700 people pitched in to build a farm at Colac Secondary College. Six months later, it’s thriving

What was once an underutilised patch of land at the back of Colac Secondary College just six months ago is now 3.4 linear kilometres of lively garden beds, producing fresh vegetables for cooking classes and for sale to the wider community.

More than 700 volunteers, community members, teachers and students rolled up their sleeves to build the farm in just 24 hours in November, with some camping overnight to ensure the job was done.

Since then, school leaders say the farming project has transformed both student learning and how the community interacts with the school.

What’s going on: A celebration of the farm’s progress will kick off Wednesday afternoon (June 10) from 4pm to 6pm, with a cooking competition, live music, tours of the farm and talks.

Community pride: Colac Secondary College principal Skye Bannan said the project had given new purpose to the school’s agriculture and horticulture curriculum, providing students with real-world learning opportunities across agriculture, science and food studies.

• “What it really did was create a sense of pride within the school and the community,” she told the Brolga.

• “The build has given purpose to having horticulture at the school, because the kids can see how important the production is, and that it’s actually going to an end point rather than producing vegetables and not seeing the whole cycle of that production.”      

• “To have a program or a group that can come in and actually take that responsibility on and maintain an area of horticultural production over the breaks is really important for viability.”

Classroom success: Students are now regularly working on the farm through a dedicated Year 10 Farm My School subject, Year 9 agriculture classes and VCE agriculture and horticulture studies.

• “The [response from] students is extremely positive, they love going up there,” Bannan said. “Any opportunity for hands-on learning where students get to see real-life applications is so critical for learning and engagement.”

Fast-paced growth: Farm My School co-founder and chief executive James McLennan said the organisation was founded on the idea of transforming unused school land into commercial regenerative market gardens that could feed communities while supporting education.

• The Colac farm began harvesting produce within three months of construction and launched its veggie box program in February, selling weekly boxes of fresh produce to locals, including recipe cards. 

• Around 20 boxes are now being sold each week, with produce also used in school cooking classes. Current crops include garlic, rainbow chard, radicchio and rhubarb, while green manure crops are being planted to improve soil fertility through winter.

Farming with nature: McLennan said regenerative farming practices focused on building soil health, increasing biodiversity and reducing reliance on fertiliser.

• “For us, it means farming with nature,” he said. “This type of farming makes sense, we're on 1.5 acres here.” 

• “There's around 3.4 linear kilometres of garden beds, and we can grow an abundance of food.” 

• “Once this farm is fully set up, we'll be able to produce anywhere from 250 kilos a week, right up to summer, sort of around 750-800 kilos a week, which is a lot of veg.”

Cutting food miles: The environmental benefits extend beyond the farm gate. 

Research published in Nature Food found food transport accounts for around 19 percent of global food-system carbon dioxide emissions, highlighting the climate impact of moving produce long distances.

By contrast, produce grown at the Colac farm is harvested and delivered to local customers within one to two days, significantly reducing food miles.

• “The carbon attached to those fruits and vegetables is profound, let alone the packaging, let alone the transport costs, the artificial fertiliser costs of growing them, the storage costs,” McLennan said.

• “It's a huge expense, and if not a financial expense, it's a huge expense on the environment and carbon emitted into the atmosphere as well.”