As a life-long resident of Boroondara I have had many years to reflect on what makes our municipality special.

For me it is the leafy avenues and heritage streetscapes, riverside boulevards and tucked-away neighbourhood parks. As a mother I also welcome our top-notch sports clubs and leisure facilities, appealing retail precincts, the services that help keep us healthy and fulfilled – and of course the varied and highly engaged community that calls Boroondara home.

I am honoured and proud to have been elected 15th Mayor of our municipality, for the 2022–23 Council year.

I thank outgoing Mayor Cr Jane Addis, whose calm leadership over the past 12 months has helped us navigate our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This will be a full and exciting year for Boroondara, as we bring plans, policies and projects to life. We will open the new Canterbury Community Precinct, upgrade sports pavilions, and work to revitalise several shopping and dining precincts.

In this Bulletin you can read about our draft Economic Development and Tourism Plan, which will guide our work to deliver a flourishing local economy. Now is the time to have your say on the plan and help shape Boroondara’s future.

You will also see that Council has reached its hard-won milestone of becoming net-carbon neutral as an organisation by 2022. I encourage community members to take action too, as 98% of Boroondara’s greenhouse gas emissions are generated by our community. You might like to take part in our sustainable actions survey, which is open until 26 February on our Engage Boroondara website.

I am looking forward to working with my fellow Councillors and our community to protect and enhance all that we enjoy here, and to ensure Boroondara remains a wonderful place to live, work and visit well into the future.

We will soon be opening the doors to the main building of our new Canterbury Community Precinct.

This new precinct, set in Canterbury Gardens, will provide fit-for-purpose spaces in a convenient and centralised location for key community groups and services, including:

• Canterbury Neighbourhood Centre (includes the Canterbury Community Garden)
• Canterbury Maternal and Child Health Centre
• Canterbury Gardens Kindergarten
• Playstation Occasional Care
• Canterbury Toy Library
• Interchange Inner East
• Canterbury History Group and Surrey Hills Historical Society.

We are pleased to bring together service providers and community groups in one location and deliver an inclusive and accessible space with something for everyone.

In addition to the new purpose-built main building, internal upgrades and heritage restoration works are underway on the former Canterbury Bowling Club pavilion, Canterbury Maternal and Child Health Centre and former Canterbury Public Library. These buildings are due to open later this year.

We acknowledge the Victorian Government for its contribution of $1.6 million through the Children’s Facilities Capital Program and an additional grant of $110,000 as part of the Changing Places funding initiative. We also acknowledge the Australian Government’s contribution of $267,000 to the power upgrade, through the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program.

We thank the community, precinct service providers and community groups for their support, patience, and collaboration during the development journey.

To stay informed about opening dates, please visit our New Canterbury Community Precinct page.

Award and commendation recipients: Bruce Hannan, Warren Clark, Pam Welsford, Lindy Anderson from Boroondara Document Signing Service, Jenny Cash and Yolande Phillipson.

Our community organisations run largely on volunteer power. The Boroondara Volunteer of the Year Awards acknowledge a special person and a special program for going above and beyond.

2022 Boroondara Volunteer of the Year Award

Jenny Cash

Jenny has volunteered with University of the Third Age (U3A) in Deepdene for more than 12 years.

Jenny has helped deliver hundreds of courses, workshops and events to U3A members, especially seniors. It gives participants the chance to develop skills or delve into new subjects while expanding their social connections.

The award recognises Jenny’s role in expanding U3A membership from 50 to 1,200 people, as well as managing club administration and making U3A’s courses available online during COVID-19.

During COVID-19 we had to bring our courses online for people to stay connected,' says Jenny. 'The response we had from people was so good that we now offer about half of our programs online, allowing people to still be involved, engaged and stay socially linked to the community.

2022 Boroondara Volunteer Program Impact Award

Friends of South Surrey Park – represented by Pam Welsford

Friends of South Surrey Park is a volunteer-run program that brings locals together to help maintain and improve South Surrey Park in Surrey Hills.

Pam Welsford founded the organisation 25 years ago and has led the group ever since.

Members regularly gather to help weed and clear areas to make room for fresh vegetation, especially native plant species.

Even doing something like weeding, for example – you’re doing it with the bigger purpose of giving indigenous plants the best opportunity possible to thrive,' says Pam. 'The work helps to build a community and contributes to better mental health for those involved too.

Special Commendation recipients

We also awarded Special Commendations to Bruce Hannan, Yolande Phillipson, Warren Clark and the Boroondara Document Signing Station to recognise the significant contribution their volunteering efforts have made to the community.

Boroondara Volunteer Expo

The Boroondara Volunteer Expo will be held on Wednesday 22 March from 1 pm to 6 pm at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. Connect with community organisations and find volunteering opportunities matching your interests, skills, and experience. To find out more, visit our Boroondara Volunteer Expo event page.

Soak up the sunshine and community connections at our new pop-up space in a laneway near Camberwell Primary School and Butler Street car park.

The laneway closure trial – an initiative of our placemaking program – improves pedestrian safety and creates a welcoming place for our community. Children now have an art-splashed, traffic-free route from the car park to the pedestrian crossing that takes them across Camberwell Road to their classrooms.

With school returning and summer to enjoy, it’s a great time to check out the space and tell us what you think via the QR code at the site.

You’ll soon be able to visit its twin pop-up space near Camberwell railway station. Both are part of the wider vision for Camberwell Junction placemaking.

Find out more about the spaces and have your say on our Engage Boroondara website.

The Bloom Podcast is a show created for young people, by young people in Boroondara.

In each 30-minute episode, host and program volunteer at Boroondara Youth Centre Nia McCatty interviews guests and delves into topics that are important to young people in our community. From homelessness and isolation to art and sport, the podcast shares stories and information from their perspective.

In its most recent episode, we meet George, a 20-year-old Boroondara local who first visited the Boroondara Youth Hub after running into difficult times. George credits the hub’s programs with helping him to get “back on track”, gain confidence, and build life skills and social networks. Nia and George talk about overcoming challenges and the importance of building a support network.

All episodes of the Bloom Podcast are available on our Boroondara Youth page on Soundcloud. Each episode is hosted, written, recorded and edited by young people at the Boroondara Youth Hub studio. You can keep your eye out for new episodes dropping throughout 2023.

If you are a young person and can see yourself behind the microphone, you can get in touch with Boroondara Youth on [email protected] or call (03) 9278 4608.

We’ve made real progress on our Climate Action Plan in its first 16 months. As well as delivering and starting work on around 40 actions, we’ve reached our first milestone of becoming net-carbon neutral as an organisation.

How we got here

Since we started recording our greenhouse gas emissions in 2007–08, we have worked hard to reduce our environmental footprint. As a key target in our Climate Action Plan, we set an ambitious target of becoming net-carbon neutral by 2022.

Net-carbon neutral means our greenhouse gas emissions are equal to zero, through both reducing and offsetting all emissions we generate.

We achieved this by:

• improving the energy efficiency and ongoing sustainability of our buildings
• installing solar PV across our buildings and facilities to generate green energy on-site
• buying 100% renewable electricity for our facilities
• increasing the fuel efficiency of our vehicle fleet
• generating emissions offsets from our FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) program
• buying emissions offsets for the remaining gap.

Where to from here

While achieving net-carbon neutrality is important, offsetting our emissions is only a temporary solution. Our focus remains on reducing our actual carbon emissions – which means we eliminate greenhouse gas emissions altogether, without the need for offsets.

Our next key target in the Climate Action Plan is to achieve 90% actual emission reduction as a Council by 2030.

We will do this by:

• reducing the use of natural gas at our buildings and facilities
• switching most of our fleet to low-emission vehicles
• installing more solar PV, including path and park lighting as well as on buildings
• harvesting alternative water sources to maintain our parks and gardens
• planting additional street trees
• increasing the land we manage for biodiversity.

Tracking our progress

You can now track our progress on the Climate Action Plan through our new website. Find out where we’re up to on delivering specific actions, and view sustainability data (including greenhouse gas emissions) in real time.

The Boroondara Climate Action Plan website also gives you resources to help you become more sustainable at home.

See where we are at with our progress for yourself on our Climate Action Plan website.

Did you know?

As a Council, our emissions make up less than 2% of greenhouse gas emissions in Boroondara. The biggest opportunity to tackle emissions rests with you – our community.

If you’re ready to make a change, big or small, we can support you. Find out more on our Local sustainability page.

New seating areas at Camberwell Fresh Food Market were completed in time for the Christmas rush. They gave weary festive-season shoppers a place to rest their feet and have a bite to eat.

The new dining areas, both inside and outside at the market’s northern entrance, have become a popular addition for visitors keen to take a break from shopping. The indoor dining area also has charge stations for mobile phones.

This project was supported by the Australian Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program.

We’re also looking forward to welcoming new tenants to the market to complement the existing offering of our popular long-standing traders. With dining areas to enjoy and fresh stalls to explore, we expect to welcome many additional visitors to the market and Camberwell precinct throughout 2023.

If you haven’t visited the market before, now’s the perfect time to call in. We look forward to seeing you there shopping for fresh produce, supporting our local traders and making use of the new seating.

To find out more about what’s coming up at the market in 2023, visit the Camberwell Fresh Food Market website.

Ensuring vibrant shopping precincts and supporting our business community are just part of our Economic Development and Tourism Plan.

We want to make sure the City of Boroondara remains a great place for our community to live, work and study, and to increase opportunities for businesses, workers, residents, and visitors to enjoy all it has to offer.

You told us in the development of the Boroondara Community Plan 2021–31, and consultation on outdoor trading guidelines last year, that supporting local businesses and the local economy is important to you.

We’re committed to enhancing activity centres and shopping precincts across Boroondara, and encouraging a flourishing local economy that embraces innovative business models and supplies environmentally sustainable goods and services.

We’ll strive to promote business growth and investment to strengthen economic and employment outcomes.

Our new Economic Development and Tourism Plan will guide our actions over the coming years to boost economic development, liveability and visitation in Boroondara. In the draft plan, we’ve identified 4 priorities to support continued economic development and tourism in Boroondara in the years ahead:

• Thriving and engaging activity centres and shopping precincts.
• A productive and supported business community.
• An environmentally sustainable, circular and ‘smart’ local economy.
• A desirable destination for visitors.

Share your thoughts on the draft plan in a short survey. Have your say before the consultation closes on Friday 10 March by visiting our Engage Boroondara website.

The way we all reduce and dispose of waste is changing. Here’s a snapshot of what you need to know.

Recycling right

Placing the wrong items in recycling bins contaminates other items, making them more difficult and expensive to sort and process. That’s why it has never been more important to recycle right.

We also now have a new recycling contractor, Solo. Their trucks have cameras that show drivers the contents of each recycling bin before it’s emptied. Drivers will place a tag on your bin letting you know if there is any contamination and how you can get it right next time. (If contamination continues, your bin may not be emptied until the issue is rectified.)

We’re here to help you recycle right, so learn more about the top contamination issues in Boroondara below. You can also check out our A to Z recycling and waste guide.

Alternatively, contact one of our friendly waste education officers who will be more than happy to help you by emailing [email protected] or calling us on (03) 9278 4444.

Our 4 most common recycling contaminants

Please don’t put these in your recycling bin.

REDCycle update

REDCycle’s soft plastic collection is on pause. While they work to find a long-term solution, we encourage you to:

• avoid soft plastics as much as possible by using reusable bags and containers for goods you buy
• store soft plastics you use in your home, if you have space
• dispose of soft plastics in your household waste bin or as waste at our Boroondara Recycling and Waste Centre (waste fees apply) if you don’t have space to store them.

Single-use plastics

The Victorian Government is banning the sale or supply of single-use plastic items across Victoria from 1 February. This includes plastic items such as:

• drinking straws
• cutlery
• plates
• drink stirrers
• polystyrene food and drink containers
• cotton-bud sticks.

Single-use plastic straws will remain available for people who need them due to a disability or for medical reasons.

According to the Victorian Government, single-use plastics make up a third of the litter seen in the environment, with this ban aiming to reduce plastic pollution. You can find more information about the ban on the Sustainability Victoria website and on the Victorian Government website.

Plastic-free businesses

From May to late November 2022, we ran a plastic-free business pilot program with 18 food and hospitality businesses in Camberwell. Through dedicated support, the program helped these businesses reduce and remove single-use plastic items and replace them with reusable or sustainable options.

The pilot was successful, with the businesses achieving impressive outcomes and making changes to best suit their needs, including:

• removing more than 76,500 pieces of single-use plastic
• learning how to ensure they’re compliant with the Victorian Government single-use plastic ban, with most businesses becoming compliant well ahead of February
• eliminating plastic straws, cutlery, water bottles, drink cups/lids, takeaway containers and more
• trialling and sourcing sustainable alternatives, and switching to reusable items such as glass for those dining in
• encouraging customers to reduce their use of disposables and bring in their reusable items, such as cups, containers, and bottles.

You can support their achievements by shopping locally. Remember to take your reusable items with you when buying food and drinks, including things like reusable bags, containers, cutlery, cups, and straws.

To find out more, and to access resources for business owners, visit our Plastic free businesses page.

Are you seeking inspiration for your next great read? Look no further than our Hottest 100.

Announced at the beginning of each year, it lists the adult fiction titles most frequently borrowed from Boroondara Library Service’s 6 branches in the previous year.

You can find the top 10 adult fiction loans of 2022 below. For the full Hottest 100 list visit our Boroondara Hottest 100 adult fiction titles 2022 news item.

If one of your New Year resolutions is to read more, you'll be pleased to know that diving into Boroondara’s favourite reads comes with the bonus of improving overall mental and emotional wellbeing.

Reading novels has been shown to reduce stress and promote relaxation. It can also improve memory, concentration and critical thinking, and can expand your vocabulary, general knowledge and cultural awareness.

Top 10 adult fiction loans of 2022

1. Apples never fall* by Liane Moriarty
2. Beautiful world where are you* by Sally Rooney
3. The survivors* by Jane Harper
4. Where the crawdads sing* by Delia Owens
5. The Thursday Murder Club* by Richard Osman
6. The dictionary of lost words* by Pip Williams
7. The promise* by Damon Galgut
8. Honeybee* by Craig Silvey
9. Still life* by Sarah Winman
10. The Midnight Library* by Matt Haig

Titles with an asterisk (*) are also available from our eBook collection. Learn more about this collection on our eBooks and audio books page.

For more reading recommendations, visit our Booklists page.

Our consultations website invites you to take part in decisions made by Council. The following community consultations are open for your feedback.

Economic development and tourism plan

We’re developing a new Economic Development and Tourism Plan that will guide our actions to help boost Boroondara’s local economy.

We want to make sure Boroondara remains a great place for our community to live, work, study, and play. We also want to increase opportunities for businesses, workers, residents, and visitors to enjoy all that Boroondara has to offer.

Read our draft plan and make any final comments on our Economic Development and Tourism Plan page on our Engage Boroondara website.

Consultation closes on Friday 10 March.

Pop-up space in Camberwell laneway

We want to find out what you think of the new placemaking pop-up space we’ve created in a laneway near Camberwell Primary School and Butler Street car park. The laneway closure trial aims to improve pedestrian safety and create a welcoming space for our community.

Once you’ve visited the pop-up space, let us know your thoughts and experiences with the space on the Camberwell pop-up spaces page on our Engage Boroondara website.

Consultation closes in May.

Sustainable actions survey

We’re keen to find out about what you are doing to live more sustainably, and any barriers you might be facing in this area. This will help us support our community to overcome barriers where we can, and help you to continue adopting sustainable practices.

You may also learn through this survey about sustainable options available to you that you could adopt into your everyday life. Take part in the survey by visiting the Sustainable actions survey page on our Engage Boroondara website.

Survey closes on Sunday 26 February.

Stay up to date

To stay informed about consultations that matter to you, register for updates by clicking the ‘Join’ button on any of the consultation pages on our Engage Boroondara website.

How we consult with you

Our Community Engagement Policy guides how we ask for your views on a range of topics and areas. You can find out more on our Community Engagement Policy page.
 

Recently we partnered with Swinburne University of Technology to explore the simple steps we can all take to minimise the consumption of plastic in our households.

Dr Olamide Shittu, a Circular Economy Research Fellow at Swinburne, posed the question, ‘What if we could transform household plastic consumption in cities?’. This was the first in our ‘What if’ discussion series partnership with Swinburne.

Olamide offers the following 6 tips to help you reduce plastic use in the home:

1. An important step in reducing plastic use is gathering sustainability information. Learn which types of plastic are reusable. Find out how your local council or community can support you to use less plastic. 
2. Even when you are environmentally conscious, other household members such as children may not share the same passion or worry. Set simple guidelines for how to properly use, clean and store plastics at home. This can go a long way to reducing the number of damaged plastics you have to replace.
3. A lot of the single plastics that we use are from what we eat and drink. Always go for sustainable food and beverage options. Buying fresh produce, home cooking, drinking tap water and using personal water bottles or coffee cups can help you reduce your plastic footprint.
4. Many unimportant plastics are generated from our shopping activities. Always remember to take your reusable bags when you go shopping. Reject several bags for individual products where you can fit multiple items into a bag. Shop at businesses that offer reusable packaging services.
5. Because we have become very reliant on them, we must challenge ourselves to use less plastic. Plastic Free July is a great activity the whole household can participate in to avoid single-use plastics, reduce takeaway items or become completely plastic-free. You will be surprised how much fun and impactful this can be.
6. To have an even bigger environmental impact, we need more people to use less plastic. You can start by educating your friends and family about the importance of reducing plastics.

At City of Boroondara, collaborating with external organisations such as Swinburne University helps us deliver our vision to transform our customers’ experience into one that places them at the centre and delivers a seamless, convenient and empowering experience.

If you’re interested in attending a future ‘What if’ discussion, make sure you regularly check in to our Events page.
 

From basketball to soccer, netball to frisbee, winter club sports are about to kick off in Boroondara.

Whether you’re a long-distance runner, an AFL fiend or simply keen to stay active over the winter months, there’s plenty of sporting action to tempt you. For a full list of community sports clubs, visit our Sport and recreation clubs page.

The following is just a taste of what’s on offer.

We can help cover the cost

Sports clubs play an important role in helping to improve community health, wellbeing and social connection. We think everyone should have the opportunity to be involved.

If sports club fees are stopping you from joining a club or sport, you can apply for an individual participation grant.

To be eligible you must:

• live in the City of Boroondara
• hold a current government means-tested card
• choose an eligible Boroondara sporting club (not for profit).

You can apply for up to 75% of annual sports club fees (capped at $200). To find out more, visit our Individual participation grants page.

Now it’s time for tennis

Have you been inspired by the excitement of the 2023 Australian Open? If so, there’s a tennis club in your neighbourhood ready to welcome newbies and returnees alike.

You can brush up on your backhand, learn to serve like Rafael Nadal, or just connect with others in your community at one of the 19 tennis clubs across Boroondara. Whether it’s junior coaching, a social ladies’ competition or casual court hire, there’s something for all players.

You can see what is available and book some facilities with Tennis Australia's online booking tool, without having to become a member. You can use this tool to book a court on the Play Tennis website.

From our annual Summer in the Park series to community festivals, a celebratory breakfast, and a fresh program of community classes and workshops, there’s plenty going on in Boroondara.

For a searchable listing of hundreds of events in the City of Boroondara, visit our Events page.

Summer in the Park is back

Our much-loved arts and culture program runs over 5 weekends, with 16 events at 11 parks and gardens. Pack your picnics and settle in for these popular family fun, jazz, opera, and cinema in the park events. There will also be 7 one-hour bite-sized performances, including brass, comedy and magic, throughout the month.

When: Saturday 4 February to Sunday 5 March

Where: At a park near you.

All events are free and everyone is welcome. 

Bookings are required for Theatre in the Park, running Friday 3 March until Sunday 5 March at Summerhill Park in Glen Iris. Bookings open at 9 am on Wednesday 1 February on our Theatre in the Park event page. Spaces are limited.

For more details, visit our Summer in the Park page.

Community festivals

There’s plenty more to keep you local this summer... we’re pleased to support a number of local community-run festivals in the summer period through our Community Strengthening Grants program, including:

Breakfast event for International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day on 8 March is a global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political accomplishments of women of all backgrounds, cultures, religions and abilities. The theme for this year is #EmbraceEquity, focusing on how we can create a fair and equal world and forge positive changes by embracing diversity and inclusion.

We’ll mark this important date with a special breakfast event.

When: Wednesday 8 March, from 7:30 am to 9 am

Where: Hawthorn Arts Centre

What’s happening at Boroondara Arts

Catch cellist Louise Godwin and fiddler Jessica Foot in Big Fiddle Little Fiddle at the Kew Court House on 25 February, where they’ll be joined by harpist and singer Claire Patti and animator Sylvie Le Couteur. Take in a screening of The Lost City of Melbourne, which celebrates our city’s former glory through rare archival video and photography, on 1 March at Hawthorn Arts Centre. And delve into the world of botanical line drawing with a workshop on 21 February.

Look out for the new major exhibition Romancing the Streetscape, which celebrates the streets and buildings of Melbourne and surrounds through highly realistic and evocative paintings. Community exhibition Nowhere to Here by Brian Osborne examines the effect of bushfires on the Australian landscape, communities, and in collective memory. You can explore community exhibition Paintings in Profile until 18 February, and from 22 February Banana by Vanessa Bong explores what it means to be Asian Australian.

Visit our Boroondara Arts page for more about these events and many more.

Neighbourhood house classes and workshops

Will 2023 be the year you take time out for yourself to learn something new or take on a new activity? You can try your hand at Zumba or Middle Eastern cooking, or learn skills to help you work in the aged care sector. Read about these and many more below, or download a copy of our new Live & Learn guide at our Neighbourhood houses and community centres page.

Come to our open day and explore the exercise equipment for seniors at Victoria Park in Kew.

The new Seniors Exercise Park has a range of outdoor exercise equipment designed to help improve balance, strength, functional movement, range of motion and mobility. It’s set under shade cloth and has accessible seating options for visitors.

A team of volunteers has trained with the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) and they’re dedicated to demonstrating how to use the equipment safely and effectively.

Seniors Exercise Park volunteers and representatives from Council’s Active Ageing team will be onsite from 10 am to 12 pm, giving visitors the opportunity to try the new equipment.

Ongoing sessions

After the open day, our volunteers will continue to host regular Come and Try sessions at the Seniors Exercise Park. These sessions will also be free of charge and suitable for older adults of all fitness levels.

If you’re interested to learn how the equipment can help you or someone you know, come along to the open day or regular sessions.

Find out when the next Come and Try session is on by visiting our Join our Come and Try sessions at the new Seniors Exercise Park news item.

For further enquiries, email [email protected] or call (03) 9278 4432.

A major construction blitz is about to begin to remove the level crossings at Union Road, Surrey Hills and Mont Albert Road, Mont Albert.

From Friday 17 February until late May, Union and Mont Albert Roads will be closed at the level crossings. Buses will replace trains between Camberwell and Box Hill or Ringwood.

The Union Road shopping centre remains open, and we strongly encourage you to support our local traders, particularly during this disruptive period. The LXRP loyalty program, Stamp Me, offers shoppers access to special offers at a number of Union Road shops.

For more information about the program and the LXRP’s project, visit the Victoria's Big Build website.

Budding writers shared hundreds of stories and poems in our 24th Boroondara Literary Awards.

We are excited to reveal the winners, announced late last year in a ceremony at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. The annual competition, held in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Balwyn, is open to writers of all ages. More than 1,000 writers took part last year, including 12-year-old Joel Hu who won equal first place in the Junior Poetry category.

“My poem was about lies,” says Joel. “Like webs, they are almost invisible. However, also like webs, you can be tangled in them. I enjoy injecting humour into my writing. In this poem, I recounted an incident where I was discovered for lying about a lolly stash under my bed.”

Winning and highly commended entries, including Joel’s, have been published in the 2022 Boroondara Literary Awards Anthology, which is available to loan and buy through the Boroondara Library Service. To view the full list of winners and the highly commended entries for each category, visit our 2022 Boroondara Literary Award winners page.

2022 Boroondara Literary Award winners

Open Short Story Competition: Gillian Hagenus, Early Summer

Keith Carroll Award for best Boroondara entrant: Linda Judge, One Hundred Percent Chance Of Rain

Young Writers’ Competition winners: Prose

Junior prose category: Jamie Greening, Spider, Fly And The Timeless Tomb

Middle prose category: Amy Yang, Wrong Script

Senior prose category: Mia Kagiaros, Azi’s Magic Garden

Young Writers’ Competition winners: Poetry

Junior poetry category: Joel Hu, The Web, and Arohan Dasgupta, A Box For Sale (equal first place)

Middle poetry category: Rhea Jaitha, I’ll See You At The ‘Butcher’

Senior poetry category: Sharon Zhang, Ophelia Talks To Sharon About Men, Death and Violets

Is your child protected against human papillomavirus (HPV)? Due to the recent COVID-19 disruptions to schooling, some students may have missed one or more scheduled vaccinations.

The HPV vaccine protects against 9 strains of HPV that cause:

• more than 90% of cervical cancers
• more than 95% of HPV-related cancers.

The best time to get vaccinated is 12 to 13 years of age, according to the Australian Government’s Department of Health and Aged Care.

How to get immunised

Students in year 7 can receive the HPV vaccine through their school immunisation program, with a consent form signed by a parent or guardian.

To find out when the next immunisation session is scheduled at your child’s school, contact your school. Those aged 12 to 19 can receive the HPV vaccine free of charge through a Council immunisation session or at a GP clinic.

To find out more, and to watch videos about what to expect from your HPV vaccination, visit our Secondary School Immunisation Program page.