We were back out on our roadshow today after a bit of a break over the election period. The weather was kind & the sun was shining as we chatted to locals out shopping, grabbing a cuppa & lunch from one of our many coffee shops, to & from the busy train station and those that made a particular trip especially to see us! There are plenty of projects open for consultation & ways to get engaged with Council - including 'Dads chat' providing educational & social opportunities for Dads & male carers.

Today we attended the Girls Day Out! An annual event hosted by Montrose Football Netball Club Senior Women's Team bringing together junior girls and women's teams within the club to foster unity, inclusion, support, and program growth. We took this opportunity to spruik some great local projects at local sporting grounds around the area and engage with our community around what future improvements may look like.

A stunning autumn day in the hills celebrating all things chestnut related. Lots of engagement around current Council values - environmental priorities and natural disaster preparedness featuring high on the list. The Safer Communities team engaged with lots of 4 legged community members today (reminder - all cats & dogs need valid registration in Yarra Ranges) We engaged with over 210 community members who choose to "Live,Work or Play in Yarra Ranges"

We were joined by the Family & Children's and ngurrak barring (Ridgewalk) teams today at this very busy shopping centre. Its great to share information around many of the 120 services that council provide - we are so much more than 'roads, rubbish and rates' - and link our community members into programs and activities to suit their life stage and needs. We engaged with over 100 people today, thank you for stopping and having a chat!

Another cold & wet morning but that didn't seem to stop people visiting the Library where we set up this today. Great engagement was had & as well as community borrowing books, we connected with some of the many programs you can find at your local library - including conversation groups, toddler reading time and mums groups ! We spoke to over 40 community members today, main themes we heard were around accessible services for all stages of life, responsible and appropriate planning controls.

Cold and rainy today but still a busy shopping strip to set ourselves up at to engage with local community members. The draft streetscape plan for this area has been open for consultation recently and we heard lots of feedback around this from traders and visitors to the area. The weather conditions made this a quieter pop up but we enjoyed talking to around 15 people this morning.

Back to one of our favourite markets today, always busy, diverse and a setting for great engagement. It was no surprise that environmental concerns topped the list when we asked our community about prioritising Council values and a check in on currently delivered Council services. Amongst the over 160 people we spoke to were locals, visitors (from near & far) including some really engaged younger community members, highly invested in their futures. A great day!

Montrose was the first of 2 suburbs to visit this weekend as we attended the Football Club Fun Day with entertainment for the local community as well as a whole range of community information and local business stalls. We heard from over 100 people including residents and visitors and had some great conversations. We have been joined by a variety of Council officers over the past weeks and today we had representatives from Economic & Business Development, Safer Communities and Waste recovery.

Today was a gloriously cool, but sunny morning in Yarra Junction. Members from the Planning, Finance, Creative Communities and the Yarra Junction Place Plan teams joined the Community Engagement crew to talk all things Council Plan and Community Vision. We had great conversations with around 40 people about social connectedness for older people, trees and the broader environment, planning for emergencies and more.

We attended the Healesville Community Garden's first food fair! - and it was all about going back to nature and back to basics, helping our community to grow and share healthy food, straight from our gardens! Despite the weather we had great engagement with over 70 community members, including some who don't live in our area but choose to travel to come & play here! The Council plan aims to capture as many demographics as we can - and its open for enagagement with all who live, work & play here.

Today we launched the engagement for Yarra Ranges Council plan, and long-term Financial and Asset Plans. We want to know what is important to our community, now and into the future. We set up some new interactive engagement options and chatted to 79 of our local residents. As this week is school holidays, we got to chat with lots of younger residents - this Council plan is the biggest engagement we have planned and we want to talk to all of our demographics & include as many people as we can!

We attended the Cire Community Easter Market on the weekend at their Chirnside Park hub. The Easter Bunny came along too with chocolate for everyone! Our Community Safety officers chatted about responsible pet ownership & a reminder that annual pet registrations are due soon. There are some BIG engagements coming soon so we used this as a great opportunity to encourage the over 150 people we spoke with to sign up to Shaping Yarra Ranges & to receive Yarra Ranges Local E news fortnightly.

We joined up with the ngurrak barring - Ridgewalk team today to conduct some engagement around how people currently use this space. The project, which occurs across 39 km's of walking track, explores the natural wonders, rich histories and cultural offerings of the region. The Village Green was identified as a place for an architectural nodes - providing a place to pause and reflect on the surroundings whilst on these walks. Find out more https://shaping.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/ridgewalk

Another HOT day for a festival! We were joined by Community Safety Officers to chat about responsible pet ownership & we met some cute pups ready to be registered along with over 220 community members today. Early Years joined us with a children's activity & promoted some upcoming School Holiday activities. We have some big engagement opportunities coming up so now is the time to sign up to Shaping Yarra Ranges so we can notify you on projects we need your feedback on.

Out to Upwey today where we were joined by Cr's Skelton & Fullager as we chatted to local community. A local playspace is open for consultation and we also had officers from the Design & Place team with an update on the Upwey Towncentre Masterplan that is now in the concept design stage. Finding out the status of projects and where your feedback is being used is what we hear from when we are out in the community and will be one of our roadshow focusses for 2024. We spoke to around 24 locals.

The hottest day of the year & we attended Lilydale Township Action Group (LTAG) Family Fun day. LTAG are a prime example of the volunteers within our local community who are passionate & dedicated to making a difference. Joined by Community Safety and Disability Inclusion Officers to chat about responsible pet ownership and our Access, Equity & Inclusion Strategy which is asking for feedback as we aim to deliver a better Yarra Ranges for all to live, work & play in, we spoke to over 150 people!

This was our second attempt to visit Olinda this year after rescheduling due to bad weather. Skies looked clear - till we set up!! We still got to talk to a few families braving the weather to visit this fantastic playspace during school holidays (and grab coffee at the resident van) We found people happy to travel, up to an hour to enjoy the space. Ngurrak barring team joined us today to chat about their project - improvements to 39km of walking tracks shaping.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/ridgewalk

Perfect day to be near the water play park! We chatted with around 20 locals as we were joined today by officers from the Safer Communities team to chat about responsible pet ownership and Michelle from Councils Early Years team had a fun, chill out activity and spoke to families about children's programs & playgrounds. Projects currently open for community consultation include 2 playgrounds so its important for us to hear your thoughts.

On a beautiful morning we went to this very popular playspace. We heard great comments of how well the space is looked after by our Outdoors's crews! We spoke to around 20 locals & visitors, answered questions about Council services, gave update on the much anticipated Yarra Valley Trail continuation & chatted about ways to stay in touch with us via newsletters - in hard copy or to your inbox. Sign up to Shaping Yarra Ranges hear about projects as they are open to consultation and have your say!