Welcome To CERES
CERES – Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies, is an award winning, not-for-profit, sustainability centre located on 4.5 hectares on the Merri Creek in East Brunswick, Melbourne.
We are a not-for-loss community business. We run extensive environmental education programs, urban agriculture projects, green technology demonstrations and a number of social enterprises including a market, grocery, café, community kitchen, organic online supermarket and a permaculture and bushfood nursery.
CERES (pronounced ‘series’) is a place where people come together to share ideas about living well together, and directly participate in meeting their social and material needs in a sustainable way. Through social enterprises, education and training, employment and community engagement, CERES provides the means by which people can build awareness of current local and global issues, and join in the movement for economic, social and environmental sustainability.
For thousands of years the Wurundjeri people lived on the land where CERES now stands. The Merri Creek was a focus of their lifestyle, a place to swim and play and a vital source of food. Following the European invasion, the Victorian gold rush and the growth of Melbourne city, the site was quarried for bluestone then turned into a landfill site… As industry moved in the water became polluted and the trees and wildlife disappeared.
Further info
CERES is a place for community-based learning and action to create environmentally beneficial, socially just, economically satisfying, culturally enriching and spiritually nurturing ways of living together.
CERES is an incorporated not-for-profit organisation, governed by a Board of Management elected annually at our Annual General Meeting. The Annual General Meeting is held in November each year and members are encouraged to attend.
Board Members
The 11 dedicated people making up the CERES Board for 2017 are:
- Chairperson: Jo Barraket
- Deputy Chair: Mark Riley
- Secretary: Noel Blencowe
- Treasurer: Thomas Dobson
- General Member: Rod Duncan
- General Member: Sophie Gaballa
- General Member: Sarah Houseman
- Council Representative: Cr Natalie Abboud
- Site Groups Representative: Greg Dickson
- Staff Representative: John Burne
- Chief Executive Officer: Cinnamon Evans
Find out more about our board members and senior staff here.
The CERES Board meets monthly, generally on the fourth Tuesday at 6.30pm. Members are welcome to attend. For more information please email Noel Blencowe, CERES Secretary, at blencowe@iprimus.com.au.
A copy of Board meeting minutes is available for perusal at Reception. If you wish to obtain a copy of minutes of a particular meeting please contact reception at reception@ceres.org.au or (03) 9389 0100.
CERES employs around 130 paid staff.
Senior Managers
Cinnamon Evans (CEO)
Sieta Beckwith – Communications
Nick Curmi – Site (Habitat)
Chris Ennis – Fair Food
Judy Glick – Partnerships & Education
Melissa Lawson – Farm & Food
Lorna Pettifer – Education & Training
Nicolas Porter – Finance
Area Managers
Luisa Brown – Courses
John Burne – Infrastructure
Jane Burns – Education Outreach
Laurel Coad – Nursery
Barbara Cimino – Finance
Shane French – Education Excursions & Incursions
Sally Kennedy – The Merri Table
Beck Morley – Grocery
Adrian Richardson – IT
Meg Stewart – Propagation
Ben Walta – Global
Emily Wilson – Venue Hire
We also engage many hundreds of volunteers, without whom we would not be able to achieve our mission.
Find our more about our Board and senior staff here.
Organisational Chart (PDF)
Above: the early days of CERES – not a tree in sight!
Since CERES was established in 1982, the efforts of many groups, staff, volunteers and labour market programs have transformed the site. Once a desolate wasteland, today CERES is a place of nature and beauty, inhabited by a vibrant and diverse community. We attract around 400,000 visits each year through our on-site education and training programs, Nursery, Organic Market & Grocery and the Merri Table. CERES continues to provide opportunities for the community to come together in site groups or as volunteers, through community programs, venue hire and events.
We reach out to over 200,000 people through our work in schools across metropolitan Melbourne, and regional and rural Victoria. We have a growing following on social media, which further widens our audience and reach. CERES Fair Food delivers organic food and the sustainable food message across metropolitan Melbourne. CERES also partners with a wide variety of organisations to bring about mutually beneficial outcomes, and reaches across the planet with CERES Global taking groups to India, Indonesia, Cuba and Aboriginal
communities.
Updates from the CERES Board
A major development is being planned next door to CERES
Here is our response to the development proposal. A planning application to redevelop the site at 269 Stewart Street, next to the CERES main entrance, was advertised in January. This proposes a new building [...]
Market & Grocery to receive a renovation
The CERES Organic Market and Grocery will be closing for a much needed and long awaited renovation on the 24th of December 2015. In it's place will be a Pop Up shop situated near the [...]
Cafe Redevelopment Update
We know you are all waiting with bated breath for the new Café to arrive – as are we! Following a late discovery of a sewer easement, which required some re-jigging of the Café design [...]
