Monday 28 August – Sunday 3 September

TWiSK #380

Acland Street Fathers Day Car and Bike Show
Puppy Pub Crawl @ St Kilda
Songs from the Canyon @ National
|
Local news
St Kilda Triangle: New reports released this week
Social housing: Five-month delay for paperwork
No plan for tram access despite DDA deadline

The Giants Q&A with Bob Brown @ Pride

Monday 28 August, 6.45 pm – 10 pm
The documentary is a poetic and cinematic portrait of Bob Brown intertwined with the story of the giant, ancient trees of the Tasmanian wilderness.
Q&A moderated by journalist James Norman, with environmental activist and founder of the Australian Greens party, Bob Brown, his husband, sheep farmer and LGBTIQ+ advocate Paul Thomas, along with filmmakers, Laurence Billiet and wife Rachel Antony.
All profits going towards the Rooftop Terrace Pavilion campaign. $45/$25
Tix 
79-81 Fitzroy Street
Maoko Mend & Meetup Sewing Circles @ Space2b
Thursday 31 August, 10.30 am – 12 noon
Fortnightly on Thursdays until 21 December
Join Japanese sewer Maoko Carroll in a regular sewing circle. Spend some time with like-minded people, learn how to mend your garments and feel connected with the community. $10 Donation
Info 
144 Chapel St St Kilda
Reclink Football Grand Final series @ ETU Stadium Port Melbourne
Tuesday 29 August – Thursday 31 August, 10.30 am – 3.00 pm daily
Get your dose of Aussie rules final action watching the Reclink Victorian Football League Grand Final series.
Across the three days, players of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, have the opportunity to come together and play in a grand final match to celebrate the end of the football season.
Tuesday 29 August
Wynbay Tigers Vs Cohealth Kangaroos, Frankston Dolphins’ v Maryborough Ravens and Port Melbourne Reclink team Vs Bendigo Gold.
Wednesday 30 August
Cardinia Tigers Vs Sunbury Phoenix , Reclink All Stars Vs Odyssey House before the Collingwood Magpies Vs Geelong Cats round
Thursday 31 August
Bushrangers Vs Salvo Hawks, Morwell Panthers Vs Casey Cobras.
All three days will have free entry, a BBQ lunch, a live broadcast and appearances from a range of past and present AFL personalities. Free entry
541 Williamstown Rd, Port Melbourne
Shaya [live] @ Alex
Thu 31st Aug 2023, 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Shaya is an Israeli-Moroccan Singer-Songwriter who has been performing around the world for the past 6 years, documenting her journey with her original songs. $20
Tix
The Worlds of David Bowie & The Thin White Ukes @ George Lane
Thursday 31 August 31, 7 pm – 11 pm
Together for the first time, The Thin White Ukes and The Bowie Project present Bowie’s stunning catalogue of household hits and dazzling obscurities in shades of acoustic strings, lush harmony vocals and elegant acoustic jazz.
Tix | YouTube 
Benefit for Bedders @ Memo
Friday 1 September, 7 pm
Benefit for Bedders is a huge one night only comedy spectacular for writer, producer, comedian and media personality, Steve “Bedders” Bedwell, currently dealing with the effects of early onset dementia.
Hosted by Dave O’Neil and Bev Killick and featuring Steve Vizard, Tom Gleeson, Scared Weird Little Guys, Bob Franklin, Richard Stubbs, Elliot Goblet, Tania Lacy, Hung Le, Brad Oakes, Ethel Chop, Sean Choolburra, Jeff Green, and Colin Lane (Lano & Woodley fame). $65/$60
Tix
Impromptunes @ Alex
Friday 1 September, 8 pm
An epic celebration as Impromptunes hits their 400th show milestone.
It’s a completely wild idea. The performers take a title from the audience, and seconds later they perform that musical for the first, last and only time. $39-$29
Tix
The Soulmovers @ George Lane
Friday 1 September, 7 pm – 11 pm
“Featuring the much-loved legend, ex-Red Wiggle, Murray Cook, and led by long-Leggedpower-house,Lizzie Mack, The Soul Movers musical tour-de-force across a hip and funky retro musical spectrum, recreating the best sounds from the 1960s and 70s.”
Tix


Holy Moses Heartache @ George Lane
Saturday 2 September, 7:30 pm – 11:30 pm
Holy Moses Heartache, Australia’s second greatest cosmic-country-funk-swamp-folk-rock band.
Tix
Mini Market: books, plants & much more @ Christ Church
Saturday 2 September, 9.30 am – 2 pm
Would you like to join other stallholders and have a stall on the first Saturday of any month in 2023? Contact Robyn on 0408 536 241
14 Acland Street
Davitt Awards Ceremony @ Rising Sun Hotel
Saturday 2 September, 6 for 6.30 pm.
Six Davitt Awards will be presented at a gala dinner by Walkley-award winning investigative journalist, and true-crime author, Debi Marshall: Best Adult Novel; Best Young Adult Novel; Best Children’s Novel; Best Non-fiction Book; Best Debut Book (any category); and Readers’ Choice (as voted the 600+ members of Sisters in Crime Australia). Prior to the awards presentation, Debi will be in conversation with true crime author and podcaster, Emily Webb.
Details and bookings 
The Rising Sun Hotel 2 Raglan St., South Melbourne

Songs from the Canyon @ National
Saturday 2 September @ 8pm
In the 1960s and 70s, the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Laurel Canyon hosted a music revolution unlike any other.
Featuring performances from Husky Gawenda, Dan Kelly, Charm of Finches, Hannah Cameron, Stephen Grady and Dan Challis. $89/$70
Tix | YouTube

Grand Wazoo @ Memo
Saturday 2 September, 7 pm
The mighty 13-piece Grand WaZoo – Kings of Soul return with a rollicking Soul Music Extravaganza – featuring timeless music from the 60s-70s golden era of soul. $60/55+bf
Tix
Fathers Day Car and Bike Show @ Acland Street and O’Donnell Gardens
Sunday 3 September, 10 am – 6 pm
This shinny classic Mustang in Acland Court is a sure sign that Fathers Day is just around the corner.
This year is the 10th Anniversary of the Father’s Day Car Bike Show with Acland St, Shakespeare Grove, O’Donnell Gardens again transformed with classic cars, free face painting , free giveaways, carnival rides, Luna Park, awards for cars bikes, drag car fire ups and a huge movie car display.

Puppy Pub Crawl @ St Kilda
Sunday 3 September, 3 pm – 6.30 pm
Socialise your dogs and yourselves with the St Kilda Puppy Pub Crawl
1st stop Chez Misty with doggie crepes and doggie cocktail
2nd stop La Bodega with doggie arepitas and drink special
Offlead Beach walk
3rd stop West Beach Pavilion with hommus pita bread for hoomans
Bookings from $13.99
The Peptides @ St Kilda Sports Club
Sunday 3 September, 5pm
Free

The Breadmakers @ Espy
Sunday 3 September, 6 pm
Sunday blues – free

On going

Prophet @ Theatre Works
Until Saturday 2 September
Step into an epic, dystopian world. Seven figures. Seven stories. One prophet.
A man returns to his broken city from a devastating war. He brings home a vision of the end of the world. Amidst the banalities of everyday existence, events converge on a violent act of betrayal.
Award-winning writer Jodi Gallagher returns to the stage with Prophet transforming into an immersive world unlike you’ve ever seen. Against a breathtaking soundscape of a city in crisis, the audience are invited to move through this landscape with the performers – a city both alien and familiar – and be in and around the events as they unfold.
Prophet explores lovers, mothers, fathers and sons, grappling with eternal questions of faith, trust and hope in the end times.
90 minutes, no interval $45/$35
Tix 
Monument @ Redstitch
Until Sunday 3 September
“Edith Aldridge is the youngest woman to be elected leader of her country. In a lush presidential suite in a heritage listed hotel, she has just ninety minutes to get ready for the biggest day of her life. Enter Rosie, a 22-year-old makeup artist from the David Jones counter, sent to help Edith get camera ready. In Rosie’s capable hands, this morning will be a breeze. So long as they both stick to the brief.”
Written by Emily Sheehan, directed by Ella Caldwell, featuring Julia Hanna and Sarah Sutherland
Tix 
Dell Stewart: Picnic @ Alta Forma gallery
Until 23 September, Wed-Fri 11 am – 3 pm, Saturday 12 noon – 3 pm
Alta Forma presents ‘Picnic’ an exhibition of new works by Naarm/Melbourne based artist Dell Stewart.
This collection forms part of an ongoing project to make useful vessels and to use them. The works range in size, shape, material and texture but a sense of play, possibility and mutation forms a network of connection between them. Picnics embody a sense of simplicity, joy and connection with nature.
Info 
Suite G07/620, St Kilda Road

Next week
Monday 4 September – Sunday 10 September

Caroline de Costa in conversation @ Readings
Thursday 7 September, 6 pm
Carmel Shute, Secretary of Sisters in Crime, and Caroline de Costa will be in conversation to launch Buried Secrets, the fourth novel in Caroline’s Cass Diamond police procedural series set in Cairns. Cass is once again in search of a ruthless killer. Free
Bookings are essential 
112 Acland Street

Stars @ Memo
Friday 8 September, 7 pm
Stars return with a six piece line up featuring new guitarist the legendary blues master Geoff Achison and pedal steel wizard Ed Bates. Original members Mick Pealing and Roger McLachlan will be joined by Nick Charles and Erik Chess to perform a full blooded version of the classic Stars repertoire. $65/60/55+bf
Tix

BABBA Returns @ Memo
Saturday 9 September, 7 pm
“A BABBA show is an electrifying experience that transports audiences back to the glory days of ABBA. With stunning costumes, captivating choreography, and pitch-perfect renditions of the band’s greatest hits.” $50/45/35+bf Online
Tix

Melba Big Band presents – Swing Into Spring Ball @ Memo
Sunday 10 September, 2 pm
Melba Big Band will swing into spring and step back in time with the 17 piece All Girl Big Band featuring vocalist Katrina Buttigieg. $35/25+bf
Tix

Look ahead

Learn about the Voice Referendum @ St Kilda Town Hall
Thursday 21 September, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Port Phillip Citizens for Reconciliation invite you to their free public event to learn about the upcoming Voice to Parliament Referendum.
Speakers include Ian Hamm, Yorta Yorta man and Chair of the Board of Directors of the First Nations Foundation;
Nerita Waight, Yorta Yorta and Narrandjeri Taungurung woman and CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service;
Amanda Young – Executive Director First Nations at climate advisory Pollination.
Questions are invited in the Q&A to end the evening. Free
Bookings 
Melbourne Fringe Hub @ Theare Works
4 – 21 October
Theatre Works has announced its program as part of the Fringe Festival in October.
Info

Spanning generations with music

Intergenerational Duets is a community arts project that promotes intergenerational friendships, celebrates connection through music, and fights the negative stigma of ageing.
Each senior musician will be partnered with a teenage musician. Together, over eight-week period participants will get to know one another, go on to plan, rehearse and perform a duet of their choosing; through a program of guided intergenerational collaboration.
Workshops and rehearsals will be held in St Kilda across September and October, with a final performance at the end of October.
This program is delivered by Embraced, a community arts not-for-profit which specialises in intergenerational arts programs to create positive social outcomes. This rendition of the Intergenerational Duets program is proudly supported by the City of Port Phillip and Bendigo Bank (Elwood).
Applications now open 
A trip down to the Memory Lane Café @ Victorian Pride Centre.
Memory Lane Café is a pop-up event for people from LGBTIQ+ communities living with dementia and their carers where they can socialise in a safe and inclusive space. The events are free to attend, but bookings are essential.
Call the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500 or email vic.memorylanecafe@dementia.org.au to find out more or to register your interest in attending.
Read The Age story 
The pop-up cafe is a joint venture between Dementia Australia, residential aged care provider Lifeview, and the Victorian Pride Centre.
Pictured in the Pride Centre’s Courtyard garden (left to right): Justine Dalla Riva, Belinda Nixon (GM Service Operations, Dementia Australia), Mithrani Mahadeva (Dementia Advocate), Anne Tudor OAM, and Samantha Jewell (CEO, Lifeview). Image credit: Natalie Edge.

St Kilda Triangle: New reports released this week
Rock’n’Roll triangle?

Available from Friday 1 September 
The outcome of Council’s $60,000 (correction: this is in addition to the $480,000 already committed) assessment of the viability of a live music led / performance venue development on the site will be published this week.
Two key deliverables from this work include a Market Sounding Report and a Design Feasibility Report. Council officers will present the outcomes of the market sounding and the design feasibility work at the 6 September Council Meeting.
It is planned that consultation will commence on 7 September and conclude after 6 weeks on 19 October.

Social housing: Five-month delay for paperwork

Despite the ‘photo opportunity launch’ in March promising occupancy by April, the $29m Marlborough Street (Balaclava) residential social house project in is yet to welcome any residents.
Jointly funded by Federal, State and local government, the project will be operated by not-for-profit HousingFirst.
A HousingFirst spokesperson attributed the delay to complex paperwork:
“With a subdivision of land from council, a building incorporating a public carpark (that will remain in Council possession) and our 46 homes and a retail premise, there has been a significant amount of exacting paperwork involved with transferring title and establishing the appropriate subdivisions. It is better to get this right than rushed.
“Thankfully, this work is wrapping up and we expect residents to move in early September, the first of many who will live here for the next 50 years.”
But it looks like October is more likely. The project started in 2018, building commenced in 2021 and was officially completed in June 2023. The council website says occupancy will start in October 2023. https://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/about-the-council/projects-and-works/marlborough-street-community-housing
Worth the long wait
TWiSK is aware of future tenants who have been waiting to occupy since March. But they remain positive because the building is first rate.
Located right near Balaclava Station, the development transforms a car park into 46 homes with an average energy rating of 8.2 stars.
See more details 

No plan for tram access despite failed Disability Discrimination deadline

Apart from trams 96 and 109, local tram routes are failing to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act despite already receiving a 20-year extension.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) requires that all tram stops must be fully compliant with the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002
(DSAPT) by 31 December 2022 and all trams must be DSAPT compliant by 31 December 2032.
The lack of a plan to provide access was a key finding of a scathing 2020 report by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office. 
The report concluded that “DoT has not met legislated targets for accessible tram infrastructure and cannot comply by 31 December 2022.
“Based on the trend to date, DoT is also at risk of not meeting the 31 December 2032 tram compliance requirement.”
Enquiries by TWiSK have confirmed that nearly three years later the government still has no plan to improve tram access.
Trams coming, but level access stops remain
In 2022, the government has announced a $1.85 billion plan to purchase 100 new trams and bring them into service from 2025. But construction of the vital level access stops has slowed to a snail’s pace with only 6 stops in La Trobe Street currently budgeted.
Despite the DDA requirements and government policies on access, retrofitting access has effectively ground to a halt.
This is particularly frustrating in the inner city areas like St Kilda and Port Phillip were there a many trams but limited access.
Local Routes with access
96 St Kilda to Brunswick (only partial access northside of the city)
109 Port Melbourne to Box Hill
Local Routes with some access
16 Melbourne University to Kew (only one two stops between Luna Park and Kew) and only 1 in 3 accessible trams;
5 Melbourne University to Malvern (only two stops locally on Dandenong Road, minority of low floor trams
Local Routes with no low floor trams
1 East Coburg to South Melbourne Beach
3 Melbourne University to East Malvern (weekdays)
3a Melbourne University to East Malvern (weekends)
12 Victoria Gardens to St Kilda
64 Melbourne University to East Brighton
67 Melbourne University to Carnegie
78 North Richmond to Balaclava

What our local MPs say about tram access

Bravo to local Greens MPs who were quick to ask questions in Parliament. This prompted Transport Minister Ben Carroll to assure Southsiders that “the introduction of the new trams will, over time, allow other low-floor accessible trams to be cascaded to other routes, spreading the benefits across the network.” However, he cautioned that the choice of route for new low-floor trams depends on multiple factors including demand on the route for these larger trams, alternative options for accessible transport, available stabling space in our tram depots and the impact on infrastructure.
Smaller projects left behind, says David Southwick (Liberal)
David Southwick, MLA Caulfield and Opposition Transport Infrastructure spokesperson told TWiSK that low-floor trams and level access stops are a win for accessibility, inclusion, and network’s overall capacity.
“A modern, evidence-based transport infrastructure pipeline balances large-scale projects with crucial local ones, but this term of Government has seen so many bread-and-butter community infrastructure upgrades get left behind, especially in our area. Should we win Government in 2026, a crucial part of our approach would be re-engaging with local communities, and making progress on the small-scale projects that help our network run.”
Passionate about public transport, says Nina Taylor (Labor)
Albert Park MLA Nina Taylor said “I’m passionate about public transport and will continue to advocate for improved tram accessibility.
“We are getting on with improving tram accessibility and ensuring we’re delivering tram stop upgrades across Melbourne in a planned and efficient way.”
“The 2022-23 Victorian State Budget included $158.7 million to make public transport more accessible and easier to use for everyone. Planning and design work is underway for six new level-access tram stops along La Trobe Street in the CBD.
“The Department of Transport and Planning are developing a comprehensive strategy which will help identify priorities for improving transport accessibility that will make the most difference to people with disabilities.”
Planning to have a plan this year
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport and Planning confirmed that a plan was in the pipeline but could not provide a timeline.
If past behaviour is a guide, preparing a plan is not the sort answer that inspires hope.
Discloser: Greg Day from TWiSK is a wheelchair user.Greg Day
Happy to chat anytime 0418 345 829
Content suggestions and community questions are always welcome.
gday@archives.gdaystkilda.com.au
Recent editions
Monday 21 August – Sunday 27 August
Monday 14 August – Sunday 20 August
Monday 7 August – Sunday 13 August
Monday 31 July – Sunday 6 August
This Week in St Kilda respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of this land, the people of the Kulin Nations. We pay our respect to their Elders, past and present. We acknowledge and uphold their continuing relationship to this land.

TWiSK is always free and proudly independent. 
Subscribe for free or with a voluntary option of paid support from $5 per month or $50 annually
Venues are also invited to subscribe