In this second episode of The Voice of Mill Park, I take you on a practical tour of things to do around Mill Park and nearby. From grabbing a solid coffee at local cafés around The Stables, Rivergum and Mill Park Drive, to catching a movie at Plenty Valley, there’s plenty on offer without straying far from home. I also touch on family‑friendly spots like Kalinac Reserve’s oval, cricket nets and nearby bike trails along the Plenty Gorge side, splash‑pad style play equipment off Childs Road, Mill Park Leisure Centre, tennis courts and more—plus quick escapes to Bundoora Park for farms, playgrounds and a hit of golf.
I share why I love living here—quiet streets, loads to do, and easy ways to get the kids outdoors—and invite you to help shape future episodes with your tips, corrections and local favourites. This project runs on a value‑for‑value approach, so if you get something from it, send through your time or talent, and let’s build a useful local resource together.
Transcript
[00:00:01] Cameron Blewett:
Good morning, Mill Park. Thank you for joining me here on this episode two of the voice of Mill Park. My name is Cameron Blewett and I’m the host of this podcast. And in this episode, we’re going to be talking about or I’m gonna be sharing with you some of the things that are that there are to do in the Mill Park area. So without further ado, let’s kick it off. Now don’t know about you, but me, I tend to like a bit of a good cup of coffee when I go out somewhere. So the it seems to be that the trend in Victoria, there’s coffee shops all over the places, and Mill Park is no different.
You know, we’ve got coffee shops. Obviously, there’s the chains and all that sort of stuff up at Plenty Valley, which yeah. You know? And now it’s not Mill Park, but it’s sort of just out of the area at South Morang. So, obviously, there’s coffee shops there. There’s coffee shop. There’s a cafe at Bunnings. If you’re that way inclined, your Hungry Jacks and KFCs and McDonald’s and all that sort of stuff have coffees is, One of each on Plenty Road. Hungry Jacks and KFC are up near Bush Boulevard. And, what is it? McDonald’s near what is it? University Drive, just near the Shell, and all that sort of stuff. So there’s, you know, plenty of coffee shops within the area. There’s also there no.
In the suburb itself, there’s a a couple unique ones. There’s one on, Mill Park Drive. Where else we’ve got? There’s obviously there’s a number at the stables, which is just off Childs Road. There’s a couple of good coffee shops there. Even the cafe in the pharmacy tends to do alright coffee out there as well. Obviously, opposite Bunnings, up at Rivergum. There’s cafe up there as well that’s got, you know, good coffees and all that sort of stuff. What else? A bit further down Bush Boulevard. If you go past the Bunnings and you head down Bush Boulevard, what is it? Ollieander Drive or something like that that a couple down there.
Some of them, you know, are good depending on what you’re after and and, you know, what sort of yeah. Just after a coffee, after a meal, and things like that. So, obviously, there’s coffee. I mentioned the different shopping centers. There’s shops there. There’s obviously the Woolworths at Stables. There’s a Woolworths out at Rivergum that I’ve mentioned. There’s a Woolworths out at Plenty Valley, which I’ve mentioned. Then there’s the Woolworths at South Morang Central, which is just opposite Plenty Valley, where the Red Rooster and the Kemm’s Warehouse is. So there’s Woolworths there. There’s shops there.
There’s lots of things here. If you’re not after that, you wanna go and do something different, obviously, there’s picture theaters at Plenty Valley where you can go and sit down and see a movie. You can head out if you wanna catch up with friends or have a bit of a, you know, social drink and some nibble nibblies and all that sort of stuff. Obviously, there’s the food court area at at Pliny Valley. Heaps of stuff out there. Some, yeah, I’m, you know, wouldn’t go to again. Others, yeah, I do tend to frequent. I’ll talk about them in later episodes.
What else? Got out in the suburbs. There’s, obviously, the ploughing at the stables. There’s that there. So, you know, there’s heaps of places, heaps of things there. If you need to entertain the kiddies, we have playgrounds. There’s whereas at one near Kalinak Reserve, there’s a playground there. There’s a big oval there, which is good to ride around or walk around on weekends. And after school or or, you know, during the week when there’s no cricket or football on there, you know, you can take the ball out and give the ball a kick around. Get I down there a couple of times and throw the baseball around, but that but that’s a different story.
What there’s cricket nets there if you wanna go and, you know, practice bowling and and batting. Behind Kalinac Reserve, we have the side of Benny Gorge where there’s some bike tracks there. Headlong fence line, you can go through there. This is a little bit of a bike track in the wood in the mud or the dirt. If you ride around, there’s some bike tracks there. Jump on your bike. Go for a bit of a ride around. Go for a walk. Depending on which way you go, depending on where you end up, If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, there’s up on the name escapes me now, the street, Childs Road, turn right at the roundabout where the seven Eleven is, part up there.
It’ll come to me tonight when I’m thinking about it or when I’m not thinking about it. Well, yeah, that’s an open street. Anyway, there’s a a playground there. It’s got a little bit of a water fountain that pops out water spurts that pop out. So there’s a little bit of of when the weather’s warmer, a bit of cool stuff to do there. There’s the Millpark Leisure Center, all that sort of stuff. There’s tennis courts here. There’s tennis courts on the park on Childs Road. Once again, the name is captured. I can point to where it is. And all that sort of stuff. So there is there is plenty to do in the area.
If, you know, you start getting a bit bored of that one, you know, head down to Bundoora Park. Yeah. It’s a bit you know, I won’t say that that’s Mill Park And Surrounds. It’s a little bit further down the road. There’s the Bundoora Farm Park. There’s a golf course out there. Hips of different playgrounds, all that sort of stuff. So, you know, and what’s that? Probably ten ten, fifteen minutes away from from Mill Park. I’m taking the kids out there and let them run around and go bonkers out there. If you head from where?
Yep. Totally forgotten about that one. But, anyway, there’s there’s heaps of things to do. There’s a couple of different churches in the area depending on what your faith is. I’ll be talking about them and getting some information from them in later episodes. So, yeah, there’s there’s plenty to do in the area, whether it’s just catch up with friends, whether sit down and watch a movie, or if you wanna, you know, go out and have a bit of a bit of dinner and a night out, you can do that there. We’ve got what else have we got around here?
All sorts of things. So, you know, it’s it’s it’s one of those things is that if you don’t really want to, you you know, you don’t necessarily need to leave the suburb. Now I’m not gonna put tinfoil hats on and talk about fifteen minute cities or anything like that. That is something for discussion in a different podcast, not this one. So yeah. So, you know, there’s there’s plenty to do as you go out through these, you know, different things in the different suburbs, you know, this is just a little bit of an idea overview. You can spend, you know, all week, all weekend in Pliny Gorge and probably still not get bored of it. There’s walking tracks. There’s little mountain bike tracks where, you know, you can go through there. You can make it down to the river. You can go exploring down there, All sorts of things. So there’s there’s heaps of things to do in this area.
You know, even, you know, just get kids out and jump on a bike and go down to the to the one of the playgrounds or go down to the oval, go through there. There’s there’s all sorts of stuff. So it’s, you know, it’s one of the reasons why I like living in this area because it’s, you know, it’s quiet. There’s heaps of things to do. There’s you know, you don’t have to go too far to entertain entertain the kid and and sort of, you know, get them away from just, you know, staring at the TV screen. So yeah. So what else is there?
What else do we wanna talk about on this one? Not yet. I’m at ten minutes. I might sort of start winding it down there just to let you know. You know, introductory episodes just talking about stuff. So some might be short, some might be longer when I get into the swing of it and start talking about more regular things and more topical things that this podcast will get longer. So on that subject, this podcast is done on the value for value model so that’s that if you get value out of this, all I ask is that you share some of that value with me. You can do it in any number of ways, the time, talent, or treasure. Time, hey. Send me an email. Notes at what is it? Notes@VoiceofMilkPark.com.au.
Tell me what you, you know, what you’d like talked about in this episode. Tell me, hey. And, you know, you’ve gotta try at this coffee shop or you gotta try at this place here, all that sort of stuff. If I’ve made a boo boo on something, feel free to to let me know, and I’ll, you know, I’ll correct it all. Alright. You know, I made a boo boo on that one. I’ll fix it up. Same as telling other people about this podcast because this is a podcast for you. Those of us in Mill Park, you know, this is your podcast, same as our website and everything like that. This is done as a, I’ll I’ll say, resource or a public service for those in Mill Park. As I’ve said before, I’ve I’ve sort of started it because there wasn’t one place where you could find everything.
You know, it’s the thing is that you’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem. So I thought, you know what? Hey. I’ll start the podcast, and I’ll start the website website millpark.blog and see what’s going on there. Or, you know, if you wanna use notes at millpark.blog, that’s fine for an email address. Either or, they all get to me. From there so talk about time talent. Hey. If you wanna help spruce up the website or you wanna do some help me with sprucing up podcast, hey. Feel free to let me know. You know, any genuine help won’t be turned away.
And then, obviously, there’s that that final bit about pressure. You know, if you think this was worth value, Harrison Spear changed my way. This is independent. So as part of this, I’m not taking sponsorships. I’m not taking any paid additions. And there’s no advertising on the website. If there is it’s not affiliate marketing. It’s just a direct link to say, hey. Check out this. Check out these websites and all that sort of stuff. Check out these guys. I will be, as time goes by, talking about services and places that I’ve been and that I that I go to a lot.
So it’ll be sort of my recommendation or just my thoughts on them. Also going to visit some of the coffee shops and share some of my thoughts and and get to know the area a bit better and allow you, the the listener, to get to know the area a bit better as well because, you know, there could be something around the corner from you that you don’t know because when you pull out your driveway in the morning, you always turn left, and you turn right up something down the road. So, anyway, on that note, I think I’ll end it here.
As I said, this has been the voice of Milpark. My name is Cameron Bluett, and I look forward to having you join me on the next one. So till then, bye for now.