Summary
I reported on the Share Space spring market at Arcadia Reserve and the grand final day celebration at Wellington Village. I joined students and staff at Rowville Secondary College to open their new yarning circle, and as Deputy Mayor administered the pledge at two of the three National Citizenship Day ceremonies, where about 280 people became Australian citizens. I also congratulated Rowville Primary School on Moana Junior and Scoresby Football Club on back-to-back premierships.
Transcript
Edited from the meeting's auto-generated captions.
Thank you, Mayor. Yesterday I attended the Share Space spring market at the 1st Rowville Scout Hall at Arcadia Reserve in Rowville. It was beautiful weather. They had a wonderful crowd and buzz. It was a wonderful community activation on a Sunday afternoon. So, a shout out to Gail, Jess, Brian, all the familiar faces and friends and Share Space volunteers, and the many vendors and stallholders who came out to bring the market to life.
Yesterday, I would note, we had Cypriot Street Grill there, a pretty famous food truck there on Stud Road, who came out to provide lunch to everyone. The Sundaez N Chill soft serve truck, the Lizard Wizard bringing snakes and turtles for the kids. There was local live music, and a shout out to some small businesses in Rowville: Angie Craft Creations and Izzy Bicky Dog Treat, two small home businesses mostly run by kids, who were there selling their wares. And I also note Bubbles @ Rowville and the Rowville Hawks Junior Football Club were there as well, with activations to bring some colour and movement to the day. So it was a wonderful community event. There would have been hundreds of people there. We were there for three or four hours, and it was great to chat to so many friends and family locally.
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.
Tuesday the 16th, I had the privilege of joining students and staff at Rowville Secondary College for the opening of their new yarning circle at the West Campus. This is a very special place that was inspired by the students themselves and, even more impressively, was built by the students too. Uncle Perry Wandin, Wurundjeri Elder, led a fantastic smoking ceremony the day before he was here with us on National Citizenship Day. But it's a very special space at Rowville Secondary College that will now serve as a place to come together and share wisdom and knowledge for students and staff, and I do note that the Council supported the project directly. So congratulations to the staff here who helped bring that project to life.
Wednesday the 17th of September, it was National Citizenship Day. In this very room, I think without the dividing wall, we had three significant ceremonies across the day. About 280 new Australian citizens across the three formal ceremonies here at the Civic Centre. Federal MP for Aston, Mary Doyle, Daniela De Martino, the state MP, Councillor Peter Lockwood, and the Assistant Federal Minister for Citizenship, Julian Hill, also attended one of the ceremonies, which, of course, is the final step for people becoming Australian citizens. As Deputy Mayor, it was an honour to administer the pledge of commitment at two of those ceremonies. And it was such a delight to see the smiling faces, as people and families have chosen Australia as their home and, more importantly for us, have chosen Knox as their home as well. They all have a remarkable story, and it was a real honour and highlight to be involved in that day a couple of weeks ago.
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 just finally, it's a bit of a risk to pull out one footballing success story of the season, but congratulations to Scoresby Football Club. They won their Division 3 grand final earlier this month in the Eastern Football Netball League. Back-to-back premierships for the Magpies. It was a one-point win, and it literally went down to the last second. So I got caught up in the emotion at Bayswater Oval, and was pleased to see the coach, Craig McKenzie, and the captain raise the cup. And the Hawks seniors went down in the prelim, but the reserves at the Rowville Hawks won their grand final. So a bit of footballing news to end a very busy month.
Thank you, Mayor.