Arts, culture and events

Tuesday, 8th of September, I attended Rowville Primary School's production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Drum Theatre in Dandenong. A full-scale professional production. Great to see the kids engaged in the arts, and a credit to the staff and the parent volunteers who made it happen.

On the 7th of August, I was fortunate enough to catch Rowville Secondary College's production of Mary Poppins, and it was a fantastic production. I wasn't invited formally as a councillor. I bought my own tickets, as I do every year, for the family. We often have people in our primary school community that are part of the show or know people who are. So congratulations to the cast, crew and staff, the whole Rowville Secondary College community, on another really impressive production. And I know, speaking with representatives on the night, they have another big production planned for next year. Rowville Secondary College is very well known for its sports academy and its science and maths part over in my ward, but certainly its arts and culture program is really taking off. So congratulations to the school for its production of Mary Poppins this year.

I was here for the Council budget weekend. Thank you, Councillor Considine, for reminding me that we had Knox Fest in between our last meeting as well. That was an incredible event. Amazing turnout, and credit to our incredible events staff for putting on what they do, and all the wonderful community stallholders that come together to make that such a great day for our community.

I echo the sentiment about carols on Saturday. We timed our run a little bit later in the evening to make sure we could still be alive and well for fireworks when they hit at 9:30. So we saw the second half of the main program, and yes, what an incredible night. The MC, Bernard Curry, was fantastic. The Knox Factor performances, the CADs Dance Academy, and to hear that the Royal Australian Navy Band only supports one carols service every year, and they choose Knox every year, I think is a real reflection on the professionalism and polish that the event has. It's one that I'm particularly proud of, and it was great to see so many thousands of our fellow residents and community turning out in force.

I also attended the Halloween event at the Knox Community Arts Centre with Councillor Lockwood and Councillor Williams. I know Councillor Considine was there too. Great night.

On grand final day, Saturday the 27th, a shout out to Wellington Village. They run an annual grand final community celebration, which was really well attended. I think everyone heads down to Wellington Village to stock up on food and drink to begin their grand final day. The Rowville fire brigade, the CFA, was there. Rowville Primary School kids had commissioned some art for the day. The Rotary Club of Rowville Lysterfield put on one of their world-famous sausage sizzles. There was face painting and cupcake decorating. So again, really well attended family fun in Rowville on a Saturday.

Congratulations to Rowville Primary School, their incredible cast, crew and support staff. They had two sold-out nights of their Moana Junior school production at the Drum Theatre in Dandenong. And a shout out to our state member for Rowville, Kim Wells, who I think said on the night that it was about his 20th consecutive Rowville Primary School production. So I thought that was very impressive.

And another one: congratulations to Rowville Secondary College, and the cast and crew and supporting staff and volunteers, for their remarkable performance of We Will Rock You, a school production that had a run of sold-out shows over the past week and a bit. I attended with my family on a Saturday afternoon at an Auslan-interpreted session, and we were completely blown away by the quality of the production and the friendly faces across the school campus there. There's some incredible talent we have locally, and I wish everyone well with their careers in the performing arts.

And just a couple from me. Just noting, as my colleagues have, the incredible Anzac Day memorials and services that were held across the municipality. It was an honour for me to lay a wreath on behalf of our Mayor, Mayor Cooper, at the Boronia RSL dawn service, with my colleagues and our CEO in attendance. I also joined Councillor Considine at Waterford Valley Lakes retirement village for their incredible service a little bit later in the morning. The turnouts were amazing. It was a relatively mild morning, I think, comparatively speaking, so it was lovely to be out so early and sharing in that moment.

And just to note, the 6th of April, Pets in the Park. It goes a little bit under the radar, Pets in the Park, but it's a signature event of ours and was so well attended, and the weather was fantastic.

The Knox Arts and Culture Committee meeting was here Wednesday the 19th of February. It's something that I'm really passionate about. A creative nation is a more productive nation, and I certainly see the arts as a driver of both social and economic benefits. I did say to the committee on the night that one KPI for me was that, in this Council term, I'll make the case that spending in arts and culture is a really smart spend. It's not just spending for the sake of it, it's an investment that produces quite a remarkable dividend, both in social and economic terms. So that was a great first meeting. We've got a fantastic committee there. Councillor Lockwood was there as well, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know and working with that group over the years ahead.

The Knox Carols was fantastic, and I had a moment of just feeling so proud of being part of a council that can put on an event of that size and scale and polish and quality. It was amazingly well run, and I just commend the many Council staff who live and breathe the logistics and the small details of those events to make sure that they run as smoothly as they did on Saturday night. And we were much more fortunate with the weather this year than last year.