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The Microforest Collective provides the model behind a proven idea — communities creating small forests that turn everyday urban land into cooler, more valued places.

In 2020, landscape architect Edwina Robinson led the Downer Microforest — planted after the Black Summer bushfires as a clear, practical act of renewal. It showed what could happen when neighbours came together to turn an unused park into living public infrastructure.

The idea spread. Purdie Bowden and social researcher Liz Adcock joined Edwina to deliver the Watson Microforest in 2021 — this time adding nature play, education and community design.

Each project deepened the pattern: ordinary citizens, given the right support, could transform small public spaces into cooling, connected habitats.

By 2022, through co-leading the Queanbeyan Microforest, Mitch Porteous recognised what was needed to scale — not more enthusiasm, but systems. Each new project faced the same barriers: complex approvals, crowdfunding uncertainty, and leader burnout. The solution was shared infrastructure that made replication simple, credible, and supported.

In 2024, the four project leads — Edwina, Mitch, Purdie and Liz — founded the Microforest Collective to build that infrastructure. With support from a skilled volunteer board, the Collective now enables communities and partners across the ACT, NSW and Victoria to plan, fund and deliver their own microforests with confidence.

Early projects revealed the model’s strength and its challenges — fragmented approval processes, heavy administrative loads, and the emotional strain of leadership. Each forest taught practical lessons now embedded in the Collective’s system: mapped approval pathways, shared governance, structured crowdfunding, and community engagement templates that balance clarity with creativity.

Across sites, these microforests have become more than plantings. They are civic spaces that integrate Indigenous partnership, local education, and long-term care — showing how ecological restoration can strengthen the social fabric of a city.

Today, the Collective supports a growing network of microforests across the ACT, NSW and Victoria — proving that large-scale environmental renewal can be citizen-led, system-supported, and institutionally trusted.