Kaya,

Isn’t Kambarang beautiful? It’s a beautiful season to be walking, wheeling, and cycling outdoors, and if you’re down by the river look out for baby birds and yaakan hatching and making their way to the water.

This newsletter covers:

• Getting involved - there’s a lot on right now, including some important consultations.

• Coming up in October: policy reviews; operating subsidy agreements; the turf mowing and maintenance contract; Oats Street rehabilitation and (maybe) bike lanes; remediation works for Lathlain Park; and 10 Kent Street again.

• Decisions made in September: Karla Bidi and the Perth Festival and additional works at Elizabeth Baillie Reserve.

• Inspiration from elsewhere: co-operative investment, localising internet infrastructures, and community fruit trees.

Get involved

• Expressions of interest are open for our Arts Season!

• If you want to spend a bit of time in nature, join the Great Aussie Bird Count or learn more about native bees.

• Our strategic community plan will shape our plans and priorities over the next five years. Community consultation will inform the plan, and I know that it often has a real impact on how elected members vote, so please do take the time to give your feedback.

• The draft for the McCallum Park and Taylor Reserve Master Plan is also open for feedback. There’s a lot I love about this draft so far, including the idea of daylighting Mindeera spring; creating a natural edge to the river and adding a beach zone; and adding a playground designed to better meet the needs of teenage girls. The survey invites you to share your priorities, as well as giving other feedback.

  

• We have so many grants open right now! Get support to throw a party with your neighbours; add something beautiful to an area of the Town; insure your community group; and more.

• There are open spots for community members on several of our working and advisory groups, which help to shape our programs and services. The expression of interest process is intended to be easy and welcoming, so if you have relevant experience please consider applying to join our Access and Inclusion Advisory Group; Mindeera Advisory Group; Urban Forest Working Group; or Integrated Transport Working Group.

• Want to stay in touch with what’s happening around town without relying on social media algorithms? Subscribe to the Town newsletters, or newsletters for the Library, Community Centre, and Centre for the Arts.

Decisions coming up in October

There’s a lot on the agenda for October! The full agenda is here, and you can find the recording of the Agenda Briefing Forum here.

Item 11.2 October 2026 Policy Review

There are a few policies here with small changes, including policies relating to the provision of information to elected members; to fraud, corruption and misconduct control; transaction cards; and investments. Many of these changes relate to clarifying existing wording.

Item 12.1 Operating Subsidy Agreements

In order to provide more funding certainty and administrative efficiency, staff recommend extending existing agreements as follows:

a. Connect Victoria Park extended from three years to five years.
b. Victoria Park Centre for the Arts extended from three to five years.
c. Victoria Park Community Centre extended from three to five years.
d. Harold Hawthorne Community Centre extended from three years to four years.

Item 13.1 TVP/26/04 Turf Mowing and Maintenance Services

This recommends awarding the contract for mowing and maintaining the over 100 hectares of public open space, in addition to numerous drainage sumps and road verges. This contract also covers weed control.

I know that there are quite a few people in the community who are concerned about the ongoing use of glyphosate for weed control, and I’ve been asking about this through my time on council. Its use has been limited, and the Town have now joined WALGA’s Integrated Weed Management Working Group. Staff are reluctant to entirely abandon the use of glyphosate as finding cost-effective alternatives for the remaining uses is challenging.

Item 13.2 Oats Street Road Rehabilitation - Planet Street to Tuckett Street

This recommends the transfer of money from the Roads Renewal reserve and Pathway Renewal reserve to cover resurfacing Oats St (Planet St to Tuckett St). This will cover cost increases for the project, including the fact that bitumen prices have increased significantly above CPI.

This is a key route through Carlisle, and needs to meet the needs of drivers while also accommodating people who want to walk, wheel, and bike to the station, and supporting the development of local businesses.

The existing project is supported by Main Roads, and aims to rehabilitate the road service while also providing some improvements to pedestrian infrastructure, and widening the painted bike lanes from 1m to 1.5m. At the same time, I think there's more we can do to gradually make Oats Street a safer, more pleasant connection to local businesses and the Oats St station.

After chatting with people who ride this section of the road and getting feedback from staff, I'll be putting forward an amendment to the item calling for:

1. A feasibility study for adding safer bicycle lanes to section of Oats Street between Planet Street and Oats Street Station, using low-cost measures such as plastic bollards, with advice coming to Council by February 2027.

2. If justified by the feasibility study, a budget request to Council for the 27/28 budget cycle.

If passed, this will give the Integrated Transport Working Group time to provide feedback on the idea and set a clear timeline for the next steps.

Item 13.3 Administration Building Refurbishment - Variations to Scope and Budget

Staff note that additional works are needed to ensure that the refurbishment meets safety and accessibility requirements.

Item 13.4 Lathlain Park Remediation Works

Staff note that the first round of remediation work has been completed at the existing Lathlain Grandstand and Clubroom facility. They now recommend approving $625,000 (ex GST) to deliver the second tranche of works, primarily comprising structural remediation of masonry, concrete and steel building elements.

Item 13.5 10 Kent Street

As we've now been through two rounds of expressions of interest, with the lease offered to applicants who then turned it down, the current recommendation is to allow for a hybrid model of community use.

You can find a comparison of the two main options under consideration, a hybrid community space or a local history and archive, on page 54.

Decisions made in September

The September meeting was held on 15th September, and as always, I’ll highlight a few key decisions but read the full minutes or watch the recording for details.

Item 12.1 Perth Festival Karla Bidi Sponsorship

Staff recommended using funding allocated in the budget for Karla Bidi, a large-scale public art installation proposed to be delivered within the Town of Victoria Park during February 2027.

This item was passed, with Deputy Mayor Lindsay Miles, Cr Peter Melrosa, Cr Jack Gordon-Manley and Cr Sky Croeser voting for. Mayor Karen Vernon, Cr Scott Ingram, and Cr Andra Biondi voted against.

Item 13.1 Elizabeth Baillie Reserve – Additional Works Post Practical Completion

Staff recommended use of existing project funding for additional bins, a drainage review of Hillview Terrace, additional promenade seating, the retrofitting of collars to play equipment, and continued temporary CCTV coverage.

Mayor Vernon added an amendment requesting the CEO to list the other works identified in this item for consideration in the 2027/28 Annual Budget. Both the amendment and the item as a whole were passed unanimously.

Inspiration from elsewhere

• The Castlemaine Community Investment Co-operative is “a group of residents working together to purchase and manage local properties, taking them out of the speculative real estate market to make them community owned for good.”

• Merri-bek Tech is building local web serving across their neighbourhood in order to provide affordable alternatives to big tech, while improving our local resilience in the face of the climate crisis.

• Giving Grove is a project that support neighbourhood volunteers to plant, care for, and harvest fruit trees, with a focus on meeting the needs of food-insecure communities.

We are all connected

I think often about Rebecca Giggs’ beautiful book, Fathoms, which invites us to consider the connections between whales and ourselves. Our actions spread out across the world, and into the deep. The choices we make - both individually and structurally - stretch beyond us.

Our lives are interwoven with connections, near and far. To other ecosystems, and other societies. My work on council has given me a deep appreciation of the work that goes into our drainage system - I can’t imagine trying to manage this under the conditions the Gaza municipality is enduring, and with such urgent needs.

Boordawan!

Thanks for reading! As always, if you have questions, ideas, or concerns, please do feel free to get in touch. And if you’ve read this far and found it useful, please consider sharing with friends!

best wishes,

sky.