O
ver the past couple of months, I’ve been reading posts on the newly coined phrase “Guerrila Gardening.” Guerilla gardening is the act of transforming a public piece of land that is currenlty an eye-sore into something that is beautiful and enjoyable to view. I’m not exactly sure who who started the term, and if someone can advise me then I shall annotate accordingly, but it inspired me to not only look for areas where I could perform such an action but also to acknowledge those who have already been doing it.

This park is now called the Rod Smith Park, not in recognition of some famous guy but named in order to acknowledge the efforts of this park’s next door neighbour. I don’t know all the details but I do know that this land was once a desolate public open space attached to a current shire facility. Rod Smith, whose house adjoins this land, set about cleaning it up and created a beautiful park which is now enjoyed by many people and has also been the stage for several garden weddings.

The Busselton Shire even acknowledge Rod’s contribution by erecting this sign;

which reads;

Busselton Shire Council acknowledge that this park is maintained mainly by the local residents for the enjoyment of the public.

The land backs onto some wetlands in a subdivision that doesn’t get much exposure and would never have been ear-marked for public funding. Yet this small community wanted more than a wasteland on their doorstep and rather than petition and fight the local government, which would have fallen on deaf ears, they used their time and resources to produce something more incredible.

To give you an idea what the land once looked like I have included this picture of what lies behind the park and to the left. Maybe this will become someone’s project in the future.

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