Cobargo's Community Garden and Monty's Place in Narooma have been given a new lease of life this week by a team of travelling volunteers.
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The 15 volunteers visited the region the week of March 11 to give Monty's Place a fresh coat of paint and to transform the overgrown Cobargo garden.
The volunteers came together through a partnership between Outback Links, a Uniting Church branch of Frontier Services, and NRMA.
Several others involved
Resident Charlie Bamford owns the land and has a vision to transform the garden that was overcome by kikuyu.
When Monica Considine of Anglicare in Cobargo learnt of his plans she connected him with Narooma community chaplain Reverend Karen Paull of Uniting Church.
Ms Considine thought it would be a great project for the church's Frontier Services' Outback Links.
Heather Alexander of the Outback Links program devoted much time and energy coordinating behind-the-scenes.
As a result, the volunteers have been wielding whipper-snippers, scythes and countless more tools from the Triangle Tool Library to create a prepared blank canvas for its next phase.
The garden was originally intended to be a community vegetable garden but there was little demand because most people had space at home.
Work on sites that communities can access
Outback Links has been connecting volunteers with people doing it tough in remote Australia for decades.
The prevalence of natural disasters has seen it extend its help beyond the outback.
James Simmons, NRMA senior manager - community, said the team members have come from Sydney, Canberra, the Central Coast and Wollongong.
"We try to help in the community as much as we can for the people who are in need.
"Monty's Place is well deserving of getting some assistance so that the asset runs for many more years," Mr Simmons said.
"It takes the strain off the locals."
Due to Thursday's rain, the volunteers moved on to paint the inside of the Quaama Renewal Centre so it too received an unexpected helping hand.
Creating a beautiful place to connect
The volunteers also built shelving in the facility at the Cobargo garden that the Building Angels built after the Black Summer bushfires.
Mr Bamford envisages it becoming the Community Garden Room.
"It will be a bit of a library as we have a lot of gardening books and a place where people can come together," he said.
The property is managed by a not-for-profit collective, the Community Garden Group, that has around six members.
Mr Bamford's vision is that the garden will become a medicinal and herbal garden that is "a beautiful sanctuary for conversation and contemplation".