Wurundjeri culture and heritage

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder, Uncle Dave Wandin, shares the importance of understanding an Acknowledgment of Country and how to deliver it with respect.

Find out more about Melbourne’s Traditional Owners and Aboriginal peoples’ deep connection to Country.

Public housing

Carlton Neighbourhood Learning Centre run Accredited English Classes at Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre. Courses are designed to improve reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, numeracy and computer skills, and include education about the Australian workplace and culture.

The Church of All Nations Homework Club is a free, non-denominational, volunteer-lead homework club that runs from 4pm to 6pm, Mondays to Wednesdays during schools terms, in Kathleen Syme’s Common Lounge and Training Room.

Since the launch of City of Melbourne’s Connected Neighbourhoods small grants in June 2022, 16 applicants across all neighbourhoods have been successful in their applications.

Affordable and inclusive community spaces

We are continuing our mission to alleviate period poverty with the extension of our free period care pilot program until 30 June 2023.

Our libraries have recently launched their own Disability Inclusion and Accessibility Plan with action to improve accessibility to our libraries, services and resources.

Tailored services and opportunities

The Community Grocer’s Carlton Market relaunched on Friday 25 November 2022. The Market is running every Friday 8am to 12pm at 510 Lygon Street, Carlton.

Public transport

Yarra Trams is working with the Department of Transport and City of Melbourne to install tram separation kerbs and modify the bike lane separator islands along Swanston Street, between Victoria and Grattan streets, Carlton.

Safer roads and bike lanes

We’re working with the Department of Transport and Planning to inform its evaluation of the e-scooter trial and decision on the legalisation of e-scooters.

We’re collaborating with other nearby councils as part of M9 to develop actions that encourage more people to ride.

Sustainable economy

We continue to provide a wide range of services for reusing, recycling or disposing of unwanted household items and materials. 11,400 combined tonnes were collected from various sources including communal recycling bins, cardboard bins and residential collections between October 2022 and January 2023.

We continue to roll out the Food Organics Service to high-rise residential apartments across Melbourne.

We’ve become one of six cities around the world to appoint dedicated Chief Heat Officers to raise awareness about extreme heat risk, provide local leadership and collaborate to deliver solutions.

Neighbourhood greening

We are renewing our Urban Forest Precinct Plans, starting with East Melbourne, Melbourne CBD, South Yarra and Carlton. Consultation for these neighbourhoods will begin in March.

We are currently seeking feedback on options for a new timed dog off-leash area in Carlton. Consultation is open until 27 February 2023.

Small business support

We’ve launched the Melbourne Economy Snapshot, a free seasonal activity guide designed to help businesses make data-led decisions by understanding Melbourne’s new rhythm.

Dusk 2 Dawn applications were open throughout November and December. Applications are currently being reviewed, with successful activations commencing in May.

Between October 2022 and January 2023 our Business Concierge service have had 5000 interactions with businesses across the municipality.

Carlton Inc hosted the Enliven Carlton event held in Lygon Street on 3 December.

Creative Carlton

Melbourne experienced its busiest month of activity in December since the start of the pandemic, anchored by the City of Melbourne’s beloved Christmas Festival and biggest ever New Year’s Eve celebrations.

We have allocated more than $175,000 across 49 projects through our 2022 Quick Response Arts Grants program – the only fast turnaround micro-grant program offering this level of support in Australia.

Reactivation and beautification of shopping strips

Since the Shopfront Activation Program commenced in September 2021, there have been a total of 66 activations across Carlton, the Melbourne CBD and Docklands.

Heritage protection

The Carlton Heritage Review (Amendment C405) is nearing the end of the amendment process. The amendment will return to Future Melbourne Committee and Council for final adoption in the first half of 2023.

The Royal Exhibition Buildings and Carlton Gardens World Heritage Management Plan is currently open for consultation through Engage Victoria and closes on 3 March.

Strengthening community connections and social cohesion

Our Mel-van is dedicated to bringing free wi-fi, books, games, craft activities, events and educational resources to people across the City of Melbourne who may find it difficult to access our libraries.

We have supported various community projects with Connected Neighbourhood Small Grants.

Safety in the streets

We are continuing to work with Melbourne North Police Community Consultative Committee (PCCC) as we collaboratively raise safety concerns and discuss opportunities to address and prevent local crime.

We are working with members of the Alcohol and Drug Foundation - Local Drug Action Team to develop a Drug Safety in the City of Melbourne flyer.

As part of Victoria Police's Neighbourhood Policing initiative, a Local Safety Committee meeting was held for Melbourne West and North on 9 December 2022.

Homeless support

The Need to Know editorial group has increased distribution of their Zine over 2022 tenfold to around 2000 hardcopies around key points and agencies. Members have secured employment, made friends, learnt digital literacy skills and one participant is exhibiting their art at Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre in March.

Recreational facilities and programs

HealthNest, a women’s health and wellbeing program, has been awarded a Connected Communities grant. The program consists of yoga and mobility sessions at Carlton Baths as well as Swimming, Sauna and Spa hydrotherapy exercise with a view to create fun social outings for participants.

Grants of up to $2000 are available to increase community participation, connection, equity, diversity and inclusion through our new Connected Neighbourhoods Small Grants. Applications are open all year until the budget has been fully allocated.

Applications for our Inclusive Communities Grants open twice a year. This includes operational support grants of up to $2000 and for larger projects and initiatives up to $20,000. Applications for projects taking place from July 2023 to June 2024 are open from Monday 20 February and close Monday 20 March.

Check out other grant opportunities on the Community Noticeboard.

The following projects in Carlton have recently received Connected Neighbourhood Small Grants:

• Community Cooking Club - The Community Cooking Club will meet weekly at Carlton PS to plan recipes, budget for shopping for the following month. Meals will be cooked and shared by participants with participants leading the program. Participants will be encouraged and supported to set up a fortnightly school lunch program, become involved in site activities including community events involving food. The grant will be used to purchase a fridge/freezer for use by Community Cooking Club, healthy lunch program and other programs at Carlton PS. To be used to store fresh/frozen produce for community/school programs and food from Foodbank.
• Carlton High Rise Elder Citizens project - This project aims at increasing community connection for older men living in the Carlton Housing Estate.

Projects from other neighbourhoods include:

• Growing Stronger Communities Together - This project aims to provide a new outdoor gathering and bbq space at the Kensington housing estate.
• The Creative Youth Coding Program - This project is aimed at providing outcomes for children (aged 11-12) in the City North area where there is currently limited low-cost weekend programming for children and young people.
• Book Club - This is a unique idea to bring together diverse groups of women in the CBD neighbourhood to support each other and learn together about financial and business skills.
• Docklands Primary School End of Year Celebration - This project is aimed at bringing together the Docklands community, beyond the school community, for a concert and celebration.
• Unity makes Community East Melbourne - This project aims to be an event inclusive of all the community to encourage post pandemic re-connection and assist residents to get their bicycles running again in a community setting.
• Baby Wearing Boogie - This event will help new parents in the COM connect with others, move their bodies, have some fun and enrich their babies lives with new sensory experiences.
• HEALING MINDS THROUGH MUSIC - Healing Mind through Music aims to collaborate with Paving The Way Forward, Co Health, Chinese Elderly Dancing Group and Vietnamese Elderly Association in North Melbourne to bring elderly people of all backgrounds together, to help people to improve mental health by healing the mind, body, and soul.
• Growing Kensington's Community Food Forest Together - Growing Kensington’s Community Food Forest Together will rebuild a team of volunteers to refresh this newly established food garden based on permaculture principles which‍ have both (volunteers and garden) suffered years of decline from COVID lockdowns. A new volunteer team will help to restore and maintain the garden’s food abundance for fair share harvesting amongst Kensington Estate’s (former public housing, now 50:50 public private new housing) 2000+ residents and neighbours.
• Celebrate at Yarra's Edge: The Docklands Connection - A one off event to bring the community of Docklands together to connect and showcase: local talent, businesses and government services. The event will be held at Shed 21, 206 Lorimer Street Docklands on Saturday 26 November, 12pm - 3pm. This will also help to reactivate the site. We have approached a number of organisations to determine interest in the event eg. Development Victoria, Mirvac, various social groups etc.
• Mushroom Growing Workshop Series - The funding will provide access to four mushroom-growing workshops at the Kensington Stockyard Food Garden during 2023. The workshops will provide an opportunity for social connection and community building at the Kensington Stockyard Food Garden where participants will learn how growing mushrooms can be cheap, easy, and a sustainable way to produce their own fresh mushrooms at home and in the community.
• Unity makes Community East Melbourne - This project aims to be an event inclusive of all the community to encourage post pandemic re-connection and assist residents to get their bicycles running again in a community setting.
• East Melbourne Community Christmas Picnic - ‘Building Community Spirit’ is an inclusive Community Picnic to celebrate the festive season and bring our community together. The event will take place on the grounds of Bishopscourt and residents are invited to bring along a picnic and enjoy an afternoon of music, entertainment, social interaction, and community connection.
• Gardening@33 - Gardening@33 is a social gardening project aimed at facilitating increased social connections between community members, building community resilience, and contributing to greater mental and physical health. This will be achieved through fortnightly sessions involving hands-on gardening alternating with theory-based guest lectures. The project is resident-led, and will build awareness of food systems, growing and cultivating, the importance and function of native plants in our community food garden.
• Removing Barriers to Education - River Nile Learning Centre (RNLC) students are all newly arrived refugee and asylum seeker women who struggle to survive on limited or no welfare payments. The grant will be used to purchase Myki’s for participants in English language classes at our learning centre in North Melbourne.
• LITTLE KENSPACE - The DRUM Youth Committee would like to design and furnish a vacant space at the bottom of the Kensington Housing Estate building - has a small room at 56 Derby St corner office space we propose can be used by young people Wednesdays 4-6pm. This $2K funding will be used for items such as a couch, and Xbox and television and some beanbags or similar to upgrade the space.