Understanding the effects of the Hobart Apartments student accommodation community garden project - Report One: Leadership and Management

The University of Tasmania is beginning the journey to shift focus from Sandy Bay into the Hobart CBD. One of the first steps on this journey is to improve the public landscape and integration of the Melville St student accommodation into the CBD through a community garden. This provides a tremendous opportunity to track the impact of the shift on the health and wellbeing of the student body, local communities, and the environment. Our research project, funded by the DVCRs office, aims to understand how an inner-city student accommodation community garden project can benefit the health and wellbeing of students, the broader community.

The first phase of this research project has now been completed, which involved qualitative, quantitative and observational data collection and analysis before the community garden was installed. Methods used included interviews, focus groups, observational studies of public use of the space, and an online survey. The purpose of this report is to inform future management of the community garden site as it develops. The second phase of the project will collect and analyse data after the community garden has been established (late 2020, COVID-19 restrictions permitting).