The Age: Gardeners near Tullamarine Freeway uprooted then rebooted amid East West Link confusion. Clay Lucas, City Editor, The Age. October 2, 2014

For 36 years Roger Exell has grown everything – from tomatoes, beans, carrots and celery to daffodils and jonquils – on his six-by-three-metre plot at the Essendon Community Gardens.

“I’ve got a peach tree in my plot, and there’s a lemon tree that I planted, too,” said Mr Exell, 73, a retired food industry employee.

The gardens opened with a handful of plots in 1978 on badly degraded land next to Moonee Ponds Creek and the Tullamarine Freeway.

Today, there are 75 plots, toilets, two 10,000-litre water tanks and a pavilion that City West Water gave the gardens a grant to build, where the committee holds its meetings. There’s a waiting list to get a plot, too.

On Tuesday, Moonee Valley City Council and the garden’s vice president were told by the Napthine government’s road authority the garden would be bulldozed to make way for the East West Link.

The new $6.8 billion toll road will link the Eastern Freeway to CityLink – which runs near the gardens.

But on Thursday afternoon, after inquiries by The Age, the garden appeared to have been spared the bulldozer. Continue Reading…