Anthony Osborne 3178/3156 Rowville, Ferntree Gully, Lysterfield, Mountain Gate - JustLocal

Council Approves Measure for Social Housing

2012-02-14T13:38:00.002+11:00

It is great to see that Knox City Council has adopted a new measure to calculate the city’s social housing needs.

There is a massive short falling for housing in the community with a waiting list for social housing at about 10 years for some people. It is disappointing at times to hear members of the community calling for social housing to be removed and that they don’t need it in their area. Quite common is that they have social housing on their street and they don’t even know it, it is after all just normal housing with normal members of the community living there. There are two ministry housings on my street alone.

We do need to look at how we can provide more social housing for the less fortunate in our community, and quiet commonly the main residents of social housing are our elderly, physical and mentally disabled, young people and single parents who each day have to fight and worry about where they will be staying the night, or how long they will be staying in their current location. Let us not also forget those who are forced to live on the streets as they have no-where were they can go, they do deserve the dignity of having a roof over their head and to get back onto their feet with support.

To show how important social housing is I have had the opportunity to tour the Women’s Social Housing project that is in Bayswater. For every one resident that got a room there was 10 more on the waiting list, the women and mothers who got a unit there were in tears of joy for finally having a place to live.

Anthony Osborne

www.anthonyosborne.com

Rowville Rocked by Power Outage

2012-02-02T08:26:00.000+11:00

Last Sunday (29^th of Jan) at 4pm the power went out in parts of Rowville and surrounding suburbs for several hours till 8pm. The power outage hit at one of the hottest parts of the day, several residents were treated by paramedics for heat exhaustion.

It is believed that the power outage was due to a transformer fire that occurred in Upwey at the same time.

More details available at the Herald Sun: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/residents-ordered-to-stay-indoors-as-substation-burns-in-upwey/story-fn7x8me2-1226256609114

Anthony Osborne

www.anthonyosborne.com

The Basin Music Festival

2012-01-18T21:51:00.001+11:00

Every March the peaceful quite suburb of The Basin at the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges gets disrupted by the by the loud noise and bright lights of The Basin Music Festival.

The Basin Community Festival runs for three days over March in The Basin Triangle and surrounding shops attracting many visitors to the live music and community stalls, heading into its 7^th year the festival has been moved back a week from its usual time due to St Patricks Day so now the festival will be from the 23^rd to the 25^th of March.

Across 7 venues festival goers will be treated to many different styles of music that are found in the local region from Folk music to Rock, Blues to Jazz , and even Death Metal Mongolian Throat Singers as John Mortimore President of The Basin Music Festival association would say to describe the range of music that the festival offers.

Another major component of the music festival has been the Big Break Youth Stage which has offered young musicians an amazing opportunity to perform in a fun professional environment as they start their way into the music world, the youth stage is run with an opt-in competition with past winners going onto performing in a variety of music concerts around Victoria. The Big Break Youth Stage has been moved to its own weekend in July (21^st to 23^rd July) to better benefit young musicians.

The festival is the largest community music festival on the east side of Melbourne, been supported by the local Council (Knox City Council), community groups and local businesses The Basin Music Festival is a music event you can’t miss! Especially with half the stages been free to enter and enjoy, but we would like a donation to help pay for it all!

If you would like any more information about the festival check out http://www.thebasinmusic.org.au/

Anthony Osborne

Youth Coordinator

The Basin Music Festival

www.anthonyosborne.com

Rowville CFA to move

2012-01-05T11:03:00.000+11:00

The Rowville CFA Station has recently purchased the block of land on the corner of Wellington Road and Le John Street for their new fire station – right next to their original site which was used as a storage shed for Council, which is now in the process of been sold off.

The land purchased by the CFA will be transferred in February 2012 with the station expected to be completed by 2016.

It is unknown yet of what will happen with the current site of the Rowville fire brigade.

Merry Christmas Rowville and Lysterfield

2011-12-25T10:34:00.002+11:00

Merry Christmas to everyone in Rowville, Lysterfield and Knox!
I hope you all enjoy today and relax with your family and friends, I will be going with my family to the Rowville Baptist Church for lunch.

After the recent communication from Cr Pearce councillor for Taylor Ward I will be launching my own personal blog where I can express my opinion on issues, my first post will be a short piece on Social Housing and it's importance to the community and breaking negative stereotypes. This will be started in the New Year.
You can find my personal blog at: http://anthonyosborne.blogspot.com/

Youth Advocacy Group on Housing

2011-12-18T17:42:00.001+11:00

After recent events in both Rowville and Boronia over medium-density development the Youth Advocacy Group has started going out to the Young People of Knox and abroad to gather their opinions on the issue.

Already the response is highlighting that young people are looking to have their future housing needs meet, with some calling for medium-density development around train station. They are also asking for social housing to be included in future housing plans.

For young people (12-15) interested in filling the survey out:

Name:
Location:
Age:
What is your current housing situation?
Are you hoping/planning to live in your municipality/suburb in the future?
What sorts of things are important to you in meeting your housing needs?
• Type of dwelling (house, unit, apartment, other)
• Location of dwelling (proximity to services, public transport, education, work, recreation opportunities, family and friends etc)
• Size of dwelling
• Type of tenure (home purchase/private or social rental/share households)
• Price (purchase, mortgage/rental)
• Availability of private rental properties
Do you think that there will be housing in your municipality/suburb that will meet your future needs?
• What are the factors that may enable you to live in municipality/suburb in the future?
• What are the barriers that may prevent you from living in municipality/suburb in the future?
How much rent or mortgage can/could you afford (fortnightly)?
• Are you aware of any housing in municipality/suburb within your budget?
Do you have any suggestions about what could be done to make it easier for you to access housing that will meet your future needs?

Responses can be posted here or emailed to me at Anthony.osborne@hotmail.com.au

Rowville in a week!

2011-12-17T18:17:00.000+11:00

A lot has happened in Rowville in the past few weeks, so I thought I would briefly mention them as I missed the first hand opportunity due to commitments elsewhere keeping me preoccupied.

First we have the explosion of the double-B fuel tanker at the Safeway Petrol Station on Stud Road next to the Stamford Hotel on Saturday the 10^th. No-one was killed in the accident; the truck driver was taken to the Alfred Hospital where he is in a stable condition. I first heard of this accident on Facebook from my friend Cj who was at the Sports Bar at the time of the incident who got out in okay condition.

Secondly we have the crash on the Monash freeway between Ferntree Gully Road and Springvale Road which caused the closure of the Monash freeway for most of the day. Chaos ensured as cars were diverted onto Wellington Road and Ferntree Gully Road causing delays in work time commuters. Brian Negus of the RACV said that it was a sign that the East-West freeway was needed to prevent the city grinding to a halt from a freeway closure. Public Transport advocates highlighted the need for improved Public Transport like Rowville Rail which would reduce the amount of cars on the freeway by a lane (approx. 30,000 cars. Source: Rowville Rail Pre-feasibility study).

High Rise Planned for Rowville

2011-12-01T15:09:00.001+11:00

I apologise for not updating this blog for awhile but I’ve been a bit weighed down with getting my reports done and end of year activities have kept me very preoccupied along top of my other community commitments.

Applications for high rise apartments in Rowville have been going to Knox Council a lot in the recent months. Recently Councillors voted for a 17 two-bedroom apartment building to go ahead on Stamford Crescent, the development is already heading to VCAT to stave off an application from objectors. The application was approved by Council despite a lack of parking available for residents, Councillors David Cooper, Peter Cole and Joe Cossari voted against the application.

Another application that is going to VCAT is 1088-1090 Stud Rd application for 3 stories with 46 apartments. Objectors have made it clear that the application is not in line with the character of Rowville also raising concerns on flooding, parking, traffic, infrastructure and more.

It appears that next October Council election will be shadowed with the debate on Apartments and Structure Plans.

3 Arrested at Stud Park

2011-11-02T17:45:00.000+11:00

Three guys in their early 20’s where arrested out front of Stud Park Shopping Centre post office carrying knives.

The scene unfolded in front of people at 4.30pm today (2/3/11) with the three guys been handcuffed in front of shoppers, the only details that I have are the ones I observed when they were getting arrested, hopefully Police Victoria will release information soon to the local newspapers.

Shortly after the arrest one of the officers walked through the centre carrying three kitchen knives that had been confiscated off the guys.

Today’s incident followed a shooting in Mulgrave last night which left one person dead.

If you are interested in seeing the tweets from the event unfolding look up @elitrian on twitter, I managed to tweet the event as it unfolded

Passing at Rowville Secondary College

2011-10-29T22:50:00.001+11:00

I was sadden to be informed that one of the teachers at Rowville Secondary College passed away last week, Ron Graham has been a fixture at Rowville Secondary College as a technology and Auto teacher having taught many of the students throughout their schooling time.

Mr Graham had a key role in creating and developing all the sets and props for school productions and rock eisteddfods, most of which have been in use for several years now.

The service for Mr Graham was held the Friday after his passing; he will be missed by all his students past and present.

R.I.P Ron Graham

Stringybark Festival in Rowville

2011-10-14T17:22:00.000+11:00

Stringybark is just this weekend! A lot of work has been going on to set it up and it will be an exciting weekend, I myself have spent the past two days down there helping set it up. The festival will be running from 10am to 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

Stringybark is Australia’s longest running sustainability festival that has been running out of the Rowville Community Centre since 1984 back when Rowville was on the rural-fringe of Melbourne, which it technically still is according to city planning (the complicated documents that are of no interest to this story).

For the festival Knox City Council intends to highlight the use of its social media aspects @KnoxCC has been promoting the use of the twitter hash tag #stringybark to promote and hear from the 25,000 people who are predicted to attend the Stringybark festival.

Cost of entry to the festival is from $3.00 for an adult and $2.00 Concession.

I will be there myself with the Public Transport Users Association, Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), and KCC Transport & Travel department. SKM are the Rowville Rail consultants who have come down to Stringybark to meet with Rowville residents to talk about Rowville Rail, my job will be let as many people as possible that they are there and to get them to meet with SKM.

More information about Stringybark can be found at Knox Council’s webpage: http://www.knox.vic.gov.au/Page/page.asp?Page_Id=197&h=0

Knox Council’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/#!/KnoxCC

And you can follow me on twitter: @Elitrian

Anthony Osborne

Women found in Rowville Paddock

2011-10-07T09:04:00.000+11:00

My apologise for the delay, I’ve been away for the last couple of days in Geelong on business so I haven’t been able to write any updates for the blog.

A body of a woman was found just before 9am on the 4^th of October in a paddock on the corner of Stud Road and Police Road. The woman is believed to have been a 56 year old from Dandenong North.

A spokesmen for the police said that at this stage the cause of death was unknown until an autopsy of the body which will be conducted in the next few days.

Headspace and R U OK day

2011-09-25T12:37:00.001+10:00

I mentioned in an earlier post of the email campaign for Headspace in Knox, out of that I have received a letter from Minister Butler. The letter is more about information about headspace that is available on their website then information about how to get a Headspace centre in Knox.

But the campaign keeps going, I am involved in helping the set up of the headspace centre in the region as a youth consultant, I am hoping to be involved with the headspace centre when it is set up with the youth engagement. For the set up I will be travelling down to Geelong to meet with their Headspace youth reference group.

On September 15^th it was national R U OK day which was set up to raise awareness to suicide prevention and open discussions on the topic with people.

More information can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/ruokday

If you need crisis support call Lifeline 24/7 on 13 11 14.

Rowville Gossip

2011-09-14T17:54:00.000+10:00

I do apologise for what is for me sporadic blogging, but I’ve been quiet busy lately with my Youth Consultation/Advisery work, which leads me to today’s blog.

This year there has been numerous facebook gossip pages been created by teenagers trying to emulate the TV show ‘Gossip Girl’, most of the pages revolve around a school, suburb or a location in which young people can identify with. The premise of the page is that people can submit gossip to the host for it then to be posted anonymously on the page for all to see.

The occurrence of pages like this has been rapidly increasing all over facebook, giving schools a hard time to handle them in an appropriate manner, in some cases Facebook would take it down for the page to be just recreated. How the page is run is up to the host who created it, in some cases the content on the page can be quiet malicious and damaging to young people- in some cases it has resulted in a young person taking their life.
The long-term damage of these pages is not yet known beyond the short-term upset that it causes young people, especially when the information released relates to their sex life.

I thought I would share this information, which is an extract of a report I have been developing, so that if people spot a gossip page they can help have it taken down. If you spot one of these gossip pages click on the report button and follow the instructions.
Anthony Osborne

Stringybark Festival

2011-09-05T21:31:00.000+10:00

Every year Knox City Council runs the small scale event called Stringybark at the Rowville Community Centre, which this year will be held on the 15^th and 16^th of October.

The festival celebrates sustainability and the local environment with a family focus with lizard tanks, petting zoos and the sort having appeared in previous years. Local community groups are a major part of the festival with the Scouts having a sausage sizzle and damper making, local churches having stalls with craft making and much more.

I will be there myself as a stall holder with the Public Transport Users Association, Knox City Council Traffic Management Department and SKM who are the consultants for the Rowville Rail project in the same tent. So please come along and give your views to the consultants!

Knox Needs Headspace

2011-08-30T20:56:00.000+10:00

I’ve been a bit busy lately working on the “Knox needs Headspace” campaign. We are making grounds, but the campaign isn’t over yet. A part of this campaign is an email petition to Minister Butler the Minister for Mental health and healthy aging.

Over a third of young people in Knox will be affected at some stage by depression, severe anxiety or worse before the age of 25. The impact of a mental problem can be devastating on the individual affected and their family.
We are calling for a Headspace Centre at Knox Ozone to help young people with mental health, for this we ask that you forward this onto the Minister for Mental Health Mark Butler.
Please include your name and address when you email it on, this is just to prove to the minister that you are a real person and not a computer bot!
Minister Butler: ministerbutler@health.gov.au

Humans Vs Zombies Victoria

2011-08-21T18:14:00.003+10:00

While not been Rowville Specific, a fair few participants plus myself come from Rowville so I thought I would share this with everyone

On Saturday the 20^th, Zombies invaded Bayswater Park as Humans Vs Zombies Victoria ran one of their events in the park with about 52 young people turning out to participate.

Humans Vs Zombies is a game of tag where people who are designated Zombies have to tag those designated Humans; Humans can use blasters that shoot foam darts to defend themselves, while zombies can only use their hands.

However, any tagged zombie is only "stunned" for a short time, while any tagged human turns into a zombie.

Humans Vs Zombies Victoria has been running events in parks across Victoria for more than a year and is in the process of becoming an incorporated entity.

“Everyone who's played it has enjoyed it, and they've kept coming back” Said Anthony Osborne, Secretary of Humans Vs Zombies Victoria.

“Our objective is to get young people into parks participating in our events, getting exercise and meeting new people in a fun environment for all” says Michael Casey, President of Humans Vs Zombies Victoria.

For more details please go to: www.facebook.com/groups/HumansVsZombiesVictoria

or,

https://www.facebook.com/HumansVsZombiesVictoria

Knox Weekly news-article:
http://www.knoxweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/zombies-play-tag-at-bayswater-park/2260029.aspx

Youth Advocacy Group

2011-08-17T21:25:00.000+10:00

The young people’s (informal) petition for public transport has been concluded with just over 100 signatures, while the numbers on the petition where lower than expected the response from young people and the community abroad about the issues surrounding public transport in Knox is overwhelming.

In the end the petition was more of a consultation of young people and residents of Knox (and abroad) as more people wanted to contribute their ideas over signing the petition out of spam fears.

"By use of a public transport petition, we, the members of the community of Knox, were able to effectively present our voice, to the members of the Knox council. Subsequently we were able to honestly display how much of an issue public transport has become, whilst simultaneously emphasing how much the people of Knox do care about the issues which we are confronted with, which influence our community" Mardi Grivas, 17, Wantirna South.

Due to the amount of feedback on issues with public transport the list of transport needs has been revised into a short list which includes:

Short Term:

· Increase frequency on bus routes,

· replacing telebuses with normal bus routes, that operate on weekends,

· extension of bus hours, to match when trains finish,

· Matching buses up with Trams on the Knox Transit link,

· More bus coverage,

· Protecting the remaining bus lanes,

Medium Term:

· Extension of the 75 Tram to Knox City Shopping Centre,

· Rowville Rail project,

Long Term:

· Grade separation on all train lines,

· Integrated public transport (trains, trams and buses feeding into one another),

The petition is been presented to the local state members Nick Wakeling (Ferntree Gully), Kim Wells (Scoresby), and Heidi Victoria (Bayswater).

Out of the petition the young people that where running it have decided to form a Youth Advocacy Group (called YAG) to advocate on issues concerning young people to Government and to promote the good work that young people do in the community to the media.

“Young people do a lot of good work in the community and they do get quite tired of the negative stereotypes. Like all sections of the community there is always a small fraction that ruins it for the majority and creates a bad image” Anthony Osborne, 20 of Rowville.

The Youth Advocacy Group will be using the same email that was used for the petition (knoxyppt@hotmail.com.au) and will decide later on if they want to do a formal petition to the state government when the majority of members have finished their V.C.E.

Wellington Road intersection in Rowville gets urgent upgrade

2011-08-08T22:04:00.000+10:00

Last week the state government announced $475,000 to install green right-hand turns at the cross intersection of Wellington Road, Silkwood Way and Braeburn Parade.

The timing of this project couldn’t come at a better time as there has been over 10 crashes reported at that intersection since 2009, one of which occurred last Wednesday (3/8/11) involving a sedan and a semi-trailer truck.

The project is expected to start late 2011 early 2012.

Knox City Council July Meeting

2011-07-31T14:36:00.001+10:00

Every month Knox City Council holds its ordinary meeting on the 4^th/last Tuesday of each month at the Knox Civic Centre on Burwood Highway next to Knox City Shopping Centre. Unless there’s an extraordinary reason I always attend the meetings as they are a great way to learn about local government and what actually happens in Council.

Members of the public are welcome to attend these meetings; in fact July’s meeting was so large they had to expand into the other rooms!

The main points of the meeting where the three story developments in Boronia which were rejected by council; which will now most likely go to VCAT for an overturn.

If you have questions you want to ask of council you can submit a question for “Public Question Time” which is available from the council website.

Anthony Osborne

Rowville Rail Consultation Workshops

2011-07-28T09:07:00.000+10:00

On Tuesday night at Mulgrave Community Centre the first consultation workshop for Rowville Rail was held to get input from the wider community. Having attended it was a worthwhile workshop with information on the process and procedure been laid out, the workshop was split into three sections focusing on: values and issues in the area at present; what the outcomes of the project should be; and design consideration and ideas.

There are three consultation sessions, Mulgrave (19/7), Rowville (23/7), Huntingdale (25/7). The sessions in Mulgrave and Rowville have already been with the final session been in Huntingdale on Monday the 25^th.

If you can’t attend any of the consultation sessions you can still contribute your say online at www.rowvillerailstudy.com.au

Anthony Osborne

Stud Park Structure Plan

2011-07-19T08:19:00.000+10:00

Sorry all for the delay but I’ve managed to break my right hand which is causing me delays in getting things done, hence today’s post is a short one.

It was announced at last month’s council meeting that the Stud Park Structure Plan will be continued and is now up to the stage of going to a reference committee which will be made up of residents, council staff and councillors.

Residents are invited to apply for the reference committee and I will post application details when they are made available.

Carbon Pricing/Tax Announced.

2011-07-10T15:21:00.000+10:00

Today Sunday the 20^th of July 2011 Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the much heated Carbon Pricing policy and legislation.

While trying to keep this blog to the facts of what has been announced, I must say that my own personal view on it is undecided on the issue until I’ve gone though both sides of the argument and do my own research into the matter.

The price of Carbon has been set at $23 starting from the 1st of July 2012 and moving into a full emissions trading scheme on the 1st of July 2015.

Released in the plan for the Carbon Tax is the increase to the welfare payments of low income families, tax breaks to 90% of households, and is set to increase the cost of living by 0.7%

The Carbon Tax package will be put forward to parliament when it resumes in 5 weeks time, from there it will go through both houses to be reviewed and suggestions put forward. Members of the community are welcomed to voice their suggestions on the package to their federal representative.

That is what I will say for now; it can change when it passes through parliament.

Anthony Osborne

Youth Mental Health Petition

2011-07-02T11:16:00.000+10:00

For those who have been following the local newspaper would have heard of the petition that Alan Tudge (MP for Aston) is passing around. The petition is asking for increased funding and resources for mental health and for a Headspace shop front at Knox City Shopping Centre.

Over a third of young people in Knox will be affected at some stage by depression, anxiety or worse by the age of 25. 75% of mental health problems emerge before the age of 25, so it is crucial that young people are able to access support and treatment so that it does not greatly impair their lives.

The petition at present has just over 2,500 signatures with a goal of 10,000. The petition will be presented by Pauline Renzow on July 29^th to Alan Tudge (MP) so that he can table it in federal parliament.

I will be going around door knocking and standing in shopping strips to gather signatures, come up and say hi and lend your support to this noble cause!

If you would like a copy of the petition please email Anthony.osborne@hotmail.com.au

Anthony Osborne

Knox Council commits to Rowville Rail

2011-06-26T22:12:00.000+10:00

Knox City Council has committed itself to an economic feasibility study on Rowville Rail which has cost the ratepayers $120,000. The only objection from council for the study came from Cr Darren Pearce of Taylor Ward.

While the state government is doing a feasibility study it’s study will focus on the engineering aspects of the projects while council looks at the economic factors of the projects. The economic study will look at the jobs that will be created in the region and the economic bonus that the project will bring.

The State Government’s study will be finished in 2013 while the Council study will be finished sometime around next year.

Anthony Osborne

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