Wurundjeri and Bunurong Heritage and Culture

Monday 13 February marked the 15th Anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. As part of the ongoing work towards reconciliation, we are in the process of acknowledging, recognising and paying tribute to the Stolen Generations by establishing a marker within the municipality. The Victorian Aboriginal Community – including those who are part of the Stolen Generations and their families – are invited to provide feedback on three potential shortlisted marker locations.

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

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

Exploring Docklands

We are renewing and upgrading infrastructure to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, predominantly Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (TGSIs). This program of works is running ahead of schedule and at the end of January approximately 20 projects have been delivered, equating to over 70% of the program.

Community Focused Venues and Facilities

A to mark the 30 year commemoration of the Disability Discrimination Act was held on 24 November at Melbourne Town Hall. This was an opportunity for community members to come together to hear and share on how the Disability Discrimination Act has enabled greater access and inclusion for people with disability.

Neighbourhood Greening and Parks

We have launched the trial of the Floating Wetlands project on the Yarra River - Birrarung. Three large wetlands have been towed onto the river, occupying prime locations at Yarra’s Edge near Webb Bridge and Victoria Harbour Promenade in Docklands. The Floating Wetlands trial is a joint initiative of the City of Melbourne and the State Government. The project has been funded through a $700,000 grant from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and was first identified by the City of Melbourne’s 2019 Yarra River Strategy.

The Greenline Project’s Birrarung Marr Precinct Site One concept design was endorsed by the Future Melbourne Committee on Tuesday 6 December 2022. We will now progress the detailed design and program planning for Birrarung Marr Precinct Site One, working towards construction commencing in 2023. Thank you to everyone who contributed their feedback. Consultation took place from 2 August to 12 September 2022. View the final concept design and learn more about what we heard on the community consultation page. You can also access the meeting notes and watch a livestream from the Future Melbourne Committee meeting.

[February 2023] We recently hosted two successful Canopy Green Roof Forum workshops at the Library at the Dock. These workshops were facilitated by Melbourne’s emerging horticultural star Jac Semmler, who provided residents from Docklands, CBD and Southbank with practical planting advice and design tips to beautify their rooftops and balconies with biodiverse flowers and year-round blooms.

Community participants were delighted to partake in the planting session with Councillor Hakim, and take home a special potted creation.

We planted 6 new street trees in Fishplate Lane, Docklands, in line with the Docklands Urban Forest Precinct Plan.

Better Waste Management

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. Selected buildings are undertaking a 12-month pilot program to collect and process food scraps using an on-site organic processor. For more information on the pilot, visit Food Organics High-Rise Pilot.

Place-Based Inititiatives and Activations, Local Scale Events

More Diverse Shops and Businesses in Docklands

Since the Shopfront Activation Program commenced in September 2021, there have been a total of 66 activations across Docklands, Carlton and the Melbourne CBD. In Docklands there have been 18 activations (14 currently open, 2 opening this month and two closed) across retail, creative and professional services sectors.

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.

The first edition shows a sky-high December, with a record $1.1b spent across the city. Friday and Saturday remain the busiest days in Melbourne, while our night-time economy continues to flourish. Delve into the nitty gritty and explore weekday, weekend and night-time activity.

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

The City of Melbourne’s social enterprise grants program supports social enterprise businesses to thrive in Melbourne. The program supports startups and existing enterprises which are expanding or developing new products or services with a distinctly social purpose. Applications are currently open and close at 2pm Friday 10 March 2023.

Between October 2022 and January 2023 our Business Concierge service have had 5000 interactions with businesses across the municipality. The range of enquiries have been simple support requests over the phone and email, face to face interactions and supporting new businesses in their start up

The Christmas Collective program is an initiative as part of the Christmas Festival. One of the objectives is to increase visitation and spend supporting the economy. A total of $74,726.00 in funding was allocated to 15 businesses/groups to deliver an event or activity.

To support local businesses, we lifted the holiday spirit with our Christmas Decoration program, including the Melbourne CBD, East Melbourne, Carlton, Docklands, Southbank, North Melbourne and Kensington.

Docklands and Carlton have been focus areas in recent years from both a decoration and programming content perspective. Both neighbourhoods had key programming content delivered as part of the 2022 Program - Docklands Maze and The Carlton Roller Rink. The CBD and the river’s edge in Southbank remains a focus with regards to driving visitation and connection to the city’s core retail and hospitality offering.

Docklands as a Distinct Water Precinct

The Melbourne Boat Show was held on 20-23 October on New Quay Promenade and was a huge success, with the Docklands Chamber of Commerce supporting the event with giveaways, promotions and Docklands Dollars.

The Docklands Community Christmas Sports Day was held on 10 December at Ron Barassi Snr Oval, with activities, market stalls, face painting yoga & pilates classes and more.

A variety of Christmas activations were hosted in the Docklands including District Docklands Twilight Christmas Market, Newquay Twilight Christmas Market and Christmas Chocolate Workshop.

Cleaner Docklands

We continue to expand our Rapid Response Clean Team to fast-track graffiti removal, dumped rubbish, cigarettes, street sweeping and syringe collection across the city. Residents, workers and visitors continue to play an important role in reporting graffiti and rubbish across the city using Council’s QR code reporting system.

Between October 2022 and January 2023:

• 42,000 square metres of graffiti was removed
• 1350 tonnes was sent to landfill from public litter bins
• 11,400 combined tonnes from various sources including communal recycling bins, cardboard bins and residential collections.
• Over 1800 tonnes of cigarette butts collected and recycled.
• 1435 tonnes of street sweepings collected
• 712 loose syringes collected from public spaces
• 110 collections from syringe bins located in public and private facilities.

Planning Development and Impacts

The Neighbourhood Portals have been updated with links to planning register entries relevant to each neighbourhood, making it easier for community members to find local planning applications. Weekly Planning Applications and Decisions Lists are now sorted by neighbourhood for ease of reference. Sign up to receive these weekly emails.

Community Connection

Book-A-Librarian has kicked off again for 2023 where people can book one on one time to get some digital literacy support with online platforms and use of digital devices.

We are in the process of reviewing the City of Melbourne Food Policy and during March will be seeking community feedback on the draft food policy via the Participate Melbourne page. We encourage you to have your say in City of Melbourne supporting and promoting a food system that provides good food for all.

We are launching the Grow It Local program in early 2023 for all City of Melbourne community members to get involved in growing food at home. As part of the program, Grow it Local have launched the latest Autumn Seed Service, a patch-to-plate adventure that makes free heirloom seeds and instructional content available to local residents. This free offer is available to the first 100 participants who register to receive a package containing heirloom seed varieties including kale, rainbow chard and spinach. Participants will learn to grow from seed-to-spanakopita with Costa Georgiadis via online videos for each stage of the growing journey and support is also available from Grow it Local’s garden guru.

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

• Docklands Primary School End of Year Celebration - This project brought together the Docklands community, beyond the school community, for a concert and celebration at the end of 2022.
• 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 was held at Shed 21, 206 Lorimer Street Docklands on Saturday 26 November, 12pm - 3pm. Over three hundred local residents attended the event.

Sport and Recreation Spaces and Programs

The ASFA United Through Football Soccer Tournament was held in the Docklands at Ron Barassi Snr Park.

We are currently working on developing 'dogs in the park' events in neighbourhoods. These events, in partnership with behaviour trainers from the Lost Dogs' Home aim to raise awareness and provide education of dog behaviour, enrichment and responsible dog ownership to improve dog and human experiences in public places.

Increase Public Amenities

The toilet in Docklands Park is now complete.

Safer Neighbourhoods

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, and included representatives from Carlton, Parkville, Docklands, Kensington, North Melbourne, West Melbourne and the western part of the Melbourne CBD.

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.

Community Events Grants of up to $10,000 per event are available to not-for-profit organisations to work in partnership with the City of Melbourne. Applications open annually. Applications for events held between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024 will open Monday 20th of February and close Monday 20th of March.

Check out other grant opportunities on the Community Noticeboard.

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

• 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.
• 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.

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.
• Carlton High Rise Elder Citizens project - This project aims at increasing community connection for older men living in the Carlton Housing Estate.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.