Emerging from COVID

It seems we are certainly coming out of our COVID restrictions as things are moving with the City of Melbourne. Much is happening in Southbank and the next few months are going to be busy.

Firstly, I would like to extend a big Welcome to Ash Lee who is the new City of Melbourne Southbank Community Partner. Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA) has already spent quite some time with Ash and we can certainly say she has hit the ground running. Ash has some great plans for the Southbank community and she will be reaching out to engage with as many of us as possible. We will certainly let you know. We look forward to working with Ash.

And, how exciting that Southbank has finally got a dedicated off-leash dog park. If you are not aware, the dog park is located opposite the tram stop at the start of the Kings Way undercroft on Moray St. This has been years in the making, and behind schedule, but it’s finally here. SRA is so grateful that the lobbying we commenced some five-plus years ago has finally come to fruition. However, I wonder if now that we have an official dog park if it will discourage residents from letting their dogs off the leash in Boyd and Melbourne Square lawned areas. Now there is a dedicated park, I suspect the council will be less tolerant of those who choose not to comply with the off-leash rules for those public spaces. If you have a furry friend, then I would love to hear from you about your experiences with the new dog park.

SRA has a busy couple of months ahead and we would love to meet you at one of our events. On Wednesday, March 16 we are re-establishing our bi-annual “New to Southbank” event, which COVID had unfortunately put a stop to during the past few years. If you are new to Southbank and would like to learn more about your neighbourhood, then we encourage you to come along. Even if you are not new, we are confident there is something you might learn from our event. If not, meet some new neighbours! The event is held in the Assembly Hall at Boyd Community Hub, 207 City Rd, at 6.30pm. It should only go for about an hour.

As we are all aware, a federal election is looming. Since SRA’s inception more than 20 years ago, we have been holding “Meet the Candidates” events for all elections affecting our neighbourhood (federal, state and council). This year will be no exception. We anticipate the election will held in May. Once the election is called, we will contact our local candidates and lock them in for a date and time. We anticipate sometime at the end of April. Certainly watch this space in the April edition for the details. As usual we will make our best effort to source a great moderator.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to ask that if you are not a member of our not-for-profit, volunteer-driven, community group you might like to consider joining. Without membership our lobbying voice is diminished. You can join up via our website, southbankresidents.org.au. If you want to reach out to us, you can do so at [email protected].

I am looking forward to meeting some of you at our New to Southbank event on March 16 at 6.30pm •