Darebin Parklands have come into their own since we’ve all been stuck at home haven’t they? What a fabulous resource for us all as a community.

Originally the site of the old tip and horse paddocks, over many years it been revegetated and now has winding trails, ponds and billabongs, structured areas for family BBQs and picnics, unstructured paddocks with old fruit trees where locals can give their dogs a run, rocky river walks, and, to top it off a bike path that connects into the major bike paths across Melbourne.

When school is on, the rangers run a fabulous education program in their classroom space where kids can see the preserved pelts of wild cats and find out about urban threats to native wildlife, amongst other things.

Darebin Parklands is also home to many bush kinder programs and is actually home to the very first one in Australia (in a partnership with Westgarth Kindergarten).

Last week Ranger Pete was on Gardening Australia talking about the nest boxes dotted throughout the park. And gave us a sneak peak inside to baby possums and a variety of birds and bats. You can watch the segment here.

Darebin Parklands is funded by Darebin Council, and it was super to hear that Council staff are being redeployed to undertake tree planting in the Parklands as part of the rewilding Darebin project that is running whilst the Coronavirus is limiting their usual jobs. Here’s the link published last week by Friends of Darebin Creek.

I’ll just say it again. Aren’t we lucky! And … I’ll probably see you down there.

There are a number of people out in the community at the moment who qualify for Health Care Cards for the first time in their lives. If you have applied for JobSeeker, for example, you are also eligible for a Health Care Card for up to 1 year. Note, you don’t need to apply for it separately, it comes automatically in the mail.

If you live in Victoria, there are lots of discounts and benefits that you can access with this card. Here’s a long list, but there are probably more …

• Discounted prescription medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)

• Bulk billed medical appointments

• Ambulance transport

• Dental services

• Eyecare and glasses

• Hearing services

• Psychologist referrals (until November)

• Discounted kindergarten fees

• Discounted school camps,sports and excursions (for your school kids)

• Centre for Adult Education (CAE) fees reductions

• Technical and Further Education (TAFE) fees discounts

• Travel to school allowances for students that live more than 4.8km from the nearest school and do not have a free school bus service

• Concession travel on public transport

• A telephone allowance (through Centrelink)

• Mail concessions (you can apply for a MyPost Concession Account)

• Discounts on entry to the zoo, the museum, pools, gyms, movies etc.

• Car registration discounts

• Water, gas and electricity concessions and waivers including annual concessions and the winter gas discount

• Hardship grants via the Utility Relief Grant Scheme for water, gas and electricity etc.

• Bereavement assistance (to pay for funerals)

• Access to the National Debt Helpline

• Safe and affordable financial services through Good Money

• Loans, such as the No Interest Loans Scheme (NILS) through Good Shephard Microfinance or StepUP loans through National Australia Bank (NAB).

• Stamp duty concession

Your local government will also be offering some concessions and financial assistance to support residents through Covid-19. You can check out Darebin Council’s Financial Hardship Policy (that enables you to defer rate payment with an interest free period) here . Yarra is offering the same arrangements here.

We hope this helps!

Happiness researcher and founder of the positive psychology movement Martin Seligman says that "flow" is one of the ultimate states of happiness, flow being a state where you're enjoying what you are doing so much that you lose track of time. 

Welcome to ACC’s Women in the Shed program.

Last year we ran a trial and this year we got the program formally up and running with Learn Local funding.

Jen, who runs the sessions, is a mosaic artist and welder with both a practical and artistic soul. She has lots of tool knowledge from a country upbringing and her diverse artistic practise, and she has a can do attitude.

I asked her to share some thoughts about the program and she says,

After teaching the women the basics of how to use power tools, and work with timber, metal and tiles I have seen them come up with their own amazing ideas.

Days in the shed are usually filled with Doris Day and Frank Sinatra, coffee, a never ending stream of Pinterest sharing, the muted sounds of machinery, humming to "Fly me to the moon," and weekly conversations around daughters and sons, projects to come, favourite recipes, home renovations, European holidays and bargains found at the Camberwell market or Salvos store.

The girls and I regularly miss lunch because we are so blissfully creating with our new found skills.

Throughout the program the women have been introduced to a range of tools - and have gone on to master the ones they need to complete their particular projects. These have included:

• Handsaws and jigsaws

• Angle grinders

• Sanders

• Bench grinders and polishers

• Dremels

• Hot torches, and

• Vices, clamps, screwdrivers, hammers, nails and screws.

Jen says that one of the highlights from running this program is the confidence it has built in the women who have participated.

She provided a couple of quotes from the participants,

I've seen all these power tools in my husband’s shed for years but never knew how to use them.

and

There is so much support. Women helping women learn to use tools and make and repair things for our homes is really confidence building.

Our Women in the Shed program runs on Tuesdays. We look forward to continuing it when we’re back on deck!

Timber… hammer, nails, glue … The start of a project.

A rustic coat rack made from bent cutlery. Gorgeous!

I love the colours in this mosaic creation.

Have you been past ACC lately? It’s shamozzle for sure!! The installation of our ramp has taken what seems like 10,000 weeks - we’ve had changing contractors, then recalibrated levels … and then we awaited steel imports … but now apparently the formwork is complete and after the latest setback (being the weather- yikes it’s going to be wet and cold for the next few days!) our new ramp is due to be poured on Monday. Hooray! We can’t wait. Truly. So keep your fingers crossed for us … just in case something else pops up.

Alphington Community Centre is very lucky to have a relationship with both the City of Yarra and Darebin City Council.

Today we are pointing you in the direction of Yarra Leisure Services, who have put together a great range of new resources for the community to stay fit, healthy and well whilst their gyms, pools, bowls clubs, tennis courts, golf courses etc. are closed.

So pop on over to the Wellness Locker to tap into some full on (and some more relaxed) workout videos, workout plans (PDFs for the gymophile with lists of burpees and pistol squats - you’ll need to know the lingo - and recommended combos for workouts).

Within the locker you can also access advice, information and referrals on wellness (mental and physical) and find the information you will need to both setup and then run a healthy home office. It’s a great resource. Check it out!

The workout PDFs are pretty handy I reckon. They’ve published a series of them. You might just need to do some research into the moves before you begin if you haven’t come across them before!