Summary
I reported on Book Week celebrations at Rowville Library, where I read at preschool story time, and on the pop-up engagement at Rowville Community Centre for the 2026-27 annual plan and budget. I congratulated Hyatt Place Melbourne at Caribbean Park on its wins at the Victorian Accommodation Awards for Excellence, Rowville Secondary College on We Will Rock You, and Scoresby Football Club on its centenary celebration.
Transcript
Edited from the meeting's auto-generated captions.
Thank you, Mayor. I had a very important engagement this morning at the Rowville Library, where I joined Book Week celebrations for preschool story time. It was an absolute delight and privilege to join the team at Rowville Library. There was a sea of smiling faces, which always builds the mood and helps with the resilience for the rest of the day. Michelle Tomazin is the Rowville Library children's librarian, a formidable performer when it comes to reading books and keeping the attention of young kids. I read a book, Spiro, about a hungry spider, to a sea of young, smiling and inquiring children.
It was nice to meet Federica, the team leader at Rowville Library, and all the staff there who do a fantastic job, whether it's behind the scenes or at the front counter, to make Rowville Library the treasured community space that it is there at Stud Park. And as I learned today, it's the fourth busiest library in the Your Library network on a couple of metrics.
Saturday the 23rd, I attended the pop-up engagement at the Rowville Community Centre as Council shapes its 2026-27 annual plan and budget. That was with Councillor Considine and Councillor Pearce. It was a lovely way to spend our morning and early afternoon, meeting and chatting with residents. People certainly didn't hold back in terms of the feedback for us, good and bad, and it's always a really good opportunity to hear what people think we're doing well and where people think we need to do some more work. So, very grateful for that feedback as we shape our plan for the year ahead.
A couple of congratulations I'd like to extend. To Hyatt Place Melbourne at Caribbean Park in Scoresby: they scooped the pool at the recent and very highly regarded Victorian Accommodation Awards for Excellence. Hyatt Place was named Hotel Restaurant of the Year. They won Best Marketing Initiative as well. And a couple of those, I think, they've won back to back now. So some high honours there for Hyatt Place at Caribbean Park.
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.
Just quickly, I'd mention the 100 years of Scoresby footy. Back on the 2nd of August, the sun was shining. Scoresby came from six goals down to win in a fairytale finish, and the Scoresby Football Club put on an incredible pre-game function which was packed out and brought together past players, supporters and volunteers. So I extend my congratulations to President Dave Renkin and all of the club management team for putting on such a wonderful day.
So, a busy month in Tirhatuan Ward, and I'll submit the rest by way of report. Thank you, Mayor.