If you are interested in learning more about the history of our neighbourhood … and also like a stroll, perhaps you’d like to print out or collect our first History Walk.

This walk starts on the south side of Alphington Station and takes you on a tour of the Old Alphington Village. Thanks to Anne and the 3078 History Group for all the background work that has gone into this flyer, and thanks also to Lee for the graphic design and Kalimna for the photos.

We’re planning to record an accompanying podcast at some stage to sit along side this walk. We’ll let you know when this is active.

If you have a printer at home you can print a copy here. If you’d like to collect a printed copy you’ll find some out the front in the little brochure holder on the side of our seed library.

Over the last few months we’ve been mixing up how we identify our Instagram posts ‘location’ … sometimes we choose our actual address that is saved in the ether of the interwebs, and sometimes we choose our traditional place name ‘Wurundjeri Country’. This choice acknowledges the long history of our location.

As Cr Susan Rennie discussed when she was Mayor,

“It's important for Wurundjeri people to see their language and their names and places recognised in writing, but it's equally important for Australians who aren't First Nations people to understand and see that connection in everyday things."

Of course there are hundreds of First Nations words that were adopted into our daily lexicon as white settlement rolled out - Dandenong, Prahran, Toorak, Yarra, Boroondara etc.

It’s great to add more, and especially ones that we know are historically meaningful …

Because for example I heard an archaeologist talking on the ABC the other week, explaining that Yarra isn’t the actual name of the river for the Wurundjeri, the traditional owners of Naarm (Melbourne). It’s Birrarung. Yarra was a misinterpretation of yaro yaro which was a description of how the water flowed over the rocks at the falls (that no longer exist). Said falls were in the middle of Melbourne near Queenbridge Street, and provided both a barrier to seawater going further upstream, and a natural crossing point from the north to south sides …

It was because of these strategically located falls that Batman etc. declared ‘this is the place for a village’ … before blasting them away not too many years later … because they partially dammed them … which exacerbated flooding upstream … and we know how these things go … yikes.

Anyway, I just saw that Australia Post has published an official protocol so we can now also add the traditional place name to snail mail as well.

The protocol is

• Addressee’s Name

• Traditional Place Name

• Address or PO Box

• Suburb, State and Postcode

Australia Post is starting distributing new packaging with the address prompts in this format to coincide with NAIDOC week (4-11 July).

NAIDOC week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and is a great opportunity to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

If you are interested in NAIDOC activities for this year visit the NAIDOC Week Events page.

How amazing that Alphington Bowls Club is 100 years old. To mark this auspicious occasion the club is holding a centenary celebration to which the whole community is invited, on Sunday 28th March from 11am-6pm.

The day includes:

• morning and afternoon tea

• BBQ

• the bar open all day

• live music

• barefoot bowls, and

• an exhibition including historical photos, memorabilia from the archives, team photos and more.

It is sure to be a super fun family neighbourhood day and a wonderful reunion event - if you’ve ever been part of the club, or have family or friends who have been involved in the club the current members would be delighted if you could encourage them to attend.

Alphington Bowls Club is at Parkview Road in Alphington. If you have any questions or need further information just call them on 9499 2530 or email info@alphingtonbowlsclub.org.au. See you there!

Our new brochure is out. We’ve created a trimmed down version for semester 1 2021. You can read it here. It is jam packed with old favourites like playgroups and choir and new ideas including a range of short courses, workshops and events you can book in to.

• Women in the Shed is back on Monday (for beginners), Tuesday and Thursday for 6 weeks in Term 1 and 2.

• Our free Access All Abilities Bowls program run with Alphington Bowls Club is back for 6 weeks in term 1 and 2.

• Our new Drawing in the Shed short course will also run for 6 weeks in Term 1 and 2. Run by local artist Louisa, this is a low-cost opportunity for all members of the community to develop the observation and co-ordination skills necessary to make creative drawings in any style. It will cover contour drawing, creating creative compositions, drawing with perspective and more.

• In 2019 we had Gordon come along and run a sewing machine maintenance workshop. It was a fantastic morning and so we’ve rebooked him this year. On Saturday 1 May he will run a sewing machine maintenance workshop and then on Saturday 17 June he will run an overlocker maintenance workshop.

• Local Manu is keen to share her Indian cooking skills with us … starting with a chai tea making workshop (Sunday 9 May). $20. Book here.

• Our History Walk is back! Join local Anne and other history buffs for a stroll around South Alphington on Sunday 16 May from 2pm.

• And finally … Home maintenance 101. It’s a maintenance kind of year it seems … and on the weekend of 19 & 20 June we’re offering a two day workshop (only $50 with Learn Local funding) all about building home maintenance skills. How to unblock a drain, how to stop a cistern running, how to fix a hose leak, how to hang pictures and fix cracks in plaster. How to fix windows that stick … (depending how old your house is the list goes on and on right?).

Book in online today.

At ACC we try to offer a wide range of opportunities for people to meet their neighbours, to make friends in the community, and to build, explore and share their skills and knowledge.

We run a number of activities that are self-led or run by a generous volunteer. These include Czech and Slovak Playgroup, Ukulele, Line Dancing and the like. For these programs we ask all attendees to contribute $5 per week (no matter how long the session lasts) to keep the lights on and the heater heating etc.

We also support a number of micro-businesses that provide services that fit in with our programming goals. Small business owners/sole traders running these programs set their own fees and we support them with low room hire rates (again $5 per attendee) and publicity. These programs include Jane’s Group Harp, Cat’s Lego Club and Matthew’s Guitar Lessons (about to start up).

Then we run a number of tutored programs, where we spread a small bucket of money that comes from Darebin Council and Yarra Council as widely as possible, prioritising community building and community need.

In the first half of 2021 we will fully subsidise Jill to run our very successful and long-standing AAA Bowls program (a partnership with Alphington Bowls Club) and Jenny to oversee our Friday community morning program that includes Community Craft, Gardening Group and Morning Tea on the Corner.

Then with the remaining program funding we will partially subsidising our tutored/supervised Community Shed sessions.

These programs will cost $5 per hour per participant (still a bargain) and we’ll need a minimum of 6 people booked in by the term for them to run.

Of course, we also tap into other funding where ever possible. We always have our eyes open and our ears to the ground … last year we partnered with MyTime to support our Peer Support Playgroup for example. And we get one-off grants from wonderful community support organisations such as Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank who have previously provided funding for our Community Lunches and our Gardening Group … and this coming year will be supporting our History Group (more to come on this).

Our full program for 2021 will be out next week, and we’ll be featuring some of the new things on offer at ACC (and some old favourites as well) in our newsletter in coming weeks (with the links to book in).

We hope you can find something that you will enjoy being part of, and we look forward to seeing you onsite in the new year. Our programming will resume in the first week of February.