Hand over the keys, we’re 21!

Finally, Southbank Local News can be considered a fully-grown adult.

Welcome to our 21st edition and, in the tradition of embarrassing 21st speeches, we thought it was the perfect time to share some lighter and embarrassing (mostly to me) stories from our first 21 editions.

What’s in a name?

Before Southbank Local News was born Shane Scanlan and myself met with the Yarra River Business Association (YRBA) to canvas the idea. There was some discussion over the name Southbank Local News but we stuck to it. One idea we did take on board however was for our district names within Southbank, for the Southbank directory. The areas now known as “Boyd” and “Malthouse” were originally “Freeway North” and “Barracks”. It was politely pointed out that neither of these names screamed friendly living environment!

My day as a monarchist

I consider myself quite a staunch republican and critic of the royal family, but when the Queen rolled into town late in 2011 it was a big story for our burgeoning publication. Everything hinged on getting a shot of the Queen here in Southbank. Expecting large crowds I found a prime position along St Kilda Road, but had to sit and wait for three hours among enthusiastic school kids and families, continually asking me the reasons I loved the Queen! I got the shot, but my republican spirit was crushed that afternoon!

Career peak, almost

In our fifth edition we ran a front cover story on the window cleaners of Eureka Tower. We actually had that story in the can for a couple of months and were just waiting for the right day to organise a photo shoot. I had been bragging to anyone who’d care to listen with excitement about scaling to the top of Eureka and having the once-in-a-lifetime day up on the roof with the window cleaners. When I received an email from the cleaners on a clear and breathless morning in early March I was pumped, until seeing the attachments in the email, five fantastic images, taken the day before, without needing me to get onto the roof at all!

That’s just a sample of some of the day-to-day occurrences we have here in the Southbank Local News office, which, over the last 21 months has really been a fantastic place to work.

We again need to thank all of our advertisers and supporting businesses. Without these, we simply would not be here to provide the local news to the growing Southbank community. I implore you to support them.

Thanks too, must go to you, the readers. We’ve had a wonderful response from people engaging with their local rag and it’s been very pleasing to know people enjoy getting their teeth into the local issues.

Here’s to the next 21.

Cheers!