Community service work changing Dubbo community gardens

The offenders have been visiting the OEC Community Garden and Walan Community Garden - which are next to each other - weekly and have built a BBQ area, put in fencing, erected trellises, wood-chipped the gardens, and installed a water tank.

Community service work provides an opportunity for offenders to repay the community for their crimes through unpaid work. An offender can be sentenced to perform community service work by a court and these sentences are served in the community.

Andrew Tierney, field officer at the Department of Justice - Community Services, who supervises community service work in Dubbo and Mudgee, said some of the offenders were "really quite handy" and "some of the things they put their hands to is incredible".

Mr Tierney, from Wellington, picks up 12 people from the parole office in Dubbo on Saturdays and Sundays and they head out in his bus to the gardens, as well as other sites to chip away at their allotted hours - of which some people have up to 400 hours to complete.

"We give them their PPE gear and facemasks and make sure they have proper food for the day, drinking water, hats depending on the weather, and we head off," Mr Tierney said.

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"We have a number of places to go on a Saturday morning but the main one is the community garden, and we can spend up to three hours there."

The offenders also work on council sites, performing tasks such as mowing, snipping bushes and rubbish collection, and they also work with other agencies including the Uniting and Catholic churches where they clean the windows, sweep the floors and tidy the kitchens.

Mr Tierney, a former butcher, said some of the men and women undertaking community service work were "really keen" to get to the garden on weekends.

"I don't know what's going on at their home, but sometimes it's a relief just to get out of the situation they're in," he said.

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"They know for the day where we're going, there's not going to be any violence or drugs, this is the job we have and this is what they'll do. Some people really look forward to Saturday and Sunday for relief."

Mr Tierney has been in the job since 2016 when he left his butcher job in Wellington because he had trouble with his hands.

"I was a bit nervous to come here. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into," he said.

"It's unbelievable. Really good. Some of the people on the bus, the stories they have to tell, life journeys they've been on is incredible.

"A lot of offenders are a bit nervous because they think they're getting on a bus full of murderers but they're getting on a bus full of blokes [and women] who've made a mistake in life, and others who are in and out of gaol and trying to pull their socks up."

Mr Tierney also supervises offenders through the Bathurst office. Being a central west local, he often comes across people he knows.

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"Because I had the butcher shop in Wellington for 35 years I know a lot of people. Some are people I've known of, I've known their families or their grandparents, so they know who I am," he said.

"I have had a nickname since year three and I'm now 60 - my nickname was Bubbles. They say Bubbles, what are you doing here?"

Other projects Community Services are working on in the community include restoring a rail truck with Narromine Lions club, and they will soon commence general maintenance at Narromine Golf Club.

There is also a knitting group which runs to create blankets for homeless people, and trauma teddies for children.

Corrective Services NSW manages over 20,000 offenders serving sentences in the community, including around 4,600 completing community service work.

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