Cityscapes

Our City’s rich indigenous history shines

 BOB DWYER

THE City of Parramatta’s rich indigenous history and culture is taking centre stage as part of Council’s annual Warami festival, which kicked off with National Sorry Day on 26 May and will run until Burramatta NAIDOC Day on 11 July.

Now in its third year, Warami features a wide range of free and aff ordable events, including live music and dance performances, talks and storytelling sessions, Dharug arts and crafts workshops, walking tours, and more.

For thousands of years, the Burramattagal people have called Parramatta home, so our City is the ideal place to learn, refl ect and celebrate our First Nations people. I invite people from all over Sydney to come and experience the Warami festival. For more information, visit discoverparramatta.com.

OzHarvest Hamper Hub

The pandemic has put immense pressure on everyone in our community – none more so than those who have experienced job loss and are fi nding it diffi cult to provide for themselves and their families. To help, OzHarvest has recently opened a pop-up Hamper Hub in Granville, providing emergency food relief to those in need.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the new Hamper Hub and see fi rsthand the great work OzHarvest does, as well as spend some time helping out. Thank you to the OzHarvest team for their selfl ess eff orts in supporting vulnerable members of our community.

The OzHarvest Hamper Hub is open on Thursdays until the end of June, from 11am to 2pm at 3-5 Bridge Street, Granville (opposite Granville Station). For more information, visit ozharvest.org/hamper-hub-granville.

City of Parramatta Lord Mayor Cr Bob Dwyer invites everyone to attend this year’s Warami festival.

Parramatta’s Historical Treasures Go Global

An exciting partnership between City incredible collection of historical treasures of Parramatta Council and Macquarie being made more accessible to the public. University will see local artefacts dating More than 30 items from the Parback to the First Fleet digitised using 3D ramatta Heritage and Visitor Informatechnology, allowing them to be seen by an tion Centre’s cultural collection will be online global audience for the fi rst time. showcased online. You can view the 3D

As the second oldest colonial city in collection on the Parramatta History and Australia, Parramatta has a rich and fasci- Heritage website at historyandheritage. nating history. I’m thrilled to see Council’s cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au

National Volunteer Week

Our volunteers play a vital role in our community – and never more so than during this past year. Through the darkness of 2020, there were plenty of bright stars – and National Volunteer Week, which ran 17-23 May 2021, provided the perfect opportunity to celebrate and thank our many volunteers for their hard work and commitment to making our community a better place.

One of our local volunteers is Elise Kellett, who was the recipient of the 2021 City of Parramatta ‘Young Adult Citizen of the Year’ award.

Elise not only holds volunteer roles with Meals on Wheels and the Starlight Foundation, but she also works as a youth outreach and inclusion coordinator at the Y NSW where she leads local youth programs. I would like to thank Elise and all of our local volunteers for their valuable and selfl ess contributions to making our corner of the world a better place.

Council, in partnership with Macquarie University, is digitising more than 30 historical and cultural artefacts.

A Bold Future for Parramatta Square

I’m thrilled to announce that last month we established the Parramatta Square Precinct Alliance – a powerful partnership between Parramatta Square’s landowners and tenants that cements the $2.7 billion hub as the beating heart of our City’s CBD.

Under the Charter, alliance members will deliver initiatives to ensure the Parramatta Square public domain is a welcoming and safe space for our community.

Parramatta Square is set for completion in 2022, and will boast commercial towers, civic facilities, retailers, restaurants, and a large public space.

Council will be managing the public domain and will also be delivering the refurbished Town Hall and 5 Parramatta Square ‒ a $130 million community, cultural and civic building.