Volunteering
Volunteers provide a valuable contribution to the Edendale community. Each week we have over eighty volunteers supporting us in various roles.
To volunteer at Edendale you must be 15 years or older.
All volunteers over 18 are required to hold a Working with Children Check. These checks are free for volunteers, and we can guide you through the process. If you have a current employee Working with Children Check, you can use this for volunteering. For more information, please go to the Working with Children Check website.
Edendale is a working farm, and has health and safety requirements for staff and volunteers. Volunteers need to be able to work safely, follow staff instruction and be flexible. After the initial training, volunteers will at times work without direct staff supervision. Volunteers and staff will communicate with each other using a two-way radio, which we expect volunteers to become proficient at using quite quickly.
We also offer a small number of Personalised Roles, which are for volunteers who require additional support to meet these above requirements. These roles offer greater flexibility and can be customised to meet individual needs and goals. Our other volunteer roles are complex and task-orientated, and not suited for people who require support. Due to a massive demand for these positions, we are now only working with several established local organisations to supply clients for these roles.
The capacity for Edendale to take on new volunteers depends on staffing levels and suitable work being available for the volunteers.
Applying to volunteer at Edendale
All of our other volunteer roles are currently full. However, you can still email us to be placed on our waiting list.
Please have a look through the volunteer roles below, then email us at edendale.volunteer@nillumbik.vic.gov.au to express your interest in one or more roles. Please outline your interest area, experience and availability.
We will get back to you to arrange an interview, or to let you know that we have no current openings but will place you on our waiting list.
Volunteer roles at Edendale
Grounds and Gardens Assistant - FULL
Working with the outdoor staff with garden bed or grounds maintenance.
This may include watering, planting, weeding, mulching, sweeping, raking or composting.
Tuesday, Thursday or Friday mornings from 9.30am to 12.30pm.
Nursery Assistant - FULL
Working with the nursery staff to propagate and grow local indigenous plants.
Wednesday, Thursday or Friday mornings.
Food Garden Assistant - FULL
Assisting in the ongoing upkeep of the food gardens including harvesting, maintaining, planting and watering.
Animal Husbandry Assistant - FULL
Helping outdoor staff with the daily chores associated with the animals.
Volunteers MUST be able to work unsupervised and sometimes on their own after initial training.
Tasks may include milking goats, poultry chores, feeding stock, renewing bedding and cleaning yards.
Either 8.30am to 10.30am or 3.30pm to 5pm, every day, one shift per volunteer.
Live Display Assistant - FULL
Assisting with the feeding of our hopping mice, lizards, fish and spiny stick insects and maintaining their enclosures.
Flexible times.
Visitor Interaction Volunteer - FULL
Providing a customer service role to Edendale visitors including opportunities for them to interact with the Edendale animals.
Volunteers MUST be able to work unsupervised and on their own after initial training.
Flexible times including weekends.
Weekend Nursery Assistant - FULL
Assisting staff with watering the indigenous plants, re-stocking the indigenous plant nursery, and propagating if time allows.
Volunteer MUST be able to work unsupervised and sometimes on their own after initial training.
Saturday or Sunday mornings for two hours.
Personalised Volunteer Role - FULL
The Personalised Volunteer Role offers a flexible opportunity that can be customised to meet individual needs and goals.
Volunteers who require support to meet Edendale’s health and safety requirements must be accompanied by a Support Worker who will also receive the initial training.
Indigenous Seed Processing Volunteer - FULL
The Indigenous Seed Processing volunteer role will assist Edendale staff in the preparation of indigenous seed that has been already collected. The seed will be used in the Edendale Nursery over the coming months and years.
Tuesday mornings 9.30am to 12.30pm.
Edendale Connect
The Edendale volunteer program operates with the expectation of a regular commitment and the agreement to perform a set task.
Sometimes, people are not quite ready to commit to such a formal volunteer role but still want to feel a greater sense of connection to Edendale.
Below we have outlined suggested ways individuals and groups can engage with Edendale and feel a sense of belonging and connection.
For some people, this type of informal connection on a regular basis will provide a better experience than actually becoming a formal volunteer with the expectation of performing a set task on a regular basis.
Ways to connect with Edendale
Farm animals
- Visit all your favourite Edendale animals and say hello
- Buy a small packet of chicken feed at the farm and feed the chickens
- Feed some browse from the bucket to the goats
- Please do not bring any food from home for the animals – it can make them sick
- Take photos of the animals and start a photo album
- You can watch and record the young animals growth at birthing time
- Sit quietly and observe the different animals behaviour
- At home, research the farm animals– what they eat, how to care for them
Indigenous plants
- Walk around the different garden beds at Edendale
- Visit the plant nursery
- Learn about how to grow indigenous plants
- Plan an indigenous garden bed at home
- Buy some indigenous plants and plant them in your garden at home
- Look after your plants and watch them grow
- Learn how to identify indigenous plants and their names
- Take walks in the local bushland reserves in Nillumbik such as
- Bunjil Reserve
- Along the Diamond Creek Trail
- Challenger St Reserve
- Lenister Farm Wetlands
- See if you can identify plants in these reserves
- Take pictures of the different plants and stick them in an album
- Learn how to use the app iNaturalist and upload pictures of indigenous plants into it
Food gardening
- Explore the Edendale food gardens
- Learn about healthy eating and taste lots of healthy fruit and vegetables at home
- Investigate starting a vegetable garden at home
- Buy some vegetable seedlings from Edendale
- Grow and eat your own vegetables
- Share your home-grown vegetables with friends
Art and other
- Bring some sketching material and draw your favourite animal
- Start a nature journal and sketch what you see when you visit Edendale
- Collect different types of leaves that are on the ground – can you identify what tree they have come from
- There are clipboard activities to complete near reception
- Visit the other displays – hopping mice, spiny leaf insects
- Have a refreshing drink at the café
- Visit the nearby Eltham North Adventure Playground
- Bring your bike and enjoy the nearby bike track
You can also download the Connect with Edendale(PDF, 122KB)
document as a PDF.
Other volunteering options
Volunteering in Nillumbik
There are many environmental volunteering roles in our local area. You can get involved in a Council-managed volunteer program, or community-organised volunteer program. You can also volunteer your time to contribute to citizen science by recording your plant and animal sightings as part of your day-to-day life.
Options include Friends groups, Gardens for Wildlife, Landcare groups, Forest Health monitoring and more.
Find out more about environmental volunteering at the Nillumbik website.
Friends of Edendale
Established in 2022, the Friends of Edendale have organised several planting and revegetation days on and around the Edendale site, planting hundreds of indigenous plants grown at the Edendale indigenous nursery.
The Friends of Edendale are keen to welcome new members.
Joining a friend's group is a great way to meet new people, learn new skills and contribute to the protection and enhancement of the Edendale site and nearby bushland reserves.
Contact via email at friendsofedendalefarm@gmail.com