Dear MVS Community,
As newly elected conveners we wanted to let you know that we are choosing to act as co-conveners rather than as convener and deputy-convener. We are excited to be working with our newly formed 2023/2024 committee - we welcome Jodie Schickerling and Veronica Snook, the return of Tom Danby, and say thanks to Charlie Nancarrow and Eleesa Jewell for their excellent contributions over 2022/2023.
Lots has been happening over these past few spring months. We have been busy finalizing our Community Plan and vision, protecting a significant tree, cleaning up our waterways, repairing stuff, visiting a commercial compost site, collaborating with local groups, applying for grants, building a new website, planting up public spaces and holding a rollicking community garage sale trail to round off the year.
We also carved out some time to consider the Voice referendum together. We acknowledge that the result has been very difficult for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and others and wanted to reaffirm our support for First Nations justice and commitment to working with Indigenous communities for better outcomes. We deeply respect First Nations people, knowledges and practices and strive to work together in our shared mission for caring for Country.
We hope to catch up with you in person at our end of year party and look forward to hearing about what you have been up to.
Yours Sustainably,
Angela & Logan
Come along to help us celebrate you – our wonderful community of members and volunteers! Bring a plate to share, but please use reusable containers, plates, cups as this will be a waste free event. Car parking is limited so please try and walk or ride. See details in the flyer below.
Our community clean-ups have been exponentially growing as we continue to team up with other community groups who share our passion for a pollution free planet. We spent time cleaning Five Mile Creek and Steele Creek over the past few months. Our collaborators include Friends of Moonee Ponds Creek, Chain of Ponds Collaboration and Friends of Steele Creek. If you would like to be part of our clean-up co-ordinating team please email info@mvsustainability.org.au and we can include you in our preparations. Thanks to our dedicated volunteers who turn up every month. We had over 40 people at our last event – amazing!
Our September and October Sustain A Valley events were dedicated to running workshops on our community plan and vision statement, so we thought it was important for the November one to take us out of the year with a bang. We joined the Garage Sale Trail and invited members of our community to have a stall to sell what they needed to move on.
We had 22 households sell their wares alongside a couple of community gardens stalls. It was a lovely sunny day where new friendships and connections were made and preloved items were rehomed, all over the smell of coffee. The homemade boysenberry cake was a hit too. Our regular food swap and community waste sort was open to those who like to use these. Blister packs are still the #1 item collected. We would like this event to become a repair, refill, recycle hub for 2024, so would love to hear your ideas on what would need to be there to get you there regularly. Email
teresa@
Over the spring our Repair Cafe moved to the 4th Saturday of the month. The committed team of volunteer repairers continue to transform worse for wear household items into fully functional things. From reindeer horns, blenders, toy trucks, toasters to an Automatic River Cleaner – nothing seems to faze our talented team. MV Repair Cafe will take a break over the summer holidays and be back in action again next February.
Are you a fix-it type person?
We are always on the lookout for extra repairers so if you would like to join the volunteer team email charlie@
Back to one festival in the stunning Queens Park, the Moonee Valley Festival is on 24th February 2024. MVS will be at the festival, promoting ourselves, recruiting volunteers and offering all manner of fun activities to the general public to get involved in. We will be doing a call out early 2024 to ask for help manning the stand during the festival, which is on for most of the day!!!
We are looking to consolidate a list of regular volunteers and members who are first aid trained. If you are first aid trained and attend our events can you let us know. We hope to run some training sessions next year and want to see how many people we need to train up! Email teresa@mvsustainability.org.au
Works to demolish a house and construct 2 new townhouses within very close proximity (and well within the tree protection zone) of significant Tree 356 at 2 Woods St, Ascot Vale began in September. We noticed the Tree Management Plan wasn’t being followed, so a number of MVS members along with community have been advocating for greater protection works. And it’s working so far, with more conversations between the developer and Council. We’ll be keeping a keen eye on it to ensure this gorgeous gum stays healthy for generations to come.
Please note the Council is wanting feedback on their Open Space Strategy. This is a significant document because it determines how our environments will be shaped across Moonee Valley over the next 10 years. It is important we have a say and try to influence from a sustainability perspective. We are putting together an MVS submission but feel it would be good if many people write in with their priorities. Here’s a direct link to the survey which needs to be completed by December 17th:
https://yoursay.mvcc.vic.gov.
Some of the themes we are developing ideas around are the need for more funding for conservation officers, speeding up the tree canopy targets, increasing biodiversity in open spaces, addressing the problems of pollutants in the environment and updating the planning schemes to align new developments and conservation outcomes. Stay tuned, we are putting together a submission at the moment – we will provide more information through our socials in the coming weeks.
Council has this week resolved to adopt a more relaxed approach to nature strip planting, by endorsing a set of guidelines and removing the need for a permit to plant up your nature strip. We are so excited about this development and have been working for this result for some time now. This provides a catalyst for us to activate our greening group around nature strip planting next year to improve biodiversity, reduce urban heat and build green corridors for wildlife.
If you are interested in transforming your nature strip, we can help you navigate the guidelines. Email valerie@
Our flagship project to create a Community Cool Safe Safe Running On Clean Renewables is gathering momentum. Stage 1 of ‘Coolscaping’ is done with a large new sail installed to shade the western wall & windows. Stage 2 Coolscaping concept design plans have also been drawn up and we hope to implement them over March, April & May next year.
We have just received the great news that Dwell successfully receiving a grant from Moonee Valley City Council for $9,950 so we’ll be pushing ahead to get the main hall lights replaced with efficient LEDs and the ceiling insulated and painted over January. This will make a huge difference to comfort levels and energy consumption.
We asked local MP Danny Pearson to review our plans and were pleased to hear he felt this would really benefit the local community. We have now submitted a funding request to the Victorian State Government budget process for double glazing, solar panels, backup battery & to switch appliances to all efficient electric models. We’ll have to wait till early-mid next year to find out more, but in the meantime we’ve got plenty of cool work to do!
Our five Community Plan surveys had such a good response from you and have yielded some clear directions for us over the coming year and into the future.
Planning, Visioning and Executing (ew!) – Over the last three months we have been working hard to really set MVS with a strong base in which to propel. We have dug deep to collectively express who we are and where we want to go. Our newly drafted mission and vision statements will be launched alongside the website early next year which is exciting. We have worked with our community to identify the priorities for 2024 in our five focus areas of Active Transport, Renewable Energy, Resilient Buildings, Responsible Consumption and Healthy Environment. You’ll see our events, campaigns and projects start to shape around these themes over this next year as our efforts are consolidated to deliver these. The Active Transport Collective have got off to a flying start and have started mapping walking and cycling in Moonee Valley. You can get involved in any of the collectives and their action groups by filling out the volunteer form here www.mvsustainability.org.au/
This quarter we have submitted a grant into the Federal Government Volunteer Support Grant Program after being asked to submit an EOI by the Hon Bill Shorten MP office. Our community plan process has enabled us to look at our priorities and match them to grant opportunities (rather than the other way around!) We submitted a $2000 bid to deliver training and basic materials and equipment to set up a indigenous plant propagating team within the Healthy Environment Collective. We should hear in May 2024. If successful we will be looking for volunteers to be trained up members of this new team.
As you know, we are a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organisation. If you are able, we would welcome any donations you can offer to help us cover our basic annual running costs. You can donate on our website from the link in the top right hand corner.
We would love to hear from you! There are many ways to get involved with your local community through MVS.
Until next time…
Yours Sustainably