Project Update — Growing Impact, From the Ground Up: Our Partnership with Knoxbrooke Nurseries on the Big Housing Build
Walk through the finished Homes Victoria Big Housing Build site on Ormond Road in East Geelong and you’ll see native grasses catching the wind and young trees settling into the beds between the buildings. Look closer, and there’s a second story here — one that started in a nursery in the Melbourne hills, long before a single plant touched the ground.
Every plant on this site came from Knoxbrooke Nursery, a social enterprise nursery built around an inclusive workplace for people with disability. It’s one of the many extraordinary organisations we’re proud to partner with across Melbourne and Victoria — places doing quietly remarkable work, growing more than gardens and landscapes. They’re changing lives too.
A nursery with a bigger purpose
Knoxbrooke was established around 60 years ago to support people with intellectual disabilities. Its nursery, started 40 years later, has grown into a serious national supplier — and a serious employer.
“Today, our social enterprises employ 120 people with disability, supplying over 2 million plants a year to retailers, landscapers and builders right across the country,” says Scott Buckland, Knoxbrooke’s Managing Director. “Through employment, we change lives.”
Built in from the start
Our relationship with Knoxbrooke on this project was never just a transaction – we wanted this partnership to mean something. By engaging with their team early early, right at the start of the contract, it gave Knoxbrooke the certainty to plan ahead and keep investing in its people, while making sure the right plants landed on site exactly to spec.
That early collaboration flowed into something bigger: genuine, inclusive employment, work that offers income, connection and a real sense of belonging, in an outdoor setting Knoxbrooke has thoughtfully built to support its team.
Natives, by design
The brief for The Big Housing Build in Geelong called for predominantly Australian natives, chosen for resilience as much as beauty — tough, drought-tolerant plants that also deliver a softer, more natural streetscape for the people who live here.
The Impact, by The Numbers
By project’s end, Knoxbrooke had generated over 20,000 hours of employment through the build
“We’ve been able to give people confidence in their jobs, and continue our journey of changing lives through jobs,” Scott says.
20,000 hours. A landscape that will outlast the scaffolding by decades, and a reminder of what’s possible when a construction project is treated as a chance to invest in people.
Want the full story, in Scott’s own words? Watch the video below.
What we build matters. How we build it — and who we build it with — matters more.