By Michael Mobbs, gardener, Chippendale, NSW

Here are two reports by two councils which, to my eyes, show Australian communities have a long held and growing appetite for composting at home, in the street and in public gardens.

Sydney City Council, NSW

The first report is one obtained by Sydney City Council in 2020; the Community Gardens Insight Report 2020; download here.

Look at this graph at p 17 of that report, under the heading: 3.1.4 Community composting. The introductory note reads:

As already noted, composting is seen as a key role for community gardens and a reason people are interested in being involved. When asked to rate the importance of community composting, it was almost universally rated on the higher end of the scale (Figure 9).

Melbourne City Council – Worms at work

This 12 month trial of public street composting ran throughout 2025.

Anyone may get the Council report on the project website:

- https://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/emerging-tech-testbed/worms-at-work-pilot

Front cover of the Melbourne City Council report on the Worms at work project

Perhaps for the first time in Australia (elsewhere?) any person may see live data on usage, quantity and other functions on the Dashboard there on the project website. The data is refreshed every three hours.

How useful do you think the data on the number of times someone sat on the compost option or opened the seat will be to both the Council, other Councils, and we citizens and composters? A screenshot from the dashboard is below.

Go the worms!

Michael Mobbs, gardener 20 July 2026