Voice of Mill Park: From Reaper to Roadside; Caring for Our Patch in Mill Park

It’s Tuesday, 05/05/2026. This is episode 13 of the Voice of Mill Park, and my name is Cameron Blunt. Good morning, Mill Park. How are we today? This one might be a bit of a short, weird one. I’m not sure yet. I’m playing with some new software, and I’m not sure how it’s gonna go. I don’t know much about it. It’s, after all the problems I was having with, GarageBand before, I’ve done a little bit of, searching on the interwebs and found a program called Reaper. Supposedly it’s really good for doing podcasts and all that sort of stuff. So anyway, we’ll, we’ll wait and see how it goes and, whether I end up banging my head against the wall about this or not. Having a look at the screen, oh boy, can I just say it is intimidating?

There is, green things going up and down, red things going up and down, all that sort of stuff. But anyway, we’ll see how we go, as time goes by, whether this ends up being something that I’m going to stick with or whether, you know, I revert back to GarageBand or I download Audacity or something like that, or just stick to recording it off the, RODECaster Pro. It’s a first gen one. I’m quite happy with it. I’m not going to upgrade it. I don’t think I need to. I haven’t quite, outlived its usefulness yet. But anyway, we’ll wait and see. Have a bit of a waffle there about, my stuff. So a bit of around the traps.

Something I did want to talk about and I want to keep this, as I said, apolitical as possible. It’s, I know a couple of episodes ago, I did mention about, mowing the lawns or cutting the grass, down the center strip on Plenty Road. Today, sorry, yesterday, happened to pull up to it and have a squeezy about what was going on around that area and all that sort of stuff. And lo and behold, there was another kangaroo body there. Now I’m not sure if it’s the same one because there was one at the, more of the end of that grass medium strip, sorry, Cinder strip and this one doesn’t look as badly decayed as what I recall the, the one that was there a while ago being, and honestly, I mean, sadly it could be another kangaroo because like everyone else, I drive around with the air conditioner on, so I wouldn’t notice, about that.

And you know, wouldn’t notice if there was a, sadly a kangaroo there, in state of, decomposition. But this one does look bad. And you know, I, as much as, you know, as I said, I want to keep it apolitical as possible. It just goes to show that the various levels of government, I mean, is plenty, I think plenty of roads of state government controlled road rather than a council one. And you know, which level of government is responsible for cleaning it up. I’m talking about the road, not the kangaroo carcass or body, for that. So it’s, I dunno, I think that we council and state government and everything need to spend more time, beautifying or more time caring for their local area than they do, with all the bells and whistles and bright shiny things and all that sort of guffawful that they do. And you know, you know, I’m not going to go to the whole breaker windows theory because, you know, I have concerns about that from the point of law enforcement, though let’s extrapolate that or move that across to general litter.

And it’s, you know, if council and the state government allow that to continue, then where’s the sense of pride or the sense of, you know, belonging or ownership of that area. And yeah, it’s, it’s, I dunno, it’s just one of those frustrating things. And I don’t want to go on a rant about the local member that, Hey, yeah. Anyway. But yeah, it’s, you know, actually maybe that’s a good point. You know, a local member or even a federal member, if they had to spend any time, driving that road, then they would have realized that admittedly, you know, I didn’t pay attention, because I haven’t been looking at things like that.

You know, because I have my own dramas. You know, if our federal representative who, where does he live? I think he lives Northcote or something like that. And our state representative who lives in Brunswick, you know, they don’t live in the area. And you know, I think it’s time that, you know, the, you know, we had local representation and you know, I’m not saying anything that anyone wants to draw long bows or conclusions for or anything like that, but I, you know, if even, okay, actually that’ll be something interesting too. Where does our local council, councillor, Alderman, is it Alderman?

Live. I mean, they live in the area? Do they spend time driving around the area looking at things that are, you know, could be going wrong or things that need to have some TLC put in and all that sort of stuff. So anyway, waffling on this one a bit longer than I thought I was going to be, but it’s just the thing is that, you know, these all three levels of government are taking more of our money these days and it’s probably going to get worse because the budget’s getting handed down today, for that. And you know, I think that the level of service they provide leaves a lot to be desired.

But anyway, I won’t continue anything more on that one because I will really have a rant. One thing that I did want to mention too, while I have it on top of mind is before I start doing around the traps on what’s happening and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. You know, this is something that happens. Let me pull up my show notes. Oops. I don’t have it. It’s disappeared. Anyway, what it was, I’ve seen it in front of the history. Widdlesee Masonic Lodge is doing what is it? It’s a, It’s not there, there we go. Men’s Health Forum. It is when is it? It’s a full day by the looks of it. It is Sunday May 17, from 08:30 till 05:30 at the Wittlesea Masonic Centre, 20 Beach Street, Wittlesea.

Obviously starts at 09:00 and runs through a whole lot of, you know, things that are relevant, to some of the men in our community. There’s, the head of thoracic surgery at Northern Hospital, head of Echocardiology, consultant urologist, a GP, someone from the Prostate Cancer Foundation from Donate Life, a consultant gastroenterologist, and another GP. It’s the thing is that, I think it is worthwhile going to and you know, being a male myself, it’s, you know, a lot of things that we have going on we do, rightly or wrongly, we do tend to suffer in silence a little bit. And I think that these are, things that we need to pay attention to and we need to be more involved in and, you know, just a bit more proactive rather than reactive, with our health.

So there so anyway, enough of that morbidness. Yeah. Anyway, the things going on around the neighborhood, as always, there’s the AA meeting, going on every Thursday at 7PM at the Miller community center. No events listed, but it is an open meeting and all that sort of stuff. I will see, that’s the thing. Want to have a chat to these people and get a better idea of it. You know, there’s anyone listening, just to give them an idea of what it’s about, you know, how do you contact them? All that sort of stuff. Is there any upcoming events? No.

These are all last year’s. History? No. Sorry. I’m trying to find out, if there’s any way to contact someone. No. That’s alright. I’ll I’ll find a way. No. Anyway, sorry about the dead air folks. It is one of those things that I will add to my list of things to do and, dig it up and, see what’s going on and, if there’s a way to contact them. So anyway, moving right along. Where else? The usual events at Yarra Plenty Regional Library at Mill Park, Cutting for Beginners, this afternoon from four till five. Relaxed story time, Thursday from two till three Chatty Cafe again, 06:30 till 07:30. Our Lego Friday, four till five.

And just the usual keeps repeating. What’s going on in Woodleigh City Council? Events. Let’s have a look at the events calendar. The events. Youth event, young women’s leadership for 14 to 20 year olds. There’s an exercise class for over fifty’s, learn to ride sessions and pricing for profit. Workshop number three. This is tomorrow at Prac. It might be something interesting to, get involved in or to have a look at. There’s also an exhibition at the PRAC, which is the Plenty of Rangers Art Convention Center. Community play group. There you go.

Managing screen time. That’s a good one. Thursday for parents on what do we do and all that sort of stuff. And all that. But yeah, it’s, it’s anyway, I’m waffling a bit too much now. Thanks for the, emails, and comments of support. Do appreciate that. And, it does sort of keep me motivated on those days where, things are pulling me from pillar to post and it’s just like, I don’t have time to record a podcast, but you know what? I’m going to squeeze it in anyway, for that. And once I get this recording software down pad and, I’m getting myself a little bit more organized, have, instead of just links all over the place, apart from today, because I’ve set up a Notion, which is a note taking app, page and team space and all that sort of stuff for, episodes of the podcast so I can upload it there and update, you know, show prep and all that sort of stuff. But anyway, that’s a bit of a waffle there.

So anyway, I think I might just end it now. Say thanks for listening and, look forward to having you join me in next one. So until then, bye for now.