NESCA Park used to be a complete dump. Just in the last three years, it's cleaned up.
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"It was really noticeable. It actually got me thinking about putting more effort in," Josh Pryor says. "Everybody wants to move out to the country. It took me to moving to a three-acre block, hours away to get me thinking, 'why can't I improve my backyard?'"
Pryor is a well-known yoga teacher in Newcastle and the CEO of Yoga Australia. During the pandemic he started to get creative, working on the land where he's lived for 15 years at The Hill, despite the fact that he had purchased a property out of town.
He lives in a one-bedroom apartment on Nesca Parade with his partner Jacqui and their cats Sky and Lavender and his plants.
His balcony is small, but impressive, with stunning views of the city. The terrace is packed with edible and ornamental plants.
Located atop of "the steepest driveway in Newcastle," the address is challenging, but Pryor doesn't mind as it's good for fitness. He's in the inner city, but he's surrounded by of greenery and birdlife.
Over the years he's watched the suburb change. It used to be party central, but things have quietened down as of late.
During COVID he decided to spruce things up around the apartment block. He took matters into his own hands, though he's never had much of a green thumb.
He owns his unit, but all the changes he's put in have been communal.
"I did a permaculture weekend workshop, the guy was talking about his place in Mayfield and how he made it efficient," Pryor says. "This was the second lockdown. I thought about where we live in town.
"This clothesline area was a mosquito-ridden waste zone, a rubbish dump. We had 20 old bins sitting here collecting water and mosquitos."
Then he started getting serious about making things nicer. He's the chair of his Strata and wasn't getting much participation from other members.
Pryor got to work restoring the front garden from decades of trash accumulation. He put out some veggie beds, and he noticed his neighbours were doing similar things. They came together to fund and build a barbecue area.
"We negotiated. They trimmed some of the overgrown trees up there," he says. "That lets light come through the challenging steep south facing block with existing structures and trees."
His neighbours are also building fireplaces and social areas on previously unused common property.
"We are having over-the-fence chats, sharing resources and ideas, even benefiting from a collaborative approach to tree pruning, helping us balance winter sunshine and visual screening/privacy," Pryor says.
"The benefit of this neighbourly cooperation is even more stark when occasionally neighbours who are not so gracious install large awful 'viewing platforms' that are incongruous with the natural setting and peer into neighbouring properties, much to the chagrin of the rest of us."
We are having over-the-fence chats, sharing resources and ideas.
Apartment living and building community is not always easy, but Pryor is determined, whether he has to pick up strangers' beer cans or pull out daggy plants.
Pryor is the secretary of Trees in Newcastle, and now he's gradually replacing palms with natives, a trial-and-error process due to the lack of sun during winter.
He's put in new plants like native frangipani and grevilleas. He started with the easy-to-grow succulents and moved on to harder site specific things like native grasses.
As far as growing food goes, they're figuring out what survives winter sun restrictions and possums. So far it's pumpkins, ginger and sweet potatoes.
Pryor is on a permaculture journey, and he's happy to share his knowledge and bounty with others.
He's still getting over the irony that it took purchasing a three-acre country escape two hours away to apply his permaculture principles to his inner-city backyard.
