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.

Inclusive community venues and spaces

Working closely with Parkville Gardens Residents Association, we will purchase and install a community noticeboard in Galada Avenue Reserve to provide a space for community to share and promote local activities and initiatives.

Parks and greening

We are reviewing the Royal Park Master Plan 1997. Stage 1 of the project will be to review the current plan and undertake a number of specialist background studies which will be used to inform the master plan review.

Waste, recycling and graffiti

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 expand our Rapid Response Clean Team to fast-track graffiti removal, dumped rubbish, cigarettes, street sweeping and syringe collection across the city.

Sustainable living

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.

To protect Princes Park from the impacts of future drought, we are investigating options to capture excess stormwater from Moonee Ponds Creek to provide a sustainable water supply to this valuable open space.

We are making it easier for all residents to access affordable renewable energy, no matter where they live. Working with University of Melbourne and RMIT research partners, the Power Melbourne project will install a network of neighbourhood batteries around the city.

Heritage protection

The Parkville Heritage Review is nearing completion and will be brought to Future Melbourne Committee to begin the Planning Scheme Amendment process in mid-2023. Interim controls will also be sought once the Review is complete.

Public transport

The Victorian State Government has recently announced plans to provide additional weekday bus services that aim to connect Parkville Gardens to surrounding areas, providing more frequent and accessible public transport service to the Parkville community.

Traffic and parking

We have undertaken a range surveys to understand traffic in South Parkville and are continually working with Parkville Association (PA) to investigate traffic mitigation strategies.

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.

Recreational spaces and programs

We hosted the Sunset Series on 1 February 2023. The 3 race, fun run series was targeted at all ages and offered both a 4km and 8km run/walk.

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 have recently received Connected Neighbourhood Small Grants:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.