A great time had by all

On July 22 the Parkville Association held its fourth Christmas in July. With more than 70 people in attendance and some very interesting guests all enjoyed the usual Naughtons hospitality! 

Our guests included the Lord Mayor Nick Reece and his wife Felicity Pantelidis. Fr Joe Caddy, who is currently Vicar General of the Diocese of Melbourne and the soon-to-be Bishop of Cairns, and Asher Goddard, senior student at Trinity College who is heading up the Bursary gardening squad, were also present.

Rather than an election address we asked Nick to talk about his life and he gave us an amazing insight into the activities leading up to his council career. We all enjoyed the journey and I am sure there will be more donations from Parkville to Movember later this year! 

Joe talked about how much he had enjoyed living in Parkville and the closeness of the residents. While sad to leave given the fact it was an extremely cold night Cairns sounded very welcoming. 

Asher talked on behalf of the team from Trinity that will be helping maintain the street-side garden beds and some residents’ gardens. For those who have not met the Trinity team yet, they will be on our streets early in August. 

Clearly our relationship across Royal Parade has developed and given the University of Melbourne sits in Parkville we welcome them all and enjoy our joint community.

Grattan St is, as mentioned in the last newsletter, now open and has helped many get across to Parkville. The streetscape looks superb, and it will be exciting to see the new plantings in spring.

Over the past couple of months since the super tram-stop was built it has become very noticeable that the Morrah St stop is very busy and quite dangerous. The number 10 stop was removed following the upgrade and the traffic exiting the stop has grown dramatically given it is the main stop for the University. 

Sadly, nearly every tram has to constantly ring their bell as cars fail to stop when passengers are alighting. I feel for the drivers who try so hard to protect their passengers. It must be remembered many years ago when Morrah St was closed from the central reservation it was done following the death of a passenger.

The next few months will be very interesting as we are now in the council election phase. I am sure we will be approached by all candidates so any issues that you would like me to raise let me know. 

We are also trying to arrange the usual meet the candidates online. This is key given the Royal Park Masterplan review and the issues raised by the RPPG, Friends of Royal Park and, of course, the Parkville Association.

Only another month until spring!