Autumn 2016 Inside This Issue... • Free seeds from Northcote Library Food Garden Welcome to the Autumn edition of Sustainability News • Famer Incubator Pop-Up Garlic at Edwardes Lake Park to offer Project in Darebin advice in relation to saving energy • Grow you own! - what to plant in and water at home, composting and autumn worm farming, solar energy and • Darebin’s Homemade Food and urban food production. It is always a Wine Festival great festival, so please come along! • Reservoir Urban Harvest Also of note is the upcoming ‘Merri • Re-route that rain! Creek: from wastelands to parklands’ • Plants and trees for birds and exhibition which will be showing bees at Northcote and Preston libraries during May. The exhibition shows • Less than 50! how volunteers have restored • Community owned renewable Welcome to the Autumn 2016 edition the trail to its natural glory, and energy projects of Sustainability News. celebrates the transformation of • Making the most of your smart the much-loved waterway and its meter and interval data As the Mayor, I am pleased to have spectacular aftermath. Thanks to the opportunity to communicate with the volunteers’ efforts over several • Council saves money on you about environmental issues, decades the trail is now an oasis in streetlight costs events and projects that matter to a dense urban area and provides a • Bicycle courses our community. dazzling display of wildlife, botany • Shared path etiquette and tranquillity. First of all, I’d like to invite you to • Darebin’s Sustainable Living come along to Darebin’s Sustainable Finally, a reminder about Council’s Expo, and Community and Kite Living Expo on Saturday 2 April Festival Community Support Program at Preston Shire and City Halls. which provides grants and in-kind • Food Know How - store it The expo will showcase a range support for community groups and right and save and upcoming of local environmental groups and organisations. Over the years many workshop businesses that provide ‘green’ community groups have secured • Litter aware in Autumn goods and services. There’ll also a Council grant and delivered be workshops and advice about projects which have brought great • Plastic pollution - a real menace sustainable living including green for our marine environment environmental benefits. There’s home design and renovations, further details about the Community • Recycling soft plastics and plastic minimising food waste, solar energy Support Program later in this edition. packaging and much more. The event is free • exhibition and there are door prizes to be For more information about Council’s won, so I’d encourage to take this sustainability and environmental opportunity to learn more about living programs, visit darebin.vic.gov.au/ in harmony with the environment. environment Darebin Council Environment & Natural Resources The Environment and Natural Councillor Vince Fontana PO Box 91 Preston 3072 Resources team will also be on Ph: 8470 8405 hand at Council’s Community and Mayor, Darebin City Council Email: [email protected] Festival on Sunday 20 March www.darebin.vic.gov.au/environment TTY (Hearing Impaired): 8470 8696 Multilingual Telephone Line: 8470 8470 SUSTAINABLE FOOD & GARDENING Free seeds from the 2016 Farmer Incubator pop-up garlic project taking Northcote Library place in Darebin! Food Garden (NLFG) With the average age of farmers , including a site in As part of the Darebin in tipping 53 years Bundoora. Up to 5 participants at Community Leaders in old, Farmer Incubator has been each site will each grow 500 garlic Sustainability Program, and established to support and facilitate plants during the growing season with the help of a 2015/16 young people to become successful which runs from autumn to early Darebin Community Support farmers and sustain our food summer. The project fee of $490 Grant, Kerrie Ludekens has production into the future. The per person includes garlic seed, established the NLFG seed idea behind The Pop-up Garlic access to the growing site and seven bank. Kerry has collected and Farmers project is to give potential workshops covering everything from catalogued Italian parsley, new farmers a chance to start cultivation to selling the harvested lettuce, silverbeet and fennel small. It is about novices working product. Committed growers can seeds from the NLFG, cooperatively to each get a leg up, make at least their money back and recording use-by date and and start acquiring the knowledge more! and resources they need to farm best time to plant. The Seed Registrations for the 2016 project independently in the future. The Bank will help protect valuable close on March 19. For more project ran for the first time in 2015 heirloom and locally adapted information on the workshops or and was a great success, involving seeds. It will also promote sites, and to register, please visit 12 participants including 10 women. food security by strengthening www.farmerincubator.org or contact the local food system. For the 2016 project, Farmer Farmer Per at farmerincubator@ Kerrie and the NLFG are Incubator is inviting 20 participants gmail.com or 0410 621 485 offering seeds to Darebin to grow garlic at one location in home gardeners free of charge. Collect them from the NLFG at their working bees or from the Northcote Library; Western and three in Preston Customer Service Centre, 274 Gower Street; the Kiln Café, 85C Clyde Street, Thornbury; and the Darebin Information and Volunteer Resource Service, 285–287 High Street, Preston. The NLFG are looking for more members to share the experience of growing and sharing healthy organic food together. The NLFG is next door to the Northcote Library at 32 – 38 Separation Street. Email northcotelibraryfoodgarden@ Grow your own! What to plant in autumn... gmail.com or phone 8470 8888 Vegetables and herbs grown at home are often more nutritious and fresh, and so better for your health. It is also better for the environment if you grow Working bees: Second your own as this reduces chemical use in soils, food miles and packaging. Sunday of the month 10am, Here is what you can plant in your vegie garden in autumn. except long weekends. Autumn working bee dates: • Artichoke March 20, April 10, May 8 • Broad beans • Brussel sprouts • Cauliflower • Garlic • Lemongrass • Onion • Parsnip • Peas For a copy of our Sow What When Guide, visit www. • Shallots darebin.vic.gov.au/en/Darebin-Living/Caring-for-the- • Spinach environment/SustainableLiving

Page 2 2016 Homemade Food and Wine Festival 9 – 15 May The immensely popular Homemade GREEN Food and Wine Festival is on again BUSINESS from 9 – 15 May, with the ‘Meet Less than 50 the Makers’ expo being held on Saturday 14 May in the Preston We have nearly 10% of City and Shire Halls. Council will be Darebin households with supporting some of our Backyard solar on their roof tops. This Harvest Festival gardeners and other equates to approximately passionate local sustainable food 4,625 installations. Contrast leaders in holding home grown and to this, we have less than homemade food workshops and For more information see www. a 0.5% of businesses with events. The program will be available darebinarts.com.au/foodandwine or solar installations. This in April. call 8470 8593. equates to less than 50 businesses. New Reservoir urban harvest Solar makes sense for Swap your excess garden produce at the 2nd Saturday (Northcote, Uniting business. Businesses Transition Darebin’s Urban Harvest Church forecourt, 251 High St, 11am- use the energy they are Swaps in Northcote and Reservoir. 12pm) and 3rd Saturday (Reservoir, producing at the time Bring along your excess fruit, vegies, Cnr Cheddar Rd and Broadway, they are producing it. herbs, honey, eggs, seeds and 10am-11am). For more info go to Payback times are good seedlings to share and chat with other www.transitiondarebin.org.www. and there are an array of local backyard growers. Monthly on transitiondarebin.org financing options that mean businesses can be cash SUSTAINABLE HOMES & COMMUNITIES flow positive from day one, Re-route that rain! with no upfront costs and system repayments often Downpipe diverters are a simple details on our website or contact: matching or being less than and effective way to make use of the [email protected] the savings made on their rainwater that comes off your roof electricity bills. and would otherwise disappear down the drain. By installing a downpipe Business installations diverter, you can filter and redirect are typically larger than the water from your downpipe into residential. The largest in a hose to use on your garden or Darebin is a 200kw system lawn. Diverting rainwater reduces the at Complete Food Services amount of water being discharged in Preston and the average into sewers and stormwater size is around 36 kw as drains, and provides an alternative compared to the average water source for garden and lawn sized residential installation maintenance – reducing your water of a 2.5 kw system. bill. Council is planning a workshop Darebin Council is trying about Downpipe Diverters for this to help change this by Autumn – keep an eye out for more offering Darebin businesses Plants and trees for birds and bees - creating habitats a bulk buy price for solar installations. Not for profit for wildlife in your garden organisations will also have As climate change intensifies it Free event. Registration essential at the chance to apply for the becomes more and more important to www.sustainablecommunities.vic.gov. Darebin Solar Saver and give nature a helping hand on private au pay back their solar systems land. At this workshop the passionate through their rates. To ecologists and educators at Latrobe register and find out more Wildlife Sanctuary will guide us go to www.darebin.vic.gov. through the principles for creating au/solarprograms or call a haven of species diversity in your 8470 8535. own front and back yards. For a list of the businesses Saturday April 30, 2016 in Darebin that we know 10.30am – 1.30pm have solar go to www. Latrobe Wildlife Sanctuary darebin.vic.gov.au au/ La Trobe Avenue, Bundoora (near sustainablebusiness the roundabout on Main Drive, opposite Latrobe Uni car park 8).

Page 3 Want some ENERGY AND CLIMATE information on How to make the most of your smart meter and interval community owned data renewable energy Smart meters have been installed and retailer. So instead of only projects? across Victoria and can help us to knowing your daily average electricity The Victorian government monitor and control electricity use, usage for a billing period, you can has published a new guide potentially saving money. Smart now see at what time during the day designed to give communities meters record electricity usage every you use the most electricity. the information they need to 30 minutes and automatically send develop their own community- this data to your electricity distributor owned renewable energy projects. Guide to Community- Owned Renewable Energy for Victorians covers the commercial, technical, governance and regulatory aspects of establishing renewable energy projects. It’s aimed at Victorians, but most of it is applicable to communities in other states too. It will help groups make informed decisions about Accessing your smart meter data to suit your needs establishing projects using The data from your home’s smart • If you have solar, use the web wind, solar, small-scale hydro, meter can be accessed via the online portals to see when your solar system geothermal, bioenergy and web portals listed below. Web portals exports electricity into the grid energy storage technologies. allow you to view your electricity Portals consumption in monthly, weekly, daily It covers developing • Preston, Reservoir, Kingsbury, or even hourly intervals. sound business proposals, Fairfield, Alphington - Jemena - www. funding sources (including Other benefits electricityoutlook.jemena.com.au crowdsourcing, grants and • Downloadable data can be financing options), selecting • Northcote, Thornbury - Citipower - uploaded to the Victorian Energy www.citipower.com.au the most suitable technologies, Compare website, a Victorian • Bundoora, Macleod - AusNet project management, Government website that allows you Services - www.ausnetservices.com. stakeholder consultation and to compare all energy retailers offers au connecting to the grid. in one place. Visit: www.compare. The guide is available as switchon.vic.gov.au A full list of portals can be found at: www.smartmeters.vic.gov.au/ a free download www. • Use the data to analyse your interactive-devices/web-portals energyandresources.vic.gov. daytime energy consumption to au/energy/sustainable-energy/ determine the best size solar system community-energy Council saves ‘ratepayers’ over $0.5 million per year in streetlight costs 160 energy efficient LED streetlights 2013 levels. are about to be installed in Bundoora This activity received funding from which will complete the three year the Australian Government. program to upgrade Darebin’s 9,860 The views expressed herein are local road streetlights. The energy not necessarily the views of the efficient lights will: Commonwealth of Australia, and • reduce Council’s electricity costs by the Commonwealth does not accept over $500,000 per year responsibility for any information or • reduce Council’s streetlight advice contained herein. electricity consumption by 58% from

Page 4 SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT OTHER NEWS Bike Courses for all levels Come along Once again we’re offering a series • Basic Bike Maintenance, 19 March to Darebin’s of community bike courses from & 1 May - Learn how to take better Sustainable Living February through to May. We have care of your bike. Expo a range of course types so you can Courses are for people that live, Darebin Council is hosting a choose one that suits you. work or study in Darebin. If there are Sustainable Living Expo on • Urban Cycling Confidence, 10 spaces free one week before the Saturday 2nd April, 11.00am April - Boost your confidence to get course, they will be made available to to 2.00pm at Preston City around by bike with some practical people from outside of Darebin. and Shire Halls, Gower experience. The bike maintenance courses will be Street, Preston. • Back on the Bike, 20 March - held at Jika Jika Community Centre The expo will showcase A short course for novice bike and the other courses in Preston. a range of community riders that is held in a traffic-free Courses cost $15 or $10 concession. environmental groups, local environment. For more information and bookings businesses who offer ‘green’ • Riding Skills for Parents, 17 April - visit: www.darebintransport. goods and services, as well Learn strategies for riding safely with eventbrite.com.au or call 8470 8683. as workshops and advice your kids (parents only). related to green home design and renovations, solar, food Darebin’s new shared path etiquette waste recycling, sustainable Shared paths are shared spaces see on our shared paths. The top 5 transport and more! See used by people walking, running, have become our new shared path the poster on the last page riding, skating and scooting. We etiquette for Darebin. Thank you to of this newsletter for more invited the community to help us everyone that took part. information. develop a shared path etiquette that We encourage you to follow this Community and Kite encourages safe, respectful and etiquette to help make our shared Festival considerate riding and walking on paths safe and comfortable: our shared paths, so everyone can Come along and visit the enjoy using them. • Politely let others know you are Environment and Natural overtaking. Four community workshops were Resources team at Council’s held on the St Georges Road shared • Keep left and give space when Community and Kite Festival path in November 2016. Path users overtaking. on Sunday 20 March from 11.00am to 5.00pm were invited to have a conversation • Ride at a relaxed speed. and share their ideas for a shared at Edwardes Lake Park, path etiquette. We then invited the • Obey traffic signals. Reservoir. The team will be on hand to answer questions wider community to vote on which • Keep dogs on a leash. of these behaviours they want to about solar, energy efficiency, water saving, composting and worm farming and a whole lot more. The team will be joined by the Trash Puppets who will be showing kids (and big kids too!) how to make puppets out of materials which might usually end up in the rubbish.

Page 5 RECYCLING, WASTE & WATER Food Know How – Get to know your Kitchen Essentials with Jo Richardson- store it right and save! Food waste is costly to households a number of amazing cook books Food Know How is a free, and a serious environmental concern and regularly has spots on television program helping Darebin when it ends up in landfill. Luckily, working her food magic. Come and households reduce the amount most food waste that comes from join this workshop and learn tips of food they throw away. It your home kitchen is avoidable! and tricks for using those common teaches strategies such as Food Know How is a free community leftovers, storing food to keep it fresh meal planning, using leftovers, program for residents in Darebin, and tasty for longer and how to jazz smart shopping, food storage, Maribyrnong, Moreland, Whittlsea up a simple meal to make it look composting and worm farming. and Yarra. It is designed to help you delicious. We’ve had some exciting avoid food waste, save money in your When: Wednesday 16th March, workshops and events with kitchen and get the most out of your 6.30pm-8.00pm, more to come! To find out more groceries every week. or register to join the program, Where: Melbourne Polytechnic, St This March, Food Know How and visit: www.foodknowhow.org.au Georges Road, Preston the will host a food We asked The Kitchen waste avoidance workshop with Jo This workshop is being delivered as Therapist, Jo Richardson, who Richardson- the Kitchen Therapist. part of the Food Know How program runs some of our Food Know Jo is a trained Home Economist and bookings are essential, please How cooking sessions, if she and food stylist who has released register at www.foodknowhow.org.au would share some of her tips on storing “tricky” food items to make them last. She offered us these gems: • Feta cheese – make a salt water solution to store the cheese in – change the brine every 3 days. • Tomato paste – wipe the Litter Aware in Autumn inside of the jar clean – top the remaining paste with oil. This Autumn, the only litter we hope litter problem by calling Customer Refrigerate. to see is leaf litter from trees! Litter Service on 8470 8888. • Butter – freeze in useable and dumped rubbish are significant Litter affects us all, so let’s keep amounts, well wrapped and issues for Council, community and on top of it and aim for a litter-less labelled, for up to 3 months our environment - but sometimes we Darebin. OR store in a sealed container don’t even realise our actions are in the fridge for 1 month – no creating litter. When our bins are too longer. full, bin lids are left open, rubbish is • Cream – either freeze or do left on top of them or on the nature something more exciting and strip, birds, animals and wind can churn it into butter. Simply whisk scatter the rubbish around and at a high speed until the peaks create litter. Litter that ends up in our turn to soft curds of butter. Drain streets and parks, or washes down off the whey, this can used in drains into our waterways, not only baking and pancakes. looks awful, but can harm animals and their homes. • Egg whites – freeze for up to What does Council do about litter? 3 months in a suitable sealed Council cleans Darebin streets at container. least once per month (much more • Cheese – freeze for up to often in high-use areas like shopping 3 months well wrapped in a strips). We have staff dedicated to suitable container. investigating and responding to litter and dumped rubbish and caring for • Spices/herbs – store small our parks and reserves. amounts only. Store in dark place, not in daylight. Spices What can I do? Make sure you don’t and herbs lose their oomph accidentally cause litter. Make sure quickly! bin lids are kept closed, cover any trailer loads you have, don’t leave • Garlic/ginger - store in a damp rubbish next to or on top of bins cloth, in a sealed bag in the and let us know if you see littering fridge. happening or know of an ongoing

Page 6 BIODIVERSITY Plastic pollution - a real menace for our marine life Darebin to play host to Merri Creek Plastic pollution is abundant Unlike naturally-based paper or exhibition throughout the marine environment, glass, all plastics that end up in the Did you know that the thriving with a recent report estimating marine environment persist for many Merri Creek trail was once a minimum of 5.25 trillion plastic years. nothing but a weed-smothered particles weighing 268,940 tons are RRR’s Radio Marinara recently drain? drifting around in the world’s oceans. presented about microplastics and This plastic pollution is particularly the huge problem these pose to our You can learn about how harmful for animals ranging from marine environment. You can listen community involvement in 1975 zooplankton to cetaceans (whales to the podcast at www.rrr.org.au/ restored the trail to its natural and dolphins), seals, seabirds and whats-going-on/news/the-menace- glory by viewing the ‘Merri Creek: marine reptiles, who either eat or of-microbeads-on-radio-marinara from wastelands to parklands’ become entangled in this plastic exhibition at Darebin Libraries. pollution. Adsorption of persistent And for more information about organic pollutants onto plastic plastic pollution in the Yarra and The exhibition, which has been and their transfer into the tissues Maribyrnong Rivers and travelling throughout Melbourne, and organs through ingestion is Bay visit celebrates the volunteer-led impacting larger marine animals, as www.bay-keeper.com/wp-content/ transformation of the much loved well as organisms lower down in the uploads/2014/08/Litter-Hotspots- waterway and its spectacular food web and their predators. microplastics-report-July-2014- aftermath. Larger plastic pollution travels easily FINAL.pdf and www.bay-keeper. from land to sea. It blows in from com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ Thanks to such efforts the trail is bins and garbage dumps, or flows Nurdle-Soup-booklet.pdf now an oasis in an urban dense area and provides a dazzling through stormwater drains into our So how can you help? As a waterways and eventually the sea. display of wildlife, botany and consumer, you can minimise tranquillity. Once in the ocean, it slowly breaks the number of plastic products down into smaller and smaller you purchase, dispose of litter You can view the exhibition at: pieces. Microplastics are another correctly (including recycling hard type plastic pollution. These are the and soft plastics), and you can • Northcote Library (32-38 gritty polishers and sparkly glitters in choose products that are free of a wide range of bathroom products Separation Street, Northcote) microplastics. Remember, plastics from 2–15 May ; or from scrubs to toothpastes, soaps to are like diamonds, they last forever. sprays. After use, they wash straight Every bit of plastic ever used is still down the drain and flow out to sea. • Preston Library (266 Gower on the planet somewhere today.... Street, Preston) from 16–31 May during Library opening hours.

A formal launch event will take place in May, as well as guided tours of the exhibition, so keep an eye out on the Darebin Libraries website over the coming months for further information.

The exhibition has been produced by the Merri Creek Management Committee with the support of Friends of Merri Creek, Melbourne Water and local councils.

Please note: bookings are not Recycling soft plastics and plastic packaging required for this exhibition and all Did you know that Australians dump put into your yellow-lidded Council are welcome to come and view 7,150 recyclable plastic bags into recycling bin, and drop them into as they please. landfills every minute or 429,000 the REDcycle bin at your nearest bags every hour? The REDcycle participating supermarket. Most program makes it easy for you to of the plastics deposited are made recycle soft plastics and packaging into outdoor furniture. To find your and therefore keep them out of nearest participating supermarkets, landfill. visit www.redcycle.net.au/redcycle/ It’s easy, just collect the soft plastics locator and packaging that you cannot Page 7 Events are usually FREE unless noted otherwise weed and clean up the reserve. Melway 30 B3. Light refreshments served.

Thursday 14 April, Waterwatch Frog Survey, MARCH 2016 5.30-7.30pm. Meet at the picnic area of Leamington Street, Reservoir (by Edwardes Lake) to join Darebin Thursday 17 March, Good Food Stories, 6.00pm- Council’s Waterwatch program coordinator Jane 8.00pm, All Nations Kitchen Garden, All Nations Bevelander and Friends of Edwardes Lake for a frog Park, Separation Street, Northcote. Enjoy crepes talk and survey. Listen to the sounds of different in the park and stories of good food projects in frog species, learn how to identify them and help Melbourne. Crepes for Change will feed us and talk us understand more about what’s happening at the about their work with homeless youth. Speakers from lake. For information please contact: Merri Creek Farmer Incubator and the Pop-Up Garlic Project, Management Committee: 9380-8199 or jane@mcmc. Tamil Feasts and local food growing projects will org.au share insights from their projects and how you can get involved. Get advice on starting your own good Saturday 30 April, Plants and Trees for Birds and food project, pick some fresh produce and enjoy Bees - habitat gardening workshop, 10.30am- a beverage with like-minded folk. RSVP to info@ 1.30pm. Latrobe Wildlife Nursery, Latrobe Avenue, sustainablecommuities.vic.gov.au Bundoora. Free event. As climate change intensifies it becomes more and more important to give nature Sunday 20 March, Darebin Community and Kite a helping hand on private land. At this workshop Festival, Edwardes Lake Park, Reservoir, 11.00am the passionate ecologists and educators at Latrobe - 5.00pm, Free event. The Environment and Natural Wildlife Sanctuary will guide us through the principles Resources team will be on hand to answer questions for creating a haven of species diversity in your own about solar, energy efficiency, water saving, front and back yards. Registrations essential www. composting, worm farming and a whole lot more. sustainablecommunities.vic.gov.au The team will be joined by the Trash Puppets who will be showing kids (and big kids too!) how to make MAY 2016 puppets out of materials which might usually end up in the rubbish. Other activities include food stalls, Sunday 1 May, Clarendon Street, Thornbury performances and of course kite flying. Bring a kite planting and weeding, 10.00am-12.00pm. Free or make one on the day! event. Friends of Darebin Creek and Darebin Bushcrew will revitalise entrances to the shared trail APRIL 2016 between Clarendon St and Gooch St. Tasks could involve planting and hand weeding. Tea and nibbles Saturday 2 April, Darebin’s Sustainable Living will be available at the end. Meet at the end of Expo, Preston City and Shire Halls, Gower Street, Clarendon Street, Thornbury. Melways 31 B6. Preston. Free event. Darebin Council’s Sustainable Living Expo will showcase a range of community Sunday 29 May, Southern Road wetland planting, environmental groups, local businesses who offer 10.00am-12.00pm. Free event. Friends of Darebin ‘green’ goods and services, as well as workshops Creek will be working with Banyule Bushcrew to plant and advice related to green home design and out the Southern Road wetlands, the site of recent renovations, solar, food waste recycling, sustainable remedial works. Bring your favourite gardening gloves transport and more! for planting. Meet at the corner of Gona St and Liberty Parade, Heidelberg West and follow the signs to the Sunday 3 April, Napier Waller Reserve Clean, site. Melways 31 D1. 10.00am-12.00pm. Free event. Friends of Darebin Creek will be working with Darebin Parklands rangers Monday 2 May - Sunday 15 May, ‘Merri Creek: from to clean up the Napier Waller Reserve for planting wastelands to parklands’ exhibition, Northcote later in the year. We will be cleaning up litter that has Library, 32-38 Separation Street, Northcote. Free accumulated over time. Meet at the new bridge at event. The exhibition shows how volunteers have Sparks Reserve, Ivanhoe. Melways 31 D10. Wear restored the trail to its natural glory, and celebrates sturdy shoes and long pants. Gloves and tongs will be the transformation of the much loved waterway and provided as well as tea and nibbles at the end. its spectacular aftermath. Thanks to the volunteers’ efforts over several decades the trail is now an oasis in Sunday 10 April, Strettle Reserve, Thornbury a dense urban area and provides a dazzling display of weeding, 10.00am-12.30. Free event. Join Friends wildlife, botany and tranquillity. of Merri Creek and Darebin’s bush crew to hand

Page 8 Monday 16 May - Sunday 31 May, ‘Merri Creek: from wastelands to parklands’ exhibition, Preston 2016/2017 DAREBIN Library, 266 Gower Street, Preston. Free event. COMMUNITY SUPPORT The exhibition shows how volunteers have restored the trail to its natural glory, and celebrates the PROGRAM transformation of the much loved waterway and its spectacular aftermath. Thanks to the volunteers’ efforts Council’s Community Support Program provides over several decades the trail is now an oasis in a financial and in-kind support to not-for-profit community dense urban area and provides a dazzling display of groups and organisations. wildlife, botany and tranquillity. Community groups and organisations may apply for cash grants of up to $6,000 for activities, projects and programs focusing on caring for the natural environment and sustainable living, as well as a range of other activities related to arts and culture, sport and recreation, and community development.

As well, in-kind grants are available to cover the cost of hiring a Council nominated venue to conduct activities and meetings.

Please read the Darebin Community Support Program Information Booklet 2016/2017 before applying for a grant. The booklet is available at www.darebin.vic.gov. au/communitygrants or the Customer Service Office at 274 Gower Street, Preston.

Please note that only online applications will be accepted, and instructions relating to the online application form are available in the information booklet.

Applications close on Monday 25 April 2016 at 12.00am (end of day). Late applications will not be accepted.

Need more information?

Come along to an information session: • Thursday 10 March 2016, 10.00am-12.00pm, Preston Shire Hall, 286 Gower Street, Preston • Thursday 7 April 2016, between 6.00pm-8.00pm, Preston Council Chambers, 350 High Street, Preston

… or contact the Community Grants Officer on 8470 8504.

Page 9 Enjoy a great day out for the whole family. Displays, products and expert advice to help you green your lifestyle.

Saturday 2 April 2016 Green design and Garden 11am to 2pm renovations and Preston City and Shire Halls compost information 284 Gower Street, Preston

Solar and Local Sustainable energy and Sustainable transport living information seasonal displays food workshops

Door prizes, special offers and kids’ activities. Free entry. For more information www.darebin.vic.gov.au/sustainablelivingexpo

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