Meeting Point: Highgate Hill Park (next to the Highgate Hill Community Orchard sign on Hampstead Road)
End Point: Southern end of Boundary Street
Guides: John Mongard & Maeve Cunnington
Tour Length: Approximately 2km, includes some hilly terrain
Access: Accessible via public transport
Discover how local vision and grassroots action are transforming Kurilpa’s green spaces into thriving community assets. This guided walk explores established and emerging community greening projects, revealing how local groups have collaborated with social and professional partners to bring life to footpaths, parks, and forgotten corners.
Along the way, you’ll visit key projects including:
-
Highgate Hill Community Orchard
-
Hampstead Road Common Plan & the Kurilpa Greening Strategy
-
Paradise Street Community Projects
-
Growing Forward Community Garden
Each stop will highlight the power of place-based community planning and the long-term impact of sustained local engagement.
About the Guides:
John Mongard is a landscape architect with over 30 years’ experience helping community groups bring their visions to life. A dedicated local, John donates one day a week to support greening projects across the Kurilpa neighbourhood.
Maeve Cunnington is an active member of the Kurilpa Futures Community Greening group and has been directly involved in several of the projects featured on the tour. Her commitment to building stronger communities through shared green space is at the heart of her work.
ABOUT
Kurilpa Futures: Founded in 2012, Kurilpa Futures began as a grassroots, volunteer-led group focussed on local planning issues. Since then, we have been advocating for meaningful community consultation in decision-making processes, ensuring that our voices are heard in the rapidly densifying Kurilpa area. Our work prioritizes:
- Managing climate change through initiatives such as Resilient Kurilpa.
- Promoting active transport and street safety for our diverse community
- Expanding green spaces through community gardens, street and park plantings
- Collaborating with other community organizations to address urban planning challenges locally and beyond.
Resilient Kurilpa: Founded in 2022 in response to the major flood event in February 2022 that impacted thousands of residents on the Kurilpa Peninsular, Resilient Kurilpa is a volunteer-led, grassroots community group focussed on climate change preparedness and resilience in a city built on a flood plain. Our vision includes:
- To nurture an informed, skilled, and connected community, empowered to rapidly and safely respond and recover to climate disaster events.
- To support groups to learn from the past and implement practical and inclusive mitigation strategies.
- To be a leading community in grassroots disaster resilience building and share knowledge with local and global climate disaster communities to adapt for their own contexts.
West End Community Association (WECA): Founded in 2004, WECA is a volunteer-led, not-for-profit, incorporated association dedicated to creating a connected, diverse, and livable community within the Kurilpa Peninsula. WECA’s work focuses on advocacy, sustainability, arts, and cultural initiatives.
- Arts and Culture: Hosting events like the Kurilpa Derby, West End Festival, and First Nations-led projects to foster community connection through the arts.
- Representation: Amplifying community voices through candidate forums and keeping residents informed via social media and e-newsletters.
- Sustainability: Promoting livability with initiatives like Resilience Kurilpa, advocating for sustainable development and public space access.
- People: Strengthening the community by providing opportunities for volunteering, subcommittee participation, and student placements and training.