Bega’s Riverside Nursery is expected to close at the end of June. Photo: Tulgeen Riverside Nursery Facebook.
Bega Valley residents are banding together to save a community nursery.
Tulgeen Disability Services announced Riverside Nursery’s closure earlier this month, saying it wasn’t financially viable. The nursery is set to close on 30 June.
Tura Beach resident Christine Welsh has launched a campaign, calling on Tulgeen to reconsider the decision.
“I was quite stunned to see the number of people [who were] saying this is awful, we must do something about it,” she said of the closure announcement.
“It’s important to the community, it’s important to people with jobs and it’s important to people with disabilities.”
Ms Welsh, who has family members with disabilities, said programs and initiatives like the nursery shouldn’t be undervalued.
Riverside operates under a supported employment model, where people with a disability work alongside support workers.
“They’re [the participants] gaining skills, they’re gaining life experience, they’re having fun,” she said.
“They’re contributing to the economy … They’re not excluded from the community.”
Region previously reported that about two dozen people will be affected by the closure – 14 supported employees, seven horticultural staff and five support workers.
To grow support for the nursery, Ms Welsh has started a Facebook group through which people can suggest proposals for how the program could be transformed.
Ideas have included opening a coffee shop at the nursery, hosting movie nights and signing new contracts with nearby councils to supply seeds and plants.
Regardless of what form it takes, she said Tulgeen should find an alternative plan for the site.
“There may be more to it than I know of, but … if it closes down, it’s gone. It’s no longer there [and] it won’t come back.
“There are a lot of benefits to having it. It is a meeting place, both for the public and for the people who work there.”
Ahead of the closure, she is also urging people to contact Tulgeen.
She said there hadn’t been enough notice of the nursery’s struggles or engagement with the community before the closure was announced.
“I wonder if they could have reached out to the people, had an open forum and invited a group of people to get together as a working party to explore all options,” she said.
Ms Welsh also said the closure should be a last resort, and called on people to have their say.
“When publicity is put out … people start to think, oh, maybe I can do something; maybe I can help,” she said.
“It’s more about finding ways [and making sure] if they have explored every option.
“Are there creative ways [or] other things [they could do]?”
The Save Tulgeen Riverside Nursery group can be contacted through its Facebook page.
Riverside Nursery is at 14 Taronga Crescent. It is open from 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday, 9 am to 3 pm Saturdays and 9 am to 2 pm Sundays until 30 June.
