Thank you! We are speaking on Wednesday 6th March 6.30pm at St Kilda Town Hall.
Hello 7786 petition signers,
Wow. I mean this from the bottom of my heart - thank you.
I did not expect this.
Your support has been a force behind me in every conversation I have had with the media, council officers, and the Mayor of CoP.
Having no luck as yet to find a solution for our wellness community to gather on the public land, my final effort will be speaking on Wednesday 6th March at 6.30pm at St Kilda Town Hall, wish me luck - or better yet come on down and see the action.
In the mean time I am so happy to inform you that thanks to your support with this petition we have a home; not on the public beaches - but up on the rooftop of St Kilda Sea Baths thanks to the big hearted teams behind Republica, Captain Baxter, Encore, and South Pacific.
We had our first community reunion on Sunday; by the beach, under the open skies, on a little slice of heaven; not a dry eye on the roof.
There is still a conversation to be had with the council in hope of shining some light onto the outdated regulations made before COVID - where ironically we were all sent outside to exercise in the interest of our health & wellbeing.
Did you know that if you have social gathering like a picnic or birthday on the beach... once you're over 20 people you need a minor events permit and to pay $220 for 2hours of public land time? and that even if you do this doesn't even give you exclusive rights to the land?
After our meeting with the Mayor of CoP, the final options given to our wellness gathering;
- to classify as a "Personal Trainer" and reduce to 15people but gather as often as we like on the beach - which also seems illogical as I would gather on the beach for a whole day, every day, instead of just one hour.
- to classify as an "Event" and pay $400 but also only be allowed to gather on the beach 4 times per year.
- to get off the beach and book a CoP community hall or church, which takes away the whole point of open air community connection in nature.
The hypocrisy is that all the councils mission statements are around the wellbeing of the community - yet they are shutting our gathering down and also continuing to block major public roads, parks, beaches regularly for all sorts of large scale gatherings... many of which are expensive, exclusionary, and not supporting the overall community well-being at all, and in fact negatively affecting local residents enormously.
It is disappointing that the council continues to be focused on profiting from the public land... selling her off to the highest bidder.
This will be my final fight for the land - feel free to join Wednesday 6.30pm St Kilda Town Hall.
In the mean time lets cross fingers, toes & elbows that our temporary home at The Sea Baths, could become our forever home.
With love,
Eliza Hilmer
Founder of FeelGoodFlows - wellness for everyone, leaving no one behind.