Wurundjeri Heritage and Culture

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.

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

Supporting Reconciliation

The Kensington Reconciliation Action Group, comprised of local residents and service providers, continues to meet monthly at the Kensington Neighbourhood House. We're currently working with members of the group and the Kensington Association to address concerns about some display boards at the Kensington Town Hall. For more information about the group, contact the Kensington Neighbourhood House on 9376 6366 or info@kenhouse.org.au

Improving library access and digital inclusion

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.

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 regularly visit different neighbourhoods including Kensington.

Kensington Neighbourhood Centre from April 2023

18 Anthony Street Kensington
Fortnightly Thursdays 1pm to 3pm.

The Mel-van also visits parks and festivals and other community gatherings at neighbourhood houses and community centres.

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

Recreation spaces and programs

Construction at Kensington Community Aquatic and Recreation Centre was delayed due to the discovery of extensive contaminated soil early in 2022. Soil remediation commenced in November 2022 and is due to take approximately 7 months. We will have a clearer indication of how long the project will be delayed once the soil removal works are complete.

Through our neighbourhood grants programs we're supporting the creation of a new girls football team for Kensington and free Babywearing Boogie sessions to help new mums move and be active.

Local food security and production

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 our 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. 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.

In collaboration with Kensington Neighbourhood House, Unison Housing, The Venny and Transition Town Kensington we’re delivering the Kensington Community Fresh Food market. This is part of a climate justice pilot project focused on improving food insecurity and developing a more resilient local food system. The next market will happen on Saturday 4 March.

We're working with local community members to gauge interest in and help revitalise the Davis Street Garden.

We're reviewing the Kensington Community Garden on Westbourne Street to increase access and help enable more people to use this garden. We had over 67 responses to our online survey, held 3 community pop us and conducted two workshops with community at the end of last year to inform this work.

Through our neighbourhood grants program we're funding mushroom growing workshops at the Kensington Stockyard garden.

Kensington Stockyard garden was also successful in receiving a Living Local grant from the Victorian Government which will fund 16 new garden beds to be installed in February for increased growing space.

We've helped distribute of more than 100 free plants and seedlings to local Kensington community.

Supporting diversity and inclusion

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.

A forum 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.

Supporting people in ages and stages

Our neighbourhood centres for older people (Jean McKendry Neighbourhood Centre, Kensington Neighbourhood Centre and South Yarra Senior Citizens’ Centre), are undertaking the Dementia Friends program, which provides training about dementia, the challenges faced by people living with dementia, and how to help people with dementia remain connected. The centres are being reviewed using Dementia Australia's environmental checklist, in consultation with people living with dementia. We are developing an action plan for the centres to better meet the needs of people living with dementia.

Invest in and advocate for renewable energy

We're working to make it easier to access affordable renewable energy, Our Power Melbourne project will install a network of neighbourhood batteries around the city to help renters, people living in apartments, and those running small businesses access more affordable renewable electricity. Late last year we consulted with community on ideas for where neighbourhood batteries should be installed and how we design retail plans with an energy retail partner. Keep an eye on the Power Melbourne page for opportunities to get involved in the next stage of engagement activities, opening soon.

Climate action and neighbourhood resilience

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. We’re currently delivering Heat Health Preparedness seminars with a range of community groups across February and March. We're also working on developing a plan to make the city safer from the impacts of heat and will be engaging with people who may be vulnerable to the experiences of heatwaves across each neighbourhood.

We’re continuing to roll out our four-year Major Initiative Prepare Melbourne to engage and prepare residents and communities to enhance their resilience to hazards, disasters and the health impacts of climate change. Over October and November last year we delivered a pilot project for the Southbank neighbourhood to better understand the physical and social vulnerabilities our communities face to disasters and how we can build a more resilient community. Kensington and then Carlton will be the next neighbourhoods to participate in community resilience assessments during March to May. Look out for information on Participate Melbourne on how to get involved in the coming month.
To be better prepared for challenges that may come your way, consider downloading the Get Prepared App from Australian Red Cross.

We’re replacing the Stubbs Street pump station to increase drainage capacity and reduce flooding events in low-lying areas of Kensington. This involves installing a new underground pump station in the Smith Street carpark. Once complete, the new pump station will have almost four times the capacity of the existing station. With excavation works now complete, next steps include pouring the base slab and installing the walls of the new underground pump station. We anticipate that the project will be complete by mid-2023.

We're preparing a submission to Melbourne Water's Maribyrnong River Flood Review and encourage interested community members to take part.

Reduce waste and develop circular economy

We continue to provide a wide range of services for reusing, recycling or disposing of unwanted household items and materials. Across our municipality 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've continued to support the delivery of the Kensington repair hub and bike repair hub trial over October, November and December. More dates to come for 2023.

Increasing neighbourhood greening

In Fink Street we have added four new raised tree plots and helped improve growing conditions and tree protection through raised kerbs and stainless steel tree protection hoops. On Tennyson Street we’ve undertaken a revegetation project planting 400 Australian native understory species.

Moonee Ponds Creek

We remain committed to the transformation of Moonee Ponds Creek, and continue to work the Chain of Ponds Collaboration Group to progress short and medium-term projects identified in the Moonee Ponds Creek Strategic Opportunities Plan

Local shopping

Our 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. As part of this program the Discover Kensington Christmas Fair was held in December 2022 with a street part on Bellair Street free Christmas activities, musical performances, giveaways and more.

Our Christmas Decoration program was also rolled out to Kensington to support festive celebrations and appeal of local shopping strips.

Local business and employment

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 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.

Arts and Culture

Melbourne will be filled to the brim with dozens of new creative offerings, thanks to new funding to support and grow our vibrant arts sector.

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.

The latest round of the program will support nearly 350 artists to develop and present their work in public – including live theatre, dance, music, films, written pieces and visual art.

Through our connected community grant program we're supporting Kensington Neighbourhood House to deliver an intergenerational, community art project focused on rebuilding social connections following pandemic restrictions. It will provide a creative focus for the Kensington community and allow participants to explore and reflect on their sense of belonging post pandemic- developing confidence, pride and a sense of resilience.

Dogs off leash

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.

Active transport

We are working on a study which identifies a range of road safety and pedestrian improvements projects in Kensington and North Melbourne. We convened a community reference group for each of these neighbourhoods to inform this work. Further consultation with the broader community to help prioritise projects will take place over Feb – March 2023.

Pedestrian and bicycle safety has been enhanced on Macaulay Road at the intersection with Barnett Street, where a raised priority crossing has been installed. We’re installing zebra crossings at the intersection of Epsom Rd and Market St.

We’re working to deliver protected bike lanes along Macaulay Rd and Arden St and expect to consult with community shortly to help finalise these plans.

Public Transport

Works to construct Metro Tunnel’s western entrance and the Childers Street public spaces and pocket park are underway. Find out more at the Kensington Big Build.

Community activation and connection

Through our Connected Communities grants we're supporting a number of community connection projects and activities:

Growing Stronger Communities Together - this project will provide a new outdoor gathering and bbq space at the Kensington housing estate.

Little Kenspace - The DRUM Youth Committee will design and furnish a vacant office space at 56 Derby St corner office space to be used by young people.

Baby Wearing Boogie - these events will help new parents connect with others, move their bodies, have some fun and enrich their babies lives with new sensory experiences.

Growing Kensington's Community Food Forest Together - will help rebuild a team of volunteers to refresh this food garden based at the Kensington Housing estate.

Mushroom Growing Workshop Series - 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 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.

From the HeART - Kensington Neighbourhood House will deliver an intergenerational, community art project focused on rebuilding social connections following pandemic restrictions. It will provide a creative focus for the local community and allow participants to explore and reflect on their sense of belonging post pandemic- developing confidence, pride and a sense of resilience.

Local amenity and safety

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 20 February and close Monday 20 March

Check out other grant opportunities on the Community Noticeboard.

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

• Little Kenspace - The DRUM Youth Committee will design and furnish a vacant office space at the bottom of the Kensington Housing Estate building at 56 Derby St to be used by young people.
• Growing Stronger Communities Together -this project will provide a new outdoor gathering and bbq space at the Kensington housing estate.
• Growing Kensington's Community Food Forest Together - will rebuild a team of volunteers to refresh this newly established food garden based at the Kensington Housing estate. A new volunteer team will help to restore and maintain the garden’s food abundance for fair share harvesting amongst Kensington Estate’s residents and neighbours.
• Mushroom Growing Workshop Series - 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.
• Baby Wearing Boogie - This event will help new parents connect with others, move their bodies, have some fun and enrich their babies lives with new sensory experiences.

Projects from other neighbourhoods include:

• 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.
• Carlton High Rise Elder Citizens project - this project aims at increasing community connection for older men living in the Carlton Housing Estate.
• Community Cooking Club - The Community Cooking Club will meet weekly at Carlton Primary School 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.
• 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.
• 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. c.
• 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.
• 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.