We want to understand how COVID-19 is impacting our community. Council has relief and recovery programs to support you during the pandemic. Let us know your concerns and needs around COVID-19 so we can provide future services.

Complete the online survey and go into the draw to win one of three $150 gift cards. Your feedback will assist us to plan for future support services to help our community.

From 11.59pm Thursday 6 January, anyone who tests positive on a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) is considered to have COVID-19.

You will be subject to the same requirements as those who test positive from a PCR test. You must isolate immediately for seven days and notify your close contacts.

It is also mandatory to report the result of a positive RAT to the Department of Health. You can do this via the online form or by calling the Coronavirus Hotline on 1800 675 398.

Rapid Antigen tests are available free of charge from the Melbourne Showgrounds testing site. They will also be available at all Victorian testing sites and other select locations once supply increases. More information can be found on the Coronavirus website.

The Victorian Government has released new directions for identifying contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases. These include:

• Confirmed cases in the workplace
• Checklist for positive COVID-19 cases
• Checklist for contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases

Face masks are mandatory in all indoor settings except the home. This applies to people aged eight years and above, unless a medical exemption applies.

Remember to check-in everywhere you visit using the Service Victoria App, no matter how long you spend at that location.

And for when you come and visit us…

Council has followed the State Government COVID-19 directives throughout the pandemic and will do so as it relates to vaccination mandates. Presently there are a number of Council services and facilities where Government directives mandate COVID-19 vaccination and the checking of this status. Where this is the case Council will be implementing this directive. 

For facilities and services where vaccination status is not mandated Council requests that unvaccinated individuals do not attend Council facilities and services. We ask that individuals contact Council and we will endeavour to assist you to access the service you need in another way. Our Customer Service team can also assist you to access your COVID-19 vaccination certificate to evidence your vaccination status.

Keep updated with the latest information on Council services.

View the details relating to COVIDSafe Settings on the Victorian Government’s website.

This week we have all welcomed new easing of COVID-19 restrictions which has seen many local businesses reopen, more opportunities to reconnect with friends and family and for some outdoor sport to resume.

We are now in the Third Step of the Victorian Government’s roadmap for reopening. This supports indoor and outdoor seated service for hospitality, reopening of retail and beauty/personal care where a face covering can be worn.

There is no restrictions on reasons to leave your home and you can have up to two people from the same household visit you at your home. You can only have one visit per day and must not travel more than 25km to do this.

In Manningham, we’re excited to see more people out and about enjoying our community, supporting our local business and we look forward to reopening our customer service centre next week.

Our front counter will reopen at the Civic Centre from Wednesday 4 November, please check our website or contact us for details. 

We are pleased to see more people being able to enjoy areas and some sport and recreation activities across Manningham.

This week Aquarena has increased its booking capacity for the outdoor 50m pool. Outdoor sport for under 18 players and outdoor non-contact sport for adults can now also resume in line with COVID safe practices. Please contact your local club for further information.
While there are a number of relaxations announced, many COVID safe practices still remain including:

• where you can work from home you should still work from home
• mask wearing remains compulsory
• physical distancing is still in place
• personal hygiene practices are as important as ever

Stay up to date with changes to local services and facilities in Manningham by visiting our website.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have allocated $3.8 million towards a relief package to support our community. This funding includes a series of measures to help ratepayers and the community, local businesses, clubs and community groups.

A key part of this package is the Community Relief Fund. Consisting of $300,000 of urgent relief funding and $700,000 of Community Relief Fund grants, this will assist organisations to deliver crucial community recovery and resilience activities.

Almost $300,000 of urgent relief funding has been awarded to 15 community organisations who provide emergency relief and material aid, food packages, counselling services and housing support throughout Manningham.

Some of the services this funding will support include:

• Delivery of food packs to those who have been hit hardest,
• Maintaining essential home support for at-risk communities who cannot leave their house during this time,
• Ensuring children remain engaged with their education to decrease future unemployment and youth homelessness,
• Upskilling under-represented populations to increase their resilience, and
• Social check-ins on vulnerable individuals to combat increased social isolation.

A full list of funding recipients are listed below.

Applications for $700,000 of COVID-19 Community Relief Fund grants are currently open. If your community group, club or organisation is running a project which brings members of our Manningham community together, you may be eligible for a grant. For more information, visit manningham.vic.gov.au/community-relief-grants.

Community Relief Funding Recipients

A message from Manningham Council

We have now moved to the Second Step of easing restrictions, in line with the Victorian Government’s coronavirus (COVID-19) roadmap to reopening.

This is welcome news for our community and we have a few changes to update you on about what is reopening in Manningham.

Please note that the health advice has changed around the wearing of masks. Face coverings are still mandatory in public across Victoria and there is a new requirement that it needs to be a fitted face mask covering the nose and mouth. Scarves and bandanas are no longer suitable to use as masks and neither are face shields on their own.

We understand that the restrictions are continuing to affect everyone across our community in different ways.

We’re here to help with our Community Connect service which is available from 8.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.

Aquarena reopens for outdoor use

We are pleased to confirm that the 50m Outdoor Pool at Aquarena Aquatic and Leisure Centre has reopened for pre-booked lap swimming only.

Please note the following:

• Bookings are available to Manningham residents or Aquarena members only
• You must reside or be a permitted worker within 5km of Aquarena to attend
• Change rooms remain closed, limited toilet facilities are available in the outdoor area
• Bookings are essential
• Masks must be worn at all times, except when in the pool.

Book a swim session here.

Childcare services reopening

In line with the new regulations, childcare centres are reopening to all children.

A permit is no longer required to have your children attend and care can be either an existing or a new arrangement. You can leave your home to take your children for childcare and the 5km rule does not apply.

Visit our website to find out about our own childcare services, Early Years at MC Square.

Outdoor dining

To support local hospitality businesses in the road to recovery from COVID-19, we’re making it possible for eligible traders to expand their outdoor dining footprint with a new permit. 

Hospitality businesses will be able to apply for a Footpath Dining Extension permit to provide extended table service on Council footpaths until 31 July 2021.

For more information and to register your interest visit our website.

Stay safe and well.

From all of us at Manningham Council.

With the significant increase in local active COVID-19 cases, we would like to ask people to prepare for temporary service interruptions over the next few weeks.  

We're expecting staff shortages across our Customer Experience, Library, Children’s Services and Waste teams. 

As a result of this and due to the nature of COVID-19 transmission, there may be periods where face-to-face services may be closed or cancelled at short or no notice. We will keep the community informed about these changes through social media and our website. 

For information about disruptions to services you can contact us online, or by phone on 9840 9333 between 8.00am and 5.00pm Monday to Friday. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this challenging time. 

The pandemic has had a significant impact on our community from a health, wellbeing and financial perspective.

In response and to provide support during this time, we have a series of relief measures available via our COVID-19 Community Relief Package.

Since the pandemic began, we have provided community financial relief of approximately $4.6M. To provide continued support to our community as we slowly move out of lockdowns and restrictions and into the recovery phase, we are providing a further relief measure of $1.5M, to continue assisting those most in need in our community.

Business Support

An allocation of $250,000 will go towards business support including:

• $140,000 will be used to offset 25 per cent of business permits. These include Food, Health and Beauty, A-Frame signage and Footpath Trading – Display of Goods. This discount will be automatically applied to all relevant permits on renewal.
• $100,000 will support a range of programs, training and mentoring targeting specific business needs. Businesses are encouraged to reach out to the Business team via business@manningham.vic.gov.au to discuss their immediate needs.
• $10,000 will help to support an extended #BuyLocalManningham campaign. Find out more about Buy Local.  

Relief for clubs and community groups

An allocation of $230,000 will support the immediate needs of our not-for-profit community based organisations, with grants up to $30,000 available. Funds are limited and organisations are encouraged to contact the Community Grants team at grants@manningham.vic.gov.au to apply.

Support for recreation clubs of $260,000 will go towards:

• The return of community based sports, to support clubs through fee waivers. This waiver will be based on the length of time sport was unable to be played due to lockdowns or similar impacts.
• Financial support to assist clubs with the cost of COVID Safe requirements such as sanitiser, signage, vaccination checks and QR code compliance.
• An accredited Mental Health First Aid course for club representatives to participate in.
• A development program to educate and support sporting clubs and volunteers to assist with running of their clubs.

Rent relief

An amount of $460,000 rent relief for commercial tenants and a further $300,000 rent relief and other financial support for community group tenants including recreation club tenants.

For more information on the Community Relief Package announced at the 26 October Council meeting.

Remote learning and stay-at-home orders have given us the opportunity to complete necessary maintenance and upgrades to our venues – with minimum disruptions to the community.

Templestowe Bowls Club

The Templestowe Bowls Club had significant leaks and water issues, resulting in floor damage. We’ve excavated and installed drainage to remove water from both sides of the retaining wall, clear the leaf catchers, fixed leaks and repaired broken and blocked storm water pipes.

Currently we have de-humidifiers to help bring the floor moisture down to level seven and eight before repairing and resurfacing the floor. Other works at the bowls club include removal and replacement works with rainwater tanks and fences.

Yarraleen Preschool

Urgent and extensive works including a complete sewer replacement, reinstatement of foot paths, fencing and reconfiguring of storage and play equipment were required in June.  

As the pre-school was an essential service and remained open, we had to complete all works within the two-weeks school holidays period

We understand that the current lockdown is difficult for everyone.  Your safety is our top priority and we hope to be able to resume Council services as soon as we can.

While our customer service centre is currently closed to visitors, there’s still many ways you can contact us. We are here to help you.

• Call us on (03) 9840 9333, Monday to Friday 8.00am to 5.00pm 
• Email us
• Live chat via our website
• Report an issue or make a request online
• Contact our Councillors.

The Victorian Government has extended the circuit breaker lockdown until 11:59pm Thursday 10 June. There are still only five reasons to leave home: shopping for food and supplies, authorised work and study, care and caregiving, exercise, and getting vaccinated. In addition, mandatory mask wearing both inside and outside remains.

From Thursday 3 June at 11.59pm, you will be able to travel 10kms for exercise and shopping. A number of outdoor jobs will be added to the authorised list – things like landscaping, painting, installing solar panels, or letterboxing. And our Year 11 and 12 students will return to face-to-face learning, along with students who are doing a Unit 3/4 VCE or VCAL subject.

You can also leave home to visit your intimate partner, single social bubble buddy, or in an emergency- including family violence.

If you are at risk of family violence and need assistance, call Safe Steps on 1800 015 188 or email for help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To keep up-to-date on the latest COVID-19 information visit the Victorian Government Coronavirus website. If you're experiencing any symptoms, no matter how minor, get tested at your nearest testing location.

Tonight Manningham Council endorsed a package of relief measures to ease the financial burden on residents and businesses affected by COVID-19.

Council’s relief package will assist those most in need and balance short term relief with the longer term services and infrastructure needs of the Manningham community.

Manningham Mayor, Cr Paul McLeish said Council recognised that many in the community were facing long term financial hardship.

"Manningham Council has actively supported the public health measures necessary to successfully reduce the spread of COVID-19, and thanks our community for their response to date. Council is fully aware of the impact this is having on many in our community from a health, wellbeing and financial perspective.”

“The COVID-19 Community Relief Package endorsed tonight includes measures for ratepayers, older residents, local businesses and community groups.”

Cr McLeish said while Council was asking residents who could still pay their rates to do so, it also recognised this was difficult for some in our community. “Many people in our community have recently lost their jobs or are experiencing a significant impact on their home finances and may not be in a position to pay their rates now.”

“We want our community to know we are there for them and we hope the package will make things a little easier.”

“This $3.8M package provides direct relief to vulnerable sections of our community. We have approved a mixture of cost relief measures for those in hardship and extra funding for community support services.

“We remain committed to ensuring essential services including waste collection, maintenance of parks and gardens, home care for our elderly, meals on wheels, maternal and child health and immunisations continue to be delivered. We’ll also continue the maintenance of community infrastructure and deliver high priority capital works projects such as roads, footpaths and upgrading of sporting facilities, playgrounds and parks.”

Also on the Agenda tonight was a review of Councillor allowances. The decision by the Local Government Minister back in December 2019 to upgrade Manningham to Category 3 meant that Council was permitted to review the level of their allowances. Tonight Council unanimously resolved to delay any decision on this item until December 2020.

“We know our community is doing it tough and now is not the time to make decisions on Councillor allowances. Our primary focus is on supporting Manningham through this crisis and the delivery of our COVID-19 Community Relief Package.”

In addition to the Community Relief Package, a new seven day a week Community Connect phone service has been established and residents in need of support are encouraged to contact Council on 9840 9333.

“The majority of our Council services are continuing to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic and we encourage community members to contact us via phone or email,” Cr McLeish said.

The COVID-19 Community Relief Package includes:

• Fourth quarter rate payment extension of due date to 30 June 2020, without incurring any penalty interest. Special payment arrangements available for those qualifying for Council’s financial hardship relief
• An increase in the rate rebate for Low Income Health Care Card Holders in2020/21
• No increase on waste disposal charges in 2020/21
• Introduction of a $1M COVID-19 Community Relief Fund
• Introduction of a COVID-19 Local Business Development Program
• Rent and lease relief, and utility subsidies, for clubs and community groups who use Council facilities
• 50% discounts on footpath trading permits, trader parking permits and food and health premises registration in 2020/21
• Additional support to older residents
   

17 July 2020 

Due to the evolving Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation and the introduction of Stage 3 restrictions, the way we use our parks and play spaces has changed.

Playgrounds, outdoor fitness equipment and skate parks are currently closed. This is to ensure the safety of our community in environments where facilities are often shared.

However, under the current COVID-19 restrictions, one of the four reasons residents of Melbourne can leave their house is for exercise. During this time, all of our parks will remain open for this purpose.

We encourage you to use this time to get out and enjoy exercising in our parklands. But don’t forget:

• you can only exercise in a maximum group of two or with members from your household,
• make sure that you are maintaining social distancing of 1.5 metres at all times, and
• stay home if you are feeling unwell.

For more information specific to your local park, visit our Parks and Playspaces listing.

In Manningham, we are following advice from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) about coronavirus (COVID-19) and encourage everyone to visit the DHHS website for the most up to date information.

Want to read more stories like this? View Manningham Matters.

The gymnasium at the Aquarena Aquatic and Leisure Centre has been closed for cleaning after a visitor that had used the gymnasium tested positive to COVID-19.

The operators of Aquarena were contacted by Department of Health and Human Services at 8.20pm on Sunday 5 July 2020 about the confirmed COVID-19 case and the gymnasium was immediately closed for cleaning and disinfecting.

Manningham Council and the centre operators are assisting the Department of Health and Human Services by providing information for contact tracing of visitors to the gymnasium since 29 June 2020.

Manningham Council director of City Services, Rachelle Quattrocchi, said deep cleaning is now underway to thoroughly disinfect all gymnasium equipment within the centre.

“The health and safety of everyone in our community is our top priority. As soon as we were made aware of the confirmed case, the gymnasium was closed for cleaning.

“We are working with the Department of Health and Human Services and will be taking every precaution in line with the centre’s COVID-19 safe work plan before the gym is reopened,” Ms Quattrocchi said.

As well as the gymnasium, Aquarena Aquatic and Leisure Centre includes indoor and outdoor swim facilities. As all access and entrance points for the gymnasium are separated from the pools, the swim facilities remain open to bookings.

For more information and health advice about COVID-19, visit the Department of Health and Human Services website.

Resources available:

• Coronavirus hotline: 1800 675 398
• Your coronavirus questions answered on the DHHS website
• Translated resources on the DHHS website
• Mental health resources on the DHHS website

COVID-19 has, and continues to have, significant impacts on our community.

At our Council meeting on Tuesday 26 September, further financial relief measures, to the value of $1.5 million, were unanimously approved.

Councillors spoke emotionally about the discussions they had had with community members and the stories they had heard.

This package is in addition to the $4.6 million of relief measures we have provided since the pandemic began (equating to approximately 5% of Manningham’s general rate revenue).

Manningham Mayor, Cr Andrew Conlon, said this new relief package would help support those in our community most in need while ensuring Manningham’s financial sustainability.

“There has been a significant impact on our community over the last 19 months and we have been there to help. But we know the impacts are not over yet.  We will continue to support our community by providing targeted financial relief, assisting those most in need. As we move into the recovery phase, we want to enable our community and neighbours to reconnect. We want to start to see our community back doing what they love and enjoy,” he said.

The relief measures of $1.5 million will go towards:

• $250,000 for business support
• $230,000 for not-for-profit support
• $260,000 for recreation clubs support
• $460,000 rent relief for commercial tenants
• $300,000 rent relief and other financial support for community group tenants including recreation club tenants.

For more information, visit manningham.vic.gov.au/our-covid-19-community-relief-package.

We want to support everyone in Manningham as we adapt and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If your community group, club or organisation is running a project that brings members of our Manningham community together, you may be eligible to apply for a grant.

Grant categories include:

Grass Roots Recovery Grants

Funding: $3,000 to $10,000
For activities which assist small groups to recover from the effects of COVID-19 through community participation and capacity building.
E.g. Delivery of a new idea to engage community and enable re-connection.
Applications close Monday 3 August.

Neighbourhood Recovery Grants

Funding: $10,000 to $25,000
For neighbourhood-based activities that build resilience, improve access and strengthen connections.
E.g. Implementation of a neighbourhood-wide project that seeks to engage our diverse community through celebration.
Applications close Monday 3 August.

Community Recovery Grants

Funding: $25,000 to $75,000
For community-wide initiatives which enhance quality of life and support community recovery.
E.g. A mental health and wellbeing project that will engage people at risk of social isolation and/or loneliness.
Applications close Monday 10 August.

Apply now

For more information, and to apply, visit manningham.vic.gov.au/community-grant-program