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31 MAY, 2023
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Pressing the good oil The popular community event ‘Olives to Oil’ will be hosted at the Newport Community Hub, in partnership with the Hobsons Bay Festival of food, this Sunday. ‘Olives to Oil’ encourages people from across Melbourne to harvest their backyard olives and have them pressed into olive oil. CERES Community food systems manager Merrin Layden said it’s exciting to be taking the ‘Olives to Oil’ project back to where it all began. “Since our first Olives to Oil event in Hobsons Bay in 2018, the program has grown in popularity and is now a well-loved annual tradition for hundreds of people across Melbourne,” she said. The event is on June 4 and participants need to register online to book a time to drop off their olives. Ms Layden recommends olives be harvested no earlier than June 2, so the oil doesn’t spoil. The project has collected and pressed nearly 10 tonnes of backyard olives since 2018. “We collect the fruit, take it to Barfold Olives near Kyneton to be pressed, then deliver the olive oil back to participants later in the year.”
Merrin Layden at the Newport Community Hub ahead of the big day of olives. 336623 (Damjan Janevski)
Budget tackles clean air The health crisis in the west due to excessive truck usage in Maribyrnong will be addressed via a $20 million funding package as part of the 2023-24 state budget. The budget, which was handed down last week, includes funding to improve air quality for Melbourne’s inner west communities by providing councils in the region with co-contribution grants to seal unsealed roads under council management, reducing airborne dust pollution. Grants will also be made available for transport operators to modernise the truck fleet travelling through the inner west. The funding was announced one week after Maribyrnong council declared a health
emergency in the municipality and called on the state government to take proactive measures to reduce pollution. Maribyrnong mayor Sarah Carter welcomed the funding. “On the back of the council’s declaration of a health emergency, citing the impacts of air and noise pollution from heavy trucks using local roads, Council also welcomes the $20 million investment in improving air quality in the inner west,” she said. “Specifically for the development of programs that will help modernise trucks and improve air quality in the region.” The budget also includes $9.3 million for a new gym at Footscray West Primary School. “When I started in 2015 it was clear the
gym was not adequate for our students, so we have been advocating for the funding for some time,” principal Brendan Millar said. “We were aware we were getting the funding , these works have been in talks for some time.” Mr Millar is unsure of when the construction will begin because of the scale of the project. “We are a fully built school so there is no room to just build a new gym, that means we have to knock down the old one and cause disruptions for the kids.” Rosamond Special School will receive $1.69 million, while Footscray City Primary School has been allocated $8.5 million, the Kinnear Street campus of Footscray High School will benefit from $9.64 million and Bayside P-12
College will receive $5.55 million The budget also included $634.37 million for the new Footscray Hospital, which is already under construction. Following the October 2022 floods, the government is also planning for future upgrades to the Footscray VICSES facility. Point Cook Road in Altona Meadows will also be upgraded, according to the budget papers, while a new cemetery has been planned for Altona East. Footscray MP Katie Hall said the budget also included a women’s health clinics at Footscray will provide care and support for conditions like endometriosis, pelvic pain, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), perimenopause and menopause.
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