Dylan Kelly

My name’s Dylan Kelly. I'm a Barkindji Mutthi Mutthi Wangkumara man. I’ve been residing in Warrnambool for 24 years and currently I’m studying horticulture and I'm working at a nursery.

You know I'm originally from Mildura, down Balranald, where Mungo Man was found.

When I was growing up, I ran into the wrong crowd, started using drugs heavily, and that went for a span of over like 8 years, where I couldn't actually stop.

It was pushing my daughter away and I didn't want to lose connection with her.

I got put on a community corrections order that actually placed me at Worn Gundidj.

Ever since I've made the choice to, you know, look after myself and be on a sober, a more sober and more grounded journey, and come here and got some help and ever since they’ve welcomed me with open arms and I've just been, yeah trying to keep myself on the right track.

It's a good, safe space where no one judges anyone. It's been helping me provide a better, a better lifestyle for my children and my family.

What I do, you know looking after plants, growing plants. We grow a lot of Indigenous plants to this area. They bring back the birds and the insects cycle, keeping everything going and flowing.

So, there are some hard, some heavy, heavy jobs that, you know, I got to do like digging holes, getting down on my knees planting.

It's very, very self-rewarding and you know, giving back to the land. Nan and Pop were, you know always going fishing, going out camping. It's the same feeling that I got from them, that I get here, like when I'm on land or when I'm working with nature.

I am very interested in teaching people, you know, well telling them, sharing some knowledge too, because we do tours here sometimes.

I've gained a lot of knowledge here at the nursery, that I've been able to share with my daughter while we're out doing our walkabouts on Country.

And now when we're walking down the beach, she knows that she can walk over to that specific plant, grab it, and have a munch, and she knows more about her Country and, you know, very grateful and happy that I've been able to share that with my daughter.

My name’s Dylan Kelly. I'm a Barkindji Mutthi Mutthi Wangkumara man. I used to be a bricklayer and I'm enjoying doing horticulture.

I originally thought it was going to be a bit easier. Although it is, you know, it's a bit different to, you know, lobbing bricks around all day and mixing mud.

But there is some hard, some heavy, heavy jobs that, you know, I've got to do, like digging holes, getting down on my knees planting.

So, I would come in at 9 o'clock, but we normally squeegee the hot houses. So, we got, you know, a variety of different plants in a hothouse and the watering system shoots out a bit of water.

So we've got to manually move the water. That's a morning job, then we have a team meeting to figure out what we're doing for the day and there'll be a list of ten different things or so for us to do, to carry on and do that day.

It's very physical but it's a more mindful, you know, approach.

For me, it's been more, you know, I've been able to actually absorb, you know, what's going on around me, and I've found that that's been good, good for my spirit.

My name's Dylan Kelly. I'm a Barkindji Mutthi Mutthi Wangkumara man and currently I’m studying horticulture and I'm working at a nursery.

We've got a new watering controller system which allows us to run all the watering system through an app. So, through the app I can water whatever section I want to, whatever zone I want to water within the nursery.

The computer has its own sensors, that's connected to the internet which will be able to know the weather, and it can reduce or add more water.

We grow a lot of Indigenous plants to this area, and it really helps with, you know, keeping everything going and flowing.