A History of Park Lane Nursery
North East Training and Employment Inc (NETE) is a not-for-profit social enterprise organisation based in Wangaratta, Victoria. NETE provides training, employment and community inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities from the local area.
NETE initiated Park Lane Nursery in 1991 as a day diversion program for intellectually disabled people as part of the Victorian governments de-institutionalisation program. NETE has developed over time and is now a commercially oriented social enterprise that provides economic and social inclusion opportunities for people with disability or disadvantage.
NETE’s predominant presence is that or the Australian Disability Enterprise, Park Lane Nursery. Park Lane Nursery is a full function production nursery, producing high quality native and indigenous tubestock for local revegetation and home garden customers. NETE’s employees are involved in all facets of the business, from plant propagation right through to retail sales. We empower our employees to learn, develop and succeed whilst they are at work, providing them with economic and social inclusion benefits for their life outside work.
NETE is goverened by a volunteer Committee of Management (CoM). The CoM sets the strategic and policy direction of the organisation. Since inception, NETE has had a strong and progressive CoM, and two of the current CoM members have served for 20+ years.
In 2013, the NETE CoM resolved to merge it’s operations with Merriwa Industries Limited. Merriwa is the largest Australian Disability Enterprise in the region, based in Wangaratta, with many and varied income streams. The CoM determined that a merger would provide extra opportunities for our employees and address a number of identified administrative synergies.