Discovering Mill Park: A Guide to the Stables Shopping Hub

[00:00:01] Cameron:

Good evening, Mill Park, and thank you for joining me here on this episode 1 of the Mill Park podcast. This podcast is for you, the residents, locals and residents of Mill Park, to keep you up to date on what is happening in the area, to find out what’s going on, what is coming, and all that sort of good stuff. In this episode, I’m gonna talk a little bit about the Stables shopping center, where it is, what’s there, And, maybe maybe share some of my thoughts on it, but, we’ll see how we go with that. Anyway, let’s get on with the show. So for those who don’t know, my name is Cameron, Mill Park resident for probably the last 5 years now.

Like the area, happy to be in the area. It’s close to everything that I need, kids school and all that sort of stuff. And that was the thing. If you haven’t listened to episode 0, which should be pinned at the top of it, I’ll go into this for a couple episodes till everyone gets used to it. I started this podcast because and the, The Associated blog because I I got over, you know, having to to look through different things and and go to umpteen 1000000 different websites to find out what was happening in the area. And, you know, I I just wanted to find one spot where we can find all the information I needed. For for example, let’s say, you know, just before Christmas when the, fire brigade did their the the CFA did their little tour around, with, you know, Father Christmas or Santa Claus on the back of the truck, and all that sort of stuff. Couldn’t find any information anywhere, happened to see, a little a a frame on, Plenty Road or Blossom Park Drive.

They said, hey. It was gonna be this day. So, you know, that was it. I you know, and it’s a thing. It’s a it’s a constant source of frustration for me, and, you know, I, firmly believe if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. So wanting to be part of the solution, I’ve created this, you know, that I want to use as a resource for, you know, for everyone that’s in Mill Park, and and I’ll double a little bit out to South Morang and Bandura, and all that sort of stuff. But, you know, if people wanna know what’s happening in here, hey, this is where it is. You know, it could have gone to Facebook, but, you know, the various Facebook groups are, you know, getting sort sort of bombarded by spam and things like that. So it’s, you know and then plus that means that I have to get back on the Facebook too, which, you know, I don’t really wanna do it. Hey.

That’s a different story for a different podcast. So, one thing with this, I’m not gonna be taking advertising, which means that, you know, I’ll be able to honestly say what I think about something or the area or or what’s going on. And it also means that, everything that I say is is something that I believe. I’m not sort of, you know, going through you know, I’ve I’ve gotta have, you know, a native ad because, you know, all the sponsors are doing this, all the sponsors are doing that. So that’s the thing. Now onto that, this is going to be a listener supported podcast.

This is a podcast for you, the people in mid Mill Park. So if you want something added to the podcast, please let me know. Send me an email, notes at millpark.blog. And, you know, depending on what time it is, I’ll you know, when I get it, I’ll try and add it to the next, next episode or or the episode that’s coming or anything like that, or even make a mention of it on the blog, which you can find obviously at millpark.blog. So anyway, that being said, as I said, this episode, I’m gonna talk a little bit about the Stables shopping center.

And for those who don’t know or haven’t, considered the history of the mill of Mill Park itself, let me consult the book of knowledge, being Wikipedia about what Mill Park is. Now according to Mill Park, Mill Park is a small suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometers northeast of Melbourne’s CBD, located within the city of Whittlesey local government area. Mill Park recorded a population of 20,000 28,712 at the 2021 census. Mill Park’s boundaries are South Morang and Epping to the north, Plenty and Blossom Park and Rivergum Estates to the east, Bundoora and Thomastan to the south, and Lalor to the west. The area name is named after the flour mill built by George and Francis Colstock on the Plenty River in the 18 forties. Probably was sold to Henry Money Miller in, don’t know when, but he lived from 1809 to 18 88. He bred racehorse and conducted a range of dairy and grazing activities, sufficient to occupy 70 65 persons, housed in a village on the property. The Findon Hounds and Findon Harriers Hunt Club, a name connected with Miller’s residence, Findon and Q were at Mill Park.

And then, you know, it goes on to a little bit of a waffle about it. Then talks about quarrying, Stable shopping center in Red Lake. The shopping center had several historic place names. The Stables and Red Lake Avenue commemorate the solidly built Red Lake pricing stables on the Miller property, and the Plough Hotel commemorates the Plough Inn, which formed a nucleus village in Mill Park area during 18 fifties. The Street Mill Park Drive is a large oval ring, which was once a horse racing track. Many of the streets pay homage to past racehorses, such as Farlap, Carbine, Eaglet, Burnside, Studley, and Ridley.

During the eighties, Mill Park underwent rapid residential development with state and church primary schools. So there’s Mill Park Primary School, Saint Francis Primary School. Mill Park Post Office opened in 1st August 1983. Been there for a while. Schools, I’ll talk about in later episodes and things like that. But, anyway, bit of a waffle about the area. I’ll include them. I’ll link to that in the show notes, obviously. So let’s talk about the stables. For those who don’t know, it’s located on Childs Road. It’s either 314 Childs Road or the corner of Childs Road and Red Leap Avenue. Prominent feature of the stable shopping center is a Woolworths supermarket.

Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, hey. I’ll leave that up to you. There are a number of in the area. Once again, whether that’s good or bad thing, I’ll leave that up to you. And our nearest coal supermarket, I think, is Uni Hill for that one. And so but anyway, outside of Woolies, which is the main draw card for it, we have multiple pizza shops. So you can go everything from the that’s the let’s say, the, more common, franchise pizza shops to, a couple of stand only pizza shops. There’s still a couple of franchises. Pizzas, obviously, depending on what your taste is. If you’re happy with a runner mill pizza, there’s the pizza shops for you. But if you want a bit more of a gourmet taste and specialized taste, there’s a pizza shop for you for that too.

There’s a couple of charcoal chickens. There’s one on in the front side, which is the Charles Road side, and then there’s another one at the back, which is near the basketball stadium. There’s fish and chip shop. There’s, a couple of bakeries. There’s a pharmacy. There’s hairdressers and barbers, 2 medical centers, a real estate agent, newsagents, post office, as I said, which have been there since 1983. Obviously, the woolies, the plow in, which is another prominent feature of it, is a forest florist at the back, out near the at the back of it, which is near the basketball stadium, dry cleaners, coffee shops around the place. There’s lawyers and conveniences upstairs.

There’s some early learning centers, and there’s an op shop there. And there’s a, I don’t know what to call it for one of a better name, a dollar store for buying knickknacks and things like that. We used to have our local federal member there, then he must have got bored and decided to move somewhere else. So that’s a bit vacant. There’s Yum Cha there. There’s all sorts of different,

[00:09:18] Speaker 1:

you know, essentially,

[00:09:22] Cameron:

if I won’t say everything, but there’s there’s majority of things that that there that you would need, you know, for your daily stuff. So, I do recommend checking it out.

I seem to spend a lot of time there, obviously, getting mail, from the post office, owing to our Willie’s. Willie’s is a good one too. And not promoting Willie’s, but more just making a comment about the facilities that are there, the direct to boot, option for those who want the Willie’s staff to pick it up, to pick it for you and deliver it to your car. That is a designated area at the back, and it is undercover, which is a good draw card, for when it’s the weather’s a little bit inclement inclement, for that. So, yeah, it it’s and I’m not gonna say it’s the only one, ought to be talking about the the River Gum one up near Development Boulevard, on both sides.

There’s River Gum. There’s the shopping center on the other side near the swimming pool, and then there’s, the the fast food side of where Hungry Jacks and Rees Plumbing is, and things like that. So I’ll talk about talk about that one in maybe in episode 2 and 3, and, go from there. So, you know, these introductory episodes are just a little bit of a a background on the suburb and to give, you know, people an idea of what’s here. And, you know, while the podcast builds up, and then people start giving me things and and all that sort of stuff. So yeah. But, anyway, I think I might wrap this one up. As I said at the start of the show, this is a a listener funded, listener, provided, supported, podcast.

And as part of that, I’ve decided to go down the value for value model, rather than affiliate links where I’m pushing some affiliate product out for you or going for advertising where there’s a an ad that’ll appear at random times throughout the podcast or whether I have to read an ad and things like that. So by, the value for value model, which was, let’s say, developed or, further honed by Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak at the No Agenda Podcast. The value for value model is essentially is time, talent, or treasure. If you can if you get value out of this podcast and future ones, which I hope you do, if you’re listening to it and you remain a listener, you can, you know, share that value in time. So that’s telling other people about the podcast, being a boots on the ground for me, giving me some information about what’s going on, or saying, hey, you know, go and have a chat to this guy or, you know, this person at the shop. Go and see him or talk to, you know, for example, go and talk to John at it, shopxyz, get some information on all that sort of stuff.

So that’s a time, a bit of talent. If there’s any way that you can help with the artwork for the shows or, spiffing up the podcast or spiffing up the website, there’s the option to do that. And, obviously, there’s the treasure bit. If you, you know, can’t do or don’t wanna do any of the above and you’re in a position to be able to afford it, you know, you can help with the the associated costs with the podcast. So, you know, there’s hosting and all that sort of stuff. You can do that any you know, accept any donation of it. If you give a donate and it’s same as their model too. They do producers, so you’re not gonna be a listener or subscriber. You’re gonna be a producer of the show because this is produced by you. You helped produce the show.

For that one, anything under $50, I will keep quiet, and all that sort of stuff. And then there’s obviously different tiers depending on how much you help with the podcast, depending on whether you go for associate executive producer, executive producer, you will get, IMDB, credit for it. Now the podcast does have an IMDB website page attached to it, so you’ll be listed as a producer on those episodes and things like that. But, if you wanna find out more about that, go head over to milkpark.blog/mv4v, and you’ll find out more about it. So I just don’t wanna waffle too much on this episode. So, anyway, as I said, thanks for listening, and, look forward to having you join me on episode 2, where I will talk about the shops that are located up at the River Gum, which is Development Boulevard at Plenty Road, and on all the four corners. So until then, for till then, stay safe, and thank you for listening. Bye for now.