The gift of a small tractor is helping to make flourish a community garden established in regional Victoria by a group refugees.

About twenty families of Burmese-Karen refugees harvest traditional and familiar foods from the garden on the outskirts of the town of Nhill, in western Victoria.

The gift of the tractor from community-based not-for-profit agency Landcare has meant the garden can be expanded and service more families.

Garden founder and community leader Kaw Doh Htoo says the tractor has helped expand yields and made work on the four-hectare garden easier.

“The tractor is a game changer for us. It means we can grow more food and feed more people,” Kaw Doh said.

The garden has become a haven for the Karen, many of whom fled persecution at the hands of the Burmese government and spent years in camps along the Thai-Burma border.

At the end of every day, the Karen come to tend the plots where they grow traditional foodstuffs that cannot be had in the local IGA supermarket.

The group of gardeners expertly pull out uninvited weeds and harvest plump tomatoes and fiery chillies along with strange looking greens and gourd-like vegetables.

The quiet, lush garden on the edge of town is a long way from the teeming camps where most of the Karen were born or spent decades of their lives.

The garden is part of an extraordinary initiative which has seen the Karen refugees resettle at Nhill, in Victoria’s Wimmera District.

The settlement program, which recently marked a fifteen-year milestone, was effectively begun by John Millington, OAM, who in 2009 was General Manager of local poultry processer Luv-a-Duck.

With a lack of local labour to facilitate the company’s expansion, Mr Millington turned to settlement agency AMES Australia to see whether there were any refugees willing to relocate to Nhill.

After arranging for a group of Karen to visit the Luv-a-Duck plant and Nhill, four workers were hired.

Nhill has since become a centre of resettlement for Karen people, who now make up about 10 per cent of the population, or around 240 people in all.

Most began their Australian lives in the Melbourne suburb of Werribee, before settling in the town from 2009.

Now there are more than 160 Karen working at the plant, on local farms and in local businesses.

“We learnt very quickly that it was important that the partners and kids of the workers were involved. We knew that they had to be looked after, engaged and connected to the community or the whole thing would fall over,” Mr Millington said.

“It was also important that the local established community was on board, so we made sure they understood what was happening,” he said.

Now, fifteen years on, the settlement of the Karen is bedded down and they are part of the fabric of Nhill’s community.

An economic impact study found over a ten-year period, the total economic impact from the regional resettlement of the Karen population on the economy of Nhill and its surrounds is estimated to have been $105.5 million, with an associated impact on employment of an extra 156 full-time-equivalent jobs.

It found that because of the youthful demographic profile of the Karen population, the Karen labour force will continue to grow over time, adding to the productive capacity of the region in years to come.

The report found the resettlement of the Karen at Nhill has been sustained over a decade because of the region’s attractiveness as a settlement location for this community.

It identified key factors in this success, which include: a welcoming host community; sustainable employment, appropriate housing and employment and educational opportunities for families.

The Karen at Nhill have experienced improved standards of living, including home ownership, and greater opportunities and career pathways for young people, the report said.

Kaw Doh was one of the first Karen refugees to settle at Nhill.

He lived in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border for seven years and came to Australia as a refugee 12 years ago.

He and several other Karen moved from their community in Werribee to take up work in Nhill.

“I found it very different at first, I lived in a big house with ten to twenty people,” Kaw Doh said.

“Looking back, it was a good experience, coming to live here (in Nhill). Melbourne was very expensive and here we had work,” he said.

“Since the Karen settled here about ten families, including me, have bought houses,” Kaw Doh said.

Three years ago, he opened a business, a grocery shop in the main street of the town selling traditional Karen foodstuffs and other items.

“I saw there was a need for people to be able to buy traditional foods because otherwise they would have to drive to Werribee to get them and that can be a long and dangerous drive. So, we opened the shop,” Kaw Doh said.

The store is now being run by Karen community members.