Latest Contributions
We are sure you will agree that waiting around to get the good stuff has got knobs on it. This post will give you an early glimpse of some of the articles we will be including in the next two-monthly edition of the newspaper.
We will continually refresh this post as we receive new contributions.
If you have a burning issue that you want to tell the world about, please sit down and start writing now. When we receive it, we will immediately consider it for publication here and also later in the newspaper. If you have any comments on articles published here, please email us at eastsidernews1@gmail.com.
We would also like to keep you informed about what is happening in the many local organisations in our regions. These groups fulfill many purposes and bring people together to work towards shared goals. We want to help publicise what they are doing and to increase awareness of their important community building role.
Nature Strip Revegetation
Sarah Brennan
Hawthorn and its surrounding suburbs are well known for their leafy streets and beautiful gardens. But like many cities, there is an underlying lack of biodiversity and native vegetation to accommodate our insects, reptiles and birds. But one initiative to help solve this crisis is nature strip revegetation, and that’s exactly what we’re doing at my apartment building.
Months ago, our nature strip was in quite a sad state. Filled with weeds, grass and dirt, its use was to accommodate the bins, or for trucks to park on when delivering a package. As someone who is concerned about the environment, I saw the nature strip as an opportunity to try and make a positive difference in the community.
Myself and other interested tenants worked together and received approval from our apartment building’s committee to revegetate the nature strip. We successfully applied for a permit from the Boroondara Council to undertake the project, and received a voucher for 20 free plants from a local nursery.
For the revegetation we chose to work with KooyongKoot Alliance (KKA) as part of their ‘Rewilding our Nature Strips’ program. They provided invaluable guidance on the steps to rewild the verge and aided with establishing the best layout to work for the plants, tenants and the bins.
After getting the all clear with Before You Dig Australia (to ensure we wouldn’t hit any underground pipes or cables), the first step was to remove the topsoil of grass and weeds. We filled all of our green bins to the brim, and even though our backs ached, seeing the weeds removed was the beginning of this exciting project.
We let the exposed dirt sit for a month and then came the laying of the weed matting, thanks again to KKA. The jute matting had pre-cut slits for the plants and it was held in place with metal pegs.
KKA also provided additional plants which consisted of native wallaby grass, saltbushes, everlastings, and various flowers. In the layout we made sure to leave space for the bins and a generous walkway for the tenants who often cross the strip to get to the building. We ended up having to cut more slits into the matting to accommodate all the plants we had been given!
After applying a generous layer of mulch sourced from a local arborist, and carting it back to the building, the nature strip was done! We put down some pavers for finishing touches, and while the plants are small, we look forward to watching them grow over the next year, and all the pollinators they attract.
Through this process I’ve come to realise how much of a waste of space nature strips are. Grass doesn’t enhance biodiversity; it takes up valuable space that can be optimised for greater purposes.
If you’re considering rewilding your nature strip, I highly recommend working with a community group such as KooyongKoot Alliance or Balwyn Rotary to help with the process. Rewilding can be labor intensive, but it’ll be of significant benefit to your local environment and bring joy to those who walk by it.
Sarah Brennan is convenor of the Lighter Footprints Forests Working Group
Boroondara Loses More of Its Bluestone Heritage Under Council’s Road Materials Policy
Boroondara advocacy group Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage and local Glen Iris residents were disappointed to discover that during recent road reconstruction works in Station Avenue, Glen Iris, Council decided to replace historic Interwar-era bluestone pitcher channels with plain concrete — drastically diminishing the historic character of the streetscape.
Boroondara residents support Council’s ongoing street maintenance program, but that does not mean the municipality’s bluestone heritage fabric should be lost in the process. Bluestone kerbing and channels are among the defining physical reminders of Boroondara’s early history and deserve to be preserved for future generations to enjoy.
Just as residents expect Council to protect heritage-listed buildings, they expect the same care for Boroondara’s historic bluestone streetscape elements — kerbs, channels and laneways — that quietly tell the same story of our past.
When contacted by Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage, Council’s Manager Capital Projects, Anthea Kypreos, confirmed the works were carried out in accordance with Council’s Road Material Policy. She advised that the hundred-year-old bluestone channel in Station Avenue had been covered by asphalt for many years, and that under the policy, reconstruction of a channel in bluestone only applies where a street falls within a Heritage Statement of Significance.
By contrast, when the City of Melbourne encountered original bluestone laneway pitchers buried under decades of asphalt in Parkville, it took a different approach. As a heritage initiative, the asphalt was stripped back and the bluestone relaid as it originally stood — proof that bluestone heritage infrastructure can be restored rather than removed, where a council has the will to do so.
The Station Avenue incident comes at a critical time for bluestone heritage in Boroondara. Council is currently considering funding for a future Bluestone Roads and Laneways Heritage Study, following the removal, despite strong resident support, of a dedicated municipal-wide bluestone study from the core Draft Heritage Strategy late last year,
Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage has welcomed Council’s willingness to keep this work on the agenda but has raised concerns that a study which is merely ‘received and noted,’ without a funding commitment in the 2027/28 council budget, risks becoming yet another unfunded recommendation left unimplemented — leading to further loss of the municipality’s unprotected historic bluestone heritage.
Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage is a community group formed by residents concerned about the ongoing loss of the municipality’s historic bluestone kerbs, channels and laneways. Across Boroondara, historically significant bluestone infrastructure is increasingly being replaced with concrete or losing its heritage integrity through unsympathetic alteration during routine road works — quietly erasing a physical link to the area’s Victorian, Edwardian and Interwar-era history.
We believe our bluestone heritage is a vital part of Boroondara’s character – not merely ‘road material,’ but tangible remnants of the streetscapes our suburbs were built around. Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage works to raise awareness of this ongoing loss, engage with councillors and council officers, and advocate for a properly funded Bluestone Roads and Laneways Heritage Study — one that identifies, protects and restores the municipality’s remaining bluestone heritage before it disappears for good.
We believe residents have a right to a say in how their historic bluestone streetscapes are treated, and that heritage protection needs to extend to the bluestone that has been a part of the story of Boroondara’s history from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century.
If you are a resident passionate about preserving Boroondara’s bluestone heritage, please consider signing up for heritage updates or becoming a member via our email at saveboroondarasbluestoneheritage@yahoo.com
Boroondara’s hundred-and-fifty-year-old historic bluestone laneways and bluestone gutters will only survive if residents make clear to Council that the preservation of our bluestone heritage matters to us and deserves to be protected.
George Demetrios
Convenor Save Boroondara’s Bluestone Heritage
Platypus spotting on the Yarra
ACF Eastern Rosellas
The Eastern Rosellas community group of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is an open and welcoming group of eastern suburbs people who work together where we can to protect our natural environment, and to influence those in power to rise to the urgent challenge of climate change.
Our team is once again hosting a platypus spotting event on Saturday the 19 September from 4:30 to 6:30pm at Wombat Bend in Templestowe Lower, and everyone is welcome. This event is part of the Platy Project, a joint citizen science campaign of the ACF and the University of NSW. The aim of the project is to assist in mapping platypus habitat, over time, across Eastern and Southern Australia.
The platypus is a truly fascinating animal. It is found only in Australia and is one of the five species of monotreme (egg laying mammals). The other four monotremes are species of echidna, one in Australia and three in New Guinea. The modern platypus has been around for 4 million years, and its direct ancestors were dinosaurs.
The platypus lives in burrows in the banks of freshwater rivers, lakes and creeks. It has webbed feet for swimming, but it walks on its knuckles when on land, to protect the webbing. Males have a venomous sting on each hind leg, probably used only in territorial disputes. In breeding season, the female normally lays two leathery eggs in the burrow, and lactates for the little nestlings (puggles) through its pores. Puggles leave the nest from about four months of age. Platypuses live on insects and other freshwater invertebrate bugs. They close both their eyes and ears underwater and, amazingly, hunt through electrolocation, sensing tiny currents from the muscle movements of bugs through thousands of receptors in their beak, and also through highly sensitive touch in their feet.
The platypus is listed as locally endangered in parts of its range, and is listed as vulnerable in Victoria. It is a resilient animal, but it needs clean and reliable water to thrive. Because of its diet of insects and bugs, it is at great risk from pesticide runoff. It is also at risk from extremes of water flow resulting from drought and flood exacerbated by climate change, and by land clearing, bushfire, dam building and urban development. The platypus can also be injured or killed by rubbish including fishing line and circular elastic or plastic, and by dogs. Water management bodies, Landcare groups and environmental organisations are working hard to monitor invertebrate numbers and protect water quality in platypus habitat.
We are fortunate to have several platypus colonies in outer metro Melbourne, around the upper Maribyrnong catchment, the Werribee River, creeks in the Dandenong Ranges, the upper Plenty River valley, and the Yarra and Little Yarra rivers. The ACF is sure from past visits that there is a platypus colony at Wombat Bend in Templestowe Lower. But it is always helpful, for platypus research, to record current sightings in that place, as it is anywhere they are sighted.
If you are able to be there on September 19th, we’ll guide you to the University of NSW platypus recording site on your phone, and ask you to pick a comfortable and safe spot along the river bank or on the swing bridge, and watch. The platypus is nocturnal, and it starts to forage towards dusk, earlier on cloudy days. They usually dive for about 30 seconds and surface for 10-15 seconds at a time, so you need a bit of patience and persistence to see them. But it is restful to sit quietly by a river at sunset, watching the water and listening to the birds. And it’s a memorable experience if you see a platypus, especially for the first time and especially for the kids.
Please join us in this project if you’re interested and free that day. For more information and to register, please visit https://community.acf.org.au/eastern_rosellas_vic_platy_project_yarra_at_templestowe_2026
Photo credit: David Hudspeth
Growing up in Surrey Hills: The 1950s Medicine Chest
Gill Bell
‘Mum!!!’ We three sisters raised the urgent cry as we gathered around our three-year-old brother.
He had decided to try to insert his head between the metal bars of the front gate, and was now struck fast. Mum came running, sized up the problem and disappeared into the house, returning with a handful of butter which she smeared around his head until he was able to slip out of his self-imposed prison.
These days possibly a parent would call the fire brigade, and the jaws of life might be employed, but these were the resourceful post-war days of 1950s Melbourne when Mum and Dad handled most emergencies themselves.
To read the complete version of Gill’s marvelous reminiscence, go here. You will find many more of her evocative and beautifull written pieces about life in Surrey Hills in the past there.
Building confidence, connection and inclusion for local kids and twenty years strong!
The Edge Community Fund is a local not for profit based in Ashburton run totally by volunteers. The Craig Family Centre provides office space to the Edge at the Craig Family Centre.
The Edge offers financial support to families of children and young people who are experiencing financial hardship in Ashburton, Ashwood, Chadstone and surrounding areas. There are three programs: Emergency funds, My Very Own Library and Year 5 and 6 scholarships at partner schools.
A wonderful grant of $20,000 just received from Inner East Community Bank has added to generous individual donations and proceeds of our famous Easter Raffle supported by Ashburton traders. We are now spreading our wings through partnerships with Ashburton, Parkhill and Solway Primary Schools, Ashwood High School, Craig Family Centre and Ashwood Children’s Centre with 3 or 4 more partnerships to come.
Each partner primary school administers scholarships worth $1,000 each for a year 5 and 6 eligible student. There are also emergency funds available for playgroups, school activities, sports and clubs. The My Very Own program, backed by The Leaf Bookshop in Ashburton, enables eligible kinder and primary kids to select books to build a personal library at home.
You can help at any time by making a tax free donation, click here to donate online. All donations are tax deductible.
Check out our website www.theedge.org.au. We are located at 7 Samarinda Ave, Ashburton. Contact us by phone at (03) 9885 7789 or by email on info@theedge.org.au
Thursday Girls Group support for Metastatic Breast Cancer
Do you know someone who has been diagnosed with Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC)? You may know it as Stage 4 or advanced breast cancer. Once upon a time this was considered a disease which affected primarily older women, however a recent study found that 4,400 women in Victoria alone have MBC, and the reality is that women aged from their mid-20s are represented in those numbers.
Thursday Girls Group is a small not-for-profit which has been delivering free, weekly, professionally-led group counselling to women with this diagnosis for nearly 30 years across all of Melbourne, but predominantly in the eastern suburbs.
With no government funding, we rely entirely on the support of our community, along with donations from some amazing organisations such as the CWA, Pressroom Philanthropy and Tobin Brothers. We also get different types of support, such as free spa days for our members from Kai Urban Spa, free merchandise from Keen Edge Construction and free marketing collateral from Pressroom Partners.
Each year, we run one major fundraiser to help boost our funding, enabling us to spend more time building awareness around our free program, connecting with health care workers and supporting our members through care packages and flowers when they are going through a difficult period.
Our Annual High Tea is being held on 11th October at Tay Creggan in Hawthorn and tickets are now on sale. Last year we were able to secure all our food and drinks as donations by some of Melbourne’s best patisseries, Market Lane Coffee, Monistea and Coles Liquor. All the servers donated their time, and we raised more than $15,000 in one day, enough to cover half the cost of one of our weekly Group sessions.
We would love to have some local support for this Inner East event – either by attending, supporting us with donations of high tea fare, goods for silent auction prizes, lucky door prizes – or you can even donate a ticket to one of our members so they can attend for free.
You can get in touch with us by emailing jodi@thursdaygirls.org or check out our website for more information at https://thursdaygirls.org.
Hope to see you at our event!
Lighter Footprints – Candidates Forums
If you care about the natural environment and climate change and want to know the policies of your elected representatives before you vote, then these forthcoming events organised by community group Lighter Footprints are for you.
- State Election Vote Climate Campaign Kick Off: Sunday 13 September, 3pm
- Kew Candidates Forum: Thursday 22 October, 7pm
- Hawthorn Candidates Forum: Wednesday, 4 November, 7pm
To find out more and RSVP go to https://lighterfootprints.org/events/
The KooyongKoot Alliance (KKA) is expanding to reduce litter in our creeks. Can you help us grow?
Mark Landmann
The not-for-profit community-based organisation, KooyongKoot Allaince (KKA) comprises some 24 Friends Groups in the Gardiners Creek (KooyongKoot) Catchment. It has established a Clean Waterways Team to develop processes to reduce litter that flows via stormwater drains from streets to the creek into the Yarra River and ultimately Port Phillip Bay.
The Clean Waterways Team’s objectives are to develop replicable, ongoing litter and data collection programs on the ground throughout the catchment.
By replicable we mean that we are creating a template for reducing litter and pollution that can be broadly applied in many litter hotspots throughout our catchment. Litter hotspots are often shopping strips, industrial areas, sporting fields, or places near creeks in which litter accumulates.
Part of this template will be to work with communities, businesses and statutory bodies to implement targeted education programs to reduce litter at source.
Another important component is actual on-the-ground litter collection and recording of data. We have now registered NINE sites along or feeding into Gardiners Creek, from Blackburn Lake near the headwaters of Gardiners Creek, to lower Ashburton near Glen Iris.
What makes this on-the-ground work so meaningful – and, dare we say, exciting! – is that it fits neatly into the first funded Flagship Project in the brand new Gardiners Creek Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan is a landmark document produced over some five years by the Gardiners Creek Regional Collaboration (GCRC), comprised of fourteen stakeholders including the KKA, five municipal Councils, Deakin University and Melbourne Water, with oversight by Wurrundjeri Traditional Owners.
A key recent step under this Flagship Project has been GCRC’s engagement of consultants to map the catchment’s main litter generation and accumulation hotspots, as well as various litter infrastructure and assets, in a cutting-edge Geographic Information System (GIS). This GIS is a live system which will receive litter and pollution data from groups like us for years to come.
So, while going out with a group of friendly, like-minded folks to collect litter and enter the data into an app is nice and simple, the beauty of our seat at the Collaboration and our access to the GIS is that our envisioned little army of de-litterers will not only rid our environment of litter, but in so doing will build a true map of these problems to give lawmakers every opportunity to make necessary institutional change in the future.
We’re pleased to have grown our network so we can collect litter on occasions at these nine sites and log the data in the Litter Stopper app. This is, however, just the beginning of our journey: we do need to build that little army of people working with the common aim of creating litter-free urban environments and, indeed, clean waterways.
Our initial efforts have just scratched the surface. For example, 30 kilograms of mainly soft plastic and small items and around 2000 cigarette butts were collected during our first five fortnightly cleans by a small band of volunteers at our shopping-strip ‘alpha-site’ in Box Hill. That’s 30 kilos of rubbish and 2000 cigarette butts that will never see our waterways, with lots more to follow.
If you are interested in our work in any way and/or would like to become involved in any capacity, please feel free to call Mark on 0408 354 070, Graham on 0407 046 358, or email cwsc@kka.org.au
Reducing the incessant accumulation of litter in our precious waterways requires us as a community to think and act both locally and holistically.
Mont Albert Village strikes a chord
Bruce Harvey: Mont Albert
Mont Albert Village’s restored heritage railway station building had a new voice this winter, after the community was gifted a preloved piano through the ABC’s popular series The Piano.
The idea began with a local resident, Richard Gerner, a retired music director, nominated Mont Albert Village when the ABC called on Australians to put forward places that should receive a piano. From a wide field of submissions across Australia, Mont Albert Village was one of just ten communities to get one.
Behind the scenes, the win reflected the kind of partnership that has become typical of the Village. Whitehorse City Council, the Mont Albert Village Business Association and local community members all worked together to convince the ABC that the piano would find a genuine home. Council approved its home being under the veranda at the Council-owned station building on the Plaza, while community and business members agreed to watch over and maintain it, including regular tuning.
To mark its arrival, the community gathered on the Plaza on Friday 24 July for a free launch concert, the ABC Pop-Up Piano on the Plaza, featuring 18 performers. Despite a chilly winter afternoon, families rugged up on the seating and picnic tables to enjoy an afternoon of good company, street food and live music.
Local musicians of all ages took their turn at the keys. Among them was Gabriel Gouzali, a young pianist who drew a hushed, appreciative response from the crowd with a solo performance of Wild Mushrooms, while Leanne and Rod the well-known local piano accordion and guitar duo added folk music charm to proceedings. The Rick Freeman Jazz Trio rounded out the concert with crowd favourites such as Moon River and the theme from the Flintstones TV show.
The Mont Albert and Surrey Hills Rotary Club lent its hand by running its sausage sizzle that is a regular feature of Saturday mornings in Mont Albert Village. The Cape social venture Café in the station building was open on the night offering warmth, coffee and cakes.
For many who attended, the concert was as much about community connection as music. Children danced between tables and neighbours who regularly pass one another in Hamilton Street took the time to stop, sit and listen together.
The piano has already become a fixture at Mont Albert Plaza, with passers-by regularly stopping to play an impromptu tune. The piano’s arrival adds another chapter to Mont Albert Village’s story of community-led revival. Alongside its curated Plaza gardens, restored station building and calendar of events, the piano has become a fitting symbol of a Village that continues to turn disruption into destination one chord at a time.
Photo : The Rick Freeman Trio performs at the ABC Pop-Up Piano on the Plaza launch concert.
Photo credit: Vincent Lee
Box Hill Town Hall – A Social History
Helen Harris OAM, President, Box Hill Historical Society
The Box Hill Historical Society is delighted to announce that it has been awarded two grants by the SRLA Community Projects Fund. This article relates to one of those grants – a social history of the iconic Art Deco Box Hill Town Hall.
Built in 1935, the building served as the Chamber for Council meetings, as office space for employees of the City of Box Hill, and for hosting functions in the two halls. Nowadays it houses not only some Whitehorse Council staff, but a collection of community groups, including the Box Hill Historical Society, and Council’s art gallery. It continues to host a wide variety of events, including wedding receptions, funerals, dances, concerts, markets, political meetings etc.
Our project is firstly to collate and document some of the events and people that have been associated with the building. Secondly to invite up to 15 people to be recorded speaking of their memories of the town hall. The resultant video, which is being funded by the grant, will be housed on the town hall website.
Lastly, we will publish a book of people’s memories of this iconic building in 2027, in line with the centenary of the proclamation of the City of Box Hill.
We therefore invite people to email us with their stories and memories of the town hall. We are especially interested in images – pamphlets advertising forthcoming events, photos taken in the interior, and small souvenirs, such as dinner invitations. Our email address is boxhillhistory@gmail.com
Whitehorse Heritage Week 2026
Whitehorse Heritage Week takes place from 13 to 20 September. This year’s theme is On The Street Where You Live.
Visit the Creative Whitehorse website to find out more about Heritage Week and explore the 2026 program.
The Whitehorse community is celebrating changing landscape and land use on the streets where you live in Heritage Week 2026:
- Immerse yourself in heritage trades and crafts, old-fashioned games and entertainment from day one with Schwerkolt Cottage Heritage Family Day
- Discover pre-loved books at the Box Hill Historical Society Book and Ephemera Sale at the Box Hill Town Hall.
- Discover our streets this Heritage Week.
Scottish Country Dancing
The Box Hill & District Scottish Society invites you to dance the night away at our regular Scottish Country Dancing nights every Tuesday from March to November. Our new permanent venue is the Koonung Heights Uniting Church Hall, corner of Belmore Road and Winfield Road, Balwyn North.
We love to welcome new dancers. Come and have a go at an easy dance tradition which exercises mind and body.
We are led by teacher Matthew. Everyone is welcome, you don’t need to be Scottish or to bring a partner. All you need is comfortable casual clothing including a pair of flat, soft shoes and a reasonable level of fitness. Beginners and experienced dancers all welcome.
The evening commences with a Beginners session at 7.30pm. The regular class starts at 8pm. Dancing concludes about 10pm. The class covers the various steps and dances that involve the basic formations included in many Scottish Country Dances. As the evening progresses, the dances become more complex. For some of these dances, beginners can join in with a more experienced partner. Others are for experienced dancers only and beginners are encouraged to watch.
Scottish Country Dancing is danced in sets of usually 4 couples arranged in two lines. There are 5 basic steps used in a variety of formations. These formations are put together in endless, different combinations to produce an infinite diversity of dances. Each couple progresses through each position in the set dancing as the lead couple or as a supporting couple.
The fourth Tuesday of each month is a mini-social night. The dances for these nights are chosen by one of our members and the program is published in advance. These dances are taught in the classes leading up to the mini-social. Links to YouTube demonstrations of the dance can be found on the home page of our website. See our Social Events page for more details.
Scottish Country Dance is for normal people, not athletes! We welcome new beginners or experienced dancers but request that you contact us before coming along. Please call Secretary Susie on 0425 883 218 or email at boxhillscottish@gmail.com. For more information, go to our website at https://www.boxhillscottish.com/home
Annual membership is $20. The class fee is $7 for members and $10 non-members. The first night is free.
Kew Croquet Club
We at the Kew Croquet Club are keen to attract new members to our sport. Our club is set in beautiful heritage premises in Victoria Park.
Croquet is an absorbing game involving mallets, hoops and balls. It is excellent for hand-eye coordination and strategic thinking. At Kew, we play 3 variants of the game plus the related Gateball.
Games include a social version unique to the Club called Kew Croquet. This is the version introduced to high school students and at corporate team-building and social events hosted by the Club.
The Club has players skilled in the original croquet sport of Association Croquet and the newer version called Golf Croquet. Association Croquet is the traditional, tactical croquet sport which is somewhat like billiards on grass. The newer game of Golf Croquet is simpler to learn but also requires good skills in using mallets to position balls accurately, hit an opponent or run a hoop. It has been described as akin to snooker on grass.
The fourth mallet sport played at Kew Croquet Club is Gateball, a 30 minute team game with players having just ten seconds to play their ball. This game uses a smaller court and ten smaller balls to play through three gates. This mallet sport was developed in Japan after WWII and is played by over ten million people across the world. If Association Croquet is like billiards and Golf Croquet is like snooker, then Gateball is akin to chess on grass.
Tennis, golf, and hockey players bring transferable skills to Croquet and progress quickly in the game, but even those with no previous sporting experience beyond their school years learn to play successfully. Training is a mix of formal and informal with more experienced players helping new players during social games. More formal training is available for each sporting code along with many online resources.
The Kew Croquet Club is located in Victoria Park, 500 High Street, Kew. If you would like to become a member, run an event or just have a go, get in touch with the Club by email at kewcroquetclub1@gmail.com or write to The Secretary KCC, 500 High St, Kew 3101 Equipment and training are supplied for beginners. More information can be found on our website at Kew Croquet Club.
This article uses information from an article by Clare Newton, previously published in Eastsider News in June 2023 and updated by the club in August 2026. Clare’s article on the clubhouse is available on the Eastsider News website here: https://www.eastsidernews.org.au/culture-and-creativity/architecture/architecture/
Congratulations to U3A tutor, Carolyn Macafee
U3A Hawthorn
On Thursday 30 July Carolyn Macafee received a Tutor Recognition Award from U3A Victoria (formerly U3A Network Victoria). The award was presented at Parliament House Victoria. Carolyn was one of 29 tutors across Victoria recognised in these awards.
Carolyn received a certificate and her name is inscribed on the U3A Victoria Honour Roll.
Carolyn Macafee joined U3A Hawthorn during 2003. By the start of 2004 she had offered to tutor a Beginners French class and has tutored French ever since. The French class progressed to the next level each year, so she introduced a second class and a few years later a third. In 2023 she offered her fourth French class. In 2026 she is teaching four different classes each week – Year 4, Year 8, Year 10 and Year 16 French. Many students have been in her courses since Beginners.
It is an enormous commitment to plan, prepare and deliver four different levels of French each week and to do so with enthusiasm and joy in sharing language and knowledge with others. Carolyn uses a grammar book as the basic text for each group, but then develops her own appropriate and diverse materials, using many different teaching techniques and resources. Carolyn embraces technology and incorporates online resources to provide diversity and new materials to make each year fresh and interesting.
During COVID Carolyn divided the three classes into smaller groups so she was teaching six sessions on Zoom each week, concentrating on pronunciation, which provided participants with that much needed small group interaction in times of lockdown.
U3As and their members are indebted to the volunteer tutors and convenors such as Carolyn who give so much of their time, expertise and enthusiasm. Without volunteers, U3A Hawthorn would not exist and the range and quality of the courses and activities we offer depends entirely on what members contribute.
U3A Hawthorn is located at 26 Sinclair Avenue, Glen Iris. To contact the organisation, phone 03 9821 0282 or email mail@u3ahawthorn.org.au. To learn about its courses and to enrol, go to their website at https://u3ahawthorn.org.au/
Sustainable Whitehorse
Sustainable Whitehorse is Whitehorse City Council’s inspiring program of workshops, activities, webinars and events held at various locations across the municipality. It covers a wide range of topics from low-waste living, thrifty gardening to improving the energy efficiency of your home, connecting with nature and more. Join us in learning, living and growing together as a connected community, caring for our environment and creating a healthy climate for a better future.
Council also offers a range of educational sessions for community groups, education institutions and faith groups in Whitehorse. If you are interested, please contact greenercity@whitehorse.vic.gov.au.
Latest Events and News
Find out about the latest Council sustainability events, news and ideas by subscribing to our Sustainable Whitehorse eNewsletter or visit our What’s Happening page.
Halloween at Greythorn 2026
It’s going to be a spooky affair at Greythorn Central on Halloween Eve, Thursday 29 October when all the fun of the Halloween fair comes to Greythorn from 4pm-8pm.
Join the spooks at the Greythorn Halloween Festival on Thursday 29 October
Halloween at Greythorn Central, on Doncaster Road, Balwyn North, continues the tradition of being the biggest and best free community festival in 2026 with plenty of food, fun and entertainment to get families out and about enjoying this annual event. It will be a huge fun of the fair event with lots of activities and show rides on offer.
Halloween at Greythorn is a totally FREE event and offers something special for everyone. Greythorn traders make it a super fun day for everyone.
More face painters and balloon twisting clowns means less waiting time and more colour and creations for children and families attending Halloween at Greythorn Central. The prize giveaway gets bigger and bigger every year and you can be assured of more than $4000 worth of prizes to be won by just coming along to the event.
Children can enjoy lolly giveaways from 4-5.30pm. From 4-8pm there will be a full carnival and fun activities planned all along Doncaster Road and side streets at Greythorn Central. Among the activities planned include show rides at Centre Way, face painting at various points on the shopping strip, photo booth, balloon clown and great prize giveaways by our MC throughout the afternoon capturing all the hijinks and great costumes of the afternoon.
The public is invited to come dressed in their spookiest outfit to scare the traders into handing over their lollies.
More than 50 Greythorn businesses will be participating in this year’s Halloween eve event and families are encouraged to stay on til 8pm to make the most of all the activities on offer.
There are some great community stalls on offer. Local schools and sporting clubs will have fundraising stalls with many different activities on offer.
This is a totally FREE event for all, except for the community fundraising stalls where your purchase will go to support a very worthy cause. The public is invited to support the fundraising efforts of the the local community groups and check out all the great shopping and dining options at Greythorn Central.
Letters to the Editor
The Editors of Eastsider News welcome letters from our readers and supporters. We want to provide you with a platform where you can express your concerns and share your insights on the things that matter in our communities. All we ask is that you keep them polite, well written, short at no more than 250 words and factually based.
Please note, while we welcome a spread of topics, views and opinions, the specific responses expressed by individual writers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors, Independent Community News Group Incorporated, or any other organisation.
Disclaimers
Eastsider News is a means by which people in Whitehorse, Boroondara and adjacent areas including Manningham and Monash can share information, opinions and experiences. A spread of interests and views that reflects the diversity of people in the area is encouraged, but views expressed in Eastsider News by individual writers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors, Independent Community News Group Incorporated, or any other organisation.
Copyright © 2025. Copyright rests equally with the named authors and Independent Community News Group Incorporated. All rights are reserved but, consistent with the community spirit of the venture, a Commons approach to reproducing material is taken on the understanding that it is accompanied by an attribution which refers to both Eastsider News and the author, and a copy of the reproduction is sent to eastsidernews1@gmail.com.
Responsibility for material related to elections is taken by named authors and Independent Community News Group Incorporated.
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