If You Moved To Mill Park Tomorrow, What Would You Need To Know?

Good morning, Mill Park. My name is Cameron Blewett, and this is episode four of the Voice of Mill Park for Tuesday, 02/10/2026. This episode is still going along with the introduction theme for the podcast. So this episode is going to be about, it’s a bit of information for those if you’re moving to Mill Park tomorrow, and, you know, what the things are that I think that you need to know. So, as I said, you know, if you come in late, I’ve been here for probably about seven years now. Resident, family set down roots, created this podcast because I think that there is a few things lacking in the area. There’s not or I haven’t been able to find it a central repository for that.

Yes. There is, the radio station up the road, which I completely forget about at the moment. Passing on Childs Road. It’ll come to me. It’ll come to me. It’ll come to me. So yeah. And, you know, maybe I don’t have time to sit down and listen to, you know, a radio station all day because I’m at work, driving in the car, things like that. I have other things to do. So I thought I would create millpark.blog. So that’s about the goings on in Mill Park. So head on over there, subscribe to the newsletter, and there’d be a weekly newsletter coming out on Sunday night, so, a couple of days before the show. So the show normally comes out on Tuesdays.

For that, say, I created the blog to, you know, put put things up there, a bit of a showcase of businesses because, you know, as someone that lives in the area, I wanna support locals rather than drive all over the place. So, there’s a developing business directory, and things like that. It’s not just for Mill Park itself. It’s for those in the area. So I include a little bit of South Morang, Bundoora, and all those areas. So, anyway, back to the podcast. And I I I thought I just want something that would be out there that would help people, get an idea. So it’s not something where they have to, you know, listen to a radio show for, you know, all day or tune in to to little bits and pieces where they might not be able to catch what they’re talking about, You know, because they’ve they’ve missed it podcast, you can listen to it whenever you want. You can download it. You can listen to it first thing in the morning.

You can listen to it later on the night. You can listen to it on Friday nights or whatever, and it’s there. And I want this to be a a growing resource. So, as I’ve said in previous episodes, going through the process of getting out and talking to people on the streets, you know, hit the stables, hit, Plenty Valley. Yes, I know it’s not a Mill Park, but, hey, it’s sort of yeah, let’s claim it as our own. So wandering around the neighbourhood, things like that. So, you know, this is the thing. It’s to be a resource for, those who are in the area. So, this episode, as I said, it’ll be for someone that, you know what, they’re looking at moving into the area. This is what they what I think that they should know. So, as I said, I’ve I’ve got a family, so, coming at it from the point of having kids for that. So what’s the first thing that you need to think about when you come into Will Park? Obviously, if you’ve got kids, schools in the area, accessibility, what are they like and everything like that. Now, I’m not going to make any comments about the schools because I think that that is a personal decision. I could say, hey, school x y z, which, is down the road from me, where everyone goes to, that is brilliant, someone else could go there and you thought, you know what, I really don’t like it. So, my suggestion is that you have a wander around.

Yes, I know that there’s catchment areas and all that sort of stuff. So if you move into this particular spot, you’re sort of, in the catchment area of that school. But I do suggest that you, visit the school, check the schools out, have a chat to the teachers, principals, principal oh, no, principals because you’re looking at multiple schools. And, What was I talking about? Hang on. I’m trying to find something here. So, yes. Look at that. Look at the curriculum. While trying to synchronize audio and MIDI. So, yeah, I’ll go on from there.

Bit of a technical interruption there. And I’ve lost my train of thought because I’m a, you know, modern technology. It’s it’s yes. One of those things. So where was I? Schools. Have a chat to the, you know, the principals, of that, of the schools. Find out, you know, what there is, what they do. You know, even, you know, I would be inclined to say that, you know, if possible, get there and, you know, go if if you can, have a chat to, the, you know, the school council. And, have a chat to the school council, see what’s going on, and see what their plan is for the school, see if it matches up with your, way of thinking, what you want from the school, and all that sort of stuff. So, depending on where you live in Mill Park, The schools we have in the area start off at, you know, down Childs Road, could be in Lalor East, Findon Primary, Mill Park Heights, Meadow Glen, all the way up to, where are we, Merrang South Primary, which is a bit north, Apollo Parkways if you’re down that way, or, Plenty Parklands Primary School.

So, you know, there are a few good ones in the area. As I said, I’m not going make any comment about that because I think that, the school is a personal decision, and you shouldn’t be relying on, you know, just some random, who’s me, to say, hey, you know what? This is, you know, this is the school I recommend because, hey, you know, that’s the thing, you might not be in the area. All that sort of stuff. So, yeah, check it out. See if you’re there. If you’re not in the catchment area, you know, apply to the school and all that sort of stuff. If are in the catchment area and you’ve got the school that you like, brilliant. Outside of that, there are obviously, a number of, secondary schools in the area.

Where are we? Obviously there’s Mill Park Secondary College, Lalor North. We’ve got Mernda. These are government ones if you want specialist schools. There is, what else is there? Bundoora Secondary College, Greensboro Secondary College. That’s a bit of a hike. It just depends on where you wanna go, how far you wanna travel, and all that sort of stuff. Once again, that’s more of a personal decision, things that you’ve got to make. Kindergartens, childcare, all over the place. And, you know, not wanting to have a of cop out, as I said, it’s one of those personal choices. You have to make a decision about whether you’re, sending your kids to, kindy, all that sort of stuff.

It’s that’s entirely up to you. So from there so you’ve got the school down pat. What else is there to do? One thing I have noticed is a lot of, parks in the area that have been, redeveloped and updated. There is some along I can’t remember the name of the road down. Up near the police station. There’s a new park there that’s been redeveloped. What I have noticed is that, and it might be a shortfall in the area or I’m just not looking hard enough, the parks are more set up for, I would say, kids, probably grade one, grade two onwards. I don’t think that the parks are set up for preppies and those younger than that, because there’s a lot of big steps on things. There’s the tan market they put down in the area.

And for some bizarre reason, there’s not a great deal of shade, at the parks. And I noticed, at Callinac Reserve there is, I think the only shade there is the bit that’s underneath the, sorry, on top of the picnic tables. Everything else is out in the open. So on the last couple of hot weekends that we’ve had, it’s a bit of a scorcher out there. And, you know, I’m I’m not too keen on having my little ones go out there, or even myself, with the sun beaming down. And, you know, I It’s one of those things. Should we complain about it to counsel because counsel are the ones that put it in? I think yes, because they’ve put something in that is not fit for purpose, and this is what counsel should be doing. They should be providing things that are fit for purpose.

So, for example, the if you drive around and you have a look at a lot of the parks and the playgrounds don’t have rubbish bins. Why haven’t they got rubbish bins? And you go out there and, you know, on one hand, I agreed that council shouldn’t be providing rubbish bins because everyone should be expected to no, should be an unwritten rule that you take your rubbish home with you. The sad thing is that not everyone does that. And I’m fully aware that if we put rubbish bins in there, people still aren’t gonna use them. Still gonna throw rubbish around all over the place. And things like that. You know, It’s something that if council made it easier for the rubbish to be disposed of, then there’s sort of no excuse. And this is the other thing too, is that us as residents in the area you know, should be turning around. And I’m not saying you you, you know, become a, you know, the park patrol and and patrol the park and say, oh, you haven’t put rubbish in the bin and all that sort of stuff. You know, if you’re out at a park and you see someone there just drop rubbish, turn around and and have a crack at them and just say, listen. This is my neighborhood. This is my backyard. You don’t disrespect my backyard in that way because, you know, they wouldn’t be happy if you went to their house and just, you know, threw rubbish on the ground or, you know, you had a packet of chips and you just chucked the packet of chips on the ground. So why are we letting people do that to our parks?

And this is it. This is our area. I’m I’m not gonna get up and and jump up and down and and have a big grub about that because I will get on that soapbox, it will be one that I, don’t get off. But, yeah, it’s a thing. As parks go, when the kids are older and it’s not in the middle of summer, they are great places to go in. Some of the parks that are near the schools, great for the kids to play on after school or before school, all that sort of stuff. So, don’t have a problem with that there. The thing there So parks, playgrounds, I think there’s enough. I would like to see them catered a little bit more to younger kids, though I do understand that you put the spongy stuff there for the kids to stand on and the little ones to to fall over in, and then there’s the upkeep and all that sort of stuff. And councils don’t like spending money on things because they’d rather spend money on other stuff, and all that. And just so you know, I’m an anarchist. I don’t think government is there to help us, but I won’t continue with that one.

So a little bit of a snarkiness there. So from that, what else? So let’s talk about getting around. Main way in and out of Mill Park is usually, Plenty Road or Childs Road. Plenty Road in the morning. If it’s after, what, 06:00 in the morning and you’re heading into town or heading north or south south towards town, make sure you got a cup of coffee with you, because it is going to be slow going. The way that they run the lights has me baffled, because I think once you hit the overpass for the Greensboro Bypass, I think there’s a lot of stuff that is deliberately causing traffic delays there.

But, hey, I won’t get on that soapbox because that’s a whole new discussion altogether. And then, obviously, peak hour traffic coming home along Plenty Road and all that sort of stuff, mate. If you’re at Northland and you want to get home and you haven’t left by two, 02:30, I’d be staying there till later on because the traffic does tend to get a bit shocking there. And, I know with my little one, he’s not a big fan of traveling in the car seat, so it sort of does tend to be a bit frustrating, being stuck in slow traffic, and things like that.

Childs Road does run a little bit better, until you get to the roundabout, and then it just sort of goes to crap from the roundabout. What else is there? Public transport. Hey, we’ve got buses all over the area. And we’ve got a tram, not technically in Mill Park because it ends at, DFO, which is Bundoora. There has been talks since I moved into the area of extending the tram, down, Plenty Road because there is that, centre easement, whatever it is, where you could possibly run it all the way up to South Morang. The the reality, I I think along Plenty Road from Uni Hill, probably up until Bunnings, it’d have to be single file, because I don’t think that is quite big enough for a, two lane, tramway, unless they took over part of Plenty Road and sort of moved the lanes half a lane across on either side.

Definitely not gonna do that because that’s cutting into areas and footpaths and all that sort of stuff. So I think that the reality is we’re probably stuck, especially in the current climate. I think we’re stuck with the tram up until that train. I’ll admit, I haven’t caught the train. And I believe there’s a train station up near Westfield. And all that. Where’s the other one? I honestly can’t tell you where the other one is because, as I said, I don’t catch the train, and all that sort of stuff. So most of it, I would say, on a whole, buses is probably fairly good.

I know that the kids can catch a bus to high school. So there’s that, for that one. So, yeah, it’s it’s I think public transport is that, if you’re a 100% reliant upon it, I think as long as you’re realistic and don’t expect to be able to go to a million places and you do plan accordingly, It may be manageable, though I wouldn’t be expecting to, catch a bus to Northland and and have much time to do anything other than have a cup of coffee before it’s time to turn around and come back home again. So there. What else? So you’re let’s gone for transport. So what do you do every day?

We’ve got, Woolworths shopping centers all over the place. As I said, previous episodes, there’s one at Stables. There’s another one up at Rivergum. There’s one inside Pliny Valley Shopping Centre. There’s another one outside, just on the other side of Is it Development Boulevard? And I was like, Oh, these are shocking. I know the streets, but I don’t know the name of them. Anyway, there’s one. So, obviously, Stables is Mill Park, River Gum is South Morang. I think Plenty Valley is Plenty Valley. The one outside Plenty Valley is South Morang Central. There’s a Coles at Uni Hill.

There is another one up up up up up up. And I can’t remember. It’s one of things I know how to get there. Don’t know the names. Where else is another Coles? Obviously, Plenty Valley Shops has a Woolworths and a Coles as well. I’ve got an Aldi there too. There’s another Aldi at Bundoora Square, which is a bit more bit further to travel. There’s the LD at, Childs Road and and and and High Street. No. It’s not High Street. Whatever it is. Jeez. Cameron, this is shocking today. Anyway, for that. So there are enough shops around the place. They do do direct to boot, you can put shopping in the night before and pick it up the next day.

They do do deliveries around the area. So this is the Majors. There is the local milk bar. There’s an IGA. That’s a good question, Cameron. I think that one’s on High Street. For that, so, you know, if you wanna go shopping for that, most people shop in the Majors anyway. So there’s there. For for most of the stuff that I do, the stables is sufficient. You know, there’s coffee shops, chemists, and things like that. They’re if you’re inclined to fast food, there’s a couple of pizza stores at the stables. I’ll be talking about some of them later on. I wanna try and get a chance to have a chat to the owners and and tell us a bit more about their stores and their shops and, their specialties and all that sort of stuff.

The other things that there is obviously we’ve got the McDonald’s up at University Drive, which is near La Porte Ketter. There’s a little coal service station there. A bit further up. This is near the intersection of Development Boulevard and Plenty Road. There is a Hungry Jack’s and a KFC and there’s a Bunnings with a Bunnings cafe inside it. There’s a Cafe Portino, I think it’s Portino, out at River Glen River Gum, shopping complex. There’s a subway in there as well. So we’re we’re pretty well serviced with regards to fast food if you like that sort of stuff. Other things, restaurants, obviously, there’s La Poqueta, which is up near the library.

There’s a couple of, other restaurants just up behind that. For for that one, if you want a bit more fine dining, I I wouldn’t say fine dining, but a bit more, variety there. There’s a food court out at, Plenty Valley. Travel down to Pundoora, Uni Hill. There’s a lot of eateries in there. Obviously, in DFO there’s some in there. Then outside the back of it, bit further down from the Coles, there’s all food there. So, you know, it just depends on what your appetite is, and what you feel like eating. So, isn’t, well, I think there’s enough riding around in the area where you don’t have to travel into town. And then there’s the ploughing up at the stables if you want a pub meal, and things like that.

So from there oh, one thing that I do wanna talk about is that, this podcast and blog is done on the value for value model. So that is that if you get value out of listening to this podcast and listening to me ramble on about Mill Park and read the articles and all that sort of stuff that I’ve put in there, if you get some sort of value about out of that, the only thing that I ask is, hey. If you feel like it, you know, share some of the value or send some of the value back towards me. Now this is a concept that was created by, Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak from the No Agenda show.

It is a way, and I think it is a realistic way, and it is an honest way with you, the listener, to be able to, you know obviously, for me, as the creator of this podcast, which I’m doing essentially as a community service. I’m, you know, I’m not, you know, planning on on retiring on this or anything like that. This is done as a community service. If the community gets value out of it, all I ask is that the community does give the value back to me. Time, talent, or treasure, I’ll go through them in a bit later on. But this, using the value for value model, it’s something that I’m not flogging, you know, different, items and, you know, hey, try this and use this code and you get 10% off this and all that sort of stuff. Where essentially, it’s glorified affiliate marketing. And for those of us who’ve been around the internet long enough know that, at the early days of affiliate marketing, you were getting spammed and hammered with emails after emails of your friends saying, hey, you know, do this, do that, send that, click this link and you’ll get this, and trying to do you know, sell things to other people because they get a kickback from it.

You know, that’s essentially affiliate marketing there. There’s the direct placement of ads where I’ll I’ll read out, hi. You know, are you in the mood? Are you are you in the market for a brand new car? Have a go and check down an Acme car yard and all that sort of stuff and, you know, for a good price on a whatever it is that you’ve got. And that’s not something that I wanna do because it might come to a point in time where, you know, I’ll go down and visit Acme Kayard and, you know, I’m not happy with the experience. I’m not comfortable with what was happening there. So why would I be promoting something that I wouldn’t be comfortable doing? And how many times can you buy a car? You go there once, you might get the people on a good day, and they do it. You might go there on a bad day, but how many times can you sell a car?

You know, buy a car, and you’re pushing it out to everyone. Oh, yes, I used them ten years ago. Well, staff probably changed and people probably moved on. So, yeah, it’s the thing. So, you know, this podcast is not gonna be selling advertising for it. I’m not gonna be selling, you know, hey, this show is sponsored by Acme Widgets. For all your widgets, go on and check out OpenWidgets. I’m not gonna be doing anything like that because if, you know, I wanna be able to go to, for example, pizza shop and then, you know, honestly try their pizza. And if I’m not happy with it, wouldn’t be able to say, you know what?

This is something that you guys need to be aware of. If you’re gonna order a pizza on a Friday night, make sure you do it before five. Because after five, you get hammered and you’ll be having an hour, an hour and a half wait for your pizza. And if it’s come Friday night and you’re ringing up for a pizza, then you want it in a reasonable amount of time, and waiting an hour and a half for your pizza is not gonna be a good thing to do. So, you know, could I do that if they were selling advertising or sponsoring it because I’ve taken money from them, and then, you know, they’re not happy with that episode, and they’re gonna say, hey, Cameron, you know what? I’m not happy with what that you know, what you said about us that day. So this is the thing. So, I thought the value for value model, is probably the best way to do it.

As I’ve said, this is something for for you guys, the people that live in Mill Park and Surrounds. And it will be done, you know, as as the the podcast and the website grows and things like that, it’s this is, listener directed or listener, pushed or produced or whatever it is. And, you know, it’s something that I want you to be able to, go in and, say, you know what? I’ve helped with this show. I like it. You talk to before I get into that bit so three t’s, time, talent, or treasure. So there’s time. You can call in, sorry, email in, notes@millpark.blog and say, hey, Cameron, you know, blah blah blah blah. Or, hey, you know what? If you go to this store, you you had a bad episode, know, bad experience there, hey, if you go at this particular time or ask for so and so, whatever goes on. Or, hey. Did you know there’s an event at, you know, Kalinac Reserve that’s going to be doing this? This group is out here. Hey. You They want people to attend and all that sort of stuff. So you can spend the time to talk to other people about it. You can spend your time sharing information with me about what’s going on in the area.

You can help me correct something. And if I’ve made a mistake, I will be the first one to admit it. And the next episode, I’ll say, you know what? I need to put a correction out because I was slightly, know, misinformed or mistaken about that one, and this is what we should be doing. So there’s that. So there’s time talent. Hey. You know, we’re all not budding web designers and and graphic artists and all that sort of stuff. A lot of stuff that I’m doing, I’m doing myself. If you know a way to tweak the newsletters and tweak the website or anything like that, feel free to let me know. So use your talents for that. You know, help me with, marketing materials. So, you know, stickers for shop windows and and things like that or even for the neighborhood, or flyers, all that sort of stuff just to get the word out, about this podcast and the the blog that is a resource for for, you know, for you guys, the the people who live in this area. And then there’s obviously the final t, which is treasure.

If you’re that way inclined and you feel like donating some money, hey. Feel free to send it my way. There is a Stripe there. I think if you go to millpark.blog/donations, there’ll be a Stripe thing there and, probably pay ID, which I think is pay@millpark.blog for for that. So if you wanna donate, if you wanna donate something else. I’m I’m in the process of setting up a crypto, thing, but, hey, I’m I’m not whole you know, going too much on that one. There’s I’m not gonna use PayPal because I’m not a big fan of PayPal. So it’s just sort of Stripe, and, bank transfers and all that sort of stuff at the moment. If you’ve got a check, k, PO Box 33, Mill Park 3082, and all that sort of stuff. That’s that bit.

Everything that you do helps, and I might take another leaf out of their book, v for v the value for value book from by, Adam Curry and John John C. Dvorak. There, you know, they have, titles depending on how much money you donate and things like that. I’ll probably send that up later on, and I just need give me some suggestions is, you know, what would your limits be? Because I want you guys to help produce this, same as what, all the listeners there are producers on that because this is something for you. Same as those guys, there’s an IMDb page set up for this podcast.

You know, you can list yourself as a producer, an associate executive producer, executive producer, associate executive producer from there. I’m just in the process of working our threshold limits. So, yeah, let me know. So, yes. So there’s that. Now, kicking off, the next bit, what do do on weekends? So what is there in the community? Obviously, Kelly Nacca Reserve has cricket during summer, during summer, football during the cooler months. There is, the Mill Park Leisure Centre, and I think there’s tennis courts or Tennis courts are on Childs Road. At the back of that, there’s a tennis club there where you can hire out the tennis courts.

There’s nipple courts up there, and all that. You know, there’s there’s I think there’s enough sporting activities around that if you’re if you’re that way inclined, if you’re social, there’s, you know, go out and have a bite to eat at the Sporting Globe. Up at Plenty Valley, obviously, there’s the Plough In catch up there and things like that. I I’m I’m seeing some runners around, so I’m pretty sure there’s a running club around here. I’m just not sure where it is because I I haven’t been in the cursory or superficial search set up. I haven’t been able to find one. I know there’s a mountain bike club that runs around here, and all that sort of stuff because I have seen groups up near Plenty Gorge.

So, you know, that’s another thing out there. If you wanna go for a bit of a walk through the bush, for that there, and all that. So, so that’s community life. And I I think the there’s things to do. If you look for it, if you’re not looking for it and you don’t want to do anything, then you’re not going to find anything. Think Mill Park is like everything else. You get out of it what you put into it. So, yeah, so have a hunt around. If if, you know, you’re you’re looking for something, feel free to send me an email, notes@melpark.blog. I’ll see what I can help you out with if you can’t find something. And if you can’t find something, then, hey, let’s create one.

And, you know, we’ll we’ll create something and all that sort of stuff. I know Mill Park Library does a lot of stuff out there as well. As, you know, it it’s a thing I wanna start sort of start doing a couple of community events down there, for the podcast and, you know, maybe even try and find a room where, can have a chat to people and, you know, might maybe have a big round table conversation about something. So I’ll drag the equipment out, and we’ll have a chat and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, heaps of things to do in the area. You just gotta look for it. You and, you know, you’ll you’ll find it. If you can’t find it, as I said, let me know. Give me a holler. Email notesmilpark.

Blog, and I will see what I can dig up for you. The next one, which is a bit of a sensitive subject, that is what safety is like and perception and reality of things. I believe it is fairly What would I how would I say it? You can be relaxed in the neighbourhood. I don’t think that there’s it’s something that you need to be on guard all the time about. I know the street that I live in, it’s it’s, fairly close knit, not as close knit as I’d like it to be, I’m working on changing that over the next twelve months and two years as the podcast grows and everything like that. Wanna start doing getting more community events there and getting everyone to know their neighbors, know the people next door and the people down the road. And the other thing that I’m something that I’m in the process of developing started off as a bit of tabletop napkin drawing was sort of the start of a semi community response network.

And this is when something happens, like the old days of neighborhood watch, is that your neighborhood knows what’s going on, and they’re the first ones that respond to things. And you know, I I wanna see that come back. I wanna see I wanna be able to, not essentially, you know, necessarily have nosy neighbors, but more about have neighbors that look out for each other and and are there and that, you know, if something’s going on, you know, it’s your community that is going to help you. It’s it’s not, you know, any organization or anything like that. And I I think that the more connected we are with our own community, the more protected we are because that will be our support network and all that sort of stuff. So, as I said, you know, one one of the things that I wanna do is I wanna see external defibrillators around the place.

It’s sort of, you know, outside of this podcast and blogging and all that sort of stuff. One of my sort of soapbox issues is, people getting involved in first aid and knowing what to do in a, fire situation, through my through my day job, it really annoys me and frustrates me immensely that the people that will see all that going on and just stand back and, well, you know what? I don’t know what to do. You know, I’m not expecting people to to don the protective gear and go head first and sprinklers out and all that stuff. It’s it’s something that I think that, you know, we all should be able to do. We should be able to respond in a certain way.

So, yeah, there’s that. So where was I going with that? I can’t remember now. But anyway, been waffling for a bit of time. So I think I might sort of leave it sort of wind it up now. So, essentially, if I’m moving here tomorrow, I still would. I think it’s a great area. I there isn’t anything I’d do differently, because I you know, it it it’s involvement. Know, if you’ve got kids that go to schools with school council, they can get involved with the schools. There’s different groups, walking around, talking to your neighbours. There’s always something going on. When you walk around your neighbourhood, you can say hello to your neighbours, and all that sort of stuff. You can wander around, any particular time of night. It’s not something that you know, you shouldn’t necessarily be concerned about. Yes, the noise from playing your own does get a bit of a pain in the kyber at times.

Though, hey, that’s just one of those things of of living in an urban area, for that one. So but anyway, folks, that’s about it for this one. Thanks for listening. And, as I said, if you’ve got anything that you wanna share or you wanna talk to me about or or things that you wanna talk about or you want me to talk about in future episodes, feel free to send me an email. So that’ll be notes@millpark.blog. So until next time, my name is Cameron Blue, and this was the Voice of Mill Park. So till then, bye for now.