Before opening its cafe in the CBD, the team at the Killara Foundation took care to consult with Wurundjeri Woiwurrung mob. The team wanted the cafe’s name to mean “knowledge together”, and Elder Aunty Gail and the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Coportation gave permission for the foundation to use the Woiwurrung words for this: “Ngarrgu Djerring”. The name is a simple statement that reflects the cafe’s mission to ensure culture remains at its heart.
The cafe and social enterprise opposite 101 Collins provides a culturally safe place in the city for mob, and to connect non-Indigenous patrons to Wurundjeri Woiwurrung culture. The Killara Foundation supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by providing pathways to employment, cultural connection and mentoring, as well as support in navigating the housing and labour markets.
Before the foundation took over the space, executive chef Greg Hampton, who joined the team in March, says it was left vacant for three years and in a state of disrepair. “They even took the sinks,” he says of the former cafe tenants.
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Join NowWhen it first opened last September, Ngarrgu Djerring was selling coffee out of the street-facing windows. In addition to the takeaway window, there’s now a 15-seat dining area with warm neutral-hued drapery and artworks by First Nations artists – all of which are for sale – animating the space.
With Hampton, (formerly of social enterprise Charcoal Lane) on board (and the kitchen refurb almost complete), the team now turns out cafe food that uses an array of native ingredients.
Granola is served with a Davidson’s plum coulis, and breakfast burritos have an aniseed myrtle aioli. Pepperberry is used in place of black pepper across the entire menu, and a changing selection of baked goods includes muffins with oats and tart lilly pilly inside, and macarons delicately infused with delicate bushfood sourced from First Nations businesses. Hampton also sources fresh and organic plants like aniseed wattle, lemon myrtle and bush tomato, then dries and grinds them in-house.
Produce is selected according to the six Wurundjeri seasons, and is sourced locally from Wurundjeri Country, particularly Lilydale and South Gippsland. Coffee is supplied by Genovese Coffee in Coburg and the grounds are collected by Reground for compost at community gardens. Fruit and dairy come from Fruit 2 Work, an organisation that provides meaningful employment for those with lived experience of the justice system. The idea, Killara Foundation CEO Troy Crellin tells Broadsheet is to “try and get into the ecosystem of all these social enterprises.”
Ngarrgu Djerring Cafe
6 Alfred Place, Melbourne
(Inside 90 Collins Street, Melbourne)
9103 1464
Hours:
Mon to Fri 7am–2pm
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