News from Parkville Gardens

The 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Parkville Gardens Residents Association on the night of September 8 produced its fair share of good news. The committee now features new faces along with the old and can get to work with confidence in the association’s sound financial position.   

The “old” faces include myself as president, Faye Ryan as secretary-treasurer, and Ian Aitken, Jose Torres and Uddika Kahawatte as committee members. Back on board are Michael Saunders (Vice-President) and Michael Main, along with incoming Jay Iyengar. Outgoing members Sharon Khoo (treasurer) and Michael Thom were thanked for their years of generous service. 

We’re delighted to announce that funding for the children’s event planned for Sunday October 23 has come through. More details in next month’s bulletin. A Spring Carnival also remains on our agenda. 

Looking ahead to next year, challenges to our imagination and resourcefulness loom. Our application for funding under the City of Melbourne community grants scheme was disallowed. PGRA was deemed to have received funding two years in a row and was therefore ineligible for the 2023 grants. This means we will have to explore other funding avenues for our activities, as well as stage events that may be smaller in scale and inexpensive. 

Hopefully we can turn this challenge to advantage and draw on the talents, creativity, and generosity of local community members for new ideas and activities. This will mean continuing to improve our means of communication with our residents. Getting the word out is the key, and we need to find ways of doing this better. 

Speaking of residents, a few interesting figures from last year’s census have emerged. At the time, Parkville Gardens housed around 2000 residents. This number may have increased since then with the return of more international students.   

Last year 400 people identified themselves as tertiary students. The number of school children (primary and secondary) was around 175. The male-female gender balance is evenly divided, and nearly two-thirds of the population was aged between 20 and 40. In nearly one-third of households, a language other than English is used.   

It’s great to be able to map the profile of our community, so I look forward to more facts and figures as they become available. They’ll help us discern how best to draw the community together and make Parkville Gardens an even better place to live. •

Caption: New committee members from left, Faye Ryan (secretary), Michael Main, Tom Knowles (president), Ian Aitken, and Uddika Kahawatte. Absent: Michael Saunders (vice-president) and Jay Iyengar.