At ACC we are committed to demonstrating and promoting a lighter footprint on the earth as best we can. And we were absolutely delighted to be the recipients of a Yarra Valley Water grant - in the form of a plumber - who has been working his way around our centre improving our water efficiency last week and this week.

He’s changed taps in the kitchen and cisterns in the bathrooms - mostly invisible changes that make a difference to how much water we use, as well as installing a very visible new water tank to capture the rainwater from the roof of the community shed … so that we can water our community garden in a more sustainable way.

We’re pretty excited and very thankful to Yarra Valley Water. And we’re looking forward to now remodelling our community raised garden beds so that our gardening group can start growing leafy greens and other food crops that contribute to local food production and support things like low food mile cooking programs and community food relief.

Our new water tank mid installation …

Our fruit trees are full of fruit and we’ve got lots of herbs growing in our garden this year. We are hoping that with your help we can keep them alive and thriving through the summer holidays when we are closed.

If you live close by, will be home in January, and wouldn’t mind popping past once or twice please let us know, and we’ll add you to our watering roster.

We are so fortunate to have so many lovely volunteers involved in Alphington Community Centre. Thanks in advance!

Our community Christmas tree is up. Thanks to everyone who did a little drawing for it!

A photo of Lee doing the finishing touches and stringing the metal ‘tinsel’ with washer ‘baubles’.

Projects are already afoot as the Women in the Shed learn to use new tools and build their confidence and ability to tackle new things.

This week Debbie started restoring a timber garden chair, Anne decided to learn mosaics so she could breathe new life into a broken ceramic duck, and Sheryl began making bamboo cutting boards from offcuts she sourced at a local business.

We will share some images of these projects as they progress and hopefully the final results. It is quite exciting to see how quickly everyone is progressing.

We’re super excited to let you know that we will be holding our annual Christmas Makers Market this year.

If you are a local maker and you’d like to book a stall you can do so on our website. Click here. They cost $20.

If you are a local shopper … COME ALONG!

This will be an outside event on the corner, in the garden and along the footpath at ACC. It will include the stalls (of course) along with a community BBQ and some lovely Christmassy craft activities for kids and their adults.

Put the date in your diary.