There’s so much to love about the Yarra

Precinct and this year the reasons to love it got even stronger with the two new floating food and beverage offerings.

Arbory Afloat has hugely boosted the activity level on Northbank, while Supafish has extended Southbank’s reputation for quality food and beverage onto the water itself. All credit to the HQ Group and the people behind Ponyfish Island for sticking their necks out and digging deep into their wallets to create the pontoons.

A major pat on the back also for Matthew Jackson and his team at Parks Victoria for accepting this association’s challenge to make the river more activated.

When the vision and resources of the private sector come together with a more flexible approach to governance, you get creative outputs like Arbory Afloat, Supafish and who knows what else for next spring-autumn period? They will stay around for another few weeks, especially so that they can be part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival’s River Graze weekend on the Yarra (March 16-18).

Every year we have financially supported River Graze because it highlights the fantastic food offering of our precinct and it reinforces the precinct’s food and beverage offering to hundreds of thousands of people. In turn, this pays huge dividends for the precincts’ businesses for the rest of the year. Look out for the Association’s Yarra River Melbourne branded information hubs and free festival tote bags during the weekend.

Physical and business security remains a focus of our organisation and a couple of events have helped to boost awareness.

The Business Safety and Security workshop we held in the convention centre on February 28 was very well attended.

Several of the businesses which attended will be followed up with one-on-one help from Victoria Police’s Community Safety Unit. The very gritty topic of terrorism will be the focus of the first 2018 Yarra River business luncheons on Friday, March 23. We have secured a compelling speaker on the topic, who spent 28 years in active duty for Greater Manchester Police, during which time his connection with counter terrorism moved from attacks by the IRA to more recent threats from the Middle East.

Since then, David Crompton-Guard has advised Victorian government agencies on how to prepare for what he describes as “the inevitable”.

His experience tells him that Melbourne is still a long way from being prepared and resilient enough to quickly recover from such an event.

Don’t miss this lunch, which is open to any business or resident.

Look for the advertisement on page 6 of this newspaper for booking details.

Please remember that there is a very easy way to always keep up to date with what is happening in the Yarra River Precinct, including events and special offers.

Follow us on Facebook at /yarrarivermelbourne, on Instagram @yarrarivermelb or #yarrarivermelbourne. Of course, there’s also our “Whats

On” guide at www.yarrariver.melbourne

John Forman President