August 2025
Dear friends of SpringDale and friends I have yet to meet,
How lucky am I, to have been at SpringDale for more than 20 years and to have seen so much change in our community. Not only seen it, but to have had a hand in creating change, with the help of our community.
There have been so many different engagements with various levels of government and some have come to fruition. Watching how the Walkability and Centre of Drysdale engagement by City of Greater Geelong happened in 2007 and then the Drysdale Clifton Springs Structure Plan in 2008-2009. After watching these unfold, I realized that the community needed to be aware and prepared for engagements so that we could get the best outcomes.
Then there was the Urban Design Framework engagement in 2010, I had the opportunity to sit with the traffic management consultant and asked him to ensure that whatever he reported/designed, was done knowing that the Drysdale Bypass was in place. Although he didn’t believe this could ever happen, I assured him that the community was sick of developments happening in a piecemeal manner, we need big picture thinking.
In 2011, SpringDale and DCSCA partnered to hold a 4 day summit for our community. During this Friday – Monday summit, more than 460 responses were recorded. People attended the summit, completed surveys and helped prioritise more than 20 issues that were affecting life on the Bellarine. The results of this summit and the completed surveys, showed us the priorities of the community and gave us a mandate to pursue.
In the last 14 years, together we have made the Drysdale Bypass a reality, made the North Bellarine Aquatic Centre a reality with stage 2, the indoor pool elements, about to be started. More recently we have been working on trying to find Sustainable Housing for older women and with the help of our community we did get another woman housing this month. We are also working on footpaths for the older parts of Drysdale-Clifton Springs, this has been a goal for more than 30 years and hopefully our residents are going to be ready to help this become a reality.
The other big project that is happening at the moment is bringing information about the 150 years of Drysdale Primary School together. We are collecting stories about education, families, special events, fund raisers, teachers and photos of classes. This information will be published in a book available on the celebration weekend Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 October 2025. Please contact me if you have information / photos to share. We have photos from 1923 onwards, but we would love more. Friday afternoons in August and September, 3pm – 5pm will be devoted to collecting information and names to go with photos, so the book can be as comprehensive as it can be. Yesterday I received a bag full of photos from 4 generations of a family, who attended Drysdale PS over the last 70 years.
Thank you to everyone who has helped to make these dreams come true and thank you to all levels of government who have helped to support these projects. What could you help the community to achieve?
Looking forward to seeing you at SpringDale,
Anne Brackley OAM
Chief Enthusiasm Officer & Coordinator
SpringDale Neighbourhood Centre Inc.
