• The ever-colourful Shani Graham and Tim Darby with Melissa Parke and Marie Thorn at the 2010 fiesta.
by JENNY D’ANGER
THE annual Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta has come to an end.
A victim of its own success it’s become too big for the suburban street and the workload unsustainable, says exhausted co-organiser Shani Graham.
“We love doing it, it’s been fantastic—but it’s taken a toll.”
The fiesta was born out of a big turnout to the opening of The Painted Fish, the eco-friendly B&B Ms Graham and partner Tim Darby started in 2008.
The pair decided to run a fiesta in September each year with neighbours throwing open gardens, selling goods, and stallholders setting up with eco-friendly stalls and sustainability ideas. Thousands flocked to the street.
Post-fiesta, Ms Graham hopes to organise a more manageable Back to Hulbert Street so former residents can gather oral histories.
The dynamic enviro-duo has sold The Painted Fish to people who plan to use it as a home rather than a business but are putting paid to rumours they’re moving out of Hulbert Street themselves (they live a few doors down from the B&B).
“We’re staying in our community,” Ms Graham says.
Sparking the rumour had been their offer on a big block in nearby Daly Street—which fell through—for a post-Fish project.
“But more options have opened up since then,” Ms Graham says.
Unsure what direction any venture might take, she and Mr Darby are “looking at having a little rest” before embarking on anything new.
“We’re really not sure what we are doing,” she says.
Plans for a community farm on the fringe of the old South Fremantle tip site continue, despite recent criticism and opposition.
The proposed Freo Farm is based on Melbourne’s Ceres—a former tip transformed into an award-winning environmental park, organic farm and shop. Freo Farm director and environmental lawyer Henry Jackson was involved with the Ceres project for some years.
Early testing of soil—in conjunction with the WA environment department—at the Hollis Park site indicates feasibility, Ms Graham insists.
“[But] we acknowledge it was initial and more [testing] is needed.”