A year of highs and lows ends on theme

A year of highs and lows ends on theme By Artemis Pattichi Such a bittersweet month this was for our group. The biggest highs and lows being on one hand winning the Keep Victoria Beautiful (KVB) 2020 Sustainable Cities Environment award, and on the other hand seeing the Boyd Park development planning permit going ahead despite strong community protest. This unfortunate news put an end date to half our garden operations, the future composting hub site, but most importantly, a space that helped cultivate Southbank’s sense of community. But let’s start with the highs. Our first couple of post-lockdown meetups have been just great! Seeing old neighbours while meeting new ones, tending to the much-loved community garden and catching up over painting fresh stones to help guide you with what is harvest-ready. Both meetups felt like the community coming together while at the same time good friends, old and new, meeting again. With the holiday season just around the corner, we are excited to launch our next educational activity, called “Upcycle Christmas”, on Saturday, December 12, 10:30am at Boyd. This event will be free for the community, funded out of the 2020 Connected Communities grant we won. Participants will learn how to creatively upcycle common household waste materials into beautiful bonbons, Christmas cards and tree decorations, all of which can be either composted or recycled at their end of life. This way, people will leave with practical solutions of how to reduce their waste, their seasonal carbon footprint, and how to close the loop once the season is over. Email us or go on our Facebook page to get the Eventbrite registration link for this event. Now to the most elating news we received since our last column. That is, winning the KVB 2020 Sustainable Cities award for the environment (community) category!! We were among some great organisations doing exceptional work across a state where many organisations are active in the environment/sustainability space. Having our efforts and contribution recognised by another respectable and prestigious body, only a year after what felt like a dream: winning the 2019 Environment Melbourne Award, is motivating us more than ever to keep our tenacity and our solutions-driven work up. Winning such prestigious awards is a great confirmation to us that thinking in terms of solutions and taking one small action at a time can make a big difference, and have a huge impact. We still don’t know who nominated us for these awards, but whoever you are, we are very grateful to you and humbled by your believing in our work and vision! To you and to the community that has supported us throughout the years, thank you! It’s this kind of support that pushes us to defend Southbank’s precious activated open space whenever the opportunity arises, as it did with the high-rise development planning permit for Boyd Park. We knew that getting the City of Melbourne councillors to object this planning permit at the December 1 Future of Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting was a long shot, if there wasn’t anything technically wrong with the permit. But we couldn’t let such an important community artery be taken away without a fight and without showing our new council what this small park space means to Southbank. While our council had to approve this agenda item, the whopping 128 objection letters they received about it seems to have made a deep impact. There was more decisive language about immediate action to deliver a similar, permanent activated green space for Southbank along with more green space in general, and it was clear that our community’s loudly-voiced needs were acknowledged and heard more than ever. While we will sadly be losing Boyd Park in about 12 months when construction starts (if all other permits go ahead), your rallying behind this important issue and responding to our call to send your submission, has opened the road to win more activated green spaces for our community. In other words, we may have lost the battle, but we are winning the war. We will make sure we keep the dialogue open with council, that we see their determined words of support during the FMC delivered in actions. We’ll also try to get a permanent spot for the much-needed composting hub plus half the vegie garden, which are both at risk with the new development. With our determination and your support, we know that this loss won’t keep us down and that great things are to come for our suburb’s environment, community, and liveability. No matter how difficult a year may be, there is always something to celebrate. And so, we will at our final meetup for the year on Saturday, December 19 at 10am, where we will do our gardening and then share a celebratory lunch in the park! We invite everyone that wants to share a meal with a positive community, to BYO and come join us! Our first 2021 meetups will be on Saturdays January 9 and 23, and every fortnight afterwards. About the group: A solutions-focused group of Southbank residents working to bring positive change in sustainability practices and education to our neighbourhood, while building a wonderful community of like-minded people. 2019 Environment Melbourne Award winner • Reach us at: [email protected] or facebook.com/SouthbankSustainabilityGroup