24/02/2025
A modest loan and a good deposit was all it took to launch one of Bank Australia's most prominent and successful investments: Bellis, Brisbaneâs award-winning, affordable, model sustainable house and garden.
Affordability is as vital now as it was in 2003, when Bellis was founded by owners Jeff and Jerry with a mortgage from another bank. Back then Bank Australia was known as M.E.C.U. (Members & Education Credit Union) and they were sufficiently impressed with Bellis that they requested the owners transfer their mortgage to them (2006).
Bellis was the first customer to have an evergreen contract with its energy supplier. Bellis produces more solar power than it consumes; this household is in credit.
Bellis is the only place in Queensland where sterile, treated waste water has been used to grow a food supply. It operates on the basis that 100 sq metres of soil can feed an adult all year round. Jeff and Jerry were surprised to discover they had become pioneers.
Bellis is carbon positive: Soil improvement (4kg compost per square metre per year) ensures more atmospheric carbon dioxide (the major Greenhouse Gas) is sequestered than is generated by everyday working and living.
Bellis is drought-proof. During the Millennium Drought, the entire house and garden operated on less than the amount Level 6 water restrictions required. Throughout the drought the garden coped with using just recycled waste water and managed to produce 70 different plants for the menu. Bellis won a National Save Water Award in 2009.
Bellis is also flood proof, thanks to its novel âWhole of Site Water Management Planâ created by Jerry. This is detailed on the website www.jerry-coleby-williams.net. It continued producing food, capturing rainfall and preventing the loss of stormwater during the memorable floods of 2011.
Following the equally memorable 2022 flood event, the garden captured 803mm rain over three days with zero runoff, and Bellis was used as a model for water management. Jerry spoke at the Queensland Flood Recovery Community Forum hosted by Queensland Conservation (15.3.22). Bellis has also been used as a model for water management by the European Union.
The website, created by Jeff and filled with sustainable living information by Jerry, was placed on the National Archive by the State Library of Queensland and the National Library of Australia in 2020. Jerryâs Public page and website are currently followed in 137 countries.
In 2003, the emerging new garden was filmed by ABC TVâs âGardening Australiaâ Programme. They have been filming there monthly ever since, informing their national and international audiences with sustainable gardening advice.
To date, more than 50,000 visitors have toured Bellis. The first Open Day was Solar House Day (2005). Owners Jeff and Jerry persuaded the Australian & New Zealand Solar Energy Society, to rename their event Sustainable House Day, then opened twice for this consciousness raising community event before opening for several years with the Australian Open Garden Scheme, a national gardening charity, from 2008.
Due to COVID lockdowns (2020), on line gardening questions doubled and more than 15,000 questions were answered free of charge. The annual average hovers around 10,000.
Bellis also filled the community need when supply chains failed due to COVID. The Open Days of 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to social distancing. Nursery supply chains broke down, so while supplies of food plants - seed, seedlings and potted plants - dried up especially affecting the major chain stores, Bellis sold half its surplus plants to Northey Street City Farm.
Remaining surplus plants and seed were sold to home gardeners in a series of âDrive By Plant Salesâ. People pre-ordered stock, brought the exact amount of cash sealed in plastic, brought boxes or bags which were filled and put in their cars - contactless service.
As lockdowns regulated how far people could travel and how many people could meet in a group in public, the first Drive by Sales were for the local page Wynnum What? and Bethania Street Community Garden. As restrictions eased, garden clubs further afield, such as the Sunshine Coastâs Perennial Poppies Group Inc. and the Gold Coast Organic Growers Inc., participated.
Results in sustainable living have seen Jerry share his knowledge and experience in conferences, expos and societies around Australia, and he was invited to speak about Sustainable Food Production at the United Nations in Geneva (2017). In 2024, Jerry was invited to speak about cultivating garden biodiversity in a pocket botanic garden at the International Botanic Gardens Conference in Singapore.
In 2017, Jerry married Thuan, a cook and 3rd generation Vietnamese market gardener who joined Jerry shortly afterwards. In 2019, Jeff moved out to live with his partner. Fortunately, Jeff still supports the website. And Thuan has added a new dimension to Bellis - the food garden has been 'Vietnamised' and his first cooking demonstration is next month.
When youâre applying to a bank for a mortgage - or to refinance an existing one - there is nowhere on the forms to explain just how powerfully beneficial investing the banksâ money into a sustainable house and garden can be. How do you account for money not spent on common goods and services? What is the value of the new insect species discovered at Bellis?
Jeff and Jerry were happy to pay to swap their mortgage from Bank West to what is now known as Bank Australia because it says:
âWe put our customers at the centre of everything we do... so it made sense for them to be the stars of our new campaignâ.
Jerry Coleby-Williams
Director, Seed Savers Network
Patron, Householderâs Options to Protect the Environment
20th February 2025
HOPE Inc. Australia
The Seed Savers' Network, est.1985
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