If you have appreciated knowing that you have a neighbourhood house (eg. us … or another of course because we’re all a big team ) here in the community for you over the last couple of crazy years, have enjoyed our newsletter, participated in our programs, appreciated knowing food relief is available, have engaged with our community art activities on the street in lockdown (such as the History Walks, the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery art on the fence, our Honestly letters, the Community Building Blocks, the Make Your Own Adventure map of Darebin Parklands etc. etc.) or if you have used our outdoor tables or played in our garden or come to our Christmas Market … you might like to talk us up in this survey … or even document a particular story or event (you can do this at the end).

The State Government is currently asking for feedback from Victorians on ‘living more locally and experiencing our neighbourhoods and communities in new and different ways’.

It is a great opportunity to share your lived experience of the community value of having neighbourhood houses in your local area, so that hopefully we can get more recognition (and perhaps even money to run more local programs tailored to specific neighbourhood needs into the future …).

Here’s the link. Thanks in advance!

Summer festivals, also known as matsuri, are held all over Japan from July through August.

At ACC just before Christmas our Japanese playgroup families held their own summer festival. It was pretty gorgeous to see the kids all singing to their parents and parading along the street chanting and carrying their float. And it is lovely to think that we are helping Japanese families in Australia continue their cultural traditions and witness them passing them on from one generation to the next.

This festival was delayed by our last lockdown, but we were thrilled that they were able to squeeze it in before the holidays. Maimi and the other playgroup leaders put a lot of work into decorating our centre and setting up a whole lot of fun activities for the children in the garden. And we’ll be looking forward to them celebrating it again next year!

In 2022 we will have Japanese playgroups running on Monday and Thursday mornings from 10am-1pm here at ACC.

A lovely photo of local Federal MP Ged Kearney with Maimi who runs our Japanese playgroups, enjoying the festival.

We wish you a safe and happy Christmas, New Year and school holiday break.

I know that our staff are all really looking forward to some downtime after another unexpected year … and will hopefully (with fingers and toes crossed) be enjoying some ☀️ sunshiny weather, eating well and spending quality time with family and loved ones … along with all the others things - like reading books and swimming and hikes and relaxxxxing …

We’ll be back in the office on Monday 31 January all set to hit the ground running in 2022.

See you then.

The last few months have sped by and we’re now closing up shop for Christmas. We’re all taking a break from the office for the entire school holidays … we’ll be back on 31 January 2022 raring to go!

Coming up next year as part of our regular program we have:

• Ukulele on Monday evenings

• CWA on Mondays (monthly)

• Collage on Tuesday evenings (6 weeks per term)

• History Group on Tuesday evenings (monthly)

• Toy Library open on Wednesdays

• AAA Bowls on Wednesdays (6 weeks per term)

• Line dancing on Wednesdays

• Women in the Shed with Maylei on Thursdays (6 weeks per term)

• Choir Thursday evenings

• Arty Gardening on Fridays

• Morning Tea in the Garden on Fridays, and

• Observational Drawing with Louisa on Saturday afternoons (6 weeks per term).

Keen to join in? You can book (and pay) on our website now so you are ready to hit the ground running in 2022 …

And of course in amongst all this we have book clubs and playgroups, guitar lessons, ASRC food collections, counselling and … some weekend workshops and events (like the Alphington Show) that you should check out! You can find all the things in our program here.

We hope to see you in 2022.

Today we put our latest exhibition on the fence for the summer holidays and it features photos and memorabilia relating to the Alphington Bowls Club.

1921 was a pretty great year in Alphington. The Alphington Paper Mills opened for production and the Alphington Bowls Club opened their doors. This year the club’s centenary celebrations included a retrospective exhibition of photos, stories and memorabilia at the club house which we are now sharing with you on our fence. It is pretty interesting to:

• Check out the people who attended the opening of the bowls club in 1921.

• Meet Les (perhaps the club’s best bowler) and Myrtle – they won 36 club championships between them.

• Ponder the rules that framed the Alphington Ladies Bowls Club when it was created back in 1928, and were still in place in 1972!

• Speculate on the cause of the fire that destroyed the original club house in 1951 … The ladies had a picture night that finished at 11.30pm, the fire was reported at 2.45am …

• And admire the bowlers’ uniforms over the years.

If you are keen to see the whole package of information that the club produced you can download it here. Or pop past to see the images in a larger format on our fence.

Enjoy! Thanks once again Yarra Arts for supporting the Alphington Neighbourhood Gallery.