By Callum Ludwig
The Warburton Bowls Club is hosting a community event to promote community connection and resilience and to champion the local produce made in the Upper Yarra.
The Burras are holding a Local Producers Showcase on Friday 3 May from 6.30pm with wine, cheese and live music all part of the evening.
Grants officer at the Warburton Bowls Club Aimee Dostie said they are really pleased with how the planning of the event has come along.
“It’s just been really natural and organic, the support from the community has been great and the local producers like Millgrove Dairy and the Yarra Valley Artisan Bakery are pretty excited as well as Malini Chidzey and her band, who live locally, Babaganoush,” she said.
“We’ve been really keen to activate this space and do things outside of competitive bowling as we do have a very specific season before it becomes quite variable due to the weather up here,”
“Being able to offer these events and to say we’ve got this great space in a great location, even when the weather is not good enough for a roll, we can still put other things on as well, would be great.”
The showcase has been supported as one of two evening events for the club to hold during May with support through the Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network (EMPHN’)’s Wellbeing and Resilience Grants program and Yarra Ranges Council.
Ms Dostie said Warburton and the surrounding communities of the Upper Yarra were significantly impacted by the violent storms that swept through the region in 2021 and the prolonged and repeated anxieties from this continue to show.
“Local residents not only lost power for a number of days but also cell service and the ability to contact emergency services. Although on the face of it, these impacts were rectified for most within a few days or even weeks, there remained significant damage to the emotional security of residents in the area,” she said.
“Landslips have always been an issue on remote roads, but the isolation caused by the storms proved to be a poignant reminder of the importance of all access points. This was echoed again in 2022 with the landslip along the Warburton Highway which physically severed the community from essential services and access for over eight months,”
“The residual trauma and anxiety from the initial storms in 2021 and the aftershock events, some of which have yet to be fully repaired, cause substantial distress and a heightened awareness of extreme weather events.”
The showcase also aims to highlight the Warburton Bowls Club’s recent upgrades as a part of the energy resilience project, including the solar panels that were installed in conjunction with the Council to provide an additional resource to the community in the event of long-term power outages.
Ms Dostie said originally they planned to only host a comedy night, but with the encouragement of Mark at EMPHN they decided to pivot and do a second evening event.
“The idea for a Local Producers Showcase came out of wanting to give back to the businesses and artists we love here in Warburton and feature them as the main event,” she said.
“Events like these and the Bingo nights we’ve put on over the past year are a great way to create a more permeable link between our Club and the community at large,”
“For us, this event feels like it came out of nowhere because the organisation has been so seamless with our local producers bringing their passion and enthusiasm to the table. People in the city pay big money for events like this and we’re so fortunate to have everything right here in our backyard.”
Tickets can be booked at:
trybooking.com/events/landing/1207688
