Neighbourhood Watch: Melbourne
Photos by Mathew Bate
This article initially appeared in Issue 3
Change doesn’t have to happen on a grand scale – sometimes it starts small. We jump the fence to visit some of the makers and growers living their lives with creation, not consumption, in mind.
Greg Somers, 42
Apiarist
“I quit my job about a year ago – I was a genetics lecturer at La Trobe Uni. I decided I wanted to do more and [work] with bees. Honey is not our objective; it’s all about keeping the bees happy.”
“On a hot day, a lot of bees will come out of the hive and position themselves near those ventilation holes and beat their wings, forcing air into the holes to get a current going, which cools the hive down.”
– Greg Somers
Rosalia Niubalavu-Wright, 43
Hot sauce maker
“I grew up on a farm on an island called Taveuni in Fiji. My mum loves cooking and she used to make everything for us. This is one of her recipes.”
“When everyone goes to school or to work I just cook it here. I love red."
– Rosalia Niubalavu-Wright
Edwin Wise, 36
Communal goat herder
“Sharing the responsibility of keeping dairy goats has deepened our unintentional community – [we’re] more than simply like-minded folk living close to each other.”
Matt Merrick, 42
Backyard brewer
“I was a chef for 20 years. When I gave that up I became a builder. I went from finishing at 11pm every night to finishing at 3pm. I really needed something to do and this definitely fills a hole. It’s really become an obsession, which I love.”
“My first go […] I was getting it completely wrong. The pump was on the wrong way and I filled it up too much. Anyway, I got two beers out of it: an American IPA and an English IPA. The Vicbrew [homebrewing] Competition was coming up. I [entered the beers then] drank them all because they were delicious. I got a phone call to say that I’d won first place for the American IPA. They said, “Can you make more?” I had to say no because I had no recipe, I just sort of threw it all in.”
– Matt Merrick
Corinne Moesch, 43
Community composter
“We were going to build some wicking beds. I needed [several] cubic metres of soil and I thought, well, instead of buying it – where you never know what you’re getting – I’ll make my own. [Now], like a rubbish collection, my neighbours put out their [compost] buckets and I take them and swap the buckets with clean ones.”
“I love it. For me this is my time out, when I need to just get away and be myself.”
– Corinne Moesch
