University of Melbourne’s heritage gardens under threat

Academics, students and the local community have rallied around a team of gardeners facing redundancy at the University of Melbourne.

As part of widespread job cuts, the university had planned to replace the team of five specialist gardeners with decades of experience with contractors.

But after a petition to save the gardeners received more than 1700 signatures, the university decided to delay the redundancies until next year.

National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Melbourne branch president Annette Herrera said that while the delayed decision was a reprieve for the grounds team, the union objected to the continued uncertainty around their future.

Letting go of these grounds staff is short sighted as these staff embody decades of knowledge of how to care for some of the most unique gardens in our state,” Ms Herrera said. 

The public campaign and the overwhelming support received so far has stalled the job cuts for now although the University will review the team again at the end of the year and can’t commit to stopping them from being cut.

The redundancies were intended to be part of the university’s wide-spread job cuts that have been ongoing since COVID put a stop to the revenue flow from international students.

However, Ms Herrera said that although the university had been hard-hit by the pandemic, the cuts went above and beyond loss of revenue.

“In terms of the finances, the University of Melbourne has made a surplus of close to $180 million. Many of the job cuts being experienced were actually planned before the pandemic,” Ms Herrera said.

“Rather than spending on more buildings that remain empty the university should invest in its staff who are the soul of this university. Don’t workers deserve secure jobs during a pandemic?”

Among the gardening team facing redundancy is Virginia McNally, who has been an arborist and gardener at the university for 31 years.

“Most of the people who have worked here have worked for more than 25 years, so they know the plants, they know the requirements and they know the area,” Ms McNally said.

“There would be a lot of skill and expertise walking out the door.”

Melbourne Uni’s prized botanic gardens were created in the 19th century and are home to 35,000 plants including nine trees on the National Trust’s significant tree register.

The Parkville site includes the botanically-significant System Garden, established in 1856, as well as the gardens outside the 1888 Building which were designed by William Guilfoyle, the architect of the Royal Botanic Gardens.

In April a rally was held in the System Gardens to protest against the job cuts, and academics from the Uni’s botany and history schools were among those to sign the petition.

A Melbourne University spokesperson said the gardens would continue to be maintained to the same high standards the community expected.

“In a proposal presented to staff, maintenance of the university’s grounds would be undertaken by external providers that are managed by a small in-house team of horticultural experts,” the spokesperson said.

“This is similar to the way the grounds have been managed for the past 20 years.”

“Two senior roles would be created in the university’s gardening team to oversee the maintenance of the gardens by the external providers.”

“The change would remove duplication and enable the university to focus on managing its contracted resources.”

A decision on the proposal will be made next year •