Tuesday, 23 June, 2026
Honouring Elias with award for road safety awareness
Birrarung Valley Walk to follow river from city to Outer East
Wonder and awe at Belgrave Lantern Festival
See Real Estate liftout inside
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A Star News Group Publication
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Bowls to art By Mikayla Van Loon The power of collaboration was on full display at the Mooroolbark Bowls Club after a group of students helped bring a vision to life. A cohort of 17 Year 9 students from Yarra Hills Secondary College’s Mooroolbark and Mount Evelyn campuses took a blank shipping container wall and turned it into a meaningful mural over several weeks. Art teacher Angie said as soon as the opportunity arose, she knew which cohort of students would be up for the task. “I thought I’ve just got just the right kids. I knew I could bring you down here, that I could trust you, that you would be respectful in our community, and be great ambassadors for our school,” she said. Read more on page 9
A cohort of 17 Year 9 students helped bring the mural to life over several weeks. (Mikayla van Loon: 560522)
‘Real and raw’ By Mikayla van Loon Mathew Love’s screen debut, a documentary titled Bleeding the Demon, was selected for the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in an impressive feat for the Mooroolbark local with no filmmaking experience. Mat depicts his personal story of childhood bullying, mental health challenges and weight gain in this powerful 38-minute film that he directed and produced. Having never filmed or directed anything be-
fore, not even owning a computer or editing software, the documentary first started with a three and a half hour long interview with Mat’s brother Brendan. Speaking his truth around a fire with his brother was healing for Mat but he knew his story could help someone else, and so he taught himself how to edit footage. While Mat’s weightloss journey began when he was finally able to access gastric sleeve surgery two years ago, when he’d hit his heaviest weight
of over 200 kilograms, his story begins as a Prep student attending school in Warrandyte. Childhood bullying and mental health struggles saw him take comfort in meals prepped by his Nan, but his relationship with food eventually became negative. Over time this evolved slowly until it was all he knew. Mat was on waiting lists for gastric surgery for over seven years and then when the notification came through that he’d finally been approved, the
pandemic delayed the surgery by a further two and a half years. As his weight dropped and his mind cleared, Mat said “eventually something changed”, and he slowly took back control over his mind and body. What he created was not only a message to others feeling “stuck, broken and miserable” about hope but a promise to his daughters that the dad they missed for so many years will never leave them again. Read more on page 11
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