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[Fergie]

Berkeley could use the help of its current and former residents who still have fond memories of growing up in Berkeley.
Wollongong City Council plans to sell the park in Winnima Way to a developer for a private aged care facility - along with the community facilities thereon - comunity, n/hood and medical centres. When asked what happens to these facilities Ward 6 councillor said they would be moved 'elsewhere'.

The Berkeley Residents Action Group has been formed to save the park from development. There is a petition and notices in the newsagency and Welcome Mart if you want to join the fight to save the park

[Len]

Fergie, do you have any photos of the park? It would be most interesting to see a couple of photos.

[Fergie]

Sorry, I don't have the technical skill to load up photos, or a map for that matter.
The Winnima Way Park is safe, for the time being!

Resume: Wollongong City Council [WCC] decided at a closed meeting in July 2005 to sell the park to a developer for a 100 bed ethnic nursing home for $2m. Part of the deal was demolishing the 3 community buildings on the site - Community Hall, Neighbourhood Centre and Health Centre. In Sept 2005 the Illawarra Mercury published an article following the leaking of the WCC minutes to them. A public meeting was called by the local Neighbourhood Committee and about 90 people attended.
Then Neighbourhood C/tees were abolished, and nothing happened.
I quickly contacted 3 locals: Former WCC councillor Vicki King, the Neighbourhood Watch president, and a long time resident Roy Gersbach, and we met to discuss what to do. Vicki was to act as the 'face' of the organisation, the spokesperson for the Berkeley Residents Action Group, as we called ourselves. The NHW guy dropped out ['conflict of interest']. Charlie Gibbs collected signatures on a petition, Alice Scott wrote letters and filled in as spokesperson when Vicki was not available for TV or newspaper interviews.
I incorporated the organisation, and went to Sydney to search land and company titles between hospital visits, and read old government gazettes. I found a Covenant wherein the land had been gifted by the Housing Commission to the Wollongong Council to be used only for municipal purposes - community hall, library, baby health centre, children's play area. AND THAT WAS THAT.
There was much local publicity, the developers took fright, and by January 6, 2006 it was all over. The developers had withdrawn their offer and the WCC decided not to sell the land.

We had no money to start off, so I used my own. All up it cost about $700. On the Friday before Christmas 2005 my phone rang and a male voice from Rotary said I had won the Rotary raffle - a trailer full of goods.
So I sold as many goods as possible in January which repaid me my outgoings and bought me a new MFC printer and I kept two or three items for myslef. The toys went to the Toy Library, and the rest went to Lions [toys for a family they support], the Salvation Army [they sold the big BBQ for $400]. It was a good result. As Roy said, what goes around comes around.
Meantime, a few more people joined, the hard core of 6 gave money and there is still about $600 in the BRAG bank account, being eaten away by bank fees! I should wind up the organisation and the money should be given to another community organisation. But which ne?

[Fergie]

During the battle to save the public park in Winnima Way Berkeley, I used an email address [email protected], which simply stayed on my phone bill after the park was saved from development.

Last year Berkeley Neighbourhood Watch decided to stop letterboxing 500 reminders each month about its meetings, but I decided people did need reminders, so I started a reminder list using a gmail address to support the BNHW group and included other events. The President objected to the extras "only what's in the minutes" he said sternly, so I then started a local newsletter called THE BERKELEY BRAG with a mailing list of only c. 40. Anything from 100 - 500 copies were printed out and letterboxed. I used the the name came from the obsolete group [BRAG] and I used the old email address for it.

The Berkeley Neighbourhood Watch group is being disbanded, as the president has health problems and no one wanted to take committee positions at the AGM in Februry. 2,500 letterbox notices had been distributed - all to no avail.

There is actually no need for the Brag any more, but it has become popular and I enjoy doing it, so it will continue in a reduced form.
The monthly Berkeley Brag will go out to the email list, and 20 copies are printed out and distributed to the Berkeley Seniors who meet twice a week at the Community Hall.