MAYOR’S COLUMN – June 21, 2018

COUNCIL is delighted to announce the recipients of our 2018 Community Environment Alliance (CEA) grants program. Through the program we will provide $6,800 of funding to the Queenscliffe and District Neighbourhood House, St Aloysius Catholic Primary School and the Swan Bay Environment Association to enhance and improve environmental sustainability in our local community.

The Queenscliffe and District Neighbourhood House’s “Boomerang Bags” project aims to reduce the use of plastic bags in the community by providing reusable fabric bags through local businesses. Members of the community will be invited to support the project by donating fabric and participating in sewing and stencilling workshops.

St Aloysius Catholic Primary School applied to the CEA grants program to fund their contribution to the Kids Teaching Kids Local Conference 2018, a one-day conference to be held in Queenscliff in September 2018 in which students from local and mGeelongbased schools will teach each other about sustainability initiatives and environmental issues such as waste management, litter, water conservation and coastal vegetation.

The Swan Bay Environment Association will use their CEA grant funding to extend the successful Gardens for Wildlife program, which provides residents with advice on improving the ecological value of their garden.

This phase of the project will target private properties adjacent to three public sites where weeding and planting of indigenous species has taken place. The project aims to ensure work at these public sites is not compromised by the spread of weeds from nearby gardens.

We are so pleased to support our local organisations in the delivery of these important projects, which will help everyone in our community to make change and deliver longterm benefits for the wider Borough.

Joyful return of annual visitors
We were very excited to welcome the annual return of the whales to our shores over the last fortnight, and we hope to enjoy further visits in the coming months. The whales were visible from the Queenscliff front beach! What a wonderful gift for our community.

2018 Queen’s Birthday Honors List
All the Councillors were thrilled to learn that Neville Barwick has been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Neville’s OAM acknowledges his services to our community and to Australia-East Timor relations, for his work with the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum and the Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff Probus clubs and his achievements as Founder and Chair of the Australia East Timor Embassy Foundation. Councillors offer our heartiest congratulations to Neville, on behalf of the community, for this well-deserved award.

Refugee Week 2018 film screening
Council is very proud to join with Queenscliffm Rural Australians for Refugees, the Uniting Church Queenscliff, Trinity Aid for Refugees and the Borough of Queenscliffe to present a special screening of the film Human Flow at the Queenscliff Town Hall on Sunday June 24 at 1.30pm, in acknowledgement of Refugee Week 2018.

The price of entry is $15 with all funds raised dedicated to supporting local asylum seeker and refugee actions. Tickets are available from Eventbrite at queensclifferefugeeweek. eventbrite.com.au, or via the Borough of Queenscliffe website, queenscliffe.vic.gov.au.

Ganes Reserve works
Council is currently undertaking maintenance works to remove cumbungi from the Ganes Reserve wetland in Point Lonsdale. This is necessary to maintain the health of the wetland and provide necessary capacity for stormwater events. The works started during the last week and we expect they will be finished within a fortnight

There will be some restrictions on pedestrian access around the lake during the works, and there will be large bins in place for collection and draining of the cumbungi, which will be disposed of at a green waste composting facility.

The initial stage of the works will clear about 30 per cent of the cumbungi. Further stages will be undertaken but a central island of vegetation will always remain as this provides important habitat for local birdlife.

Low Light launches tomorrow
The Low Light Festival is finally here, with the first winter weekend of events starting on Friday June 22. You are cordially invited to celebrate the Winter Solstice with us but get in quickly – visit lowlightqueenscliff.com.au today to check out the delightful, delicious, diverse program of events and book your tickets before they all sell out.