Voice on Pako - January 2018

free monthly JANUARY 2018

WILD AT HEART HOW SEACHANGER TRACEY HARTY BROUGHT NEW LIFE TO DECOR ON PAKO SEE PAGE 5

21 West Fyans St, Newtown Ph: 03 5221 8877 E: sales@tintmaster.com.au

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YOUR voice With Christmas and NYE fast approaching the Voice on Pako asked locals about their summer plans. free monthly JANUARY 2018

WILD AT HEART HOW SEACHANGER TRACEY HARTY BROUGHT NEW LIFE TO DECOR ON PAKO SEE PAGE 5

21 West Fyans St, Newtown Ph: 03 5221 8877 E: sales@tintmaster.com.au

1228880-ACM30-16

Tracey Harty at her Pakington St store Wild Iris.

Picture: Louisa Jones

“

We’ll be camping down at Rye River. It’s become a family tradition for us.

“

I’m just having the family over for Christmas – the kids, the grandkids, the whole lot. We’ve got family coming from Castlemaine, Burwood and Highton.

- AMANDA ANDREWS, 44,

- BARRIE SATCHELL, 75,

NEWTOWN

Published monthly, covering Pakington Street and surrounds, Geelong West, Newtown

“

We’re staying home for Christmas.

But in the new year we’re going on a cruise to New Caledonia.

- CATHERINE ELTRINGHAM, 40, GEELONG

GEELONG WEST

Advertising and content executive: Ellen Fox 5249 6704 ellen.fox@geelongindependent.com.au General enquiries: 5249 6700 Managing editor: Tony Galpin 52496700

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“

I always spend Christmas with the family. We have five grandchildren in Geelong who are coming over. My husband had a stroke 12 weeks ago so we’re a little stay at home at the moment.

“

Christmas will be quiet for us this year. It just came up really quickly.

We’ll probably go to the beach with friends for NYE and the rest of the summer.

- IRENA JONSTON, 76, BELL POST HILL

- STACIE BENSON, 28, HERNE HILL

“

I live in a lifestyle village which includes a boat. So I’m intending to take the five grandchildren out onto Corio Bay. I’ll be seeing my five grandchildren from Geelong and two grandchildren are coming over from Japan.

- DEREK COOK, 71, BELL PARK

Happy New Year from all the staff at Salon Eve A: Shop 1/127 Shannon Ave Manifold Heights P: 5298 1547 W: www.saloneve.com.au E: info@saloneve.com.au

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CAROLS on pako

A stormy start but carols rule the night ABOUT 100 people defied rain clouds with Christmas cheer at Carols in West Park in December to raise money and collect food for the needy.

The inaugural carols went ahead on 3 December despite the dark clouds, after rain postponed the event the weekend before.

Rain throughout the day threatened to again postpone the carols, according to organiser Jules Gower.

“It was touch and go right until the beginning,” she said.

“But we held our nerve and went ahead. We didn’t get a drop of rain after 5pm for 90 minutes.”

Revellers raised about $400 for charity OneCare Geelong and donated several wheelie bins of non-perishable food for Christmas hampers, Jules said.

The OneCare Choir made its onstage debut after after six weeks of practice under the tutelage of singer Laura Vander Noord.

“She’s brought them together to create this choir especially for this event,” Jules said.

Jules was thrilled to see the choir

perform and the singers “involved in the community”.

“This is the first time they’ve all performed in public and they’re looking forward to getting involved next year,” she said.

She enjoyed the family atmosphere at the at the first-time carols.

“It was really relaxed and fun,” she said. “We had Raymond the Ram roaming around giving out candy canes.”

Geelong West Neighbourhood House joined with St John’s Lutheran School and Hodges Real Estate to create the first-time event.

Jules estimated 100-plus people attended Carols in West Park and hoped the event would return bigger and better next year.

“It was our way to give back to the community at Christmas by hosting something on the doorstep of Geelong West,” she said.

The carols featured performances by local harpist Peter Roberts, the St John’s School Choir, The Acabellas, and mother and daughter singers Rebecca and Eva Hay.

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New Year, New You! he Christmas decorations have been put away, the last of the pudding has been demolished and now it's time to bring in the new year and make a start on the life changing resolutions you made for 2018!

According to an Australian survey, 54% of people had health and itness goals in 2016.

Research suggests that only 8% of people achieve their new year resolutions. 2018 is sure to be another year where health goals score high on wish lists. So how can you make your health and itness goals happen for you in 2018?

Firstly, it pays to look at the common factors involved in why resolutions are not achieved. hey generally include: Not tracking your progress; making too many resolutions; and making unrealistic goals. It might seem simple, but it's much easier to focus on one goal and make it achievable. Try breaking your big goal into smaller achievable targets — everyone enjoys a pat on the back and having a win makes you more likely to stay on track.

If your goal is to quit smoking, you can make a smaller goal to cut back the number you smoke and then gradually substitute cigarettes with lozenges or gum. here are many ways to give up smoking — feel free to drop in and chat to one of us about the options available.

Tracey Harty is living her Geelong home decor dream. 176298

Picture by: Louisa Jones

Sea change brings the love WHEN Tracey Harty moved to Geelong seeking a sea change, she spotted the perfect chance to rejuvenate her love of home decor.

“A little shop came up in a lovely area so I thought I’d take the plunge,” the 51-year-old says.

In December she opened her new Pakington Street store Wild Iris to the public following months of planning.

Tracey moved from Camperdown to Armstrong Creek with her husband in April to be closer to their sons, who study in Geelong.

“The older one’s almost finished uni and the younger one started this year.”

The move was also convenient for her husband, who works as a town planner and environment scientist in Melbourne.

Previously, he would stay overnight in the city. Now he commutes from Geelong.

“We needed to be closer to Melbourne without moving to Melbourne itself,” Tracey says.

Tracey fell in love with home decor through magazines, the internet and TV shows before opening her first store in 2000.

“I’ve always had an interest in all those lovely things you can do in your home,” she says.

The then aged care worker made her first foray into retail in her home town of Camperdown.

“I wanted to be my own boss - you haven’t got someone telling you what you can and can’t do,” she says.

“I probably had it in my blood - as a younger girl in East Gippsland I worked in my father’s business.”

It was a steep learning curve for the mother of two, whose boys were in day care and primary school.

“It was a challenge juggling it all but it wasn’t too bad doing it in a country town,” she says.

Tracey sold the business in 2006 to return to aged care, but she never lost her passion for retail.

After moving to Geelong, Tracey spent months planning her new store and designing her brand.

“There’s a lot more work behind the scenes than people realise I think,” she says.

“My sons both helped where they could between uni and their jobs.”

She spent much of her time researching products and checking out similar outlets in Newtown.

“I spent a lot of time sourcing out stock with a difference to other stores,” she says.

“It’s silly to have what they have.”

Wild Iris stocks lighting, jewellery, ladies’ tops, handbags, homeware and more.

“It’s a bit of everything really,” she says.

“You can come in and buy a gift for friends, a baby, a bloke or yourself.”

Tracey loves working in Pakington Street.

“There’s plenty of choice and it actually reminds me of an English village,” she says.

“I have found the people here to be extremely friendly and I’ve heard a lot of positive comments about the point of difference and affordability.

“Geelong is just like a big country town. We go to Melbourne quite a lot, too, for concerts and football.”

If weight loss is your goal there are now programs available which combine the latest CSIRO research and smart phone apps. here is no calorie counting, portion weighing or feeling hungry. One program even involves a lexible day each week where you can eat and drink what you like! Meal plans are tailored to you and change depending on your weekly progress. he best diet is one that you can stick with while also teaching you to eat healthy foods. If you would like to chat to one of us about our weight loss programs please call in, we would love to help you reach your health goals in 2018!

Kerry Brotchie Pharmacist

communitycarechemist.com.au 1/184 Pakington St

| Ph 5246 5850

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Being accountable and tracking your progress are also very important. By being accountable to someone — be it a friend, a professional, or even Facebook can really help drive you to success.

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WHAT’S HOT on pako 1

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1. Liberte etched bangles $89.95 Sas Designs & Concepts 2. Sock It Up socks $15 Sas Designs & Concepts 3. Wooden flower diffuser $35 Sas Designs & Concepts 4. Miss Rose Sister Violet vintage dress sizes 3-6 $84.95 Wild Iris 5. Sarah Anne rose gold bracelet $32.95 Wild Iris

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WHAT’S HOT on pako 6

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JUST BE COS

Costume dramas of underground superheroes

MEDIUMS RARE

Two artists, two very different choices of material

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JOURNEY TO SRI LANKA Young duo hits surf to save lives in island nation

LOCAL LOVE

Off and racing with Elecia and Dylan

HISTORY REPEATED

Torquay’s trip from hideaway to boomtown

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6. Hart Co men's candle $39.95 Wild Iris 7. Childrens' Adidas $60 Mudge's Shoes 8. Childrens' Adidas $50 Mudge's Shoes 9. New Balance children's sneakers with velcro or laces $80 or $99.95 Mudge's Shoes 10. Summer edition of Geelong Coast magazine $5.50 Available from newsagents.

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VITALITY on pako

Passion for food rekindled

BY PATRICK LAVERICK A 25-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Pasha Fate has opened a new cafe on Pako serving only “plant-based" food.

Pasha spoke to Voice on Pako during the first day of trading, saying the early outlook for his vegan venue was bright.

“We’ve had quite a few people through the door, more than we expected, so we’re very happy," he said.

“We did a soft opening. We didn’t create too much noise because you want to get everything ready and there’s always little creases to iron out. For what we’ve put out there, we’re very happy."

Pasha believed that cosmopolitan Pako was a great fit for the cafe.

“Out of all of Geelong, it has the feel we wanted. It had the crowd we were after and it’s the cafe capital of Geelong," he said.

“If you’re going to do something, especially something different like this, you’ve got to pick somewhere like this with the foot traffic and has the exposure.

The rest of Geelong is good but this is the spot for a place like ours."

As a vegan himself and with a background in food, Pasha considered his case the obvious career option.

“I’ve been in hospitality for about 25 years and I had lost my passion for the industry, especially after turning vegan three years ago," he confided.

“I got to a point about six months ago where I couldn’t go in to work anymore.

It just bothered me too much and it was not a good way to be.

“That’s what made me get into selling plant-based food. I found a passion for food again; a passion for serving people healthy food.

“Our store sells plant-based products, we don’t call it vegan. It almost feels like it’s become like a cult and that’s not what we’re about; it’s not how I see the movement and so we don’t really use that word in here, we just say plant-based.

“We want to be approachable by everyone, our intention is to make light of the situation, make it fun, try and attack people’s tastebuds and make them healthier without them even realising it.

Veganism saved our life, we were very sick, that’s what’s driving us to sell this food.

Pasha’s Pako cafe journey began when left the Yarra Valley for Geelong in search of a “vegan job".

“I didn’t want to live in Melbourne, it’s too congested, too saturated," he said.

“We knew the owners of Dolly’s Sister, the other vegan place in Geelong.

They needed someone, so we made the move three months ago and stumbled across this place by accident."

Pasha believed that the vegan trend reflected a growing consciousness about food.

“Just looking at the changes in the last three years, which is how long we’ve been vegan, you notice it," he mused.

“We were living in the Otways at the time and we would look for places in Geelong to eat and there’s a big difference since then.

“Everyone’s got options now, back then they didn’t have options."

Pasha Fate has been in the hospitality industry for 25 years.

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HISTORY on pako

A great win for heritage

BY LUKE VOOGT A community group has won a four-year fight to protect the history of Newtown, following a council decision on Tuesday night.

Newtown Action Group’s Vicki Baensch welcomed Geelong council’s decision to apply a heritage overlay to parts of the suburb.

“It’s fantastic council are not only supporting a pocket of Newtown but the heritage and character of Geelong,” she said.

“It’s nice to know a community group can get involved and have an impact on the process.”

Geelong Council adopted a planning amendment at its latest meeting, which applied a heritage overlay to the Newtown West and Upper Skeene Street precincts, and other areas of the suburb.

Newtown Action Group first campaigned for heritage protection in 2014 when changes in State Government planning schemes led to a rezoning of part of the suburb. “(The City’s planning department was) perhaps not considering the reality of what was going on,” Ms Baensch said.

“There are some beautiful old homes that have been knocked down and some very modern homes that are not sympathetic to the character of that area.”

The group raised money and successfully campaigned to prevent zoning changes allowing four-storey housing.

“We appointed heritage architects to assess the area because we realised there was no heritage overlay,” Ms Baensch said.

Council’s recent introduction of a

HERITAGE FOUND: Vicki Baensch at her Newtown house, which will be protected under a council amendment. 176199 Picture by: Rebecca Hosking

heritage overlay provided clear guidance to property owners looking to renovate, she said.

“The other main benefit of the heritage review is it goes a long way to eliminating poor outcomes.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’re not against new developments, but people buy into the area because they like its character.

“You see some fantastic renovations where the front of the property is old and

the back of the property is modern - you can have the best of both worlds.”

Council adopted the decision following the Newtown West Heritage Review in 2016 and an independent panel in August.

The Victorian Planning Minister appointed the panel, which received 16 submissions in relation to the heritage plans.

The majority of submissions supported the overlay, although some

questioned the inclusion of Great Western Hotel and the Upper Skene Street Precinct.

“There were also some residents concerned about extra steps in renovations and alterations,” Ms Baensch said.

The City will submit the Amendment C365 to the Minister for Planning for approval.

“They told me that could take up to a few months,“ Ms Baensch said.

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SAFETY on pako

First steps to safer street

“You can’t just put cameras up in Pakington Street and say hallelujah it’s covered,” he said.

“And it would be no mean feat to put cameras along the entire length of Pakington Street.”

Cameras had been effective in Geelong CBD, but Pakington Street had

a vastly different structure, Leading Sen Const King said.

“Remember Geelong also has a nightlife - there’s still some work to go until we decide whether it would be an effective tool in Pakington Street.”

The new traders association would allow police to implement street-wide

crime fighting strategies, Leading Sen Const King said.

Traders’ after hours contact details would allow police to share recommendations to “target harden” business, rather than officers going “door to door”, he said.

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The new Pakington Street traders’ association has provided a “starting point” for a crime-fighting alliance, according to Leading Senior Constable Andrew King.

“It allows the retailers to have communication with each other when they would otherwise work in isolation,” he said.

The association recently secured a $10,000 State Government community safety grant for a 'no cash on premises' program.

“This is a start of a series of strategies,” Leading Sen Const King said.

“All of the traders are absolutely wrapt in the support that Victoria Police and Geelong council have put in place for them.”

Police implemented the program in Pakington Street following a spate of burglaries earlier this year, after trailing a similar program in Ocean Grove.

“The grant was an opportunity to introduce that strategy to the traders along the entire length of the street in the hope we would get similar result,” Leading Sen Const King said.

“They don’t currently have the issue in Pakington street that they had six months ago but that’s not to say that issue won’t come back.”

The State Government recently came under fire for the grant’s lack of funding for security cameras in the street.

Police Minister Lisa Neville later explained that the grant application did not request cameras.

But security cameras were “not a be all and end all” solution for Pakington Street, Leading Sen Const King explained.