WHYLD Newsletter March 2024
Welcome to 2024 – an event-filled year for WHYLD. Our first seasonal minimarket (Autumn Harvest) is just around the corner, Monthly Movie Nights are set to start back on the last Friday in April, the Woori Butcher BBQ’s are back in full swing after the Christmas break and Winter Warming is scheduled for a comeback in June! We continue to increase activities at the hall with private and group hall hire, which now includes three different dance groups – Kreationz Dance, Move IT or Lose IT Dance and Soul Dance. Check out the noticeboard outside the hall for schedules and contact details. Wondering where the hall is? Our official address is 22 Old Dalry Road, Don Valley – a shared address with the Don Valley Primary School next door related to a historic link in the past. Our new branding banner for the WHYLD Hall Hub is hanging proudly above the hall and we look forward to welcoming you at the hall or one of our events soon.
WHYLD welcomes new members, so if you are interested in any of our events or activities, please feel free to contact us by email: welcome@whyld.org.au, and please do like us on Facebook: WHYLD Community Group, or for more information visit our website: whyld.org.au.
WHYLD Vibrant Heart, Halls & Hubs
Over ten years ago, during community consultations to develop a WHYLD Community Plan, at every local meeting people spoke about the lack of care and use of their local halls. This challenge was taken up in the final plan as a key project – appropriately titled WHYLD Vibrant Heart, Halls & Hubs. The objective of this project was to ‘revitalise the existing community halls to facilitate greater usage by the local community’.
Ten years down the road, WHYLD are now the managers of the Sydney Halbish Hall in Don Valley – in fact, we’ve held the lease for this facility from Yarra Ranges Council for the past four years and are currently entering a further five-year lease.
The pandemic disrupted our first two years, but we’ve still managed to achieve a lot during this time. The hall has been painted (inside and out) and equipped with comfortable furnishings. Regular activities are now established at the hall, including our seasonal minimarkets and movie nights. These events are entirely FREE of charge and provide a great opportunity to meet fellow locals and make connections.
More groups and businesses are starting to notice our hall and are running their own activities – including Tuesday & Wednesday afternoon dance classes for children with Kreationz Dance and, this year, we have welcomed a new Saturday morning Move IT or Lose IT fitness/dance class with Santha Press.
However, despite all our promotion, we still come across some locals who either:
- Don’t know the hall exists • Don’t know that WHYLD manage the hall
- Don’t know what’s on at the hall!
We are doing our best to address this issue, with this annual newsletter (delivered to each household in our WHYLD domain), social media with our website and Facebook page, and posters, banners and flyers displayed in prominent locations for our events at the hall and beyond.
However, if you drive past the hall, unless you stop and read our community noticeboard, the WHYLD presence is not so obvious. So, thanks to grant funds from our Township Group Network, we’ve decided to go one step further with a custom-made banner – soon to be complete with solar lighting – so in a drive by the hall any time day or night, you won’t be able to miss it!
Automated Lifesavers
Numerous Automated External Defibrillators (AED’s) have been set up in our five WHYLD towns, generously funded by the local Woori Yallock and District Branch of the Bendigo Bank.
AEDs are used to revive someone from sudden cardiac arrest. This usually occurs when a disruption in the heart’s electrical activity causes a dangerously fast heartbeat (ventricular tachycardia) or a fast and irregular heartbeat (ventricular fibrillation). Either of these irregular heart rhythms keeps the heart from pumping effectively and can cause it to stop.
It has been well researched and documented that early intervention with such a device in a cardiac event is the best scenario for saving lives. An AED can be used by anyone, as it provides programmed verbal instructions to follow while waiting for an ambulance.
AED’s can be found outside the following locations:
- Community Bank in Woori Yallock
- CFA shed in Hoddles Creek
- CFA shed in Yellingbo
- Sydney Halbish Hall in Don Valley
- Home Hotel in Launching Place
|
Our FREE Movie Nights will be back in April, scheduled for the last Friday of each month until September. For the few people who attended last year, like Sally & Sam (pictured), it was a great night out. This year we’ve decided to try a slightly different format, with just a single movie – rated G or PG to cater for both families with children and adults – to commence at 6.30pm. An intermission at 7.30 will provide a chance for a wee break and leg stretch, with supper (bring a plate to share), time for a social chat and the door prize draw. The movie screening will restart around 8.00 pm and run until the end, with finish time dependant on the length of the movie – but we expect to be done and dusted by 9.00 pm. Look out for our first movie (title still to be decided) on our banners and posters, prominently displayed around our WHYLD and neighbouring towns from early April. |
Rain couldn’t dampen the festive mood at our final minimarket for 2023. Held at the Sydney Halbish Hall in Don Valley, these all-weather markets may be small in size, but they have big things to offer, with a unique range of handmade items and a great community atmosphere.
Seasonal minimarkets are held quarterly with Autumn Harvest in March, Winter Craft in June, Spring second-hand in September and Summer Festive in December.
And while they have a seasonal theme, there is always a snack from the BBQ for lunch (with a barista coffee), a free activity for the kids, entertainment, produce from the garden, a unique gift, a great bargain, or the perfect decoration for Christmas. Our hourly door prize draw gives the lucky winner a $10
voucher to spend on a stall, which in turn gives the stallholder a voucher to claim a free $10 stall, so there are winners all round!
The inaugural Yellingbo Christmas Fair was held at Sheep Station Creek Road Reserve in December. Hosted by the Reserve Committee and under the auspices of the WHYLD Community Group, the event brought Community members both young and old together, giving use to the Reserve space as in previous times, when it was used as the showground for the local area.
Classic Cars created an impressive line-up in the centreof the oval, while Christmas themed stalls formed a ring around the edge. Live music from Almost a Band, a roving Magician, interactive education from Blacksnake Productions, demonstrations from Yellingbo CFA and face painting provided entertainment for all ages. There was also an excellent display of memorabilia from the original shows of days gone by and from the now closed Yellingbo Primary School. The event is expected to grow in both size and attendance with an annual date scheduled for the first Sunday of December.
The Woori Butcher BBQ was resurrected in May last year, with pretty much the same format as when it closed 10 months earlier.
Mark Boyle now owns the Woori Yallock Butchers & Farm Shop, selling grass-fed beef raised on his 32 acre farm in Gruyere. He still supplies the sausages and gas, sets up the BBQ and buys a sausage for himself.
What’s more, he employs Rod Brooke, the previous owner as the butcher! Currently, the Saturday morning BBQ’s are shared by WHYLD Community Group, Sheep Station Creek Road Reserve Committee, Lusatia Park
Cricket Club and our three local CFAs on a rotation basis. Everyone’s a winner here it seems and all the proceeds raised go back into our WHYLD community.
Winter Warming is all set to make a comeback this year, albeit in a new setting. The essential elements of fire and warmth will be retained, together with the central focus of a community gathering to celebrate the winter solstice. WHYLD are grateful to be supported once again by Hillcrest CFA, Upper Yarra SES and Yarra Valley Red Cross, with a new partner in the 1st Woori Scouts.
