Even though ACC is physically closed, our staff mostly live in our community. And so, as we take our many, many, maaaaaaaany walks in and around the neighbourhood, we have stumbled across some excellent community activities going on.

For example, the guerilla gardening that’s been happening around the industrial areas north of Separation Street.

Streets have been planted out with local native plants and it’s a delight to see previously neglected industrial areas thriving with native plants and the associated birds and bugs and lizards.

This picture is of a cute billabong that’s been created where a downpipe from a warehouse runs onto the nature strip. Planting like this in industrial areas is such a great use of space.

And it’s been planted out with careful thought to biodiversity - using a variety of local plants from nurseries like the Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-Operative in Yarra Bend. These plants provide different food sources - like flowers for nectar feeding birds. There’s also logs and sticks to provide habitats for lizards and insects and water containers for bird baths.

We also spotted a nature strip compost bin for the neighbours to use - check out ShareWaste to find a neighbourhood compost bin if you don’t have your own, or set one up on your own nature strip maybe?

Hi, Leanne here.

l downloaded the CovidSafe app on Sunday, one of the 1 million Australians who did.

I figured that I have shared family holidays, my sometimes outraged/outrageous political views, things I find funny and sad, family birthdays, work images, favourite recipes, art, craft, photos from my 20s … and so much of every aspect of my life on social media over the last 20 years on such a variety of platforms that there probably wasn’t anything new that anyone in the whole world could be interested in from this …

All I did yesterday, for example, was go to the orthodontist for Scarlett (just shared here - but also tracked via emails and texts), shop at Coles (tracked on my Visa card) and pop into work (probably tracked on a variety of dash cams as I stood on the street and talked to Gerry, then Maria, then Mark … funnily the most people I’ve spoken to in person outside my family in a month I reckon). Truthfully I’m pretty bored by my lockdown life, and I find it super hard to believe anyone is going to be mining gold from it!

If you want to download the app just go to the app store on your phone and search for CovidSafe. You have to enter your name, age bracket, postcode and phone number to get it going. That’s it.

Then if you get Covid-19 you are asked to send the data collected on your phone (about who you came in contact with who also had the app downloaded) to the government so they can contact those people and let them know to keep an eye on their health. If you don’t get sick then the data disappears after 21 days.

Well that’s my understanding, anyway.

Thanks Darebin Libraries! This week our five book clubs started back up with thanks to Jodie from Darebin Libraries who personally delivered book sets to the doorstep of one person in each group (each group then organised internal distribution). And thanks also to Kalimna - who coordinated the arrangements, it was quite a logistical feat! Happy reading, what’s apping and zooming everyone!

And welcome to the 3 or 4 new people who joined up.

Books delivered for our Tuesday night book club. Thanks Darebin Libraries.

Reservoir NH, Bridge Darebin and Rotary Preston working together to ensure food relief/support is coordinated and scaling-up across Darebin

Are you eating well? Is someone you know struggling with cooking?

If you or others you know in the neighbourhood could benefit (due to age, finances, physical or mental health etc.) from a precooked frozen meal or two arriving on the doorstep once a week whilst we are all stuck at home please contact us.

ACC is currently delivering to over 30 people/families a week who need extra support at this time - so know that you are not alone.

Darebin’s neighbourhood houses are working with Rotary, Foodbank and Lentil as Anything to coordinate food relief/support across the municipality for hundreds of households a week. And the numbers are growing.

And, please note that if you are really struggling financially we can also hook you into fresh food and pantry staples that can delivered to your doorstep via a partnership between the neighbourhood houses and Uber. Supermarket vouchers are also available via funding from Darebin Council through DIVRS.

To find out more just call us on 9499 7227. Or email us here. We will help you sort out what you need.

Vanessa Reynolds, who is part of our History Group (which meets monthly at ACC and also leads our neighbourhood history walks) has put together a series of community posts about the history of our area. Here’s the first.

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Did you know - that Heidelberg Rd used to be a toll road? The toll booth used to be on our side of the Merri Creek ford.

"Heidelberg Road has the distinction of being Victoria’s first road outside the confines of the Melbourne township. The Heidelberg Road Trust was established in 1841, the very first form of local government in Victoria.

By 1847 the Great Heidelberg Road was looking worse for wear. Heavily used and poorly maintained it was close to unusable.

The Heidelberg Road Trust received permission to establish a toll gate just over the Merri Creek, and opposite the Yarra Bend Reserve.

This was the first toll established in Victoria."

It was macadmised (now called bitumen) and became a tourist attraction as the first macadam road in the colony!

Source: Darebin Heritage