in Kensington and/or the City of Melbourne?

I love the Stockmans Walk (Kensington) leading down to the river. As much as it’s a green, leafy canopy I also adore the beautiful rambling private gardens and random pottery artworks snuck into little places. I'd love to see more community effort in these spaces. Why can't we green up with herbs, hardy flowering plants (nasturtiums, geraniums) and green artworks. I also love Holland Park but I don't love the lack of shade. I think I love it because I imagine how great it could be with flowers and more shade.