Geelong’s Wyld Work Projects opens new community space

FOR the past five years, therapeutic horticulturalist Rebecca Taylor has been gradually increasing her presence across Geelong.

Her wide-ranging nature-based programs, operating under the banner of Wyld Work Projects, have quickly expanded to include more than 10 project sites across the region, including the Grinter Community Garden in Moolap, the Geelong Botanical Gardens and the Spell Therapy Farm on the Bellarine.

“The premise behind what I do is about connecting people back in with nature and connecting people back in with their own creativity as a means to heal, develop social connections, build self-esteem, or even just build up employability skills,” Ms Taylor said.

“At the end of the day, there’s nothing nicer than hanging out with plants or wandering around the garden.

“There’s so much research and data about how good connecting with a garden is for us.”

Wyld Work Projects has now opened a new space in the heart of Geelong’s CBD, to function both as a base camp for the organisation and as a gathering space for the local community.

The site, which spans the upper level of the Creative Geelong precinct in Little Malop Street, has spaces set up for installations, activities and workshops that promote wellbeing, with room to grow and evolve with the needs and interests of the community.

“I can see the potential for it to be a real community hub,” Ms Taylor said.

“We’re also really, really keen to hear from community. If they’ve got something they want to do and they need a space to do it in, then come and talk to us.

“Let’s see what we can work out. We’ve only just opened, but the idea is that we want to get to the point where we’re operational six days a week and it’s a space that community are driving.

“We’re just the placeholders.”

Ms Taylor said the social enterprise had grown rapidly because what they do works, with therapeutic horticulture an emerging and internationally recognised field of healthcare.

“When we connect in with plants and we’re connecting with the natural world, I think it helps us get a bit more of a perspective on life,” she said.

“There’s lots of analogies and I often talk to people in my programs…when we do compost [for example]…about the idea that we have these s****y experiences, and we have these yucky emotions and these things we just can’t cope with or don’t like.

“And we can just grab them, and we can just stick them in the ground. You just compost it and it can be the fuel and the nourishment for whatever comes next.”

To learn more about the programs Wyld Work Projects has on offer, head to wyldworkprojects.com.au