About the Collective
Growing people, places and possibility: a nursery, a crew and a community, working as one.
Why a collective
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. Our line for it is growing people, places and possibility.
The collective is centred on 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, the Aboriginal-owned builder that designs and builds the nursery and delivers our landscape installation.
The partners
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
The plan
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
Owners
Clint
Owner
surname, Nation or community, and a short biography for Clint
Tim Comerford
Co-owner
Tim has worked in construction for more than 25 years. He started as a licensed plumber, added carpentry and building qualifications, holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Technology Sydney and lectured at TAFE NSW for five years. He is Managing Director of DICE Contracting, and his teaching background shapes how training runs on our sites.
How we work
Build it right the first time. Public assets last decades. We build to the drawings and the standards, and raise problems before they become defects.
Leave people better off. Every contract carries a training plan and reports what it achieved.
Plant for the place. Native species, matched to the site and grown in the collective’s own nurseries.
Respect whose Country it is. Cultural knowledge belongs to Traditional Custodians. Where it shapes a project, they lead and are paid.
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.