farmdoc's blog post number 51

From birth until age 14 I lived in Middle Park, a bayside Melbourne suburb, and after school I played with my mates in the Albert Park Reserve. So soon after then Premier Kennett’s 1994 bombshell that the Australian Formula One Grand Prix would be held in the Park from 1996, I joined the community protest group Save Albert Park. SAP’s opposition concerns economic, social, environmental, legislative and contractual issues. I was active in the protest for several exhilarating years including demonstrations, arrests, weekly community radio programmes, a period as media spokesman, and a year as convenor. Funnily though, I can’t remember when I ceased being active in SAP. Maybe it was just before the late 2002 Victorian election, but I’m unsure. You can take the boy out of the Park, but you can’t take the Park out of the boy. I now follow the protest from across Bass Strait. Despite 13 Grands Prix in the Park, the original issues continue. Only these days they’re bigger. Therefore SAP’s work continues, but it seems the contract won’t be renewed after 2010. Last Sunday I read that the race is not among the first 400 nominations in an online survey of Victoria's 101 best tourism experiences. I wanted to write a good-news piece for the first blog post of my 62nd year. And I have.