Refurbished lake enriches city's personality

Shepparton’s refurbished Victoria Park Lake enriches the city’s personality.

A sign at Shepparton's Victoria
Park Lake outlining all that
is proposed.

The city, established on a depressingly flat topography and which has turned its back on its richest asset, the river, needed something to lift it above the banal and so what was pretty much as swamp became a lake.

The lake, however, is more than that for it is a truly visible and tangible link with water and as humans have an intrinsic need for water – without it we die – what is pictorially pleasant, is also comforting and quietly reassuring.

Early manifestations of the lake arrived after significant community effort, including many tireless working bees.

What we see now however, and enjoy was not so easily, or cheaply, achieved.

Works to lift the lake from its somewhat dated state to its present level of sophistication, including an active water quality maintenance system; the creation of a space that allows for passive water sports; improved safety; the establishment of intriguing walker paths; extensive plantings that attract wildlife, help with water quality; and the sweeping beautification of the area cost more than $5 million.

Those unable to appreciate the aesthetic value and benefits of such an undertaking looked on with wonderment as “their” money was being spent on something with no apparent commercial relevance to the city.

Although noisy in their criticism, the critics were obviously wrong as the lake is more than what it is in that it contributes substantially to the broader health of our community.

Life today is rather hurried and 30 minutes strolling around the lake or sitting on the lawns or one of the many nearby seats, becomes a peaceful oasis in a life that appears more interested in what happens next rather than focussing on the moment.

It took courage and vision by those who sat on the City of Greater Shepparton Council to advocate such an idea and publically embrace the millennia old values of the Athenians and strive to create a place which celebrates grace and beauty.

The utilitarians among us who see only advantage in that which is both practical and functional and whose success they measure only in direct financial profit have little sympathy for such things as Victoria Park Lake

The cultural achievements of Athens, democracy’s nursery, and Athenians themselves, held in high esteem the discipline, skill, and taste that are required to produce enduring art.

The imagination, discipline and behaviour so prized by the Athenians echoes in what we now see at Shepparton’s Victoria Park Lake, a spectacular piece of different and practical public art.

All of us own that “piece of art” and so in concert with the thinking that drove its creation we need to enjoy and respect it, taking just pictures, and leaving only footprints.

Democracy is alive and well in Shepparton

Democracy, it appears, is alive and well in the City of Greater Shepparton.

A diverse group of 26 people have nominated for the October 27 municipal election, but just seven will take their place at the council table.

The record field of candidates suggests the vibrancy of democracy, but the caveat of “it appears” shifts the responsibility to you and me, the voters.

Should we care about the future and welfare of our city, we will diligently sift through what is an impressive array of people; consider their positions and then vote for those you believe are best equipped to manifest a city that equates with your values.

However, democracy is not that easy and it doesn’t end at the ballot box or in this case with your postal vote.

Simply voting for this or that person is not playing your role in democracy rather, it is just the beginning.

Success in business is about relationships and a similar template is needed if democracy is to operate in full flower.

Democracy is noisy, discordant and rarely without its contrarian thinkers; is disruptive and frequently contradictory in its essence, but oddly that sometimes jarring behaviour is in fact its strength.

Although councillors may not publically agree about much, there needs to be an underlying sympathy for a similar goal and the Rule of Law – councillors need to step beyond the pungent influence of individuality and although passions and desires maybe diverse, and robust, they need to be sacrificed to concerns for the long-term viability of the City of Greater Shepparton.

Our relationship with those we elect extends way past simply putting a cross on a ballot paper for without input from us, our councillors operate in a perverse knowledge vacuum.

Although elected to administer our city, it is not something they can do effectively unless they hear regularly from us about how we would like our city to evolve.

Our councillors don’t need criticism; they need encouragement.

Obviously things don’t always happen in a way we hope or imagine, but rather than bleat among friends about our city’s shortcomings and failure to take opportunities, we need to take our views to the council and individual councillors in a formal manner.

Whatever we might say or think, the 60 000 strong City of Greater Shepparton is the modern manifestation of a tribe and history is loaded with examples of the success found by tight-knit and empathetic tribes.

Democracy is adversarial in intent, but if treated with care and respect; the care and respect on which genuine relationships are founded it can serve our city well.

Vote for who you believe will guide Shepparton in the direction you prefer and then engage with them and make democracy work.

 

Beauty, death and the inexpicable

Beauty is everywhere, just as is death.

The rose is for many a
 symbol of beauty, but equally
linked to death.

Interestingly, and paradoxically, I’m midway through reading a book about beauty and a rash of deaths have impacted on my life.

Death has a perverse beauty, but that is conditional, the caveat being that the exit must be timely; death should be the culmination of a life well-lived, or at least on that allowed for the realization of the person’s hopes and dreams.

Anything sooner than that leaves us with a hollowness, an uncertainty and the nagging question of why?

Of course the technicalities of why can easily be answered, but there are grander implications that arouse confusion and mystery when the death appears untimely.

Humanity broadly understands, and so generally accepts, that death awaits us all, rather patiently, at the end of a well-lived life.

We become confused and the mystery of why only deepens when the imagined scythe-wielding reaper appears early in someone’s life, gives a somewhat sickly smile as our friends depart with a rush we are unable to understand.

This recent rash of deaths began with the expected, but early, death of friend in her 60s – expected as it was, she had time to hand paint her own coffin.

Next it was Jill Meagher, someone I obviously didn’t know, but like many others, the television images of her final moments were etched in my mind making the connection with that young woman strangely real.

Recently, the “reaper” swooped by, much closer.

Lunch with a friend a few weeks back on a Friday was followed the next morning by a relatively innocuous accident that was to take his life a few days later.

He wasn’t ready to go as he had much to do and it was only at that Friday lunch he had talked about statistically having another twenty healthy years to live. He was alive with enthusiasm.

Even more difficult to understand was the death last week of a 28-year-old workmate who had undergone an operation to further repair damage to a leg injured in a road accident nearly two decades ago.

She was young, married and along with her husband was building a life together, but on Friday all the hopes and dreams fell into ruin.

This seemingly nonsensical conclusion to well-lived lives causes us to again wonder why bad things happen to good people.

Searching for answers, I quizzed a Christian friend, whose beliefs are the antithesis of mine, but he provided little comfort, adding only that it was an age-old question.

Struggling with the vacuum that is death we can do little, it seems, but fill the bizarre and confusing nothingness with reassuring and comforting images and memories of that person’s innate beauty, the warmth of their engaging smile and their generousity.