Alice has been a resident of Alexandria since 2020. She speaks mainly Italian at home. She has a strong sense of community, believing that belonging is about the small things: people who are interested in their neighbours, the local coffee place where they pronounce her Italian name correctly, and being one of the many local parents at her children’s school. She considers all the people in her area to be her neighbours, even when she only knows them through their plants or gardens.

‘My street is a bit anarchic.’

Alice feels connected to the community when people take care of public space. In Alexander Street, neighbours look after the common green accompanied by their children. Nearby, in what real estate agents refer to as the ‘golden triangle’ because of prime residential streets, many communal practices of care are in place. In her time living in the neighbourhood, for instance, Alice has noticed a shared compost bin, instructions on the use of grey water for gardens and invitations to take cuttings of plants.

Alice believes these local environmental practices are growing: the more people do, the more it encourages other people to get involved.

‘Little gestures like this make you feel there is life there, not just inside your little house. [It’s] a meaningful thing that is good for the environment, your neighbourhood, and your kids,’ she says.

Alice speaks about connection in the community from her perspective as a migrant. She remembers her grandparent’s house as a child, picking her nonna’s (grandmother’s) raspberries. During the pandemic she found a mulberry tree on a neighbour’s land; the neighbour was happy to share the fruit with her.

‘This made me feel at home somehow,’ she says.

Recently Alice saw a sign made by a child who wanted start a ‘bee protection’ club. She left her number and is waiting to hear from them.  She sees community-led initiatives, like collective composting, vegetable gardens on verges, and gardens running on ‘grey’ or recycled water, as signs that people have a desire to disrupt the status quo – to take the future of their small corner of the planet into their own hands.

Alice’s backyard is too shaded for some sun-loving plants, but she does have a huge avocado tree that’s ‘quite happy’. She also has an olive tree (of course), a lemon tree, hibiscus and rosemary as well as a whole host of succulents. She has plans to plant in front of their house in the future, particularly her favourite plant, pigface.

‘I like pigface for two reasons,’ she says. ‘The first is that it’s an indigenous plant. The second is that it reminds me of Liguria, the place where I was born. It is a plant that thrives in the rocks; that’s beautiful but also tough.’

Alice is pronounced Al ee che in Italian and means ‘anchovy’.