CERES park is situated on a 4.5 hectare slope along the Merri Creek. A stroll through CERES will take you through a model of a sustainable community, examples of green technology in action, ecological building design and community enterprise.

The site was once a municipal tip. It is hard for people who are new to CERES to comprehend just what a desolate wasteland our beautiful park once was. Today, with the help of a fantastic crew of volunteer workers, the CERES Site Team maintain the gardens, revegetation and composting systems as well as manage the day to day functioning of the park.

Early on, the park’s leftover bluestone pitchers were put to use in sheds and buildings for the burgeoning park. The composting toilets run on a rotating-bin system and sit in bluestone chambers below above-ground bathrooms.

The thatched houses of the African and Indonesian villages were first built in 1988 with financial help from Community Aid Abroad to educate students about Africa and ‘development’ issues more generally. Over the years they were subject to persistent arson attacks and have been rebuilt several times. Every layer of the mud brick huts is reinforced with barbed wire and has a bluestone edge.

What you see around you at CERES is the result of many years of tender love and care for the land and its environs.