From the leafy green suburban streets of our plains areas, to the wilder bushland setting of our foothills and hills suburbs, the City of Mitcham is a wonderful place to live. One of the oldest metropolitan councils in South Australia, second only to the City in Adelaide, our council area is steeped in heritage. A natural spring meant the area was a traditional meeting place for the local Kaurna people, but also a perfect place for early settlement. Our city also includes a whole suburb which is state heritage listed. The model garden suburb of Colonel Light Gardens is a living example of outstanding urban design dating back to the early 1900’s. It is the history and natural beauty of our city that our 67000 wonderful residents most value.
A Long-Term Resident
As a long-term resident, I became interested in council as a business owner in the Mitcham Hills Blackwood shopping precinct. I was working as a research scientist when in a sea-change moment, my executive chef and I decided to open a cafe/restaurant with the goal of providing beautiful food and beverages made using traditional methods from fresh, seasonal, locally sourced ingredients, with friendly, knowledgeable service, and sustainable and ethical work practices. Our business was a great success, however, the local Blackwood precinct was, like many urban centres, suffering a downturn as consumers moved away from local, independent shops and increasingly turned to the convenience of supermarket, franchise and online shopping. To counter this trend, I started a shop local and social inclusion campaign which encouraged independent businesses to work together, alongside the community, to generate pride in the uniqueness of the local area. When council withheld support for our campaign I and my fellow business owners were enraged! Members of the community encouraged me to stand for mayor, and I was humbled by the support which saw me elected to the position in 2018.
Our council chamber consists of me, as mayor, and thirteen councillors representing six wards. Over the past four years much of our time has been spent on decisions around spending on infrastructure. Our City has been in the enviable position of being situated in federal and state electorates which have become marginal due to changes in demographics and electoral boundaries. While I believe that promises of funding infrastructure to win elections is a terrible way to run a country, it’s what we have, and certainly the shift from safe seat to marginal has provided a huge increase in government funding in our area. This, along with various covid stimulation packages has seen an unprecedented surge in infrastructure projects, for which we are very grateful.
More trees for Blackwood
My proudest moment was our October 2019 declaration of a climate emergency. This turning point allowed us to rethink all our business-as-usual services through a climate change lens. The outcome has been a dramatic shift in the way we think about all our assets, footpaths, roads, trees, storm water, power usage, transport and much more. We are planting more trees, using permeable footpaths, and harvesting rainwater to water these trees (which, incidentally, encourages deep root growth, meaning less damage to our footpaths and kerbs). We’ve added recycled content, both plastic water bottles and crumbed rubber tyres, to our road surfaces making them longer lived, more flexible and less noisy. We’ve changed most of our lights to LED which is saving ratepayers thousands of dollars. We’re started changing our vehicle fleet to 100% electric which saves money on fuel, and we’ve installed several electric charging stations to encourage the uptake of EVs by residents and allows visitors to the city to recharge while they shop.
However, the project of which I am most proud, and has the potential to provide substantial savings to every Mitcham resident is our Mitcham Community Renewables Program. Described by the state’s chief entrepreneur as the council of innovation, Mitcham Council has been through an extensive tender and selection process to find a business partner capable of offering quality solar panels, batteries, and lower power prices, to residents, businesses, clubs, landowners, and tenants, with a no up-front cost option. We and our partner, ShineHub, are currently offering a City-wide bulk buy of solar panels and batteries, access to an exclusive City of Mitcham virtual power plant which offers additional savings, and the capacity to offer peer-to-peer trading of electricity in the near future. This collaboration, which is an Australian first, has the potential to reduce the energy consumption of the council area an amazing 50%. I feel so privileged to lead a council which delivering such meaningful services to our community. This ability is what makes local government rock!
