This paper discusses the role of community gardens in building healthy and sustainable communities. Focussing on a large high-rise public housing estate in Sydney’s inner west, the community garden scheme studied was part of an urban renewal program designed to ameliorate ongoing social problems on the estate.

To mediate the problems associated with this fragmentation of food policy, several local and regional government departments have created cross-sectoral councils to generate comprehensive, allied solutions to food issues within and surrounding urban areas.

In the contemporary context of urban development, the possibilities of looking anew at agriculture relates to implementing sustainability and addressing the structural changes brought about by globalization to communities, their food systems and quality of life for urbanites.