By Callum Ludwig
Current O’Shanassy Ward Councillor and former Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child has officially put up his hand to run for his seat again in the upcoming Council elections.
Cr Child has been the elected candidate for the ward for 12 years now and will be on the ticket again when voting time comes around in October.
Cr Child said it’s been a fair journey so far but he still has plenty of fuel left in the tank.
“With where we sit at the moment in O’Shanassy, there are a lot of things happening, we’ve got the rollout of the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination which we have started on Stage One with a hundred ‘Ks’ of trail on the southern side and I’d like to see that through of course and I’d like to see the start of stage two as well, whether that’s possible in the next four years,” he said. “I look back at what we’ve achieved over the past 12 years, we’ve probably had one of the biggest spends we’ve ever seen in O’Shanassy ward over those 12 years on footpaths, bridges and especially the roads to community and if we could only have kept that funding that would have been such a wonderful outcome for the whole community,”
“It’s going to be a tough journey but I think that I’ve got the experience to really do that part on behalf of O’Shanassy.”
O’Shannassy Ward covers large parts of the Upper Yarra including larger townships such as Warburton and Yarra Junction as well as Beenak, Big Pats Creek, Don Valley, East Warburton, Gilderoy, Gladysdale, Hoddles Creek, Launching Place, McMahons Creek, Millgrove, Powelltown, St Clair, Three Bridges, Reefton, Wesburn, Yellingbo and most of Matlock and Woori Yallock.
Cr Child said Yarra Ranges Council finds itself in a situation where it will have to do a lot more with a lot less.
“I think that there’s a number of things on the horizon that we have to be mindful of, is that we’ve still got to be able to provide those 120 odd services that we provide for and we still got the constraints of rate capping, my thoughts are that it will stay there but we’ve shown that we can work with the rate capping,” he said.
“The other thing is that those funding streams that we’ve had in the past are now showing their depletion,”
“That’s where I think I can give the skills that I’ve got to work through that so we can still provide the services but also the capital expenditure program to look at those new pavilions and those other assets that we have to provide through the asset renewal program.”
Cr Child had two different stints as Yarra Ranges Council Mayor, once from 2012 to 2013 after his initial election and again from 2021 to 2023.
Cr Child said that across the nine wards, Yarra Ranges Council is looking for people who can take on the job of community representative.
“That is probably just my style, I do it full-time and I’ve always said to anyone, if you want to aspire to this position, you’ve got to be available, you’ve got to pick up that phone, I’ve had five or six phone calls today and a couple of things I have to chase up but what I see repeatedly is people appreciate that at least he’s answered the phone,” he said.
“With the technology that we’ve got today and the team that we’ve got behind us, we can satisfy our residents with a response, sometimes it may not be what they want to hear, but at least they’ve been heard and most of the time, the organisation is very responsive,”
“If you’re going to aspire to the position, you make sure you’re available and you must be very clever at time management as the job can be demanding.”
Some of Cr Child’s other goals should he be re-elected are to help push through the Yarra Junction Place Plan and Urban Design Framework, monitor and be involved in the Parking Management Framework including the paid parking pilot in Warburton and help sustainably manage the expected increase in tourism to the Upper Yarra.
Cr Child said he advises residents to be informed and just take note of how different voting is by mail ahead of the elections.
“My biggest tip would be as soon as you get your voting pack, deal with it because you’ve got some constraints about getting it back to the returning officer on time,” he said.
“We’ve got the electoral office over at Silvan, where you can take it yourself, but don’t waste your vote, don’t lose the opportunity to vote because it’s so important that we have those councillors elected.”
Stay tuned for more profiles on candidates for Yarra Ranges Council candidates in the Star Mail.
