The humps are coming!

The humps are coming!
Rob Moore

As I write this, we are hopefully emerging from yet another lockdown. It has been very tough on many people particularly those older residents and their families.

We are so lucky in Parkville having Royal Park which has seen more use in the past two years than the previous three or four. Hopefully all left the park in the condition they found it and the trail bikers stayed off their jumps and left no destruction of the hard work by the Friends of Royal Park and the Royal Park Protection Group.

Our Christmas in July at Naughtons was postponed due to the lockdown, maybe Christmas at Christmas will be feasible!

Changes have occurred in Parkville with Juliette Barr and family moving to Sydney and locals left wondering whether or when the store would reopen.

Firstly, to Juliette, 10 years is a long time, thank you for all your hard work and support. Clearly without the store during last year’s lengthy lockdown we would all have gone mad. To Juliette, good luck in Sydney and to your family who of course became your little helpers!

The good news is the new operator is Alex Wright who for those that frequent Naughton’s has been there many years both on the floor and as a Sunday afternoon songstress. More details are in the article Inner City News editor Katie Johnson has written about her in this edition. 

I have focused on traffic issues in the past two columns and am thrilled to announce the speed humps, promised by the council, are being installed as I write this.

Degraves St is the test site to see if traffic can be slowed and controlled relatively inexpensively as part of the process of managing Parkville.

We have also approached the council regarding the increased traffic on Story St and the avoidance of the Elizabeth St roundabout. Issues on Gatehouse St are ongoing and a master plan for traffic has to be a focus for this council.

On a very sad note, Mary Duckworth, a long-time resident of Parkville, passed away on July 15. Mary was an active member of the association. When she and husband Colin moved in, their immediate neighbour was Eric Benjamin and Norah Killip.

Mary travelled often to the UK to see her daughter and even in her ‘90s would send me emails or comment on Facebook posts. The way Mary walked around Parkville on her walking frame was truly incredible and bumping into her was always a thrill and a great chat! Mary will be sadly missed in the community where she was a kind, generous, warm-hearted, and hospitable person. It is likely her funeral will be at St Marys in North Melbourne on August 10; however I will send a note when her son Mark confirms the details.

In the meantime, our thoughts are with her family •

Caption: Mary Duckworth at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

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