Growing people, places and possibility.
Open Spaces Collective is an Aboriginal-owned landscape collective. We grow native plants with Aboriginal community partners on Bundjalung Country, and build parks, paths and plantings for councils and state government, with training on every contract.
Barangaroo Reserve, Sydney. Photo: wuppertaler, CC BY 4.0
A collective, because a landscape is never built by one business.
A public landscape is grown in a nursery, built by a crew, guided by the Traditional Custodians of the place and used by a community. Open Spaces Collective brings those people into one arrangement, so a council or agency buying one contract gets all of them.
At its centre is a native plant nursery to be built at Namabunda Farm, the Bundjalung Tribal Society’s property near Alstonville. We are a sister business to DICE Contracting, which builds the nursery and delivers our landscape works. Who we are
Who is in the collective
Eight partners around one nursery, each doing the part they know best.
Namabunda Farm Native Nursery
Namabunda Farm, Alstonville, on Bundjalung Country
Bundjalung Tribal Society
Aboriginal community organisation, Lismore
Owners of Namabunda Farm, where the nursery will be built. Cultural guidance on Bundjalung Country.
Aralumbin Nursery
Wholesale nursery, Dungay
Operational now. Grows and supplies stock from the first stage while the Namabunda nursery is built.
DICE Contracting
Aboriginal-owned builder
Designs and builds the Namabunda nursery, and delivers the landscape installation on site.
Landcom
NSW Government land and housing organisation
Stage 1: the first landscape project designed, installed and delivered by the collective.
TAFE and registered training organisations
Training
Accredited qualifications for trainees working in the nursery and on site.
Clontarf and community groups
Community
Pathways for young Aboriginal people into the nursery and the crews.
Schools
Education
Planting days, visits and learning on Country.
From the collective’s stakeholder map. each partner has agreed to be named, and Hunter Boorn’s role
Hard landscaping
The built bones of a site: the levels, walls, paths and light that decide how people move through it.
- Hard landscapingWalls, steps, edges, paving and the built bones of a site.
- Pathways and shared pathsFootpaths, shared paths, boardwalks and accessible routes.
- Park and path lightingPole, bollard and feature lighting for public spaces.
Soft landscaping
Everything that grows, and the soil, water and care it needs to still be growing a year after handover.
- Native planting and revegetationGarden beds, grasslands, revegetation and establishment.
- Street and park treesAdvanced stock, root barriers and tree protection.
- Water sensitive designSwales, raingardens and bioretention planting.
- EstablishmentWatering, weeding and replacing losses after handover.
Or the whole park, under one contract.
Earthworks to establishment, with one program, one site team and one point of contact.
Grown on Bundjalung Country, planted by our crews.
Aralumbin Nursery at Dungay is growing stock now. The nursery at Namabunda Farm will follow, on land owned by the Bundjalung Tribal Society, so more of each planting is grown by an Aboriginal organisation on its own Country. This is the kind of palette we plant across coastal New South Wales.
Ban int
Lom lon
Aca lon
Dia cae
Cor ref
The tri| Code | Botanical name | Common name | Form | Typical height | Where we use it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trees | |||||
| Cor mac | Corymbia maculata | Spotted gum | Tree | 20–30 m | Street and park trees, large-scale shade |
| Ang cos | Angophora costata | Sydney red gum | Tree | 15–25 m | Feature trees on sandstone soils |
| Ban int | Banksia integrifolia | Coast banksia | Tree | 6–15 m | Coastal parks, windbreaks, bird habitat |
| Ban ser | Banksia serrata | Old man banksia | Small tree | 3–8 m | Sandstone reserves, habitat planting |
| Shrubs | |||||
| Aca lon | Acacia longifolia | Sydney golden wattle | Shrub | 3–6 m | Fast screening, nitrogen fixing, revegetation |
| Wes fru | Westringia fruticosa | Coastal rosemary | Shrub | 1–2 m | Low hedging, exposed and coastal sites |
| Cal spp | Callistemon spp. | Bottlebrush | Shrub | 1.5–4 m | Swales and damp ground, nectar for birds |
| Cor ref | Correa reflexa | Native fuchsia | Small shrub | 0.5–1.5 m | Shaded understorey, winter flowers |
| Grasses, strappy plants and groundcovers | |||||
| Lom lon | Lomandra longifolia | Spiny-headed mat-rush | Tufting perennial | 0.6–1 m | Batters, verges, bioretention edges |
| Dia cae | Dianella caerulea | Blue flax lily | Strappy perennial | 0.5–0.9 m | Understorey, mass planting under trees |
| The tri | Themeda triandra | Kangaroo grass | Tussock grass | 0.5–1 m | Grassland restoration, low-mow areas |
| Poa lab | Poa labillardierei | River tussock | Tussock grass | 0.6–1.2 m | Creeklines, swales, wetland margins |
| Xer bra | Xerochrysum bracteatum | Golden everlasting | Short-lived perennial | 0.3–0.8 m | Meadows, seasonal colour, pollinators |
| Car gla | Carpobrotus glaucescens | Pigface | Succulent groundcover | 0.1–0.2 m | Coastal batters, erosion control |
| Ani fla | Anigozanthos flavidus | Tall kangaroo paw | Clumping perennial | 1–2 m in flower | Feature beds only: a Western Australian species |
Indicative only. On a real job the species, provenance and pot sizes follow the landscape architect’s schedule and the site’s own vegetation community. How we source and establish native plants
Every contract carries a training plan.
Landscape construction is one of the few trades where a new starter can do useful, paid work on day one. We use that to turn each contract into jobs and qualifications for local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
On site, paid, from day one
Inducted, kitted out and working alongside an experienced leading hand.
Skills on the tools
Set-out, planting, paving, walls and machinery, learned on real work with real standards.
A qualification
Enrolled in a nationally recognised landscape construction or horticulture qualification. Delivered with TAFE and registered training organisations. which qualifications, and with which provider
A next job
Ongoing work with us or DICE, or a reference into council parks crews and other contractors.
A nursery the community can come to.
Namabunda Farm is already a place where Bundjalung Elders share knowledge of plants and Country, and where the wider community comes for planting days and workshops. The nursery adds a working reason to be there: trainees growing stock, schools and Clontarf groups visiting, and plants leaving the farm for parks across the region.
The plan, in six stages.
From a nursery that is growing now to a second stage supplied from Namabunda Farm.
Aralumbin operational
Aralumbin Nursery is growing stock, with DICE Contracting alongside.
ANDC
Design and build the Namabunda nursery
DICE Contracting designs and builds the nursery at Namabunda Farm.
DC
Fund and grow Stage 1 plants
Funding secured to procure and grow the plants for the first project.
ANAF
Stage 1 with Landcom
Design, install and deliver the first landscape project for Landcom.
ANDCNF
Source and grow Stage 2
Namabunda Farm and Aralumbin grow the stock for the next project.
ANNF
Deliver Stage 2
Install and hand over Stage 2, with the Namabunda nursery supplying.
ANNFDC
- AN
- Aralumbin Nursery
- DC
- DICE Contracting
- NF
- Namabunda Farm
- AF
- AF (not named in the flow chart legend)
From the collective’s initiative flow chart. who AF is, and which stages are complete
Buying from an Aboriginal business, simply.
Commonwealth, NSW and local government all have ways to engage Aboriginal businesses directly. We make that easy to use.
Councils
Parks, reserves, streetscapes and paths, often with social procurement targets we can report against.
NSW Government
The Aboriginal Procurement Policy lets agencies engage Aboriginal businesses directly for many contracts.
Commonwealth
The Indigenous Procurement Policy asks agencies to consider Indigenous businesses first for many contracts.
Have a site, a scope or a closing date?
Send us what you have. We will tell you straight whether it suits us, and how we would staff and train on it.